Tag Archives: DCU

Blu-Ray

Green Lantern: First Flight

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It’s funny how Warners and DC are making me feel déjà vu.  If you check out my review of Wonder Woman, the last offering, you can just insert the first paragraph.  So let’s go the personal route…

Growing up, I had 5 superheroes that I identified with:

  • Thor – Blonde hair and strength with a cool hammer
  • Hulk – Strong, but scary temper that could not be controlled
  • Spiderman – Brainy nerd becomes a hero to all
  • Batman – Able to do anything he wanted without any extra powers
  • Green Lantern

What I liked about Green Lantern is that, while he had a power ring, it was his will-power that made things happen.  By having the will to overcome any problem is how one becomes super.

First Flight is an origin story that follows the comic storyline fairly well.  An alien crash-lands on Earth and is found by Hal Jordan, a test pilot.  A ring changes hands and Jordan finds himself the protector of our universe.  What follows is Jordan’s introduction to OA, the Green Lantern Corps, and of course, Sinestro.  What I liked most is that this became an origin story of two characters, GL and Sinestro, as well as how their relationship changed forever.  it reminded me of how I felt when I found the comic book storyline of how Superman and Lex Luthor first met.

As with all DC/Warner efforts, the voice-casting and art is spot on.  I bought the Blu-Ray version, so I can not review the added features.  I watched this via the digital copy provided.

My advice: Watch a great origin story, even on the Blackest Night….

Blu-Ray

Wonder Woman

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Warner Brothers and DC have enjoyed an 18-year relationship in producing quality superhero animation.  With the release of Batman:The Animated Series on TV, it was shown that good stories and superheroes could mix.  That success was followed by Superman, some Batman movies, and the Justice League series.  With the winding down of the JLU series and the rise of live-action, DC took a step back to figure out where to go next.  That step back yielded two highly-praised efforts: Justice League: The New Frontier; and Batman:Gotham Knight.

Enter their latest offering:  Wonder Woman

This is an origin story, adapted for today.  While some of the details have been changed, the spirit of the story remains.  An island exists, shielded from the rest of the world by magic and populated only by Amazons, frozen in time.  A US pilot crashes onto the island and is found by Diana.  Through competition, Diana is selected to escort the pilot back and to track down an escaped Ares, god of War.  Action ensues and the world is graced with the heroine, Wonder Woman.

Much like New Frontier, DC and Warners relied on traditional animation versus anime or digital to tell the story.  While the animation is beautiful, it is the story and voice-casting that stands out.  Andrea Romano once again, as she has for over 20 years, delivers a cast filled with recognizable names who are able to craft their voices in such a way as to sound familiar, yet not let their celebrity overpower their character.  Bruce Timm, as producer, ensures that the story holds true to the spirit of the origin and that what is delivered is top-quality.

I bought the Blu-Ray version since it had a digital copy included.  As such, I can not review the extras included on the Blu-Ray part, but there are a number of documentaries on various aspects of Wonder Woman.  The digital copy disc included a copy for the PC, as well as a copy for a portable device.

My advice:  Give this one a whirl – no golden lasso needed to verify that I speak the truth…

Uncategorized

Newly Acquired DVDs for July

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In the midst of getting cuaght up on everything, I relaized that I have not updated you guys on my latest DVD acquisitions.

Around the end of June, I was frustrated with the game of poker — cards were good, players were not.  In any case, after leaving a venue, I went to Target to do some grocery shopping.  On sale was the following DVD and it had a bonus DVD.

  • The Grand — A structured improv-based movie by Cheryl Hines surrounding a poker tournament.  Supposedly the outcome of the cards dictated the storylines.
  • Poker for Dummies — Do I really need to make a joke?  As a matter of fact, I challenge you to post your best joke about this (and don’t worry if it makes me look bad)

Then we have the week that “The Dark Knight” came out, which led to a slew of Batman-related items at Best-Buy.

  • Batman Begins — a special box set for Best-Buy that included items from both movies and a cool Bat-logo USB key.
  • Birds of Prey — The complete TV series on DVD.  Aired originally on the WB, it lasted one season.
  • Batman: Gotham Knight — A collection of 6 animated stories relating to Batman’s early career.

To see more details on these acquisitions, check out my collection page by clicking the link in the right-hand column…

DVD

Justice League: The New Frontier

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Over the past 15 years, animation has been moving steadily away from “traditional” hand-drawn looks to more and more computer-generated images.  Watching old episodes of Batman:The Animated Series, I am shocked at how “crude” most of the images seem.  Then I sit back and realize that it is the rough look that I enjoyed so much when watching the series first-run.  With Justice League on Cartoon Network, the images looked sleeker and crisper, but seemed to lack humanity.

Enter Justice League: The New Frontier.

This straight-to-DVD movie is based on Darwyn Cooke’s successful graphic novel of the same title.  Cook wanted his story to center around the look and feel of the heroes of DC’s Silver Age.  This was a time period that he grew up with and felt that some today’s versions of our favorite heroes had strayed too far from.  His story is one of simple means:  a threat forces our greatest heroes to band together to defeat it.

The movie is beautiful from an animation standpoint: great visuals, fluid motions, full of humanity.  Like all of the DC animation projects over the past 15 years, the voice casting is spot on.  David Boreanz has the right amount of cockiness for the role of Hal Jordan, aka The Green Lantern.  Make no mistake: this story is more than the origin of the Justice League; it is the origin of Green Lantern and how he became the man he is now.

The DVD version watched is the 2-disc version.  Its extras include:

  • Audio Commentaries with Darwyn Cook and the production crew
  • Documentary on the history of the Justice League — excellent documentary
  • Sneak Peek at the next project, Batman: Gotham Knight
  • Documentary on the Super-Villain
  • Comic Book Commentary from Darwyn Cook
  • 3 episodes of Justice League Unlimited aimed at highlighting certain themes in New Frontier

My advice:  watch this for great animation and story, particularly if you grew up on heroes and mythology.

DVD

Superman:Doomsday

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Midway through high school, DC Comics decided to embark on a mission not heard of in comics:  a “reboot” of the entire DC Universe.  Over the years leading up to the mid-80’s, the creative minds kept coming up with new things and alternate universes, but after a while things got messy and fans got tired of trying to figure out what was taking place when and where.

Enter Crisis on Multiple Earths…

This series allowed for a logical way to merge everything and do away with certain storylines and characters.  What resulted was the birth of the major story arc for DC.  Of course Marvel was upset because they had done something similar with Secret Wars 2 years earlier…

After sales evened out and DC was back to one earth and one set of storylines, DC was now faced with major anniversaries approaching for Superman and Batman and no ideas as to what to do.  Then someone asked the simple question:

What if we killed Superman?

That one little question launched what would become known as the Doomsday story and would send the entire world rushing to a store they hardly visited: The comic book shop.  The Death of Superman was such a hot commodity that it was selling for over $100 an issue for at least a year after its release.

So, Matt, why are you talking about print media when this is about movies and DVDs?

Simply put, to set the stage….

After successful runs on TV with Batman, Superman, and the Justice League, Warner Bros. decided to greenlight an animated version of the Doomsday story.  Too bad they did not go with the original story.

One of the problems of adapting books, even comic books, is that stuff has to change and be left out.  The only things that remained the same were:

  • the last half of the fight scene between Superman and Doomsday
  • the funeral
  • the showdown between the real Superman and a clone

Everything else was different — is this a bad thing?  Not necessarily.  The story shown is a good streamlined alternative, but I prefer the original.  The voice casting was good and the visuals were great.

The DVD had the usual features plus a couple of documentaries and a sneak peek at Justice League: The New Frontier.

My advice: check this out if you like cartoons and superheros — very enjoyable….