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

Superman: The Animated Series

Episode 17

Livewire

 

Livewire is a custom made villain for the TV show because the writers wanted to flesh out Superman’s rogues gallery.  Leslie Willis starts out as a female Howard Stern copy who talks trash about Superman for ratings.  During a big anti-Superman rally she is hosting in the Metropolis version of Central Park, a lightning storm happens.  Superman shows up and tries to convince the crowd to disperse, for their own safety.  The crowd refuses, Willis incites them.  Lightning strikes, Superman tries to stop her from getting struck, in the process they both get struck and she ends up with electric super powers. 

 

It’s the most tired trope in television and film.  Lightning is this magical finger from the gods that gives abilities to everyone who comes across it.  Once you get past the trope the episode moves along.  Livewire looks all white and blue now.  She’s upset she looks like a freak but she’s actually much hotter than her human self ever did. 

 

She discovers her electric powers and holds the city hostage for money.  It’s a ridiculous plan.  She’s a popular radio DJ who was deformed in a freak accident. She could make more money with a book deal or possibly a lawsuit against the city.  Holding the city ransom with the power of electricity is not needed.  She could easily land a job with her electric powers and not have to resort to super villain status.  There could be a logical argument for insanity in her case. Her physical transformation could have affected her mind and caused her to freak out.  

 

Superman confronts her and during the fight she gets water all over her and totally fries her abilities.  She’s catatonic and placed in special holding facility to return again later.  

 

The villain herself is great.  Her origin is weak.  How can Superman being struck by lightning transfer powers to other people?  If a piece of his power is now in her, how can she ever be a challenge for Superman?  He’s still the stronger one.  Giving him a weakness to extreme electricity is believable.  If someone can generate enough voltage, Superman can be hurt.  It appears the writers struggled to create comparable adversaries to Superman.  Ultimately they succeeded but the episode demonstrates how thin they were truly stretched in this endeavor.  

 

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

The Flash - DCEU Review Series

DCEU Review Series

The Flash

2023

Director: Andy Muschietti

 

We’ve talked about reasons to boycott this film and stand true to that stance.  Our main issues stem from Ezra Miller’s poor conduct and how WB had the ability to edit him out and recast him, considering the money they dropped on Batgirl and didn’t release the film.  A few extra dollars replacing the star actor with a person who has better morals is certainly possible with the technology.  Kevin Spacy was completely removed from All the Money in the World and replaced with Christopher Plummer. 

 

With that said, even without the controversies of its leading man, the CGI is something out of 1998.  It looks cheap and unrealistic.  Flash saves a bunch of babies from falling out of a building and it’s the worst effects ever.  It’s not compelling, funny, entertaining, or important to the plot. Ezra Miller’s performance with his high squealed voice and comedic timing is grating on the ears when leading a film.  

 

Ben Affleck and Gal Gadot return as Batman and Wonder Woman in their last appearances to-date.  Some lame jokes occur, coupled with lame action.  The movie then tries to set up Barry Allen just like Peter Parker in Spider-Man 2 but with none of the interest or endearment that film had.  The nondescript Indian/Pakistany boss that’s a douchebag to him but also saying he likes him was ripped right from Spider-Man 2. 

 

We then get some lame clunky exposition about Barry’s family history.  The film tries to not make it clunky, they just failed.  Some points for effort at least. Barry wants to travel back in time to stop his mom from getting killed and his dad being framed for her death.  Bruce Wayne tells him it’s a bad idea.  

 

He ignores the advice and goes back anyway.  Flash changes crap, causes problems.  Then starts talking to his past self. His past self is a bigger more annoying douchebag than present self.  It’s supposed to be funny but it’s just annoying.  The film unknowingly acknowledges the annoying thinking it’s being funny but nope, just annoying.  The time doubles is painful.  Doubling up on an unlikable actor, playing the same character, with that screeching voice, is nails on a chalkboard. 

 

Older Flash loses his powers in the time whammy but makes certain Young Flash gets his powers.  Old Flash thinks that will power him up but it doesn’t work.  His fiddling with time takes us back to Man of Steel and the Zod invasion is happening.  This is actually a cool idea, though not very original, they go back to the film which starts the entire DCEU. The intent of this film, was a soft reboot of the DCEU but it evolved into a hard reboot.  The Flash’s time alterations have caused all these crazy changes to history.  

 

Flash and Young Flash pay a visit to Bruce Wayne for advice but come across Michael Keaton Batman instead on Ben Affleck Batman because time has changed him.  Michael Keaton explains time as a river, not fixed points.  Therefore if you change something in the past it ripples backwards and forward.  An original and appreciated twist on time the travel trope.  

 

Keaton’s appearance adds a nice balance of energy but is far different from the version of Batman he played in 1989.  As required when using super heroes who are “retired,” they always say no first, then after plot progression change their mind and say yes.  In this case he experiences no plot progression, just randomly changes his mind.  Batman agrees to help the Flashes to find Superman in order to stop Zod.  

 

Batman and the Flashes bust into some government compound and we see Batman pull off fighting moves that he never did in Batman 1989 or Batman forever.  He’s not the same guy.  The director wants us to feel nostalgia, but he never fought like that.  Or maybe the creators wanted Christian Bale to comeback but he said no.  They come across Supergirl while trying to find Kal L.  She’s being kept in a red sun chamber to stifle her powers.  Once she gets some sun she proceeds to beat the crap out of all the guards at the facility.  

 

They return to Wayne Manor and Batman offers to help Older Flash get his powers back.  Supergirl steps in to add the final touch. Supergirl, Batman, both Flashes team-up to stop Zod.  Fights ensue, nothing spectacular or interesting.  They fail but Young Flash decides to go back in time and start making fixes, Old Flash follows.  They do this a few times and keep failing.  Young Flash bugs the fuck out and keeps trying which causes all the universes to collide.  Then they start fighting a really old Flash.  We see a few different versions of DC characters in films through the years.  A crappy CGI Christopher Reeves Superman, 1960s Batman, a funny nod to the film that never was Nicholas Cage Superman fighting a giant spider.  Older Flash realizes he needs to let his mom get violently murdered in order to save all of existence.  

 

The only time change he can do is allow his dad to be exonerated for her murder.  His alteration causes George Clooney to become Batman.  It’s supposed to be funny but Miller overplays the joke and ruins it.  

 

This film is a turdfest.  Whatever decent parts and ruined by a poorly acted and written lead character.  Supergirl was cool, Michal Keaton Batman was enjoyable.  Ezra Miller ruins this film.  It’s not even his personal life actions. It’s his horrible acting.  After this the rest of the DCEU is just burn off because they were too far into production to cancel the projects outright.  

 

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

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

Superman: The Animated Series

Episode 15 & 16

Blasts From the Past Part I & Part II

The creators did their Zod episode without actually calling the big bad Zod.  Zod’s origin traces back to the comic but became popular via his portrayal in the films by Terrance Stamp.  For unknown reasons the creators chose to use the comic character Jax-Ur who was a mad scientist but give him a Zod backstory.  Before we even see Zod we get Mala.

 

Superman is hanging out with his buddy Professor Emil Hamilton and they are fiddling with Superman’s spaceship.  Hamilton discovers the Phantom Zone projector and a monster is accidentally unleashed.  After an action sequence Superman puts the monster back in the Phantom Zone and hears Mala complain she should be paroled.  Since Krypton was destroyed no one has been monitoring the Kryptonian prison and there’s a backlog on prison releases.

 

Superman investigates her history via the Brainiac orb (that somehow doesn’t contain Brainiac’s essence) and learns she’s not lying.  He sets her free.  He teaches her about earth and how to use her powers.  He hopes to have an alley in is fight to make a world a safer place.  She turns out to be a war mongering nut job.  When she realizes Superman is not her kind of guy she decides to free her old boss Jax-Ur.  

Jax-Ur and Mala plan to conquer Earth.  Superman can’t let that happen.  In his efforts to stop them, he whips out the Kryptonite while in his led toy selling suit and it totally messes them up but they are still able to zap him into the Phantom Zone along with the eradiated rock.  They proceed to destroy the projector but Professor Hamilton is able to make a new one and set Superman free.  He then confronts the bad guys and puts them back in the Phantom Zone.  

 

It’s not a bad episode but Jax-Ur and Mala are poor substitutes for Zod and Ursa.  The characters are almost identical in attitude but they never pack the punch that should come along with militant Kryptonians.  Perhaps it’s the lack of fighting which diminishes their impact.  Superman doesn’t beat them through brute strength but more through trickery.  The day is saved but they were two characters Superman could have beaten to a pulp but instead just blasts them back to the Phantom Zone.  

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

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

 Superman: The Animated Series

Episode 14

The Prometheon

 

An underrated gem of an episode, Superman is helping General Hardcastle and friends along with Professor Emil Hamilton stop an asteroid from hitting Earth.  It turns out there is a living creature strapped to the asteroid and Superman and Hamilton want to not kill hit.  Hardcastle wants to blow it out of the sky.  While trying to come up with a better solution the creature awakens and crashes to Earth.  

 

It turns out the creature feeds off fire, heat, explosions.  Superman at the suggestion of Hamilton, moved the asteroid into Earth’s orbit.  The sun awoke it but Harcastle’s plan of blowing it up would have done the same thing.  So everyone was wrong in this situation. 

 

The monster was created by some aliens for labor but it went crazy so they had to banish it.  They left easy to translate instructions about its life story.  Hamilton determines the best way to stop the monster is to freeze it. There’s a special chemical that can pull this off if Superman get’s the monster in a large body of water.  Superman achieves this goal.  The monster is likely shipped off to the North or South poles until climate change will eventually wake it up in the distant future.  

 

This was General Hardcastle’s first appearance in the DCAU and while he’s working with Superman in this episode, he’s a complete moron who doesn’t like or trust Superman.  He works as a nice foil for Hamilton and Superman.  The Prometheon is a solid antagonist whose motives aren’t malicious.  It’s just a malfunctioning creation who is following its programing.  

 

It’s a solid villain and credible threat who cannot be defeated with pure strength, Superman has to rely on his wits to stop the foe.  It’s a genuinely enjoyable dilemma.  

 

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

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

Superman: The Animated Series

Episode 13

Two's a Crowd

 

The parasite returns and his follow-up episode is better than his origin.  Earl Garver (voiced by Brian Cox!!!) holds Metropolis hostage with a bunch of bombs.  Superman tries to stop him but Garver ends up in a coma while fighting off Superman.  A solid example of why Superman takes a bit of a pounding from people during fights.  He’s trying to find the right level of strength that won’t hurt people in the process.  

 

There are more bombs around town but since Garver is unconscious they can’t get the information out of him. Professor Emil Hamilton is involved in the police operation for some reason and he gets the bright idea to use the parasite to read Garver’s mind.  The parasite agrees on the condition he gets a TV in his cell with all the channels, a fair deal.  Garver’s mental strength is more powerful than Parasite and he overtakes his body.  

 

There’s a sequence that takes place underwater and Superman wears a wetsuit in an effort to sell more action figures.  Garver starts causing more problems while controlling the parasite and even sucks away some of Superman’s power.  Superman eventual triumphs and the day is saved.  Parasite gets his TV and Garver goes to jail. 

 

It is a great follow-up to the Parasite origin story.  Garver’s personality taking over Parasite’s body is a nice twist.  The creators are doing a great job creating riveting challenges for the Man of Steel. 

 

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

Shazam! Fury of the Gods - DCEU Review Series

DCEU Review Series

Shazam! Fury of the Gods

2023

Director: David F Sandberg

 

As stated in prior reviews, the DCEU should have built its universe around Shazam and ditched the Darkseid agenda planned out by Zack Snyder.  Too bad Shazam! Fury of the Gods didn’t get the memo.  DC decided to make a mediocre film which tanked the Captain Marvel franchise.  

 

The film opens with Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu causing problems.  Their antics are not very film worthy.  It’s as if they were making a TV version of an action film.  Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu have the Wizard Shazam held prisoner.  They want him to fix a magic stick they stole.  

 

The save the cat gimmick is applied to the Captain Marvel family via a bridge collapsing.  They save everyone on the bridge and avoid a Final Destination 5 scenario.  We learn the family has redecorated the Wizard Shazam’s layer in a way teenagers would.  There’s some family tension because its required to make a movie.

 

Freddie is still getting bullied by the same kids from the first film.  In this first film they drove a car into him which makes them at least 16 (legal age to drive in Pennsylvania).  Billy Batson was 14 in that film.  In this film Billy is 17 going on 18 and almost about to age out of foster care.  So the dudes who drove into Freddie, who are still in high school, should be 19.  Maybe they got left back, but 19 and still in high school is pushing it.  Also, bullying a cripple kid is really messed up.  How evil are those kids? Freddie has a crush on the girl from Snow White that everyone seems to hate.  

 

The Wizard reaches out to Billy with a vague warning that Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu are causing problems.  Freddie’s crush causes problems and it leads to Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu to steal his powers.  These ladies are really pissed off at Captain Marvel for no reason at all.  They kidnap Freddie and he has a comedic pow-wow with the Wizard.  Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu try to get the identity of the Marvel family and Freddie tries to sellout his school bullies.  The ladies don’t fall for it. 

 

The remaining members of the Marvel family are trying to come up with a way to save Freddie.  There are some solid jokes throughout the film which sell really well when you get your characters right.  Shazam certainly had that down.  Snow White helps Freddie and the Wizard bust out of their captivity. 

Captain Marvel gets into a fight with Helen Mirren and takes her back to the Wizard’s lair.  She breaks out of her cell steals an apple and books it back to her home.  Lucy Liu wants to plant the apple on Earth and destroy it.  Captain Marvel shows up, Freddie gets his powers back they go back to earth.

 

They must have cut some scenes because the entire family is back home and they tell their foster parents they are super heroes.  Everyone is attacked by a Lucy Liu on a giant dragon.  She wants to get the apple.  Lucy Liu gets the apple and plants it in Citizens Bank Park because baseball fields are named after dumb corporations which is a major reflection on the downfall of classic Americana and the overtaking of commercialism.  The film doesn’t even try to broach that theme.  

 

A giant tree grows and a ton of monsters come out and attack everyone.  Snow White shows up and offers to help stop the chaos.  The Wizard gives Captain Marvel a rah-rah speech.  There’s a tender moment between Billy and his foster mother. Captain Marvel flies off to save the day.  

 

Lucy Liu has the dragon kill Helen Mirren.  Snow White loses her powers. The Marvel family befriends unicorns and fights all the monsters popping out of the tree.   Shazam befriends Helen Mirren who isn’t completely dead.  He convinces her to help him defeat Lucy Liu.  He basically makes a bomb.  He blows up Lucy Liu, Helen Mirren dies, the tree disintegrates along with all the monsters, Billy Batson dies.  

 

He can only be resurrected by the staff but it has no magic left.  Only a god can power up the staff.  Wonder Woman shows up and juices up the staff, gives Snow White her powers back, and Billy comes back from the dead.  He hits on her, she rejects him.  Freddie ends up dating Snow White.  Happy ending for all.  Amanda Whaler’s employees pop up and offer Captain Marvel the option to join the Justice Society, he accepts. 

 

The post credits scene shows Dr Sivana meeting up with Mr Mind again.  Apparently he disappeared for two years since their last conversation.  This could be just a gag or a clever way to passive aggressively wrap up the fact no other movies are getting made.  Mr Mind might not actually have any way to implement his plans and he just runs around with a lot of schemes he can’t actually pull off.  

 

Overall the film isn’t bad. It has funny moments. It’s not as good as the first film but not horrible.  It got slammed by critics and failed at the box office.  This film really should have done a little better and is certainly much more entertaining than most of the other DCEU films.  Since DC ditched the Zack Snyder tones, the films have gotten lighter, more fun.  Snyder seemed to be pushing an anti-Marvel method of dark and brooding.  But Snyder had no clue about what made comic characters so well liked.  Shazam embraced the fun aspects of comic book action films.  It makes this the last decent film in the DCEU.  

 

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

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