Batman vs. Robin 2015

April has unintentionally become animation month here at Flights, Tights and Movie Nights as I take a look at a couple home video releases as well as catch up with the last couple Marvel animated movies I haven’t gotten around to yet. Batman vs. Robin is the latest DC Animation release that was originally touted as their first original story, though it is apparently partly based on the Court of Owls by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo as well as a sequel to last year’s Son of Batman which was a decent, though fairly mediocre effort from the studio. It has a much stronger underlying theme of what being a father and being a son means, though it doesn’t quite reach the heights of Road to Perdition which I had just recently watched. It was still a mighty fine effort with some nice performances, impressive action sequences, and a few twists and turns along the way. And FYI, Batman vs. Robin is currently available via digital download, and will be released on DVD this Tuesday, April 14th, and as a warning I will be delving into the film in its entirety, including any spoilers.

With such a treasure trove of Batman villains it’s often curious when a writer decides to introduce a new one rather than go with an established, or even a lesser known villain. Here, the villain is the Court of Owls, a clandestine group of rich and powerful members of Gotham’s high society that have been controlling parts of the city for centuries, but had gone underground for a while and only recently began exerting their power once again. One bit of annoyance here is that this film yet again decides to revisit the night in Crime Alley, something that seemingly needs to be done in about every other Batman film. At least it does have a bit of a reason here in that Bruce remembers hearing about the Court of Owls through a tale his father told him when he was a child, and he also thought that the Court was involved in their death. So, he tried to investigate while he was still a child but ended up finding nothing. It also helps that Thomas Wayne is briefly played by perennial Batman voice Kevin Conroy.

But what the heart of this story is the father and son relationship between himself and Damian Wayne, the son he unknowingly had with Talia Al Ghul, raised by her and Ra’s Al Ghul, and returned to Bruce in the previous movie. Damian isn’t quite a typical 10 year old as he has been raised as an assassin and only recently been trained by Bruce in the art of restraint and justice over vengeance. But while progress has been made over the course of a few months to a year or so, Bruce still doesn’t fully trust Damian. His lack of trust extends to both his potential for killing as well as his possible lack of fighting prowess and this causes him to turn into an overprotective and overbearing father. While Damian has already grown overly mature for his age and has been acting out on his pre-teenage rebelliousness, escaping nightly to patrol the streets of Gotham as Robin. This fracture between the two is capitalized by newcomer Talon who is working for the Court of Owls. He tries to encourage Damian’s more violent impulses while widening the void between him and his father.

If the relationships between the characters weren’t already complicated enough, there’s yet another layer to build upon, and many are father/son relationships. There’s already the tenuous relationship between Bruce and Damian which isn’t helped by his pseudo prodigal son Dick Grayson who now goes by Nightwing. And as Talon spends more time with Damian, they begin to develop a father son relationship with Talon training Damian to be his replacement. We also get a glimpse into Talon’s own fractured relationship with his abusive cat burglar father who Talon initially looked up to, but ultimately turned on when he called the cops. Talon then went on to have his own pseudo-father figure in the Court of Owls who trained him to become the agent of death he is now. The film even starts off with a twisted example of a father son relationship when they fight the Dollmaker voiced in a surprising turn by a very creepy Weird Al Yankovic who has tortured and surgically altered several children to become his own twisted doll sons and daughters. And if all that wasn’t enough, there’s also the additional twist that Bruce Wayne’s girlfriend of several months also happens to be the leader of the Court of Owls as well as Talon’s lover.

The early model for Batman’s mech suit which makes a brief appearance in this movie.

If all of those relationships seem complicated, it’s because they are, but this hits the mark of a good story as it deftly handles them all so that they make sense within their own contexts and never become overly confusing or convoluted. There are also several subtle moments where we get to see Bruce’s own struggle with how he thinks of Damian as a son, but also as a child raised to be an assassin. The best moment is when the two of them are fighting each other, while they are going all out Bruce still has a moment when they are falling through one of Gotham city’s ever so many skylights and he grabs Damian in a protective manner. There’s also a nice moment when Bruce is under some psychotropic drugs and he has a vision of an adult Damian who has become a Batman more like the Punisher.

As far as the animation goes, as usual it is top notch. The fights especially are very fluid and well choreographed. The only negative which is often the case in these films is that they are rarely able to animate vehicles very well. There is a car chase sequence which is the weakest element of the entire film, especially as Bruce Wayne appears to be driving a very middle class sedan rather than a high priced sports car. The violence once again is something that is stretched to the limits of what a PG-13 rating can get away with, as Batman gets bloodied up pretty good a couple of times, and there are two rather violent deaths with a heart that is ripped out of someone’s chest, and another who is stabbed through the throat. All in all, a very solid movie that rises above DC’s relatively mediocre releases and is nearly on par with some of my own favorites like Flashpoint and Under the Red Hood. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.

This post is for the Great Villain Blogathon hosted by Silver Screenings, Speakeasy, and Shadows and Satin. For my part, there are plenty of great villains out there that I could have picked from, but in the superhero universe I don’t think there is any greater rogues’ gallery than the ones that live in and around Gotham city, so I decided to make a top 10 list of Batman’s greatest foes that have graced the silver screen or the home video screen. Yes, I am including the DC Animation direct-to-video films but I’m not including any of the television series, animated or otherwise. So here… we… go!

Talon

Film: Batman vs. Robin – This is a very recent entry as the movie he appeared in just came out on DVD yesterday. He’s the head of the soldier branch of the Court of Owls: a secretive organization made up of Gotham’s rich and powerful who seek to control the city. He was the son of an abusive cat burglar who turned on his father at a young age only to be raised by the Court of Owls as an assassin. Through the course of the film, he ends up being a pseudo-father figure to Batman’s actual son Damian Wayne. It makes sense to have a villain of Batman resemble an owl which is one of the few predators that hunt bats, which will come into play again later. He even follows through with his own twisted ideals to the very end.

Darkseid

Films: Superman/Batman Apocalypse, Justice League: War – While Darkseid is typically more of a Superman and/or a Justice League villain, Batman does manage to play a major part in defeating him. He is one of the most powerful villains in the DC Universe, though his major power are these relatively ridiculous Omega beams which are basically homing laser beams that only move in right angles. While he is one of the most powerful villains, he’s also one of the least interesting as he generally just floats around and acts like nothing can defeat him, and then is surprised when he is.

Harley Quinn

Films: Assault on Arkham – I’m not ashamed to admit that Harley Quinn is my favorite Batman villain. She’s crazy, she’s sexy, and she dresses like a playing card, what’s not to like? The main reason why she isn’t higher on the list is because she’s not really a big threat to Batman, she’s much more of a nuisance. This movie really showcases a bit of her deviousness when she plays off being a jilted lover to the Joker, and yet she’s actually creating the means for his escape. Brilliant.

Superman

Film: The Dark Knight Returns Part 2 – This might be a little bit of a stretch to call him a villain, but in the timeline of the Dark Knight Returns he is definitely an opponent of the Dark Knight. And of course he will be again, likely briefly, in the upcoming Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice. And while it really is a bit of a stretch to think that Batman in a mech suit could really prove to be any sort of match for the Man of Steel, even if his heart might not entirely be in it, this film really milks this fight for all its worth, and for that spectacle alone, I had to include him in this list.

Catwoman

Films: Batman Returns, The Dark Knight Rises, Batman: Year One, Batman: The Movie – And we finally get to our first live action villain! As far as Catwoman goes, I must say that I like Anne Hathaway’s overall performance and character better, but I like the look of Pfeiffer and her chemistry with Keaton better. I also have to give a quick shout out to Lee Meriweather who also makes tight leather look pretty good. Anyway, Hathaway never gets a line like “Mistletoe is deadly if you eat it, but a kiss can be even deadlier if you mean it.” And those high tech cat ear goggles don’t hold a candle to the stitched together leather/vinyl/rubber/whatever catsuit in Batman Returns. It helps that she is more than a little bit crazy rather than just a very well trained con artist.

The Red Hood

Film: Batman: Under the Red Hood – This was one of the first animated films where I really started to think that DC Animation was telling stories for adults rather than just for kids. They’ve gotten a lot darker over the years, but this was one of the first that really dealt with blood and death with one of the darker moments of Batman’s history with the death of Jason Todd. The Red Hood was one of the several vigilantes in Gotham that took things too far, he killed some of the criminals, and worked with the others. And to top things off, he ended up being Jason Todd himself, resurrected by Ra’s Al Ghul in the Lazarus Pit only to come out wrong. It’s a great story, and he’s a great sympathetic villain when all is said and done.

Ra’s Al Ghul

Films: Batman Begins, Batman: Under the Red Hood, Son of Batman – While he appeared in a couple of the animated films, he wasn’t much of a villain in either of them so I will be focusing on his appearance in Batman Begins. He is the interesting case of the villain who initially started out as Batman’s friend and mentor, teaching him the ways of the League of Shadows under the guise of being Ducard. And while Nolan’s universe did away from the Lazarus Pit, he did find a way to have Liam Neeson briefly return for the Dark Knight Rises as a memory. But he is one of the most powerful villains as the leader of the League of Shadows, one of the few who knew Batman’s secret identity and one of the first villains that he let die in a move not entirely fitting with his character.

Owlman

Film: Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths – One of the only parallel dimension villains on this list, Owlman comes from an alternate Earth where he is the analogue of Batman in his world, only he and the rest of the Justice League analogues are villains and part of the Crime Syndicate. And while he isn’t the leader, he is the one who masterminds the overall plan that would destroy the entire multiverse. Certainly a step up from robbing a bank. It helps that he is voiced by the incomparable James Woods. While the film itself does lack a little something to make it spectacular, it’s a fun film and Owlman is one of the more memorable parts of it.

Bane

Films: Dark Knight Rises, Batman & Robin – Getting close to the end there just has to be a mention of Bane. The way he played off of Poison Ivy was just incredible. Of course, I’m joking and the actual Bane that makes this list is the one played by Tom Hardy in Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy. While I do think that the Dark Knight Rises is the weakest of the three films, there is still quite a lot there to impress, and one of those things is Hardy’s Bane performance. He is intelligent, strong, and determined. Not to mention memorable, while it may have seemed like an odd choice for him to have that mask and accent, it’s not something that is easily forgotten. Bane makes an impression, and it is a strong one. He also happens to have the entire city of Gotham under his thumb for months on end. Impressive doesn’t even begin to describe it.

The Joker

Films: Batman, The Dark Knight, Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, The Dark Knight Returns, Batman: Under the Red Hood, Assault on Arkham, etc – When I started this list, I imagine that there was little doubt as to what villain would make the number 1 spot. Out of his entire rogues’ gallery there is one villain used more often than any other, and that is the Joker. And while there are many different incarnations, the ones that I want to focus on for this list are Mark Hamill’s portrayal in Mask of the Phantasm, Jack Nicholson in 1989’s Batman, and Heath Ledger in the Dark Knight. They all have their place on this pedestal and they are all worthy of it. The Joker is such an interesting character, above all else he just wants to see the chaos unfold around him and have a little fun while he’s at it. He can be a bit more on the psychotic side of things like in the Dark Knight, and he can be a bit more on the silly side of things like in Tim Burton’s Batman. But there’s always a sense of chaos while at the same time there’s this incredible intelligence behind the chaos that makes it that much more terrifying.

I hope you enjoyed this list as much as I enjoyed making it. There were a few villains that I am disappointed that I had to leave out for one reason or another, I’m a big fan of Clayface and the Riddler, but Clayface has yet to make a notable appearance in a movie, and the less said about Jim Carrey’s Riddler the better. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.

Batman Unlimited: Animal Instincts 2015

While I had initially only planned to do animation through April, May is almost over and I’m still sticking to the animated fare. And while I’ve just gone though catching up on a few Marvel animated films I hadn’t gotten around to yet, DC is still cranking them out on a regular basis. I hadn’t heard much lead up to this title so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect at all. I’m not familiar with any sort of Batman Unlimited universe whether in the comics or on TV. From what I can tell from this film it’s set in the future, kind of like Batman Beyond, but instead of it being a future generation, it’s just Batman and several of the less extraterrestrial Justice League set in the future. It also reminded me a little bit of last year’s JLA Adventures where this was a very kid friendly adventure as opposed to the increasingly darker PG-13 stories typical of recent DC Animated films. It’s also worth noting that this film is intended to help launch a new toy line of DC Unlimited characters which will also continue in shorts and future home video films which actually makes me think of the Monster High style of marketing. As an actual film it was a fun little adventure without too much real depth to it, but there’s nothing wrong with that.

The film starts up with a series of crimes committed by various animal related villains from several different DC Rogue’s galleries. First off is Wonder Woman’s Cheetah (who by the way is the only woman out of the entire group). Next is Batman’s Killer Croc with a metal jaw, followed by Man-Bat, new to the scene and not Gorilla Grodd as I originally thought but a very similar simian named Silverback, and led by Penguin in what essentially becomes his origin story in this universe. On the heroes side of things we of course have Batman, with his ally Nightwing and sidekick Red Robin. And throughout the movie Red Robin is never without his costume so I have no idea who is underneath the costume. And visiting Gotham is Flash and Green Arrow to help out. They have an interesting dynamic between all of them, there’s a feeling of both familiarity where they all know each other and have worked together before but don’t team up on a regular basis. Batman and Green Arrow both know each others secret identities, but Nightwing and the Flash feel like they’ve never worked together before. It’s only a little strange and the unfamiliarity is mostly played for laughs.

The villain’s plan is inspired by a combination of revenge and greed. Penguin gets just a bit of an origin story here. He’s introduced as a very wealthy socialite, though all of the other high society members only tolerate him because of his money and think he’s a complete weirdo behind his back. His monocle also is a high tech HUD that allows him to overhear these conversations they are having and has other functions as shown when he first shows up when he triggers a chain reaction to make some bricks fall on a couple street thugs’ heads. He has recruited these other villains in his animalitia in order to create this laser umbrella force field which will protect his Aviary tower from a giant meteor full of gold that they plan on bringing down directly on top of Gotham. He also has a small army of robotic animals, tigers, wolves, and bats. I’ll also give just a bit of background on Silverback who is yet another highly intelligent gorilla, only without Grodd’s telepathic powers. Instead, Silverback is revealed to be a robot himself, and is generally the leader of the group when they’re out on the field away from Penguin’s mastermind lair.

As this is more of a kid friendly film, the fights are more often filled with gags rather than real violence, at one point the Flash gets hooked by a rope trap and is used as a tetherball for a group of gorillas in the zoo. There is the one bit of surprise that’s not much of a surprise to comic fans when the scientist who designed the robots also turns out to be Man-Bat and essentially mindless like a werewolf. Though there is a bit where Batman is able to create a three hour cure so he can help them hack three of the robots, and at the end Red Robin is able to get through to his humanity while in the Man-Bat form so he can save the day in the end. There’s nothing really revelatory about the plot of this film, it’s a standard comic book villain plot but it’s handled with the right amount of fun that lets you go along for the ride.

The designs of the characters were a little bit off putting compared to a lot of the DC animation that has come before. There’s an overwhelming amount of that giant anime spiky hair, especially the front part that shoots out like a rhino horn that both Nightwing and Commissioner Gordon have for some reason. And Green Arrow has the emo hood that is always covering one eye. I suppose that could have an excuse of being appropriate for aiming so he doesn’t have to bother with closing one eye to line up his shots correctly. Red Robin also seemed like an odd choice, especially without ever clarifying which young ward it was under the mask. The voice acting was decent as usual, there weren’t any name actors, instead mostly voice acting regulars. I did watch it with my daughter Jena, and while she seemed to enjoy it, nothing really stuck out as particularly exciting. Overally, just a generally decent film that is quite a bit of fun, especially if you have a kid that’s still too young to enjoy the darker DC Animated Universe. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.

Justice League: Gods and Monsters 2015

It’s time for me to catch up on some more slightly under the radar new releases that have slipped past me in the past couple months or so. The first one that I checked out is the latest in the neverending releases from DC Animation, this brings about the return of Bruce Timm as writer who was the head of animation during the days of Batman: The Animated Series, Justice League, and is more or less credited with making DC Animation the respected studio that it has become today. He has overseen much of the DC Animated universe as executive producer, but the last movie that was written by him goes all the way back to the first with Superman/Doomsday. Gods and Monsters takes an alternate universe look at what the Justice League could have been if things had turned out very differently for a lot of people. Here, the Justice League is a small group of superhumans who are respected to a certain extent, but mostly feared by the general public as a potential menace who destroys any enemies they come across. I’ve always enjoyed alternate universe stories, and while this one was fascinating, I often felt like I was missing something with my limited knowledge of the extended DC Universe.

The film kicks things off right away with one of the more well known origin stories getting a wrench thrown in the works. As Jor El is ready to send the spaceship off with Lara Zor El’s genetic material which will become baby Kal El, Zod jumps in and cock blocks Jor El, placing his own genetic material in the pod before it zooms away from the exploding Krypton. From there, it jumps straight into the present day with the Justice League consisting of Zod’s son Superman, a redheaded sci-fi looking Wonder Woman, and a vampire Batman. Later on, there’s also a very quick mention of Superman’s Earth parents who were a poor, migrant couple rather than a farm couple. The pacing works well as the other two origin stories are spaced out and revealed as flashbacks during other important points in the story. Instead of Bruce Wayne becoming a high tech Batman after his parents were killed, Kirk Langstrom becomes a different type of Man-Bat that is more like Spider-Man’s Morbius than anything else. His powers explained through a variation of nanite bots and something to do with blood coagulants. Wonder Woman’s origin is the one where I was almost completely lost. I was familiar with Darkseid, but I knew nothing about New Genesis or the Highfather. They are apparently a group that was always at war with Apokolips, and here they attempt to create peace through a marriage between the Highfather’s daughter Becca and Darkseid’s son. But during the wedding, New Genesis uses the opportunity to kill Darkseid and all of his minions including the son that Becca had actually grown to care for.

Lois and Superman watching a video of Zod.

There are obviously plenty of other minor changes and easter eggs thrown about here and there throughout the film, but they often come so quickly that it’s hard to catch unless you’re a big DC comics aficionado. Some are quick throwaways, like the name John Henry Irons on a computer screen, others are much easier to spot like a Jimmy Olsen sneaking video in a morgue with some beefy biceps and tribal styled tattoos. One other changed origin that was an interesting choice was Lex Luthor as a reclusive scientist with some type of physical condition that restricts himself to a chair a la Steven Hawking, but without the robot voice. We also get government liaison Steve Trevor, and President Amanda Waller along with a handful of others that aren’t really worth mentioning. There were even a few that aren’t clear enough to know if they’re really alternate versions of characters or just random villains, like a trio of thugs that could be a male version of Cheetah, a normal looking Solomon Grundy, and another villain with blue hair and an electricity gun.

What’s your best guess on these alternate villains?

Aside from the setup for the alternate universe, there is an ongoing mysterious plot that seems to be interested in framing the Justice League for murders of notable scientists, who again are mostly DC Easter eggs. The attackers are a cross between the T-1000, the Sentinels, and Batman Beyond. The mystery element of the story worked well, with a twist that doesn’t completely come out of nowhere, but also isn’t completely obvious either. The one downside is that is has a ticking time bomb that has been used way too many times in similar superhero cinematic moments, where this device is connected at the top of this tower and when it goes off, it will infect the entire world with these nanites that will essentially make this one guy leader of the world. Also, like with many of the recent DC animated films, this is on the bloody side of a PG-13 with plenty of blades through the chest and one moment of bad guys getting squished underneath a giant door.

The biggest flaw that this film has is that there are many different themes and ideas that it begins to explore, but most of the run time is dedicated to the backstory and exploration of this alternate universe. There isn’t enough time to really explore the ideas of a Justice League that works with the government, but isn’t really a part of the government. These heroes that kill to protect, the outsiders that aren’t a part of our world, but will still fight to protect it. Those themes and ideas are still there, but it’s almost more of an afterthought than something that can be fully explored. What it does do well is create and flesh out this alternate universe in just over an hour, filled with characters that are the same, and yet very different. Superman is a little bit more arrogant, but still had a humble upbringing. Batman is more of a super powered vampire, but still has a conscience and detective skills. And Wonder Woman is the closest in personality, with her background from space gods rather than Earthbound Greek gods and a bit more tragic backstory. The fights were fun, the story and characters were solid, it just lacked a little something that often happens in the limited run time. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.

Batman Unlimited: Monster Mayhem 2015

It was only a few months ago that the first Batman Unlimited movie came out to home video and it’s already time for the sequel. It’s a little tough to get behind this kind of movie that is inherently designed to market their toy line, and watching it with that in mind, it does exactly that in spades. With just two films, they introduce a large number of heroes, villains, and accessories. The first film introduced all the animal themed villains, while this one introduces all of the monstrous themed villains. Though the problem that I had with the first film carries over just as much with this film. I.E. there are no women outside of a single villainess Silver Banshee who I was never familiar with before seeing this film. Like Animal Instincts and last year’s JLA Adventures, this is very kid friendly and lighthearted as opposed to the typical hard PG-13 DC animation with their other Batman and Justice League animated films. Taken at face value, it’s harmless and entertaining enough, it’s just the whole concept surrounding it that rubs me the wrong way in more ways than one.

Looking just specifically at the plot, it centers around a group of the more monstrous Batman villains roaming around future Gotham causing general mischief. I did quite like the chemistry between Silver Banshee and Solomon Grundy, even though I never really understood what exactly Solomon Grundy was supposed to be. I’ve seen him here and there, but never really caught wind of his origin story or explanation, he’s just this hulk-like villain brute with zombie-grey skin. Anyway the group is rounded out with Scarecrow and Clayface with an odd Brooklyn accent and Joker coming in with the leader role. It is worth noting that Troy Baker does an excellent variation on the Mark Hamill version of the Joker here. The actual plan of the villains is a little harder to come to grips with. They kidnap a kid genius video game designer to create a Joker virus to wipe out all electronics in Gotham, including new-to-the-hero-party Cyborg. The group then rules the city in a very childlike manner, Grundy especially as he becomes sheriff and spends his time playing hide-and-seek with the officers. Meanwhile, Clayface becomes lord of ice cream or something along those lines. There’s also a super-advanced AI involved, but it basically means that Batman and company can no longer use computers and their own vehicles turn against them, including call back from the last film Ace the robot-wolf-motorcycle.

Essentially, the film follows the same format as the first film. It slowly introduces the villains, the heroes come together to fight them during these small heists, we eventually find out who the leader is and their grand plan, and the heroes eventually come together to defeat said villains. On the hero side of things it’s kept pretty much the same except they ditch the Flash in exchange for Cyborg, with Nightwing, Green Arrow, and Red Robin returning. Another minor gripe with the last film is addressed here when they clear up exactly which Robin it is when Alfred calls him Tim. Not that it was very likely that the generally disliked Jason Todd would have been Red Robin, but you never know. It’s also too bad that they didn’t feel the need to bring in a woman superhero over the course of two films.

Lemme take a quick selfie!

The biggest upside is both the kid friendliness of the story as well as the humor throughout the film. There is a brief clip of a Looney Tunes cartoon on a background character’s phone and parts of the film continue that Looney Tunes vibe, especially the climax when Batman goes into the virtual world to fight the Joker in essentially the Matrix. You may be cool, but you’re not Batman riding a robot dinosaur shooting a laser cannon cool [see DVD cover]. There’s also some nice humor with Solomon Grundy pretending to be a pizza delivery man to sneak into a building full of security guards where he ate all the pizza and compliments his own acting skills. There’s also a fun modern touch of a kid wanting a selfie with Batman that gets called back at the end. Again, much of it is along the lines of more childlike humor but when it hits, it hits. As an adult watching this, it’s hard to look past the fact that it’s a giant toy commercial that doesn’t think girls ever want superhero toys. And just to prove the point, my daughter was excited for this film from the intro as she really liked the design of Silver Banshee and the Halloween motif, but once she became much more of a side character and the fact that it was Halloween was dropped, her interest disappeared. There’s nothing really wrong about this film, but it’s absolutely not necessary in any way, shape, or form. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.

I’ve been meaning to write on this topic for quite a while now, but since recently it came out in the news that next year’s Batman vs. Superman is supposedly even less a sequel to Man of Steel than we initially suspected and is much more a Batman story. But even if you discount the whole Batman vs. Superman issue, there’s still the matter of what they’re doing with their home video releases. This year alone, Warner Bros. have released seven straight-to-video animated movies and one more that’s due before the year’s out. Every single one of them features Batman in some way, shape, or form, and half of them have him specifically in the title of the film as the main character. You have to go back four years to 2011 to find a year where Batman made up less than half of that year’s line-up, having only Batman: Year One released alongside the other actually non-Batman titles All Star Superman, Green Lantern: Emerald Knights, and the live action Green Lantern.

Yes, I understand that Batman is still the most popular character in DC. He’s their bread and butter, the money maker, he’s a billionaire for a reason: he makes billions for Warner Bros. and DC. But where is the saturation point? Cinephiles are already claiming that we are reaching critical mass for superhero movies, and while I disagree with that statement, I do think that there is way too much Batman specifically. Even in live action, he’s going to be in two movies next year as the main character in Batman vs. Superman and in a minor role for the Suicide Squad film, not to mention however many more animated films he’s going to appear in. There seems to be a new series of animated titles every couple years now. It started out with just the regular Warner Premier, DC Animation titles that had a mix of superheroes. Some Superman, some Batman, some Green Lantern, some Justice League, and a Wonder Woman. Now the mix has shifted to variations of Batman. There’s the main Batman titles with Damian Wayne, there’s the Justice League titles based on the New 52 which may be going away soon now, but they’ve already got their replacement in the toy-friendly Batman Unlimited series that’s already two movies strong this year. And on top of that, there’s the Lego DC Comics movies that have featured Batman alone as well as the Justice League as a whole. And speaking of Lego, when the theatrical Lego movie came out last year they obviously had access to the DC heroes since it was under Warner Bros. Animation and it didn’t take them long to announce Lego Batman in a stand-alone sequel in the near future.

What is it about this single character that allows for so many different variations? Is he really that much more popular than any other DC hero? Or is it just that by his nature and longevity that he allows for a wide range of takes on his character. Because of his Adam West comedic roots, he’s easily adapted to the parody style with Lego. Because of his dark and gritty Frank Miller and Christopher Nolan variations he can be pushed in that direction in the PG-13 animation and live action. And he can fall somewhere in between in more family friendly, but still action-oriented animated fare. But when you look at the other DC heroes, there’s not quite so much wiggle room. Green Lantern hasn’t fared too well in either animation or especially live action. The animated movies seemed to be favorable to fans and some critics, but they obviously didn’t sell nearly as well as the Batman titles. The same goes with Wonder Woman, which is a shame since it wasn’t really given much of a chance outside of her single stand-alone animated title and various supporting roles in the Justice League animation. She just hasn’t had the chance to find her ground as a lead figure. Hopefully the upcoming DC Super Hero Girls line will include some movies that aren’t overly treacly.

In the long term, Warner does seem to be setting up a few more DC heroes in the live action arena, with Aquaman, Flash, and Wonder Woman finally getting her own live action movie that begins filming in just a couple short months. But that said, it also wasn’t all that long ago that news broke on Warner and DC offering yet another solo Batman movie with Ben Affleck directing. And as much as I think it’s a great choice for a story to adapt, next year brings one of the most anticipated Batman titles to be adapted into animation with Alan Moore’s the Killing Joke, adding yet another Batman title to their line up. Give Cyborg his own film, or even Catwoman. Aquaman and Flash have had the focus in Justice League films, but give them their own totally solo film. Martian Manhunter even. Heck, give Superman a little bit more love, he’s been short on animated stories lately too, though he’s had plenty in the past. There are tons of characters out there besides Batman, so DC: please give them a chance. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

In the past couple years there hasn’t been many other films that have had the amount of buzz and hype that this film has had next to Star Wars and Civil War. And once the early reviews hit, they hit pretty hard. So even though I technically saw this film on opening day, I went in with a whole lot of trepidation. As far as my history with Zack Snyder, I’m generally more in favor of his films than against. While I haven’t seen his first feature film, Dawn of the Dead, I have enjoyed more than I haven’t. In fact the only film of his that I’ve actively disliked was Sucker Punch. And while Batman vs. Superman is weighed down by some of his shortcomings, there was enough mystery and nuance to the film that I enjoyed seeing where it was going. It mainly suffered from two things: it constantly mired itself in artistic flourishes to make it feel like it’s tackling serious topics rather than two guys in costumes fighting each other, and like Age of Ultron it had to spend a lot of time making it known that there’s connective tissue linking it to other films coming in the future. Finally, as is usually the case there may be spoilers ahead so tread carefully if you are worried about that sort of thing.

In some ways, this film feels like a response to the criticism of Man of Steel’s rampant destruction, especially during the first several scenes of the film once we get past the combination Crime Alley origin story and dream sequence. We get to see what Bruce Wayne was doing during the attack on Earth within Metropolis. More importantly, we get to see Bruce Wayne be a badass as well as the seeds of his mistrust of the Man of Steel. But backtracking for a moment to the opening sequence which is that scene of the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne that we have seen many times over and it’s also a great example of the way that Snyder treats this film as if it were an art film rather than an action epic. There’s the stereotypical close up of the shell hitting the ground, his parents falling to the ground as the string of pearls scatter down to the concrete. The one flourish that did actually feel unique and inspired was how the killer’s gun broke the necklace with its recoil.

What was a little more surprising coming into this film was how it’s structured much more like a mystery than a typical superhero film. There are the key players that are seen in many various points throughout the film, most notably the Russian played by Callan Mulvey who has a distinct look, in part thanks to his lazy eye. He essentially plays Lex Luthor’s right hand man who is never technically associated with him. There are various plots going on at the same time and they are all interconnected. Unfortunately they also border on being rather convoluted and forced. There’s the random guy that Bruce Wayne saved during the Metropolis attack who lost his legs and resents Superman ever since. There’s also this attack on an African village predicated by Lois Lane’s involvement and blamed on Superman, yet was actually instigated by Lex Luthor. And there’s the whole fight between Batman and Superman which was also all part of Luthor’s plan to kill Superman. And while they make sense on a certain level, there’s just an underlying question of “why go to all this trouble” when things could have been done in a much more simple way.

What the film did get right for the most part was the fan service. There were moments here and there throughout the film that fans of the DC universe will greatly appreciate. From the nod to Jason Todd that was teased in the trailers to the glimpses of comic book like poses by Affleck’s Batman as he’s clinging to the corner of the ceiling, or when his cape is flowing as he grasps the side of a building. There’s even the brief moment where we get to see the desiccated body of Superman after being hit by a nuclear strike before he’s resuscitated by the sun’s rays. It’s also a great touch when the two heroes finally connect with each other over the fact that their mothers both have the same first name. Something that I never actually noticed until Snyder pointed it out to me.

The actual acting in the film was somewhat hit and miss. Affleck did a great job as Bruce Wayne and Batman, and Jeremy Irons was nice as Alfred even though he never got the chance to have any runaway scenes in the same way that Michael Caine did. This Alfred is someone who is the voice of reason and Batman’s support, one of the best moments was at the end of the titular fight where he mentions that he has been listening and has already taken the next step. Though it is a bit of a nit pick that while they’re under a big time crunch, Bruce Wayne takes the time to change out of his mecha Batman suit and into his normal Batman suit before heading to the rescue. Henry Cavill was passable as Clark Kent and Superman though he didn’t really get much of a chance to be Kent this time around aside from making the moves on Lois and complaining to Perry. Gal Gadot was also passable as Diana Prince, but also never really got the chance to do a whole lot aside from wear designer fashions and fight a big CGI Doomsday troll. The big disappointment was Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor who plays the supervillain as a socially awkward and fidgety eccentric.

And of course, this can’t be a review of Batman vs. Superman without discussing the actual fight scenes. Honestly, the best fight scenes were the ones with Batman fighting random minions. The one showcased in one of the later trailers was a great moment, as was the Batmobile chase and the desert fight even though the last one turned out to be a dream sequence. The titular fight was ok, but it felt a little lacking when compared to the animated fight from a couple years ago with the Dark Knight Returns part 2. Then of course, there’s also the big fight between Doomsday, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. What was great about this fight was Batman’s role in the fight. Considering that he doesn’t have any super strength, he spent the fight just trying to stay out of it as much as possible. But as far as a climactic battle sequence goes, it didn’t feel very far removed from the Superman and Zod fight from Man of Steel, and the way it ended with the three of them working in tandem without coordinating beforehand felt just a little too neat and tidy.

I’ve gone on for a while already and there are still quite a few things that I haven’t been able to parse out. From the large number of bizarre dream sequences including a heart to heart with Clark and his father and Batman getting constantly attacked by giant bat creatures. To the incredibly unnecessarily dark tone for this film that no matter what is going to appeal to younger audiences. In fact, in the theater I saw this film there were well over two dozen kids younger than 10, mostly boys and included a large group that appeared to be around six all seated in the front row. In fairness, the audience never seemed to be a problem, but there are plenty of adult content that was not entirely appropriate for kids that age, from a bathtub scene between Lois and Clark to a naked-but-nearly-Austin-Powers-level-strategically-blocked General Zod dummy to a gaping hole in Superman’s chest, to plenty of people being gunned down and exploded left and right. Which also brings me to the fact that this is a very different Batman than I’m used to. This isn’t quite the Dark Knight Returns version who believes that a gun is a coward’s tool even though I don’t believe he ever directly uses a gun himself outside of a dream sequence or the Batmobile. And nearly every incarnation of the Batmobile or Batwing has had guns from the Burton to the Nolan versions. But at the end of the day, when I look at this movie for what it is, I did enjoy watching it. It’s not a complete piece of garbage that some critics might have you believe, neither is it a fanboy’s wet dream. Like many movies, it has its good points and its bad, and it’s up to you to sort it out for yourself. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.

Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League Gotham City Breakout 2016

This is the latest in one of the many DC animated series that have been coming from Warner bros, typically all focused on either Batman or the Justice League. It follows the same general pattern where it’s much more kid friendly than the Warner Premier PG-13 movies, but it also has a lot more humor that adults will get a kick out of unlike the Batman Unlimited series. It seems like this one really cranked the jokes up to 11, especially if you’re a longtime fan of Batman with several references to the Adam West series and two plots going on at once which keep things going at a near breakneck pace. So far, this has been my favorite of all the Lego DC movies and a lot of fun, especially if you have kids.

The basic premise of this film is that the Justice League comes together on the anniversary of the Batman to give him a vacation, and meanwhile Superman takes over Batman’s job of protecting Gotham City. Of course, neither of these two things go as planned as the Joker escapes from Arkham Asylum and overconfident Superman ends up making things worse and getting in over his head. Meanwhile, Batgirl and Nightwing take Batman on a trip down memory lane that ends up leading them into a plot between Bane and Deathstroke to use a hidden tribe of Trogowogs to take over the world.

As far as the characters go, Batman is once again played by Troy Baker who does his same cross between the Batman from Brave and the Bold and Will Arnett’s Lego Batman. He’s extremely arrogant and essentially all-knowing as he deduces nearly every plot before the villain (or the surprise party coordinator) is able to explain it themselves. There’s also Madam Mantis, a very cantankerous woman who trained a young Bruce Wayne and Slade Wilson in her martial arts techniques as she names them with variations on their actual names with Batface and Strokedeath. The Trogowogs are rather interesting characters, they look like a race of tribal Frankenstein monsters, but they speak like the erudite Goofy Gophers from early Looney Tunes except for the occasional pig grunt. Superman is played as an overconfident boy scout, laughing off Batman’s non-superpowered villains until they completely get the drop on him even after he calls in Cyborg and Wonder Woman for help.

The movie does a good job at cutting back and forth between the two stories without leaving one hanging for too long. It was also nice to have the entire cast of Teen Titans Go reprise their voice roles here, even though Robin isn’t Dick Grayson but one of the other unnamed Robins. He acts very much like the traditional Dick Grayson Robin, but obviously isn’t since Nightwing is Dick Grayson. They even toss out a couple “Holy _____” jokes at Nightwing’s expense though the granddaddy of all the Adam West era references is when they bust out with the Batusi in the most unexpected way.

Their fall has enough time for Batman to tell a flashback story.

Since this is a kid’s movie, there is the slightest hint of a moral or lesson to be learned at the heart of what’s going on, honestly a few if you look closely enough. There’s the fact that Superman eventually has to ask for help and learn a different way to do things when his way doesn’t work. Deathstroke also learns a bit of an honor code over what happens with the Trogowogs and Bane. But the most obvious one is how the Trogowog prince learns how to be brave in the face of fear. While they are all very simplistic lessons, they’re not overt in any way and take a back seat to the rest of the story and especially the humor. There’s not really much more to say about this film, it was a nice change of pace to see a few more prominent female roles in a usually male dominated cast. Batgirl and Madam Mantis both have prominent roles, and Wonder Woman, Harley Quinn, and Poison Ivy have notable roles. One of the biggest fun moments was how they kept the running joke of Spoony, the spoon that Joker used to dig out of Arkham with, drew a face on, and also gave a voice to. It’s just the simple things sometimes that bring the most laughs. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.

Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker 2000

I’m continuing my month of animated movies switching back and forth between animation for adults, and those for younger audiences. While this isn’t exactly a kid’s film, it did spawn off of the great era of DC Animation on television starting off with Batman: The Animated Series. It was a show that while I don’t have clear memories of when I watched it, whether it was right after coming home from school or during those Saturday mornings while I was an early teen even on through my later teens, though I didn’t quite follow the show into the Batman Beyond era. I know I’ve seen a few episodes and watching this film again it reeked with familiarity, but there was never anything specific that I could put my finger on. The flashback scene also brought back more memories of the series I did watch, and overall it went quite a bit darker than I would have expected and like the series before it, Return of the Joker was a solid Batman story on par with some of the best animated movies they’ve released in recent years. And while I don’t usually mention this for older movies, since there is a large mystery aspect to this film’s story I will be discussing the reveal so don’t read if you’d rather watch the mystery unfold for yourself.

If you’re not quite familiar with Batman Beyond as a concept, it’s basically Batman in the future. It has villains with similarities to the classic rogue’s gallery only updated with a future spin, and it has plenty of cameos from the traditional Batman era, including old man Bruce Wayne as the mentor to the current, high-tech Batman Terry McGillis. This story revolves around the return of the Joker, as the title implies, only instead of being a much older version of the Joker, he’s still in his physical prime and there are some questions as to who he is or at least how he has returned. He has a gang full of a mix of Batman villain analogues, and possibly new characters, or just lesser known ones. There’s the twin future Harleys collectively named Dee Dee and voiced by Melissa Joan Hart, a future Scarecrow named Ghoul voiced by Michael Rosenbaum doing a very unsubtle Christopher Walken impression, a Hyena-man, and two clown-themed muscleheads.

The voice work is quite good, bringing back most of the voices from the Animated Series and Batman Beyond. Will Friedel is great as Terry slash the new Batman and he will eventually upgrade (downgrade) to regularly voicing Nightwing in most of the more recent animated movies. And of course, Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill are both back as Bruce Wayne and the Joker. What’s interesting though is that Mark Hamill also voices one of the side characters and possible suspects as a random scuzzy board member of Wayne Enterprises who wants to get the company out from under Bruce. It’s a very subtle voice and you might not catch it at first, but he ends up just being this random scuzzy board member who complies with the Joker, but isn’t him.

The entire movie is based around this mystery, several mysteries actually, all revolving around the fate of the Joker and who might be involved in bringing him back, either as a clone, android, or some other possibility. The actual truth is something that could never really be guessed, and was honestly one of the downsides in an otherwise stellar film. Eventually, Terry finds out the back story of the Joker’s death in a flashback where we get to see Batman, Batgirl, and the young Tim Drake’s Robin done in the original Animated Series style fighting the classic look of the Joker and Harley. It’s actually quite a dark and disturbing story as we find out that the Joker and Harley captured Robin, tortured him, and psychologically twisted him into being like the Joker so he can act as their son, only he manages to fight it at the last moment and kill the Joker with his bang-flag gun while Batgirl loses her grip on Harley as she falls presumably to her death. When the identity of the Joker is revealed, it turns out that during the psychological torture, he also implanted a microchip that contained the Joker’s DNA and mind and is able to physically transform the now middle aged Drake into the Joker for short periods of time that have been getting longer and longer. It’s a little too convenient and technologically unfeasible even being set in the future.

Aside from the unsatisfying reveal, the rest of the mystery was told well with a good build up and plenty of red herrings. It almost would have made more sense if Tim Drake had developed a split personality in a similar way, but instead of turning it into a technological mumbo jumbo solution, it was just done through make-up and other tech that Drake himself created, rather than something the Joker was able to pull off twenty to thirty years earlier. It also had a great climactic fight between the Joker and Terry which really helped sell the differences between Terry’s Batman and Bruce’s Batman where he comes off a little bit more like Spider-Man as Batman. But overall, it was great to revisit this which I had very little memory of besides a strong feeling that I had seen it all before. I’m still looking forward to watching the earlier home video movies based on the other Animated series, but I doubt that they’ll reach the same level that this one did. I’m also a little disappointed that I didn’t save this one until later in the month because I get the feeling it would have been a great double feature with the upcoming Killing Joke. Oh well. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.

Batman and Mr. Freeze: SubZero 1998

We’re moving right along in this animation month and it’s time once again for one of the animated films for the younger folks. This was really the first straight to video project for DC Animation. Yes, technically Mask of the Phantasm came before this, but that also had a brief theatrical release so it’s not quite the same since it likely had a bit of a larger budget. I don’t think I had ever seen this one, and for whatever reasons it didn’t quite bring up the same memories from the show like Batman Beyond did, oddly enough. There were a few holes that I poked through the plot line here and there, but overall it was a decent movie. I think its biggest flaw is just that it pales in comparison to most of DC’s better work, and even though I hadn’t watched it in years, I felt like Freeze’s episodes in the Animated Series themselves packed a bigger punch than this film did.

One of the more jarring things going back to this early period of the animated Batman is seeing Dick Grayson as Robin. But it’s not just about seeing Dick Grayson, but seeing Robin in general as a nearly adult teenager. It feels like it’s been over a decade, and likely has since Robin has been that old. For the most part in anything animated, Robin has either been Tim Drake or Damian Wayne who are both much closer to 12 years old than they are to 18, and when Grayson does show up, he’s fully grown up as Nightwing. But it’s also not the same as it is to go all the way back to the more campy Robin where he’s saying Holy Something-or-other all the time. It also didn’t help that they changed the voice of Batgirl from Melissa Gilbert to Mary Kay Bergman. Bergman didn’t do a bad job at all, but it was just another thing that helped make this film feel off compared to the animated series.

There’s also a question as to the time period which has rarely been an issue with Batman. There’s always been this weird retro but also timeless quality about Gotham City where it doesn’t entirely feel like it’s in the present day, but it also doesn’t feel like it’s in the past. Here, there’s much more of a feeling that it really is set in the past as the dances are full of swingin’ jazz music and everything seems to have that art deco look to it. But there was also the beginning of some CGI graphics, notably the submarine that also didn’t quite mesh well with the usual style of the animated series.

It’s just weird seeing them as high school sweethearts.

But enough about the feel of the movie and how it was different than the series that came before it. What’s more important is how it handles its own characters and story, and as it mentions in the title, this is a Mr. Freeze story. What’s most interesting about this film is that it was released on the heels of Mr. Freeze in the theatrical Batman and Robin, the only difference is that this film does treat the character with much more respect than a pun spewing Austrian-American. He garners quite a bit of sympathy and actually has a rather peaceful introduction as he swims for fish with his pet polar bears, ignoring for a moment how him having pet polar bears doesn’t really make any sense outside of a comic book mentality. He also has his own young ward by way of an Inuit boy Koonak, and it was by random chance that this submarine happened to crash through the ice where Freeze had set up his mini lab, putting his frozen wife Nora in jeopardy, and sending Freeze back to his criminal ways at Gotham.

The other character that comes into play who doesn’t get nearly as much sympathy was Dr. Belson. He was someone Freeze had worked with in his previous life and just so happens to be deep in debt to where his house is about to be foreclosed upon. This makes him the perfect candidate with medical ability and access as well as the ethical ambiguity so that his morals can be loosened with the help of the promise of Arctic gold. And as these types of things always tend to happen this way, Nora has a rare blood type only matched by a handful of people including Barbara Gordon. So the rest of the movie is mostly about Barbara’s capture followed by her attempts to escape while Batman and Robin simultaneously try to find and rescue her. That combination actually did help make the film stand out from other similar stories. Since Barbara is actually Batgirl, she’s not exactly the damsel in distress and is quite capable of rescuing herself, until she realizes that they are on an abandoned oil rig five miles off the coast.

The action in general worked quite well, even though they were generally few and far between. The climactic scene of their escape from the oil rig as it becomes engulfed in flames is incredibly well paced and looks gorgeous. There are a few great moments near the end with Batman’s black silhouette against the bright orange flames, regardless of how little sense it made for an abandoned oil rig to still be full of valuable fuel. It also just had to force a happy ending for everyone involved as we get to see not only Freeze survive with a makeshift ice cast on his broken leg, but Nora Fries also survives, and is cured of her mysterious disease, and Freeze just happens to catch a TV newscast about it so that he knows she survived. It’s just a little too neatly wrapped up, though it is somewhat forgivable considering it’s intended audience. And again, this isn’t a bad film by any means, it’s just that when compared with some of the stories that DC has been able to tell through their animated movies in recent years, it just doesn’t hold a candle to them. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.

Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman 2003

It feels like animation month here is already starting to wind down and as I write this, the month isn’t even half over yet. While I’ve hit a bit of a rough patch in some of the more grown up animation as well as the previous Batman animation, this was a much more welcome return to form. Mystery of the Batwoman was essentially the last project to come out of the Batman: The Animated Series era that more or less bridges a bit of the gap between the New Batman Adventures and Batman Beyond even though both of them had been off the air for a couple years before this project was completed. At its heart, like the title says it’s a mystery where Batman as well as the villains try to figure out who this Batwoman is, and as I always do I will be discussing her identity so here’s your spoiler warning.

The film kicks things off with a nice little action scene introducing us to the Batwoman before getting to the opening credits. Though the actual opening credits gave off a very different vibe than any of the previous Batman TV shows, it loses some of the dramatic tension of the usual score and replaces it with more of an air of a light mystery. One nice moment that comes right after those opening credits is when Alfred hangs a lampshade on the design choice for Batwoman’s costume which looks like a grey version of Catwoman’s costume with more bat-styled ears when he says that it’s obviously Selena Kyle, but she doesn’t even make an appearance in this movie. Instead we’re introduced to three possible suspects for the Batwoman in short order that each have their own motives to become a vigilante. It also helps that it’s not actually possible to determine which one of them is the Batwoman based on their voice because Batwoman is actually voiced by a fourth actress. And somewhat surprisingly the reveal is that all three of them are the Batwoman, taking turns based on their expertise as well as a way to throw off Batman’s own investigations.

What does make this film interesting is that this is a rare instance where it’s such a female-driven story line in a typically male-dominated rogue’s gallery where there’s often only room for one female villain and/or Batgirl. The only other exception to that rule that comes to mind is the animated series episode Girl’s Night Out that teamed up Harley, Poison Ivy, and Livewire to face off against Batgirl and Supergirl. Not only that, but even though they are all new characters, they’re each given their own separate development and motivations that aren’t entirely generic. There was also one odd moment that felt very superfluous to the story where Batman’s first instinct is to call Barbara Gordon asking about this Batwoman. At this point she has already gone off to college and there’s this odd flirtatious vibe that Barbara has towards Bruce while on Bruce’s end he plays it off as comical avoidance. Apparently this is a callback to a moment in Batman Beyond that referenced Barbara and Bruce having at least a brief romance, though it’s unclear if this point in the timeline if that moment is already in the past or if it is still to come.

The mystery angle itself is handled well enough, though many of the clues and misdirects are clearly obvious to the audience, there’s not much to go on until Batman has nearly figured it out that the Batwoman is being shared by all three characters. We have Rocky voiced surprisingly well by Kelly Ripa as the comically awkward science nerd who has developed this shape-shifting material that Batwoman uses at one point to trap Penguin. She also happens to have an ex-con boyfriend who was either framed or mistakenly convicted because he was involved with Penguin. Meanwhile, a new mob boss introduced for this film Carlton Duquesne has a daughter who is Batwoman number two aka Kathy Duquesne and probably the one with the most screen time as she is the reluctant mob daughter who resents her father for getting her mother killed just by way of being in his line of work. She’s still a thrill seeker at heart and ends up having romantic ties with Bruce Wayne after he started investigating her and ended up caught in her whirlwind. The last suspect is also the one with the least screen time as a new Gotham Police detective Sonia. Most of her time early on is just being partnered with Detective Bullock, though she does get a brief moment before the reveal where she reminds Batman of a time when she was a young girl and Batman saved her from her parent’s home that had been set on fire. That fire just happened to have been set by the third mob boss on the scene brought back from the early Animated Series Rupert Thorne. So there’s this nice entanglement where each woman is tied to a different mob boss who also all happen to be working together on a big arms deal, but while it seems complicated, it doesn’t seem overly complicated as it all unfolds.

With all of this entanglement going on with the villains and the Batwomen, you might think that Batman would get the short shrift in this situation, but he’s still given plenty to do with his various investigations during the first half of the movie along with his romantic ties to Kathy Duquesne. And in the latter half, he’s the one who the Batwomen finally call on for help when they realize they’re in over their head after Penguin calls on the help of Bane. Everything comes together quite well in this film, from the action to the mystery and all the characters are well defined with the possible exception of Rupert Thorne. But even Penguin and Carlton Duquesne have slight moments of development as Penguin himself has gotten them in over their heads as Batwoman’s sabotage will not only rob him of a huge payday, but also put him in hot water with the overseas criminals that he’s been dealing with. And Duquesne has not only the obvious connection with his daughter, but because of that connection he becomes suspect within the paranoid group of mobsters. All the voice work is spot on as usual, even with the change in Penguin from the animated series regular to David Ogden Stiers, and they even have Kyra Sedgewick as the fourth voice of the Batwoman when any of them are wearing the mask. If there’s anything bad to say about this film, it’s just that even though it does a good job in nearly every aspect of this film, it doesn’t do anything to push it that extra mile to give it a wow factor. But it’s still worth noting for being a superhero movie with this much female talent in it that doesn’t suck. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.

The Batman vs Dracula 2005

While I watched most of the run of the first incarnation of Batman: The Animated Series, I didn’t follow it with any of the later series including the one simply called The Batman. I don’t really know much about it at all, reading up on it it seems like it was intended to be a Batman for slightly younger audiences than the original series, but it found its footing a little bit better in later seasons. The first thing that struck me was the incredibly different and jarring design for the Joker. But as for looking at the movie as a whole, it didn’t have too much of a kid-friendly vibe to me. It got surprisingly dark in places, but it was mostly superficial. It’s a fun film that seems like a perfect movie to throw on for Halloween if you’re also a fan of Batman.

The music is one of the first things that makes this movie stand out, it goes very far from the Danny Elfman inspired music from the earlier animated series and has a much more Dracula-infused mood to it. It makes it all feel like a much darker story but does feel a little too far removed from Batman himself. Penguin is slightly more recognizable, with a look that feels very inspired by Batman Returns with the flippers and pointy teeth, though he’s played as a much more comical character, especially when voiced by Tom Kenny. The main reason that he’s introduced is to become the Renfield character within Gotham and with that in mind, he felt like the perfect Batman villain to fill that role. The overall story is fairly simple. Penguin learns of a heist that’s been stashed in Gotham Cemetary, while looking for it he accidentally awakens Dracula who creates an army of undead, or technically Lost Ones as they’re referred to. And of course, it’s up to Batman to save the Lost Ones and defeat Dracula once and for all.

A pretty grim vision of Dracula pre-resurrection

On a surface level, this story does make sense for it to be told. There are several elements of Dracula’s story that inspired the story of Batman. Or at the very least they do share a few similarities, like bats in general and only coming out at night. There’s also the dual identity of the attractive lord/billionaire with a secret identity. Even though this film does go with the incredibly common route of having Dracula go by Alucard and even has Bruce Wayne spell it out to the audience by writing it backwards on a silver platter and holding it up to a mirror. It is nice to see that when Batman and Dracula first face off against each other, it’s incredibly one-sided in Dracula’s favor. The only reason that Dracula doesn’t initially kill Batman is because at the time he was much more interested in turning him into one of his minions.

Heading back around to the Joker situation, it’s such a jarring design compared to anything that’s been done in movies or cartoons previously. Here he’s presented almost in a very animalistic or tribal way, with thick green dreadlocks that look almost like palm tree leaves and he walks around barefoot with wraps around the center of his feet. The design does work better when he becomes one of Dracula’s minions so that he does look and feel much more like an animal rather than a human in one of the creepiest looking scenes in the film where Batman faces off against him in the middle of a blood bank.

Dracula in his human form hitting on Vale.

As for the vampire aspect of the film, it takes one aspect that doesn’t always make a lot of sense. Instead of what has become the more traditional style of vampirism where there’s the victims who are just food and simply die, and there’s those special victims that are allowed to become vampires themselves, this treats it more like a disease where anyone bitten becomes a vampiric ghoul and then they also feed and make the vampirism spread to their victims. The one problem with this that it simultaneously decreases their food supply while increasing their food demand, creating an extremely unbalanced ecosystem. Not only that, but when Batman first meets up with some of the ghouls, he ends up getting them killed by an oncoming train, and they’re never mentioned again. As opposed to the dozens of others who he manages to cure, and conveniently anyone cured of their vampirism also loses any memory of their time while undead. Dracula himself is voiced quite well by Peter Stormare in the same year where he played Satan in Constantine. He has a great balance between being a threatening monster and a charming lord.

One last character who makes her animated debut was Vicky Vale, last seen in the first Tim Burton Batman movie played by Kim Bassinger, and here voiced by Tara Strong. Her character was nice to see brought to animation in this way, though she does play her reporter as essentially a Lois Lane type, only she’s played quite a bit more like a damsel in distress who keeps getting blown off by Bruce Wayne and yet continues to go after him. But it doesn’t quite feel like she’s coming back time after time because of dogged determination, but more like cluelessly hopeful. As far as Batman goes, he’s not really anything special. It’s always difficult for anyone to live up to Kevin Conroy when it comes to voice acting, but Rino Romano doesn’t do a bad job by any means. It’s just not anything that stands out in one way or another. His time in this film tends to be split fairly evenly between Batman and Bruce Wayne but there’s just not much to go on.

Again, like Batman’s performance, this film ends up not being anything too special. But at the same time, it fills its specific role well enough. Where the current DC universe has become much darker in its subject matter, this is like they were dipping their toes in darker material. But it’s not darker by way of being more mature, it’s just that it’s darker by way of the subject matter itself with vampires and ghouls forcing it to take on a more horror tone. There are a few moments of greatness, like the Joker scene in the blood bank, and also a later scene where Batman is accused of being responsible for the Lost Ones and has a moment slightly reminiscent of the Dark Knight where he is taking out the SWAT team one by one, but there’s just not much substance once you get past the novelty. Still a fun movie and an excuse to watch Batman near Halloween. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat from Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.

Batman: The Killing Joke 2016

Part of the reason why I decided to watch a bunch of animated movies during July was because I knew that Batman: The Killing Joke was coming out this month and there weren’t any other theatrical releases until August. What ultimately made this more special was that this film was something that I specifically called for almost 3 years ago, even calling for the R rating to separate it from the family fare. What’s probably most interesting about all this is that I haven’t actually read the Killing Joke myself. I’m acutely aware of it, not just for its critical praise and commercial success, but also for some of the more negative critics, specifically for its depictions and/or implications of violence against women and a piece of the large trend of Women in refrigerators. Even as fans started discussing this specific movie, there were also criticisms aimed against it for its new opening act that wasn’t a part of the original story. But for my part, I generally enjoyed the film but I can see some of the weak points in the story.

The film starts out with a new section that fleshes out Batgirl and her relationship with Batman. Considering what happens to Barbara Gordon later on in the story, having this felt like a way for the filmmakers to help empower her a little bit more. But unfortunately, this is done by giving Barbara her own Joker-like villain that she has to face off against. He even has a punny name as he goes by Paris Franz. Their antagonistic relationship starts out with him almost immediately objectifying her and during their second conflict he hits her with essentially a spray roofie. And when she finally gets the best of him, she loses control and almost beats him to death with her bare hands, which speaks to the abyss that Batman referred to earlier. There’s also a moment before their final conflict where the mentor and student relationship between Bruce and Barbara comes to a head in a very stereotypical scene. It starts with her being petulant about Batman wanting her off the Paris Franz case, she lashes out at him physically, and it ends with the two of them having sex. All offscreen, but there is a pointed moment where we get to see Barbara rip her mask off and take her top off, revealing her bra. And while a sexual relationship between the two of them has been implied in earlier incarnations, specifically Batman Beyond and in Mystery of the Batwoman which was reviewed here just earlier this month, it doesn’t entirely work as the sexual empowerment that the writers might have intended. It just feels out of place and even cliched.

As for the latter half of the film, it was an interesting look at how a single bad day can change a person. There’s essentially three bad days in play here. There’s the bad day that the Joker had that’s being told through a series of flashbacks, there’s the bad day that Joker is specifically forcing on Jim Gordon in order to prove a point, and there’s the bad day that Batman had that we already know quite well and is merely referenced. In the case of Joker and Batman, they used that day to forge similar and yet opposite paths, but as far as its presented in the context of this story, Jim Gordon is ultimately uneffected by his bad day. Yes, there will be some repercussions, but it doesn’t seem like it will be a completely life-altering change that happened to Joker and Batman. The biggest issue with the back story is that while it was interesting, it ultimately wasn’t fully satisfying. In a way that no single back story for the Joker could ever be satisfying. He’s been built up over the course of the entire Batman mythology as this force of anarchy and lunacy. Someone with a genius level intellect, and yet completely and decidedly unpredictable. And when all is said and done, we’re given nothing more than a relatively mundane failed comedian with a tragedy in his life that roughly mirrors Batman’s. Instead of seeing his parents killed before him as a child, he’s forced into a life of crime only to have his wife and unborn child taken away from him in a freak accident before having his own freak accident partly caused by Batman himself. And the ultimate joke with that story, is that Batman never makes the connection to this event to ever realize who the Joker actually was.

But one of the biggest pieces of lore to come out of this story, and is also referenced in this movie is the Joker’s attack on Barbara that paralyzes her and ultimately brings her to her role as the Oracle. But something that never quite made sense watching this for the first time, is how the Joker immediately knew after a single shot in the stomach that he effectively paralyzed her. It’s something that makes sense to readers and viewers on revisiting the story since we know that’s ultimately what happens, but in the moment it seems like a pretty big stretch for him to go on about how he shot her in the spine when he clearly shot her in the stomach. It also doesn’t gel with the beginning of the movie where we got to see Barbara’s progression and growth, but when it gets to the actual Killing Joke story, she is still only a by product of Jim Gordon’s punishment. She “saw the abyss” as it were early on, but that concept doesn’t carry on with her story, we merely get to see the end result of her moving past it with barely a moment to dwell on what actually happened to her as a character. Instead, it’s presented as something that happened to Jim Gordon and how he was forced to face what happened to his daughter. It places the focus too much on the wrong victim.

Something else that is often discussed when it comes to the Killing Joke as a comic is also something that’s left slightly ambiguous here in the film. During the final shot before Barbara’s epilogue, we are faced with the Joker telling Batman a joke that makes them both laugh. Not just a casual laugh, but a full blown belly laugh, and as they are laughing, the camera pans down to the ground while we hear Batman continue to laugh, while Joker’s laugh falls ominously silent. Especially as there has been several references to the fact that the only way their relationship can end is when one of them kills the other, which implies that during that final moment, Batman does kill the Joker. Even though it goes against his own code of ethics, and even after Jim Gordon pleaded with him to take him down by the book even after being subjected to the Joker’s twisted sense of torture. But it comes down to the fact that the Joker just can’t be saved. It does actually work quite well as an ambiguous ending, so there is still that bit of doubt as to what actually might have happened. But the most fitting way for that to end would be the death of the Joker.

One of the selling points of this film, even from early on was the return of Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill as the voices of Batman and the Joker, and Hamill does a fantastic job as always. I didn’t quite get a great feel for Conroy as I might usually, just because the character as presented here spends much of his time being overly stoic, especially during the opening scenes with Batgirl. There are also some great visuals throughout the film, especially surrounding the Joker himself, many felt like they were directly inspired by the original comic’s artwork. Nothing ever felt incredibly dynamic, but the story also never called for it. It’s tough to say overall how I ultimately feel about this movie. As I mentioned, it’s my first actual experience with the Killing Joke in any form, and while I understand the intention of the opening sequence to give Barbara more of a character arc, I didn’t feel like it was enough. But that wasn’t enough to completely put me off of this story, it was still a fascinating look at the relationship between Batman and the Joker and how they feed off of each other. This was also the first DC animated film to get an R rating, and it was not only earned, but the shocking moment of violence felt appropriate to this story. I don’t think this will become a favorite of mine, but I’m glad I finally got the chance to see it in its entirety. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.

Suicide Squad 2016

Like with any recent DC live action movie release these days there’s a lot more to it than just “Did I like it?” or “Did I not like it?” It seems like it started a little bit with Manof Steel and escalated greatly with Batman vs Superman and once again there’s this great divide between a very low critical consensus and a record breaking box office. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Does it really even matter anymore as long as the money is flowing and nothing’s going to stop this DC train from moving along trying to catch up to the Marvel money train chugging a few billion dollars ahead. Obviously, I’m a superhero movie fan, you don’t sit through over 300 superhero movies without either being a fan, becoming a fan, or quitting about 100 movies ago. My expectations for Suicide Squad were very similar to the animated Assault on Arkham, and what I got wasn’t a far cry from it. The characters were fun, it was fast paced, sure there were some flaws with the story but at the end of the day, my wife and I had a great morning at the movies. It would just be nice if there was a little bit more cohesion so that everyone else had fun too.

The film starts off at a pretty brisk pace, introducing us to the main villains in a very Guy Richie style, with some stylish cuts, graphical overlays, and pop music blaring in the background. The songs are fun, catchy, could be distracting, but they give a nice sense of the characters. Except for Slipknot which is disappointing since that was such an obvious tell that he would be the first (and pretty much only one) to die. It wouldn’t have been much to at least give him an introduction in the same way that the other characters did so there was at least a little bit of a surprise when he became the example and showed the audience and the other members of the squad that the cranial explosives did indeed work. But that’s still a minor point within the overall movie.

What did work the most were the characters. And even though this is an ensemble cast, the real focus comes down to three main characters: Will Smith’s Deadshot, Margot Robbie’s Harley Quinn, and Viola Davis’s Amanda Waller. Everyone else gets a moment here or there, but as far as the characters who you really get a feel for, and have some sort of arc, it comes down to those three. And luckily, those three really killed it in this film. Harley Quinn can be a problematic character, and there is still a sense of overall misogyny as characters frequently referred to her sexual attractiveness trapped with a crazy head and her unflagging devotion to a Joker who isn’t exactly the best boyfriend. Though there are at least moments within the film where Joker shows that he’s not entirely uncaring for her, since he does rescue her from the vat of chemicals that he requested her to jump in, and broke her out of prison. It’s still not the best example of a healthy relationship.

Deadshot was always going to be the most sympathetic character, and Will Smith does a great job as he always does. It’s worth noting that he does actually get top billing in this film, which means that in the past ten years, there have only been 4 comic book films that had a Black actor in that top spot, and Will Smith has been that actor for 3 of those 4 films. Deadshot has the right amount of badassness and heart with his relationship to his young daughter. He plays the role well, with the right combination of well-deserved cockiness, sympathy, and empathy. Harley was also played quite well with the right mix of craziness and tenacity with the fighting ability to back up being chosen for the squad in the first place. Even though it doesn’t exactly seem to be quite in line with the other characters’ abilities and her place on the team seems more likely that she was chosen because of her popularity with comic book fans rather than any reason that Amanda Waller might have actually gone with.

What doesn’t quite go right with this film is the overall plot, especially the villain. It’s an early turn where we find out that the Enchantress isn’t actually a member of the team, but the actual big bad that the other little bads have to fight. She happens to break her brother free who becomes this mini-Balrog with tentacle powers that can rip anyone to shreds in an instant, except for our team once they finally meet up in the climax, and gets blown up with a supposedly massive bomb that only creates about a ten to twenty foot hole in the ground. Meanwhile, the teleporting, grungy, sinister looking Enchantress gets a magical makeover to look like a CGI-enhanced child-like Empress from the Neverending Story. There was just something about her during all of the climactic scenes that never looked quite right. Plus, she seemed to have just spent about three days creating this CGI cloud that doesn’t do anything until the squad almost reaches her, though there is at least the minimal explanation that she didn’t have her targets until she acquires Waller herself and gets the targets she needs right from her head.

But the real villain right from the start is really Waller herself, and Viola David does a tremendous job at showing just how manipulative she can be from start to finish. From getting her Task Force X approved in the first place, to when she coldly kills the rest of her team just before her rescue just because none of them were cleared to even know about the existence of Task Force X. She even gets to casually toss out a line to Bruce Wayne to let him know that she knows about the costume that he dons every night. From start to finish, there is a lot to enjoy with this movie, and this is coming from someone whose entire experience with the Suicide Squad comes from the animated Assault on Arkham from just a couple years back. And while I haven’t said much about the rest of the team, even though they’re not given a whole lot to do, Diablo, Killer Croc, Katana, and Captain Boomerang are all great with what they’re given. Even though director David Ayer has said that he approves and owns up to the final cut of this film, I do think that a better version of this film could be made with the available footage, but for now I’m happy with what I’ve been given. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.

Batman Unlimited: Mechs Vs Mutants 2016

Within a month of me finishing all of the animated comic book movies out there, they went and released two more already. Starting off with the latest entry in the Batman Unlimited series, something that I tend to think of as the “toy series” as it coincided with the release of a new toy line and overall is more kid friendly than the current Warner Premier animated movies that tend towards PG-13 to R for a more adult audience. Even when just looking at this comparatively to the other two Batman Unlimited movies that came before this one, there was a level of inconsistency with many of the characters like Penguin and even Killer Croc. But while it did take a while to win me over, the level of humor across the third act made up for a lot of nothing in the first two. At least a little.

The film starts out with one of the tired tropes so it starts in the middle of the action before the opening credits then cuts to a “two weeks earlier” title card and things move on as normal. At least it does have the benefit of having this absolutely insane concept that’s right in the title where Batman is in a giant mech suit fighting a giant lizard (who you may or may not realize is Killer Croc until the movie tells you so) in the middle of Gotham City. Eventually we find out that Mr. Freeze is experimenting with creating giant creatures in the Arctic (or Antarctic, I forget) with Penguin along because of reasons. When they are foiled by a group of oil riggers with a giant drilling laser, they decide to pick up and head to Gotham City because that makes sense. Along the way, they pick up Croc, Bane, Clayface, and lesser known villain Chemo from Arkham and apparently use the chemicals of the latter to perfect his growth serum and use it on Croc. All because Freeze wants a cold city to feel normal in.

What was more bothersome about this film where some of the characterizations that felt very inconsistent, either compared to other DC animated films or even other films in the Unlimited universe. Penguin, for instance showed up in the first Unlimited movie where he was very scientifically inclined with a high tech monocle that acted like a view screen slash computer. During that film he reprogrammed a series of animal-like mining robots to work for him, but here he’s essentially just comic relief with his puppy dog-esque pet penguin that follows him around. Even Croc was featured in that film and while his character in general wasn’t very memorable, he did have a metal jaw there that is absent here. There’s also the matter of Robin, in the first two films it was Red Robin paired up with Batman, and while it was never explicitly stated who was behind the Red Robin mask, here it makes it clear that it was Tim Drake. But Batman has switched Robins to Damian who gets to be just plain ol’ Robin. But this is a far cry from the Damian Wayne who has been trained by Ra’s Al Ghul to be a highly skilled assassin in the League of Shadows that we’ve seen in several other animated movies starting with Son of Batman. Instead, he’s slightly older, but also much more insecure and untrained, embarrassed by getting tripped up by the Joker and having video of it land on YouTube. He is a laughable rookie who feels much more like a fresh Tim Drake where he isn’t sure of himself as a hero and has to have Batman literally explain to him that the business suits they wear are their costumes while their costumes are their work uniforms. He even slips up and calls Oliver Queen by Green Arrow and shortly afterward almost calls Bruce by Batman.

The overall plot is nothing special and it more or less just an excuse to get everyone to the main event that we already saw during the opening scene. But not only is it just Batman in a giant Batman-themed mech suit (complete with utility belt that seems to be just decoration), but Green Arrow also had one commissioned for himself, to Batman’s surprise. And besides a giant Killer Croc, Bane, Clayface, and Chemo all take a dose of the giant-making drug that happens to go wrong with Clayface and turn him into a half-lava creature. We also get appearances from Nightwing and the Flash, though they don’t do too much aside from the hilarious rapport they have with each other that’s based around Flash thinking they are friends while Nightwing completely brushes him off. That’s the sort of humor that really makes this film work, though it’s completely relegated to the final act. The Nightwing/Flash relationship, and other moments like Dr. Langstrom appraising the damage done to the Bat-mech compared to the almost total destruction of the Arrow-mech. There are also several moments with Penguin’s penguin Buzz like when he sneaks a couple vials of Freeze’s growth formula while Bane and Clayface look on incredulously, or when Buzz momentarily starts driving a tank and no one comments on how that is even possible or makes any comments about it at all. The worst bits of this are some of the same issues that were with the first two. The connection to the toy line just feels like it’s more important than story or characters, the Batmobile here especially looks like a cross between a Hot Wheels and a Transformer toy. And to top it off, there’s not a single female character in this entire film, minus a couple civilians that get a single line. It’s better than most of the 80’s half hour toy commercials, and younger kids will get a kick out of the action, but there’s just not much substance to it. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.

Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders 2016

I was disappointed during the last theatrical event for one of these DC animated features because I had car trouble and wasn’t able to go. Even though I wasn’t quite as excited for this film as I was for Killing Joke I figured it would still be a fun time at the theater and I was right. I don’t really have a whole lot of experience with ’66 Batman aside from the one movie, but even with only having that little bit of background I could tell the amount of care that went into this animated feature. There were plenty of references to the rogue’s gallery from the show and it captured the feel of the original show while still tossing in plenty of jokes geared towards someone who is familiar with Batman lore at large, seemingly poking fun at the darker, more modern version of Batman while celebrating the joy and camp of the earlier days.

The movie kicks off with a bit of a callback to the first movie where four of Batman’s greatest villains join up together. Joker, Riddler, Penguin, and Catwoman, only this time they’re sticking with the original TV version of Julie Newmar’s design rather than the Lee Meriwether temporary replacement, though there is a moment where Batman gets knocked in the head and sees both versions plus Eartha Kitt. But the real crux of the story comes after Catwoman scratches him with her special formula Batnip that’s intended to turn him to a life of crime so that they can be together. It’s a plot that’s both over the top and yet much more subtle than I would have expected from the original show. The Batnip takes a while before it begins to take effect and Batman’s descent into villainy takes a surprisingly long time, unlike the duo’s usual jump-to-conclusion style detective work which is on fine display.

The film overall is stuck somewhere between an homage to the original while poking fun at both itself as well as newer versions of Batman. In some ways it works, but in others it doesn’t. There are some great jokes that very much feel like it’s poking fun at the style of the original, like when Batman is on a TV show and they switch the camera from drama to action and the only thing it does is go into a Dutch angle. It also pokes fun several times at more recent Batman stories, and it’s great to hear Adam West say lines from Burton’s Batman movie and the Dark Knight Returns. They even take the air out of the Nolan trilogy in a slight, throwaway joke. And they all come so fast that unless you’re really a fan of Batman you will very easily miss them.

One of the biggest assets and yet also the problem with this film is the voice cast. They bring back three of the original cast members: Adam West as Batman, Burt Ward as Robin, and Julie Newmar as Catwoman. And while the images on screen are still representative of their younger selves, their voices reflect much more of their actual age than most voice actors. Julie Newmar especially has a very grandmotherly quality to her voice that belies her age. It’s present in Adam West’s voice as well, but he has such an iconic voice that it’s much more forgivable. Burt Ward is the only one of the three who still pulls off the voice and makes it sound almost exactly like it did in the 60’s. Or at least close enough for someone who hasn’t listened to it in years.

Some of the best things that this film does is how it plays up on all the tropes of the show. While there aren’t quite as many labels as there were in the show, for example there’s no signs labeling each of the bat-poles or the instant costume change lever, but there are plenty on display. There’s also a couple instances of the sideways-walking-scaling-a-wall gag, unfortunately without any cameo poking out of a window. Even the fights have the trademark animated onomatopoeias that was likely used originally to help hide the amateur fight choreography. They even go so far as to intentionally have Catwoman casually distance herself from the fighting melee. There are times when it goes a little too far into self-parody, taking things just a tad too far into the realm of absurdity, like with an anti-antidote, but for the most part it hit the right notes that should feel right for anyone who is nostalgic for the original show or even someone who just has a passing familiarity with the show and is tired of how dark and gritty all the Batman stuff is becoming lately. It fits in very nicely with the humor of the Lego series of movies but very much feels different. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.

Batman v Superman Ultimate Edition 2016

Once again my movie viewing was decided via a Twitter poll which resulted in the mixed bag of revisiting the epic superhero film of the year made even more epic-er with about 30 minutes of footage so it now clocks in at just over three hours. Now, if you recall my original review for Batman vs Superman, I’m not one of the haters of this film, I thought it was just fine and I have been fully expecting that this extended cut makes some improvements. It’s just so difficult for me to put three hours into a movie, especially when I know that it’s just for one of these two paragraph quickie reviews looking specifically at an alternate cut of a film that I’ve already reviewed. But I did split the viewing up over about three nights and I did still like more than I didn’t like. But boy did those moments I didn’t like stick out like a sore thumb even more this time around. Is the Ultimate Cut really the best way to view this movie? A loose maybe is really the best I can do for that question right now.

There are a few things that the Ultimate cut does bring to the table in terms of making the film seem more like a complete whole rather than a chopped together mess. And really it boils down to fleshing out the mystery aspects of the overarching Lex Luthor plot. We get to see more pieces of the puzzle as they come together as well as a little more of the tension between Batman and Superman as Clark discovers the darker path that Bruce has been on with the Bat-brand and how it affects the criminals as people. There’s also a bit more about how Superman was framed for the murder of the African encampment and had continued news coverage rather than just a small plot point. There were also a few other moments that I noticed more in this viewing that were already in the original cut of the movie like how in the opening dream that Bruce says he had been having repeatedly the only word spoken was “Martha” which does help explain why he was still fixated on that name and why it drew such a reaction. Unfortunately, even the longer cut does not make me appreciate the performance of Jessie Eisenberg as Lex Luthor any more, it still annoys me more than anything. The fight was also more of a letdown, specifically the Doomsday fight, though I still loved every Wonder Woman moment during the fight, especially her theme in the score. All in all, I did think it added to the story and characters, but it didn’t solve any of the other problems with the film. I still enjoyed it, and I did enjoy it slightly more than the theatrical cut. That three hour run time is a killer though, until next time this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.

Justice League Dark 2017

While this isn’t the first comic book movie to be released in 2017, this is the first 2017 comic book movie that I’ve gotten around to watching. It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of DC’s animated movies and especially those directed by Jay Oliva. There’s just something about his action and style that gets to me every time. This is also the next in the continuing series of movies loosely connected continuity surrounding the expanding Justice League. And this had the right amount of action, humor, and drama to keep me hooked from beginning to end. Even though I was only vaguely familiar with many of the characters in this film, I connected with them and enjoyed this from beginning to end. Especially with its connection to the unfairly cancelled NBC series Constantine. My only real gripe with this film is that once again it pushed Batman front and center when he had no real reason to be included in this story other than the fact that he is DC’s cash cow and has to be included in every possible thing they do.

While this didn’t get as much press as the Killing Joke did, this is the second DC Animated film to get an R rating and it lives up to its name in the first five minutes. We get to see a handful of scenes where regular people get driven insane where they see regular people as demons and have to be stopped by Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman. The only difference is that in two of the cases, they had already killed before they are stopped, and in the last case the woman kills herself. And while Batman initially refutes the idea that magic is causing the madness, he ends up recruiting some new magic-knowledgeable heroes who are introduced in generally efficient ways despite most of them being underutilized in the film universe. And while it’s still heavily male-dominated, Zatanna plays a strong role that’s not pushed off to the side or treated as merely a love interest. Though the film doesn’t entirely do away from any sort of romance since she does have a history with Constantine and it does get brought up a few times.

What’s really great about this film is that it brings back Matt Ryan as the voice of Constantine. Not only that, but it also brings back another actor from the NBC series who played a secondary character Ritchie. Jeremy Davies played in two episodes and does a great job in his small role here. Though Felix Faust was also in the series and is played here by Enrico Colantoni instead. The rest of the cast does their roles well with Jason O’Mara returning yet again as the voice of Batman. The other lesser known characters of Deadman and Jason Blood slash Etrigan the Demon with a small appearance by Swamp Thing. Both Deadman and Etrigan do get their moments of backstory, even though they never explain why Etrigan generally only speaks in rhyming couplets. The rhyming is something that could be handled very badly, but the film includes just enough to get the gist of it, and plays with it a couple times towards the end so it doesn’t ever get annoying. Deadman also seemed like he could have been a difficult character to adapt, since only certain people could see him at any given time, and he can generally only interact with the real world when he’s possessing someone else’s body, but his rules were spelled out relatively early on and the film rarely, if ever, broke them.

Like with many of these animated films, it’s not just about the action and a villain to fight, there’s a bit of mystery and misdirection. There is plenty here with a couple twists thrown in for good measure, and they do work out in a way where you don’t see them coming, but they make sense in retrospect. In other words, they aren’t just twists for twist’s sake. There’s also plenty of humor mixed in with the action, some of Batman’s reactions were especially funny like his nonplussed reaction to the defeat of a poop demon. The addition of magic also created plenty of inventive action scenes unlike the typical martial arts style combat seen in most of the Batman movies previously. Here, we get to see plenty of demons, fireballs, and whatnot light up the screen. It’s movies like these that give me hope for the future of DC Animation which has been a little bit more hit and miss in the recent year or two. I just hope that I like the next couple just as much as I liked this one. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.

The LEGO Batman Movie 2017

It’s finally time for my first theatrical movie of the year and it really starts out with a bang. I’m already reminded of last year’s Return of the Caped Crusaders that brought a lot of Batman nostalgia mixed with a hearty dose of comedy and satire. The only difference is that this one is just a bit more family friendly and has a fewer references to the 60’s series. There are still plenty of 60’s references, but they are fewer. It also tries to tell a heartfelt story deep down within all the jokes, dozens of obscure Batman villains, and several other non-Batman villains. This really felt like a film that was aimed almost directly at me, someone who has a sizable knowledge of the history of Batman but also thinks that Batman does not need to take himself quite so seriously. And in that regard, I absolutely loved this movie and everything it stood for. It might not quite live up to last year’s LEGO Movie, but it’s a hell of a fun ride anyway.

As a character, what LEGO Batman does more than the typical Batman is that he becomes a caricature of a caricature, but somehow just the right aspects of his personality are ballooned to such great extremes that it flows perfectly. LEGO Batman is the epitome of arrogance, confidence, and alone-ness. And even though he doesn’t show up until about a third of the way through the movie, this version of Robin is the perfect complement to this Batman. Robin is very much the Emmet type character in this LEGO movie, he’s eternally optimistic, trusting, and not entirely bright. Though he is much smarter than Emmet by comparison. Barbara Gordon is also a bright spot in this film that balances out the two extremes by being a pillar of practicality and teamwork. She is the most capable without needing to take any of the credit. Going back to the original LEGO movie, she also fits the Wyldstyle role. She even catches the eye of LEGO Batman. To a lesser extent, Alfred also fills the wise mentor role similar to Vetruvius but that’s starting to stretch the metaphors, similar to how the Joker is almost entirely the opposite of Lord Business where the Joker is about chaos while Lord Business was about order.

But getting back to this actual movie, it actually also shares a few minor beats with last year’s animated Bad Blood. Both movies are partly about Batman actually accepting teammates, and more specifically a family. Not only that, but in a more comical way the Joker also wants acceptance as Batman’s greatest enemy rather than just one of his many enemies. And while it is played up for laughs, the Joker’s plan is actually on par with a Joker plan in any other Batman story. He’s able to get Batman to play right into his hands and even gets him tossed into prison at one point. It falls right in line with any other Joker plan except for the fact that you’re supposed to be laughing all the way through this one along with all the references laced throughout.

What is amazing about this film are the wall to wall references and callbacks. From the Dark Knight to Keaton, even all the way back to the goofy looking costume used in the original black and white serial version of Batman there are tons of Batman nods. We get to see at least a dozen different costumes, and it wouldn’t be surprising at all if every one of them were legitimate costumes used at one point or another in the comics. And once we get into the phantom zone there’s dozens of other movie references, though it was disappointing that the movie even specifically mentioned that Zod was just recently imprisoned in the Phantom Zone and yet there was not a single Superman villain used in this movie during the climax. Unless they were far off in the background, even Zod didn’t get a chance to wreak some havoc, and he wouldn’t have been any more powerful than Voldemort in this situation. Not only that, but we get a great scene with the Justice League including several members of the Superfriends, and yet they don’t come and help with the rescue in Gotham City. And getting back to the original LEGO movie, there are also hints that this is a similar situation as the LEGO movie where it takes place within the imagination of a child via the theoretical and mysterious vortex underneath the plates that make up the base of Gotham City, but it’s merely kept to just hints.

All in all, what makes this work the most is how much air it takes out of Batman and his entire mythos. Some of the best moments are early on when the film takes the time to focus on the mundane elements of Bruce Wayne’s life like finding the right HDMI input so he can watch Jerry McGuire, or accidentally pressing 20:00 instead of 2:00 when heating up his lobster thermidor and there’s literally a ten second shot where we just see Batman staring at the microwave lit only by the light and the rotating shadow from the microwave’s carousel. It’s absolutely the right time for this kind of movie, just like it was for last year’s Return of the Caped Crusaders. There is a place for both the dark and dour DCEU and this lighthearted LEGO Batman, but for now I much prefer this version of Batman. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.

Justice League 2017

I’m not entirely sure what bug got into me, but I’ve been full speed ahead trying to catch up on the year (more or less) that I’ve missed writing on this site. This is one of the biggest films that I missed from last  year and while it made a decent amount of money, it was a pretty big disappointment for what a Justice League movie could have made. Out of the major superhero movie releases of the year, it was the second lowest grossing film just above Logan which was R-rated and it was the lowest grossing film of the entire DCEU. It was plagued by some behind the scenes nightmares like the tragic loss of Zack Snyder’s daughter midway through filming so that the film was finished by Joss Whedon. There was also the well documented issue with Henry Cavill being unable to shave his mustache for reshoots while filming the latest Mission Impossible which created some unnerving scenes of CGI hair-removal. The resulting chaos resulted in a rather chaotic movie that shifted in tone from the more serious and dramatic Zack Snyder films that came before it, and the more irreverent humor associated with Joss Whedon with a lack of overall cohesion. Some moments worked, but the team never quite came together as a whole.

One of the biggest issues with this film was the shifting tone of the movie. A frequent complaint about Man of Steel and Batman v Superman was that the tone was too dark and humorless. The overall tone of this film was much more light and had many more jokes than the previous two films, but the balance/transitions felt off more often than not with the timing of the comic relief. The best humor came from both Jason Momoa’s Aquaman with his cynical realism and Ezra Miller’s awkward optimism. The Flash actually felt like a similar character to Lex Luthor in the previous film but it worked much better here than it did there.

Another big issue was the villain Steppenwolf himself. While there have been some complaints about his CGI, the bigger complaint should be about his character motivations and actions. He falls under the typically boring destroy the world category but needs three seemingly random cubes and an army of bug-like creatures. The movie also sidesteps the concept that the parademons are created from the beings in the world and could potentially be humans that they are killing. When the audience is told about his previous defeat, we are shown that it took three armies to take him down, and yet when it’s time for the newly formed Justice League to bring him down, there’s no help at all from the Amazons or Atlanteans. And while they’re not quite fighting a giant cloud in the sky that plagues some of the worst superhero movies, three floating cubes isn’t too far off from that. There’s also little explanation as to either how he finds the mother boxes or why he doesn’t just use the same boom tubes to get all three of them in quick succession.

There have been many different versions of superhero team ups, but one of the biggest concepts is the actual building of the team. There are a few expectation subversions here in this movie, especially with the extreme ease of getting Barry Allen to join the team. There were also a few trope moments like the initial reluctance of Arthur Curry to join the team before he eventually gives in and helps them after their first encounter with Steppenwolf. There’s also a moment where the team has to fight each other, at least to some extent after the resurrection of Superman. There was also what was supposed to be an aspect of sympathy as we are shown a Russian family who are living on the outskirts of Steppenwolf’s home base. And yet we really learn nothing about this family, have no stakes for their survival, and it all felt incredibly pointless to keep cutting back to them as they appeared to be in danger, yet also appeared to suffer zero consequences of that danger whatsoever. The failings of the team also seem to be fairly insignificant aside from Barry’s occasional tripping and Victor’s initial reluctance. It makes the success of the team feel less significant when there aren’t as many struggles along the way.

It’s not an awful movie by any means. The action beats were all done well enough other than the underwhelming mini-battle at Atlantis. The Knightcrawler was an interesting bit of gadgetry, it was always a joy pretty much any time Wonder Woman came on screen, and it was great to hear shades of the Burton Batman theme. Honestly, just like thinking of this from the perspective of a comic book fan, there were usually seven original members of the original Justice League but here there are only six. It’s the same with this film, it just feels like there’s some element missing. There’s action, good characters, a weak villain but that’s often an issue in more well received Marvel films, even Superman’s CGI lip wasn’t as much of a distraction as some of the still frames that I’ve seen would have led me to believe. The one good thing about the perceived failure of this film is that it seems like it is causing DC to go a different direction from Marvel and split off into various different incarnations of the DC Universe rather than trying to tie everything into a single, connected universe. The MCU is great, but variety is even better. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.