Blog Archives
Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay
Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay 2018
I’m nearly caught up with all of my 2017 releases and now I just have one more DC Animated movie until I’m back to being fully caught up with all of their mainline releases other than the LEGO series. This continues the darker branch of animated movies that have gotten bloodier and this marks the fourth R rated feature. There’s plenty of blood, in fact this may be the highest on-screen kill count for any of these DC Animated movies to date and they’re typically bloody deaths and not just bloodless/faceless kills. It also brings in a handful of characters and ideas that are a little farther out there, and some that were very unfamiliar even to someone like me. But it all came together in an enjoyable way, there was even an interesting little twist that was unexpected but worked. It was totally a solid film.
Polar
Polar 2019
Every year since running this site I’m constantly discovering new superhero and comic book movies that fly under my radar through most of the year. I discovered that this film was releasing on Netflix about a week before it came out. I didn’t hear very good things, but the trailer looked pretty stylish and it starred Mads Mikkelsen. It’s a hyper violent, sexed up action movie but the plot felt empty and hollow. I’ve seen plenty of these types of movies where there’s a career criminal that for whatever reason ends up on the wrong side of the organization that they work for and have to turn against the other criminals in order to survive. And while it does have some good moments here and there, it doesn’t add up to a very good movie. And as this is a recent movie, I will be discussing it in full so this is your spoiler warning.
Batman Ninja
Batman Ninja 2018
I’ve been very curious about this title ever since the first trailers started being released. This is the first DC anime title since the anthology Batman: Gotham Knight that was released in the early days of the DC animated movies back in 2008. I’ve only heard a few things about the movie since, though what I had heard was mostly positive there were some warnings about how weird it was. Even with the warnings, I don’t think I was fully prepared for how far out there this movie goes. Aside from the out-there-ness of it, there are some great moments throughout and I quite enjoyed the majority of this film. If you haven’t seen it, I will be discussing how far out there this movie goes. So if you’d like to be surprised then here’s your spoiler warning.
Superhero Podcast Review: 4 Color Flashback
It’s time for another superhero podcast review as I keep searching for other random superhero-related podcasts. In general, I’ve been pretty lucky going through these as I’ve enjoyed more than I’ve not enjoyed. For each of these podcast reviews I go through the statistics and come up with a final rating of: Subscribed, Unsubscribed, or Selected Episodes. If you host or know of a superhero related podcast that I haven’t reviewed yet, feel free to leave a comment or send me an e-mail at Bubbawheat@msn.com
The LEGO Ninjago Movie
The LEGO Ninjago Movie 2017
One thing that I still have a difficult time with on occasion is deciding whether or not something is a “superhero movie” or some other category. When it comes to martial arts heroes, even ones with magical/supernatural powers I generally consider that its own separate genre but I still wanted to watch this film to decide for myself. And as I watched it, I decided that it was basically a LEGO Power Rangers movie. They have secret identities, super powers, and there’s an over the top villain they have to fight. It just happens to have a ninja motif to it. On the actual movie side of things, it felt like they were trying to tweak the formula to the first LEGO Movie, but it came up a little short and honestly felt a lot more mean spirited with its humor rather than self-depricating. The humor was still funny, but the characters weren’t as fully realized.
My Friend Dahmer
My Friend Dahmer 2017
I couldn’t say for sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Jeffrey Dahmer was the first serial killer that I became aware of when it happened. I don’t really remember very much about his life, his trial, or anything after he went to jail. Pretty much the only thing I remembered was the basics of his crimes including the cannibalism and the fact that it was known that he had tortured animals when he was younger. Going into this movie I wasn’t quite sure what to expect outside of the fact that it was told from the perspective of someone who knew Dahmer in high school and had previously turned it into a graphic novel. While the movie does show some sympathy towards Dahmer and the struggles he had in his life, it also shows just as much of his disturbed nature and early signs of the road he would eventually go down. Not only that, but it paints it all in such a generally mundane way that somehow makes the story feel even more unnatural.
Glass
Glass 2019
So far I’m 2 for 2 in the new release camp, let’s see how long I last as this is one of the biggest years for major superhero movie releases. Even so, I imagine that the combined total between big releases, indies, and non-superhero comic book movies that the total number will be roughly the same as the past few years. And while I never got around to reviewing Split last year, I did watch it. Glass is the third film in an oddly connected movie series that started with Unbreakable. It does a good job of tying the two films together though it feels slightly more in line with Unbreakable as the horror element is much more muted. Overall, it was quite enjoyable but didn’t quite reach the same quality as either of the two previous movies and the twist was lacking and came out of nowhere. And since the twist is a big part of the movie, it will be discussed in this review so be warned.
The Death of Stalin
The Death of Stalin 2017
Every so often I do a Twitter poll to help me decide what movie I should watch and review next. The poll I ran a couple weeks ago had this film in the lead, but it was checked out of the library last time I went there so it took me longer than I had planned to get around to watching it. For this movie and the next one I’m planning on watching I was able to go in almost completely blind. I only knew three things about this movie before pushing play on my DVD player: the title, that it was a comedy, and it was based on a graphic novel. The comic was written by Fabien Nury and drawn by Thierry Robin and originally published in French under the title La Mort de Staline, it’s loosely based on the real life events that happened during and shortly after Stalin’s death. And the movie itself extends that concept a little bit further by including some satirical comedy to shine a light on the absurdities of the situation despite how dark some of the situations are.
BlokeBusting The Essentials #50: Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice
Your deep dive into the top 100 Superhero films of all time!
#50: Batman Vs Superman
Or
What We Have Here Is A Failure To Communicate…
We’re back! And I bet many of you are wondering how we went right from #100 to #50. Well, there’s a perfectly good explanation. This list’s only 3 films long! Ok, not really. Really we wanted to give you guys a taste of the whole list without you needing to wait until mid-year before hitting any of the films that you’re waiting to hear about. Essentially, moving forward, we will be going back and forth in the list. Our next (re)review will be #99, then #49, and so on. So don’t you worry, we’ve got this!
First Impressions
Right. This film was covered by myself and my podcasting partner on my podcast when it originally came out. At the time, we did not care for it. The plot holes were many, the acting felt “meh” (with a couple of glaring exceptions) and we left the cinema feeling very let down. For this list, we’re reviewing the Ultimate Edition (the 3 hour Director’s Cut), so I sat down to watch it once more. Did it change my mind? Well…
Reign of the Supermen
Reign of the Supermen 2019
This is the second half of a two part DC Animated film that follows directly after the Death of Superman. Several years after Batman got his two-part animated movie based on one of his most famous comics, Superman got his two-parter and it was released in theaters through Fathom Events. Not only that, but I was able to see the double feature in theaters myself and I was glad that I did. While I would give the edge to Death of Superman for being the better movie, Reign of the Supermen was an excellent wrap up and a part of the story that I hadn’t really experienced before as Batman v Superman went a different direction aside from the inclusion of Apokalips in Justice League and Superman/Doomsday was an extremely truncated version with a completely different latter half. Similar to Death of Superman, I vaguely remember bits of the original comic story, but not nearly enough to notice major changes and I’ve never been one to believe that movies should adhere strictly to the original comic. And as I mention with all new releases, I will be discussing this film in full including any potential spoilers.
Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights 