Review: JUSTICE LEAGUE GODS AND MONSTERS

Well, despite my insane schedule, I managed to carve out some time to watch Justice League: Gods and Monsters with my DC-loving girlfriend. After seeing the three-part Gods and Monsters Chronicles series, I was really curious to see how this feature-length story — centering on alternate universe versions of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman — would play out. If you haven’t seen the three animated shorts yet, check them out below.

As you could guess from the title, Gods and Monsters offers up darker versions of Justice League’s big three.

This universe’s Superman is not Clark Kent but rather Hernan Guerra (Benjamin Bratt). Just before being jettisoned from Krypton, General Zod imbued Superman with his DNA, explaining that wicked goatee he’s rocking throughout the picture. And, after landing on Earth, this baby Superman was taken in by a Mexican couple, adding a political twist to Superman’s alien status. Batman (played by Dexter’s Michael C. Hall) is a former scientist named Kirk Langstrom who, while trying to cure himself of a life-threatening disease, unintentionally turns himself into a blood-sucking vampire. And Wonder Woman is Bekka (Tamara Taylor), a member of the New Gods who had a less-than-stellar wedding on the planet Apocalypse.

It’s made rather clear from the outset that this is not our usual Justice League — the three heroes (if we can call them that) quickly dispatch a group of terrorists in some particularly brutal ways. And their position on the world stage is also tenuous, with President Waller (24’s Penny Johnson Jerald) weakly asserting her authority over Superman, who reminds her of how powerless she really is. To complicate matters, scientists with ties to the Justice League begin dying in mysterious circumstances, and all evidence points to Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. The three seek out whoever is behind the elaborate frame job and try not to create a major conflict with the U.S. government in the process.

Although Gods and Monsters explores a new offshoot to the DC Universe, stylistically these characters look very familiar. Any fan of the DC Animated Universe’s style in the ‘90s will feel right at home. And the casting couldn’t have been better — Michael C. Hall brings a kind of creepy cool to the DC Universe matched only by Jeffrey Combs, and I hope DC calls on him to do more voice work in the future.

Where Gods and Monsters fell short for me was in the story. The three shorts I mentioned above are tight little snippets of these characters in action. They immediately pulled me in and left me wanting more. Unfortunately, I just can’t say the same for the feature. And it pains me to say it — I really wanted to like this movie! The murder mystery plot weaved in the characters’ backstory rather well, and the violence certainly upped the stakes, but the element of human drama I saw in the shorts (at least the Batman and Superman shorts) was missing. And the story never culminated into satisfying climax. Simply put, the villain just isn’t that interesting — probably the rarest complaint I could make of a DC animated movie. And with such a vast amount of villains to choose from in the DC Universe, I couldn’t help but wish they had done something more interesting with a well-known and powerful baddie — the same way they did with Brainiac in Superman’s short.

That being said, I did enjoy Gods and Monsters. And I’d definitely consider revisiting this alternate universe — I found all three characters genuinely interesting, and I’m more than curious to see what other DC characters might look like. I’d just need to be hooked with a more interesting plot.

If you’re a big DC fan, I have no doubt that you’ll like it. I just don’t know that you’ll love it.

Review: ATTACK ON TITAN PART 1

This is the first time in SUPER MOVIES history where I’m reviewing a movie before its release. For my Winnipeg readers, Attack On Titan: Part 1 will be showing at Polo Park on Monday, Oct. 26 at 7:00 p.m. Now that I’ve been very specific about where it’s showing, let me regale you with all of the reasons you should stay home and download it.

Attack On Titan is based on the popular anime by the same name, which itself is based on a manga series. And if you haven’t checked out AOT yet, check out my previous blog post…

Do yourself a favor and watch Season 1 of AOT (It’s on Netflix) then come back to read this review because there are *SPOILERS AHEAD*

As you could probably tell from my previous blog post on AOT, I am a big fan of the anime series. Its perverse mix of German fairytale and anime horror has made AOT one of the most visually interesting and engaging fictional universes I’ve ever seen.

Neither one of these qualities is on display in the live-action Attack On Titan: Part 1.

Maybe director Shinji Higuchi was taking inspiration from dark American comic adaptations like Man of Steel or The Dark Knight when he was visualizing AOT. I say this because, for the vast majority of the film, the sky is dark or overcast. Colors are muted and washed out with greys everywhere.

And the characters are similarly dull. Beyond a short sequence in the beginning with the three main characters —Eren, Armin, and Mikasa — running through cheesy, angsty dialogue that flatly sets up the premise, the movie pays far more attention to gore. There is no chemistry between these three. None. If Armin just vanished halfway through, I wouldn’t have noticed. I applaud fast-paced films, but a universe as complex and bizarre as AOT’s deserves a proper introduction. Instead, all we get are one-note characters with matter-of-fact lines: there are titans, there are walls, titans haven’t been seen in 100 years, Eren is angry, Armin is smart, Mikasa is the shy girl from every anime you’ve ever seen.

Then BOOM! The titans are back. And anyone unfamiliar with AOT would have had at least a dozen WTF moments before they arrive.

What’s especially poorly handled is how the film reveals that AOT’s fantasy world is in fact a world of science fiction. Within the first five minutes our main characters are examining what looks like a WWII plane. Then, as the characters reach the wall, one mentions a “big bomb” that changed the world while a rusted helicopter hangs from the wall above them. What was a subtle yet mind-blowing reveal in the anime series is a blunt lets-just-get-through-this check list for the live-action film.

You might think, “They’re just trying to do something different. Why does it have to be exactly like the anime?” Fair enough. But the live-action film chooses to remain faithful in really strange, off-putting ways. If I didn’t know AOT was based on an anime (or manga) I would have immediately guessed when Hange arrives, acting like a cartoon character, or when Sasha stuffs her face with mashed potatoes. Meanwhile, Eren, Armin, and Mikasa are pale versions of their anime selves. The script pays service to “the potato girl” while Levi, one of the anime series’ most popular characters, is completely missing — instead replaced by Shikishima, a soldier who mostly snickers through the film’s climax.

Oh, the climax. Where do I start? There are many points in AOT’s final scene where I could see the film’s budget running out. The omni-directional mobility gear is woefully underused and perhaps that’s why. The human characters swinging around with their steam punk hookshots  look completely out of place next to the human actors playing titans. While I applaud the filmmakers for hiring human actors to play titans, especially when any and every American studio would choose to make them pure CGI, they just don’t quite convince.

For fans of the anime, Attack On Titan: Part 1’s story ends roughly around where The Struggle for Trost: Part 3 took place. That’s seven episodes into a 25-episode season. So, if you have to choose between watching the live-action version or sitting through seven episodes, I think the choice is pretty clear.

Ever since this Japanese production was announced, fans have complained how in the anime every character is, in fact, white, yet all of the actors are Asian. Only Mikasa is meant to be Asian — the last surviving Asian on the planet, no less. This is one complaint I don’t share. If Ridley Scott can whitewash the story of Moses, I think it’s only fair that Japanese filmmakers cast Japanese actors in an anime adaptation.

I would commend the filmmakers for attempting such an ambitious adaptation, but I just can’t get over the insane choices they made. At one point a character throws a titan over his shoulder. He THROWS a titan over his shoulder! If you’re going to adapt an anime into a live-action cartoon, why bother?

Two X-MEN TV Shows and a Box Office Bomb

Two days ago, 20^th Century Fox and Marvel announced they will be teaming up to develop two new TV shows based on X-Men characters.

Legion will focus on Professor Xavier’s son, David Haller, a gifted and troubled young man diagnosed as a schizophrenic who grapples with his powers. In the New Mutants comic series, Noah has severe mental illness, including multiple personality disorder with each personality controlling one of his superpowers. I have an issue of New Mutants featuring Legion where Xavier and other mutants enter Haller’s mind and see the forces at play. If Marvel and Fox are willing, they could take this character to some very strange and extreme places.

Haller is also known for the most epic of fades.

Noah Hawley of FX’s Fargo will write and executive produce the series, while Bryan Singer and Simon Kinberg — who recently produced The Martian and who wrote X-Men: Days of Future Past — will produce both of the new X-Men series. So, it looks as though Marvel is throwing some significant weight behind these projects.

My only hang up is how they will treat Haller’s family ties. Will they mention Xavier? If they do, will we see him? Will he be played by Patrick Stewart? Like any new adaptation, there are a million questions of how it will fit into the bigger picture, but ever since X-Men: First Class, Fox has played it pretty loose with continuity compared to The Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Speaking of First Class, Fox and Marvel also announced Hellfire, a show based on the villainous Hellfire Club. The secret society is known for influencing world events for their own evil goals. I first got to know the Hellfire Club through the ‘90s X-Men animated series where they manipulate Jean Grey and unleash the Dark Phoenix (The Dark Phoenix Part IV). In 2011, Kevin Bacon portrayed Sebastian Shaw and January Jones played Emma Frost, both Hellfire members. It’s unknown whether either character will return for the series or if this show will belong to the larger X-Men movie franchise, but like First Class, Hellfire will be set in the 1960s.

Kevin Bacon ain't got shit on me!

An official press release says this about the series:

“The series… follows a young Special Agent who learns that a power-hungry woman with extraordinary abilities is working with a clandestine society of millionaires – known as “The Hellfire Club” – to take over the world… The story takes place during one of the most explosive eras in recent history.”

This description sounds eerily familiar to the plot of First Class with government agent Moira MacTaggert infiltrating the Hellfire Club, which ultimately leads to the Cuban Missile Crisis. I’m hoping this new series will be more topical by focusing on the civil rights movement — a theme alluded to constantly in the series. As for the special agent aspect, I fear the show could fall victim to the whole human-agents-in-a-comic-book-world mediocrity that Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. has fallen into — after all, network television excels in mediocre superhero shows.

Lastly, Den of Geek reported that Fox struck this deal with Marvel by handing over the rights to the Fantastic Four. Unfortunately, this is just a rumor as both sides made a statement yesterday denying the deal involved F4, which is too bad considering the absolute atrocity Fox created this summer. According to nearly every film critic alive, Fantastic Four (2015) will be a pain to review.

But that’s what critics are here for, Dear Reader: to jump in front of the bullet from time to time.

WINTERPEG is coming

You can follow me on Instagram at @M.D.Art

Follow me on Instagram at @M.D.Art

It’s been an especially slow news week for comic book movies, with the summer blockbusters wrapped up and no new digital releases to speak of. So, I’m going to write an off topic blog post and talk about a project that I’ve been working on since August.

And, guess what!

It’s a comic book.

I’m writing and illustrating my debut comic book for an early 2016 release date. It’s called Winterpeg and it follows the last surviving residents of Winnipeg following a major ecological disaster. Oh, and they run into some marauding cannibals! (I’ve been having a lot of fun drawing cannibals this week.) This is not a professional comic. It’s dirty, underground and independent with lots of character and some local appeal woven in — think Heavy Metal but with a Canadian twist.

So, why make a comic book (other than my obvious love for comics)? I’ve been drawing my entire life. It was my favorite hobby as a child and a passion that’s come and gone in waves over the years. I love it, but I’ve always felt that I don’t have the level of talent it takes to do it on a professional level. I knew I wanted to have a career that was creative, but my wheels kept spinning and my confidence reached an all time low.

So fine... so young...

Things began to change after I applied for the Creative Communications program at Red River College. I started to seriously consider becoming a professional writer. And when I discovered that part of the program involved a yearlong independent project — and students had done graphic novels in the past — I immediately knew what I wanted to do in my final year of school.

And, here I am: incredibly stressed, over worked, and damn lucky to be making this thing. It’s been a dream of mine for years, and all I can ask for now is less schoolwork and more time to draw.  

I had to do quite a bit of research and planning in order to get this project accepted, and I’d like to thank local comic creators Scott Henderson and Scott Ford for their advice and encouragement — especially Scott Henderson, who was incredibly generous with his time answering all of my little questions. These guys are great talents.

Check out Scott Henderson’s work here: https://scotthendersonart.wordpress.com

And Scott Ford’s work here: https://scottaford.wordpress.com

Eventually, I’ll set up a new website specifically for Winterpeg and to show off some of the local comic books I pick up. But for now, you can track my progress on Instagram at @M.D.Art.

I’ll be back next week for some more comic book movie action. Peace

Check out MARVEL'S JESSICA JONES in new teaser

A second teaser for Marvel’s Jessica Jones dropped this week, and it shows the aftermath of an epic bar room brawl. Check out both teasers below.

Between these two teasers, we know that Jessica can seriously kick some ass, she’s not a morning person and she’s a really heavy drinker. But beyond these little snippets, there’s a lot of depth to this relatively unknown female superhero. In fact, she’s not really a superhero — anymore. After some pretty heavy stuff happened to Jones during her superhero stint, she hung up the cape (so to speak) and became a private investigator in Hell’s Kitchen.

Aha! Hell’s Kitchen! Yep. Unless you live a Netflix-free life, you probably know that Jessica Jones belongs to the same dark corner of Marvel’s Cinematic Universe as Daredevil. And she’ll be part of The Defenders miniseries once Luke Cage and Iron Fist make their debut. What we don’t know is if Jones will be bumping shoulders with Matt Murdoch in the first season or if it will be a bit further down the line. Either way, there’s bound to be some talk about the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen.

But just because Jones works in the same neighborhood as Daredevil doesn’t mean the shows will look the same. Writer and executive producer Melissa Rosenberg has said that Jones will have its own look and feel. And Rosenberg should have a good grasp of the character. After developing a Jessica Jones show for ABC, Marvel kept Rosenberg on the project when it moved to Netflix.

At last, a complicated female character, who happens to be a superhero, written and produced by a woman. I think it goes without saying but… I’m REALLY excited to see this show! I loved Krysten Ritter in Breaking Bad and Don’t Trust the B, and I think she’ll bring a lot of depth to a character that deserves to get noticed.  

The first season of Jessica Jones will premier on Netflix on November 20^th.

And if you want to learn more about Jessica Jones, I highly recommend this video from IGN. But, be warned. There are some mild *SPOILERS AHEAD*