The X Generation - Hash Pipe

 Cuculi presents Live Beats music of the 90s & 00s.

 

The DC Animated Universe Weekly Review - Batman: The Animated Series

 Batman: The Animated Series

Episode 74

Catwalk

 

Not a particularly great episode.  It combos a few plot points which are becoming tropes for BtAS at this point. Catwoman is feeling angst because she can’t be a thief, has opinions about animal conservation, wants to live a more exciting life.  Scarface pops up and hires her to commit a crime.  She agrees but is actually used as a decoy while Scarface steals a bunch of other McGuffins.  She doesn’t like getting played and clears her name.  Batman obviously gets involved and helps save the day.

 

Catwoman was done fairly well as a character but her plots were becoming redundant.  They salvage her at the end of the series but this episode as an angsty Catwoman topped off with douchebag Scarface is more annoying than entertaining.  We stated in his introduction episode that Scarface isn’t a well-liked villain by us.  This episode rings true to that.  

 

One of the better things about Scarface is that he keeps the same lackeys.  The loyalty to his employees is commendable.  Two-Face, Joker, Penguin have new goons whenever they appear in an episode.  Scarface is consistent with his bad guy support team. 

 

Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

The X Generation - My Own Worst Enemy

 Cuculi presents Live Beats music of the 90s & 00s.

 

The DC Animated Universe Weekly Review - Batman: The Animated Series

 Batman: The Animated Series

Episode 73

Time Out of Joint

 

The return of The Clock King, while not as exciting as his introduction episode, it’s not a horrible episode.  Clock King is still seeking revenge on Mayor Hamilton Hill.  This time he steals some tech from a scientist that made a device that slows down time for anyone wearing it.  Clock King is using it to steal some items for cash and blow up the mayor.  Batman and Robin are able to stop him “in-time” from succeeding.  

 

The gimmick of a device that can slowdown or even stop time isn’t new to television.  There’s a twilight zone episode that addresses it fairly well.  Giving this device to Clock King is the logical movie.  A man obsessed with time committing time based crimes fits perfectly.  What keeps the episode from being as epic as his introduction is it fails to use Clock Kings obsession with punctuality.  He was a formidable rogue for Batman due to his ability use schedules and timing to his advantage.  That’s not prevalent in his follow-up episode.

 

Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

 

Jim Shooter Passes Away

Comic book writer Jim Shooter has passed away from cancer. He's best known for his tenure as Editor in Chief of Marvel Comics from 1978 - 1987. Almost all the stories you love from the Marvel films were conceptualized in some way from creators during his tenure as editor. There's too much to say about his contributions to the comic book world and pop culture.

On a personal note, I was invited on a ride along to film him in his limo, as he toured Long Island comic shops on Free Comic Book Day in 2011. It was one of the coolest experiences I ever had. I showed up wearing my Secret Wars t-shirt (one of my favorite stories), completely forgetting he wrote the mini-series. He complimented my shirt and it jogged my memory that he was the writer. I played it off that it was worn on purpose. 

The rule “never meet your heroes” certainly didn’t apply to Jim Shooter. He was nothing but gracious and kind. He had a wealth of knowledge and spent the day telling stories about his career in comics. At the end of the day he signed a couple of my trade paperbacks that he wrote. An unforgettable experience. 

As the years went on I’d continue to run into him at cons. He was always incredibly awesome, would share insight on how he wrote and techniques he used. As I learned more about him, I discovered he was a generous mentor to anyone who wanted to break into comics. He’d give honest feedback to people who approached him. There are a lot of creators out there who credit their career to Jim Shooter. Not only have we lost a great creator, we also lost a great person. 

Praying for Jim Shooter and his family.

Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

Here’s some clips from that ride along on Free Comic Book Day.

Wonder Woman - DCEU Review Series

DCEU Review Series

Wonder Woman

2017

Director: Patty Jenkins

Folks went nuts over this film and it’s not because it’s spectacular.  It just happened to be the best DCEU film to come out at the time.  It’s not terrible but it’s certainly not great.  It’s average.  We get a drawn-out origin story on the island of all women and a little girl version of Wonder Woman with a terrible accent.  We get some boring backstory about a hidden weapon which can kill a god which the all women island has, the twist is telegraphed so bad they could have tattooed if on Wonder Woman’s head.  She’s the god killer.  It’s painful when you can call a twist like that within seconds. 

 

Then she’s an adult and Steve Trevor shipwrecks on this island, a fight breaks out between the island babes and the WW I Germans who were following Trevor.  Why is it WW I? Because DC can’t completely tip off Captain America and set it in WW II.  So they just took a digit off the war.  The Germans of WW I weren’t evil like the Nazi’s of WW II.  Sadly, most folks are completely ignorant of history and don’t even know the difference.  Hollywood called that one right.  

 

All the women on the island talk like they’re cavemen or heavy smokers. It’s incredibly annoying.  Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) does his best William Shatner overacting impression while under the influence of the magic lasso, forcing him to spew out a bunch of film exposition. 

Some woman is making poison gas and Stevie boy has the intel which can stop them.  Wonder Woman is like, yo that’s our mortal enemy Ares (the Greek god of war).  Of course her mother/amazon leader doesn’t want her to go.  She goes against orders and takes off with Steve Trevor anyway.  

 

It moves a little slow on the island with some moments of humor which are mildly amusing.  The moments between Gal Gadot and Chris Pine are enjoyable but even their chemistry doesn’t make the plot any better.  

 

Wonder Woman is swept into the contemporary world of the early 20^th century.  She’s somehow the strongest/wisest person in the world and super naïve at the same time.  There are lots of comedic moments.  Then she starts nagging every guy she meets when things don’t go the way she wants.  Her voice becomes nails on a chalkboard.  We cannot forget Wonder Woman’s awe of Sir Patrick Morgan who’s proclaiming peace and “curse your sudden by inevitable betrayal” he’s actually Ares.  Another lame twist anyone with a walnut sized brain could see from a mile away.

When Steve Trevor cannot convince his leaders to perform an operation to end the war, Trevor recruits a bunch of other randos with annoying accents to infiltrate enemy lines.  Every guy that meets her is in love with her.  Probably the best part of the film is when Diana comes across a traditional WW I battlefield and leads a charge over a “no man’s land” ending a standstill.  The Wonder Woman nag fest wasn’t fun but the action was cool.  And of course in all major fights women have to let their hair down to kick ass, not put it up.  

 

After the cool action sequence, the film completely stops in its tracks to develop the love story between Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor.  Then they infiltrate some party which is also German High Command because all generals throw fancy dances in the middle of a war.  

 

Wonder Woman is convinced some German general is Ares in disguise but everyone with half a brain already knows it’s the Sir Patrick.  When she finally kills the German guy who’s a total douchebag and has it coming, nothing happens.  Then she starts nagging again with that screech because the war doesn’t end.  For all the fun stuff in this movie, Wonder Nagger sucks the energy out.  Ares shows up so now she has to have another fight with the actual big bad. 

 

They spend way too much time talking and not enough time fighting.  Steve Trevor cannot just sit on the sidelines because whenever a girl is the action hero, the male love interest has to have his own moment of saving people.  But when the guy is the action hero, the woman can just be a damsel in distress.  Steve dies trying to prevent toxic gas from killing a bunch of people.  Wonder Woman is busy fighting Ares so she can’t save her man from dying. 

 

She defeats the bad guy.  The war ends.  We get some lame voiceover about love saving the world.  Overall the film is entertaining but it’s really not good. It moves slow and the action does not balance out the boredom.  It’s was certainly the best DCEU film made up to this point but the threshold is low.  It’s a rip off of Marvel’s Captain America, changing just enough around to avoid copyright infringement.  I’d complain about the characters but the film really only seems to have two; Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor.  The rest is background dressing.  Even the villain is barely featured in this story.  DC thought they cracked the formula with this because of all the positive press they received and money they made but it was window dressing.  

 

Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

The X Generation - LOVESONG

 Cuculi presents Live Beats music of the 90s & 00s.

 

The DC Animated Universe Weekly Review - Batman: The Animated Series

 Batman: The Animated Series

Episode 72

Harlequinade

 

Another great episode featuring Harley Quinn, and the reason she’s become so beloved in DC comics.  The creators even manage to fit a song and dance number into the episode and it fits like a glove.  The Joker steals a nuclear bomb and holds the city hostage.  Harley Quinn is recruited by Batman and friends to help find him and stop the bomb from going off.  

 

Harley steals the show in this one.  It goes into her motivations as a villain, her backstory, her anti-hero persona starts to shine.  Batman is a little out of character in this episode by tolerating Harley’s hijinks but it works for the story.  

 

Harley eventually double-crosses the dynamic duo and joins up with the Joker but Batman and Robin use clever psychology and Harley takes down the joker.  Joker is at his funniest in this episode, his plan is truly evil and when it fails his reaction is unpredictable.  The twist of Joker keeping the mayor hostage and Harley seeing right through it is genius writing.

 

Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com

The X Generation - i wanna be sedated

 Cuculi presents Live Beats music of the 90s & 00s.

 

The DC Animated Universe Weekly Review - Batman: The Animated Series

 Batman: The Animated Series

Episode 71

The Terrible Trio

 

Not a very exciting episode.  The villains aren’t likable at all.  Their motivation for the crimes aren’t relatable.  Batman shouldn’t have the problems he does taking them down.  Three rich guys are bored and decide to do robberies.  The crimes get more and more reckless until Batman eventually stops them.  

 

It’s a nice twist from the standard crazy villain batman deals with but the episode truly lacks real excitement and fun.  Perhaps it’s because these aren’t the standard villains Batman faces off against that make the episode such a dud.  Every story choice made is the correct choice but the episode just doesn’t hold up.   Perhaps the problem is this story can be applied to any procedural crime show and still work. It is not uniquely Batman and feels more like a Magnum PI episode. 

 

Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com