This reworking of a LotR trailer with the tone (and Queen music) of the Suicide Squad trailer is not only pretty amusing, it actually, finally, totally makes appropriate use of Peter Jackson's Gimli.
(h/t +J. Steven York)
Category: DC Media (DCEU, DCU)
DC’s movies, TV shows, and animated offerings
Movie Review: "Batman: Assault on Arkham" (2014)*
Rewatched this with the upcoming live-action Suicide Squad film in mind, and, yeah, this hits the tone and characterization that movie really needs to nail. It does solid job of having you rooting for the bag-of-snakes "bad guys" even as you really want to see them locked up securely again (kinda-mostly).
Current review: http://letterboxd.com/three_star_dave/film/batman-assault-on-arkham/1/
Previous review: http://letterboxd.com/three_star_dave/film/batman-assault-on-arkham/
3.5 stars out of 5, and a "heart" to rewatch it again.
Liking "Legends of Tomorrow"
There was actually a fair amount to like about the CW's new DC hero series, the Flash/Arrow spin-off Legends of Tomorrow — if nothing else that it cleans out both series of some decent characters that were cluttering up the core storylines.
As a run-down:
Rip Hunter – Okay, he's new, and everyone finds casing the erstwhile Rory as a rogue time-traveler a hoot, but so far he's doing a good job of the slightly off-beat and dreadfully earnest.
Firestorm – It will be interesting to see if they do anything with his powers beyond flamy energy blasty stuff. Kidnapping Jax to go run off time traveling was kind of a dick move, but actually just what I'd expect from Sidney Bristow's dad.
Atom – I keep wanting to like this character more than I have in Arrow; the fault is more with the uneven writing than Brandon Routh's acting. I hope he's able to stabilize into more than just an Iron Man wannabe who can shrink.
White Canary – It's good to see the better of the Lance sisters (in stage fighting ability, at least) get a more central role. The whole League-of-Assassins Lazarus-Pit-curse thing should be fun.
Hawkman and Hawkgirl – Two of my favorite comics characters (in most of their incarnations), they're being played very straight here, but the melodrama of their past lives, the lack of the alien Thanagar connection, and the forced integration with Vandal Savage's past feels a bit jumbled. They're a pair that could use their own series, frankly, and I'm afraid their arc will be difficult to pull off here.
Captain Cold and Heat Wave – Okay, these guys make the show (and, along with Canary, the best scenes and quips in the opener). They are a refreshing bit of self-interest amongst the too-noble heroic types, great comic relief, and Wentworth Miller just has too much snarky fun as Snart.
Actually, the biggest problem I have so far is that Caspar Crump's Vandal Savage hasn't the gravitas or savagery about him to make him more than a dime store villain. By tying his origin into the Hawks, it's actually diminished his impact, and, with few exceptions, I've been unimpressed. That's worrisome, since this show is all about defeating his schemes. Here's hoping that improves.
The villain aside, the reason for getting the band together (and the revealed reason as well) are a great setup, so that should help the overall show quite a bit. The challenge (aside from doing stuff with the characters to help them develop over time) is that, in many ways, this is a wildly powerful group — the only way to get a decent challenge is either really powerful adversaries in return, or having them be the gang that can't shoot straight (which is sort of what happened with the battle against Chronos in the opening episode); that latter is not going to sit well for long.
Overall, for all that I really don't need an additional show to be watching (glances at DVR queue and non-DVR list), I have pretty high hopes for the show being some good, comic booky fun. And, sometimes, that's just what I want.
Originally shared by +Curt Thompson:
Blah, blah, save the world. Yak, yak, forge your destiny. Vandal Savage, whatever.
You give me supervillain road trip scenes like last night's bar brawl every few episodes and I'll stick with you seven seasons, Legends of Tomorrow.
Even with that stupid name.
The first looks at "Wonder Woman"
So we are finally getting some (early) footage for next year's Wonder Woman movie and …
… well …
The actiony bits look very actiony, and that's good.
Gal Gadot looks pretty decent in the role, as expected.
Chris Pine as Steve Trevor? Okay.
A World War I setting? I'll be curious to hear the creative decisions behind that change.
SOP DC Movie Universe desaturated colors? Um … okay.
My biggest concern is that this carries on the fundamental change in WW's character since, oh, 2010-2011, when DC decided that Diana as an envoy for peace to Man's World with its violence an cruelty was just too un-actiony. That the tension between that philosophy and the violence that Wonder Woman was forced to commit was too difficult for folk to go with. That the idea of Wonder Woman as a proto-Xena was too difficult to resist.
So, yes, this footage is full of WW punching people, sword fighting with people, committing violence upon people. While there's a bit from the director talking about "The good thing about Wonder Woman is how good and kind and loving she is, yet none of that negates any of her power," there's no sign of "good and kind and loving" in what we saw in that preview (or in the bits where she shows up in the bits we've seen of Batman vs. Supernan).
It all looks very grimdark and violent, and if that's the message, fine, but if that's not the message, then the message is not coming across.
The "Suicide Squad" Trailer — oh, yeah
The Best Superhero TV Show Ever
There are some other fine contenders, but I can't argue with the conclusion of the writer here. JLU was and remains the best supers show on TV.
In addition to all the fine reasons the writer mentions, I'll add a couple of my own.
Though the show gave us a lot of done-in-one episodes, vs multi-parters, it often did so in the context of a broader seasonal plot — e.g., the Cadmus / government conspiracy against seemingly uncontrollable super-folk, or Luthor's obsession with getting back long obsession, first with Superman, later with Braniac.
Indeed, being unafraid to to dive back to episodes previous in the season, or even from earlier seasons — heck, from earlier DCAU shows (Hawkgirl's betrayal of Earth in the "Starcrossed" finale of Justice League; Superman's brainwashing by Darkseid, back in his own animated series) meant that everything had texture and nuance and growth to it that belied it being just a bunch of half-hour colorful slugfests.
That applied to the bad guys, too. Luthor is a great example of a character driven in a number of directions, but I'll also call out the pseudo-villain (say, "antagonist") Amanda Waller, here in her still classic body shape that made her nickname "The Wall" physical as well as tempermental. Waller is misguided — sort of — in her planning against a bunch of neo-gods in orbit with a giant space laser pointed downward — but she does it with dedication, sneakiness, ruthlessness, and even personal valor.
We even got consistent personalities and differentiators amongst the "mooks" of the villain world, as different characters — Deadshot, Grodd, Solomon Grundy, Morgana, Copperhead — show up time and again, not as faceless people to be punched out, but individuals who have personal agendas, as much as the flock of heroes in the JLU do.
Good, good stuff — and something we rewatch enough, even though we have the DVD set, I'm angling for the Blu-Ray at Christmas, just to make it that much easier to do so.
Why Justice League Unlimited Was, and Still Is, the Best Superhero TV Show
We live in a golden age of superhero television. Hits like The Flash, Agent Carter, Arrow, and Agents of SHIELD dominate our TV screens. We champion them for their ability to bring some of the most mind-melting comic book sagas to TV—but one show did it all before them, nearly a decade ago: Justice League Unlimited.
Movie Review: "Man of Steel" (2013)
Doom, gloom, and grim-dark depression … but at least it's really pretty. 3 out of 5 stars.
More detailed review: http://letterboxd.com/three_star_dave/film/man-of-steel/
Now this "Batman v Superman" I want to see
But, then, I like to occasionally smile while watching a movie.
Originally shared by +J. Steven York:
We are (finally) caught up with "Arrow" (and just in time)
True binge-watchers will pooh-pooh, but for our plowing through three seasons of a TV show in several months was a noteworthy accomplishment in this household, esp. since S.3 had to be pieced together from some episodes free online and some not.
Still, we got caught up just in time for the season premiere this coming week (trailer for which below).
As to whether it was worth it …
Arrow is … an interesting show. It helps (or hurts) to realize first and foremost that it's a soap opera in the grand tradition of weekday serial dramas: lots of family issues, trust issues, lies, betrayals, angst, anger, lather, rinse, repeat. People choose deception as the default mode of any uncomfortable situation (frequently using the excuse "it's for the best that they never know the truth"), and when those deceptions get exposed (as they always do), there are tears and recriminations and high melodrama.
That said, I still enjoyed it. The super-hero bits (within the bounds of DC's TV universe) were pretty well played, and the ties to The Flash and other DCTVU characters (including the Legends of Tomorrow crew) were always fun. Many of the actors are enjoyable to watch (John Barrowman, Alex Kingston, and Paul Blackthorne in particular).
I read (headline-wise) a lot of judgments that S.3 was piss-poor compared to S.1-2. I can't entirely agree. I think it was less successful in some ways (R'as al Ghul and the League of Assassins stuff was not well handled, compared to the previous season threats of the Undertaking and Slade Wilson), but the show did a decent job of upending some tables to keep things fresh. The "five years years of hell" flashbacks are getting a bit wearying (if only in their implausibility), but one can hope that will be corrected this next time out.
Having started with The Flash and then moved over to Arrow, I think the showrunners learned some good lessons from the latter that they applied to the former. The Flash has many of the same hallmarks (including gratuitous deceit), but not as rabidly, and there's more comic book wonderment and (somewhat) less soap opera. The constant father figure conflicts remain, but they feel less forced in The Flash.
Or maybe it's just that Flash is more intentionally fun, less intentionally gritty.
Do I regret the time invested in catching up with Arrow? Not at all. It's the kind of show I would have given my eye teeth for growing up, and even now I'm enjoying it, and looking forward to S.4. There may be better shows out in the great wide TV universe (correction: there are better shows), but I'm pretty happy with what DC's been doing with its TV dramas, and interested to see where they are going next.
So Cool Trailer
Star City needs the Arrow. Don’t miss the season 4 premiere Wednesday, October 7!
"Vixen" is finally worth watching
Why CW Seed thought that breaking the Vixen animated feature from about 25-30 minutes run time into six 6-odd minute episodes (including a minute of credits in each one) is beyond me. It was a horribly irksome way to watch the show, and I gave up after one episode. But they've finished the job, so you can now watch it, more or less painlessly, all back to back.
Net-net, it's nothing earthshattering, but Vixen is a fun character and, when animated well, visually interesting in her power. The animation reminded me of Young Justice (sigh). The story was pretty basic origin stuff, but well-handled for that. The cross-overs by characters (and actors) from Green Arrow and The Flash were interesting and well-handled (even if the power balance was a bit arbitrary, which is almost necessary when you get a speedster in the party). Worth a watch if you have any interest in the character.
I hope to see more (and in a concentrated format).
The CW Television Network.
cwseedvixen
Because the world needs more grim, humorless, serious super-hero movies
Yes, I suspect BvSDoJ will be interesting (if we are lucky), and well-crafted (ditto) … but not entertaining. Your Mileage May Vary.
Note: I don't necessarily need Aquaman busting out jokes — the Batman: The Brave & the Bold Aquaman ("Outrageous!") was a hoot, the Justice League Aquaman was fierce and grim. There's room for both in the world.
The trick, at least for me, is striking a balance: taking the material seriously, using human (or superhuman) drama and emotional stakes, but keeping some wry wit, some irony, a smidge of comic relief out there. That keeps everything from being a shouty, pouty-face slugfest.
The Justice League cartoon is illustrative of this (as is most of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but let's focus on a DC-related property). The stories told there, especially in the Justice League Unlimited seasons, were, on the face of them, pretty grim. Heroes in an orbiting space station, lording it over humanity, a massive laser weapon ready to smite any terrestrial foe. Human governments mistrusting — and conspiring against — those metahumans, creating contingency plans if they get out of hand, betraying their trusts. Conflicts manipulated by adversarial egos, great power struggling with great responsibility, protectors of humanity questioning whether they have gone horribly astray, or acting with zealous and misguided determination.
Pretty serious stuff, right?
But it's leavened as we go along. Flash is always making dumb jokes, sometimes unintentionally. There's some soap operatic relationship issues. There are occasional mid-melee quips. There are heroes who are less-than-grim-gritty, even a little naive in their young attitudes. There are breaks from the conflicts, the devastation, the betrayals, the slugfests.
And it's a cartoon. But it's not cartoonish.
Look at another cartoon, Teen Titans. There are episodes and stor lines in there that are utterly gut-wrenching. Robin's obsession over Slade. Changeling's doomed love for Terra. Raven's psychodrama over her demonic parentage. One of the first episodes was a horrifyingly grim tale of what would happen to the team if Starfire were to disappear, and the results for each of the heroes was not at all pretty.
But through it all, there was a fundamental joy in the camaraderie, the teen zaniness, the innocence that made the drama more poignant and more endurable at the same time.
Another non-cartoonish cartoon (something that become all the clearer when the "teen zaniness" became the only part retained in the "Teen Titans" reboot … ugh).
Look at Young Justice, the replacement (irksomely) for Teen Titans. The darkness and threat there got awfully thick on the ground, especially in the last season. But there were always enough moments to smile at to keep it from being abysmal and unrelentingly dire.
Heck, Shakespeare wrote some pretty freaking grim stuff, but he always had some comedic elements in the most dour of his plays, to keep the groundlings from crying into their beers (or throw them at the actors). Joss Whedon wrote the book on modern super-heroic tales with Buffy the Vampire-Slayer, which played every tragic trope suitable for TV, with enough wry comments and ironic self-awareness to keep it from being too utterly depressing or grim-gritty.
When I look at the clips from BvSDoJ, I see epic loss, tragedy, conflict, violence, grimdarkness that all add up to Utter Seriousness. There's not a smile to be cracked, not a joke to be made, not a quip to be tossed. It's all grand and epic and fully of people scowling and yelling and punching each other.
Maybe it will be incredible. But I suspect it will be a sadly one-noted "very serious" and appeal mostly to the folk who will ignore any flaws if they can see stuff "blow up real good" because of super-heroes.
I hope I'm wrong.
Jesse Eisenberg Promises Dawn of Justice Will Be “Very Serious,” Not “Cartoonish”
Of all the sins of "Arrow"
I can critique it for its force-grown interpersonal conflicts. I can slam it for fight choreography that depends way too much on high misses. I can express frustration over how everyone turns to the most nonsensical secret-keeping answer to every difficult situation. I can roll my eyes at the soap opera tropes that would have been right at home on All My Children. I can —
— well, I can forgive it everything except this: that R'as al-Ghul's name is pronounced, not incorrectly, but inconsistently.
[Note: I am halfway through watching S.3. No spoilers, please.]
The name means "Head of the Demon" in Arabic. Properly[] the first part of the name is pronounced "Raysh". And some of the characters do just that.
Others pronounce it "Rass" or "Rahs". Which is incorrect[], but frequently encountered in the general population (and in a lot of media).
But when two people in the same conversation are pronouncing it in two different ways … it just makes me tear my hair out. People don't do that. They'd say, "Oh, is that how you pronounce it?" Or get into an argument or duel over the authoritative way the name of the leader of the Assassin's Guild should be pronounced. Or something. It makes no sense.[**]
Yes, I know, it's a trivial thing to get irked at. But, hey, that's what geekery and nerditude are all about.
[] I believe that "Raysh" is correct. Wikipedia agrees with me. http://www.comicvine.com/forums/gen-discussion-1/how-to-pronounce-ras-al-ghul-657604/ does not, at least somewhat.
[*] https://www.reddit.com/r/arrow/comments/2r29by/no_spoilers_whats_with_the_inconsistent/ is another good discussion of the question, with some very interesting citations going back to Denny O'Neil, who created the character.
The article mentions that the producers have been asked this question and have stated the dual pronunciation is done intentionally, both in a meta fashion (since fandom disagrees about it) and in an in-story fashion (the people who say "Raysh" are League insiders, the ones who say "Rass" aren't).
That's clever, except (a) Merlyn, a former League member, very clearly says "Rass," and (b) plenty of people are still having those conversations with mixed pronunciations, and someone would say something. That's where my frustration lies.
See also:
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NO7_cTXSps8
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqwx2XFb1fQ
Constantine will visit "Arrow"
I was sorry to see" Constantine" canceled. I am happy to hear the title character will be showing up on "Arrow" this coming season.
Matt Ryan ‘Constantine’ ‘Arrow’
After NBC canceled the Warner Bros. Television-produced DC Comics drama following a one-season run.
Grodd Graphics
A neat demo reel of how The Flash TV series did some of its special effects last season — in particular Gorilla Grodd in episode 1×21. It's mindblowing to me (having grown up when I did) what the CGI folk can do these days on a weekly series — both Grodd and (hitherto unsuspected by me) Flash himself for some scenes.
(via http://io9.com/vfx-reel-shows-how-the-flash-put-a-giant-evil-gorilla-o-1719580476)
Heroic Women
The "Hall of Heroes" by Scott Park Illustration. Unsorted, but grouped by the movie/show they appeared in. The key is at the bottom.
Looking back on Season 1 of "The Flash"
(There are probably some SPOILERS below if you haven't watched through the season finale.)
The Flash has been … both better and worse than I expected.
From a metaplot standpoint, and individual character design and arc, it's been a load of fun. Barry Allen's growth, his friends, his family, his nemesis, his rogue's gallery, his super-heroic associates … it's all been nicely done in general.
That's been leavened, sometimes significantly, by goofy plotting in the specific. The "Oh, really?" count in our family viewings of the show has gotten dismayingly high at times, as characters veer into doing and saying things that only make sense as a means to amp up the conflict / risk / melodrama, or because the storyline demands it to proceed.
Iris West's lack of agency (a certain chunk of it self-inflicted) has been particularly annoying. She is lied to, dictated to, and manipulated from the beginning to the end of the season, most often by people who love her. Far too little of what happens to her is based on any decision of her own making. That needs to change.
Nevertheless … if you squint and try to avoid the annoying particulars, the broader picture has been entertaining and engaging.
The Season Finale was a mixed bag in much the same way. Some great small moments, some others that felt weirdly rushed, some unexpected but brilliant sacrifices, some unexpected and slightly befuddling character actions ….
Yeah, SPOILERS below …
The beginning of the finale was great, if only because it tweaked the endless repetition of the "My name is Barry Allen" prolog.
I found it both irksome and intriguing the various folks around Central City that looked up at the Big Problem at the end of the episode. Part of it felt forcing the "Legends of Tomorrow" cast, but I also loved the police captain's showing (as he's become one of my favorite supporting characters).
That final foofooraw is not going to make people feel more favorably toward STAR Labs.
(And the "Flash helped a bunch of bad guys escape / Flash was imprisoning people in a metahuman Guantanamo" bit is going to bite Barry hard next season. And it should.)
I, too, was blindsided by Eddie's action. Brilliant. It allows for all sorts of bizarrity, but still brilliant. Also, the conclusion allows for a wide range of writer's license.
I was a bit confused over the whole resolution of the Mom thing. Was Barry-now so conflicted that he took Barry-future's wave-off as an automatic order? That whole resolution ended up feeling like a bit of a cop-out — "We don't want to retcon the entire season, so we'll … handwave Barry making an odd decision in the heat of the moment."
That marriage felt damned rushed.
A Jay Garrick Mercury helm. Awesome. Especially since it prompts Eobard to skedaddle. I hope this is a sign that the broader Flash family will start to show up.
Harrison Wells has been a fantastic villain, and continued to be this episode. I would dearly love to see him come back.
As to Barry's visions … various folk have noted a Killer Frost cameo (which aligns with the character name in question), but … was that Themyscira?
I am enjoying the hell out of Victor Garber, but (especially with the Harrison Wells character on the show), it's hard not to suspect Dr. Stein of being as duplicitous and manipulative as Sidney Bristow's dad.
An odd ending, largely because it was in media res without quite the dramatic swell I was expecting. The mass destruction thing was annoying — given physical damage, there's going to be a body count, which Barry & Co. should definitely be feeling some guilt about.
And, yes, I'm waiting eagerly for Season 2. There are so many cool hooks, that even the clunky bits, the TV-budget-SFX, the irksome character actions can't quite overwhelm my enthusiasm. Dammit.
A closer look at "Supergirl" (or, at least, the trailer)
I'm still feeling mixed on the rom-com / put-upon girl in the big city but if she gets a chance she'll shine nature of what we saw of "Supergirl" so far … but I confess that a slowed-down analysis of the bits and bobs I might have missed watching it is pretty cool (especially the shout-out casting).
‘Supergirl’s First Trailer: 10 Things You Missed
The first look at CBS’ ‘Supergirl’ showed much of the pilot episode, but fans likely missed these story hints and easter eggs.
So this is "Supergirl"?
This extended "first look" at the character in the new series is … not encouraging. The whole ditzy yuppie vibe of her civilian identity is just awful, not helped by the over-the-top boss lady and just a generally way overdone rom-com feel of things.
That said, there remain glimmers of hope. Not every hero has to be grim and gritty and tormented. The heroic coming-of-age tale is a fine theme to work with. If the threats look pedestrian (and the SFX not all that impressive), it's still early days yet. And the lead actress comes across as an appropriately likable person.
Still, the stuff outside of being a hero is going to make or break the show. And that part isn't promising at all. I'll probably give it a couple of episodes, but right now I'm not feeling like giving it anymore than that.
And a first look at "DC's Legends of Tomorrow"
Aside from being the clumsiest title in the world …
Okay, it looks like it'll be fun, in a kind of goofy way. More "Flash" in tone than "Arrow." What we see here are mainly fisticuffs and quips; hopefully there will be some decent drama to go with.
Vandal Savage is a perfect villain for this kind of thing.
Also interesting that they are (finally) giving the Atom his shrinking powers.
Yeah, I'm there.
"Supergirl" will run in the same time slot as "Gotham"
Because of course it will.
Not that it bothers me — I have a four-headed DVR and I'm not afraid to use it. But for folk who watch stuff (shudder) live, it will make for some annoying times.
More interesting is the question of whether Supergirl exists in the same DC TV Universe as Arrow and Flash — since the Supergirl synopsis makes it clear that Superman is publicly known, which doesn't jibe with some of the worldbuilding in the latter two shows.
(h/t +J. Steven York)
UPDATE: CBS’ SUPERGIRL Has A Superman, & Will Go Head-To-Head Against GOTHAM
Supergirl has officially been picked up for series by CBS.
