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

Suicide Squad - DCEU Review Series

DCEU Review Series

Suicide Squad

2016

Director: David Ayer

There’s an extended version of this mess and that’s what we watched.  The concept is simple, it’s based off a comic where the government has taken a group of supervillains and puts them to work under duress to do covert assignments.  The comic is very popular.  The episode which features them in the DC Animated Universe is a perfect piece of television.  The film is a storyline disaster.  They toss a bunch of pop music in the film with no true correlation to the narrative.  They introduce the characters three different times and none of it progresses the plot.  

 

Viola Davis received praise for her performance in the DCEU as Amanda Waller but her character is total crap.  Good acting can’t fix terrible writing.  Her voiceovers are boring. Her character’s motivations are ridiculous.  In the comics Amanda Waller is a personality who’s changed based on the writer’s whim.  The film makes her a cold, calculating, powerful woman.  None of her personality traits are likeable.  Villains don’t have to be likeable or have redeeming qualities, trying to make unlikeable characters likeable can be a writing error.  But she’s the “hero” calling the shots in this film and all she does is spout out exposition with an attitude, slows down the plot, puts everyone to sleep.  Also, her monotone voice, it seems like she’s trying to get fired but still get her paycheck. 

 

The Batman cameos are pointless to the plot and only exists to tie the film to the bigger DCEU world.   The first 25 minutes can be cut and the film would work just fine with no issue.  The entire introduction via Amanda Waller exposition is pointless.  Each character doesn’t need her description.  A film’s plot progression should establish characters.  The next 25 minutes could be cut in half and the film would lose nothing.

 

What’s the point of The Joker via Jared Leto in this film? He runs around being weird and annoying and doesn’t progress the plot.  Just about every character and scene doesn’t progress the plot.  It’s a film of stagnation with poorly written characters.  Joker is the worst.  He could be completely cut from the film and it would make no difference to the story.  He was also trying very hard to be the anti-Health Ledger.  Ledger won an Oscar for his performance and Leto had big shoes to fill.  Yes, it’s a different universe but taking over a character associated with the last notable performance of a beloved actor’s career are big shoes to fill.  The DCEU and Leto completely dropped the ball.  

 

The good parts of this film are few and far between but we have Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn. She shines even without good writing and poor character development.  Will Smith as Deadshot is also enjoyable.  Smith has a special staff who follows him around and rewrites all his characters to fit his action film persona.  So his character and dialogue was likely ghost written to fit the Will Smith archetype.  

 

The basic plot is the Suicide Squad is assembled to rescue Amanda Waller, who kills her entire staff when, the Suicide Squad arrives to rescue her, because she’s a douchebag.  Rick Flagg’s girlfriend has bugged out and has brought an entire city to a standstill.  Suicide Squad puts all their villainous ways behind them and learn to work together to save the day.  This film might have worked if it was deeper into the DCEU run and we met these villains in other films.  Instead they were crammed into this disaster, we got an hour of character introduction, and plot 10-year-old children come up with while playing with their action figures. 

The film wraps up with Bruce Wayne cutting a deal with Amanda Waller, offering her protection in exchange for information.  Batman wouldn’t cut a deal with someone as evil as her.  She kills way too many innocent people for him to associate with a person like that.  But DC really wanted to copy the ending of The Incredible Hulk where Tony Stark pops in at the end promoting the Avengers movie.  That’s the only reason he is there, even though it’s against his character type.  But then again, this Batman killed a few people in Batman vs Superman so why does he care if Amanda Waller kills random people as long as it’s allowed by the government.  

 

It’s actually a better film than Batman vs Superman but the bar was set so low it doesn’t mean this follow-up is good.  Another piece of crap from the DCEU factory.  There are 12 more films after this.  It should be considered self-mutilation to keep watching at this point.  Please tune in next time as we review Wonder Woman.  

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

The X Generation - Hit or Miss

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

 

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

 Batman: The Animated Series

Episode 70

House & Garden

 

The ending of this episode is great. The build-up is a bit slow.  Poison Ivy has gone straight, meanwhile there are a bunch of crimes fitting her Modus Operandi.  Plants targeting rich people.  Batman investigates her and turns up nothing.  She’s married to her doctor Steven Carlyle who’s also a professor at Gotham University where Dick Grayson goes.  He has two sons Chris and Kelly.  Dick Grayson gets kidnapped and held for ransom.  

 

Some action and thrilling stuff happens, Batman saves Dick Grayson and he puts on his Robin suit to help solve the case.  Plot twist, Ivy is the villain.  Chris and Kelly are girls, not boys.  Ivy has been making plant clones of Steven Carlyle but could only make boys.  They have a limited lifecycle and eventually mutate into a giant green monster.  

 

Batman stops them by putting herbicide in the plant water.  Ivy made one last clone of herself, knowing Batman would likely stop her.  She bought enough time to escape.  The ending scene of her flying away crying is more poetic than anything.  Her fake happy life being married with two sons was the closest she’d ever get to normalcy.   

 

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

The X Generation - Power Rangers Theme Song

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

 

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

 Batman: The Animated Series

Episode 69

Avatar

 

Ra’s al Ghul is back from the dead causing problems.  He’s trying to solidify his immortality completely unconcerned with the fact that in 30 billion years the sun will turn red and expand consuming the earth.  Which means all immortals on the planet will be extremely uncomfortable for trillions of years until the sun eventually goes supernova.  It’s a problem all immortal character tropes never address in their quest to live forever. 

 

Batman teams up with his daughter Talhia al Ghul to stop him.  During their escapades it turns out Ra’s al Ghul was tricked and the thing promising immortality is some type of Egyptian zombie.  It’s some of the scariest animation you’ll ever see.  Not for a children’s program, not for a TV show, its just some scary animation.  Some of the best animation in the series and entire DCAU.  It completely saves a somewhat weak plot for what’s supposed to be one of Batman’s more epic villains.  

 

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

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice - DCEU Review Series

DCEU Review Series

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

2016

Director: Zack Snyder

If there’s an extended cut of a DC movie universe in this review series, we’re looking at it because watching the regular versions isn’t torturous enough.  In this “Ultimate Edition” it opens with Bruce Wayne’s parents getting murdered because no one knows the origin of Batman.  A ripped off visual from Batman Begins of this Bruce falling in the well and making friends with actual bats.  Thomas Wayne’s last words being Martha because that’s sadly an important plot point later on. 

 

The origin of Batman fighting Superman in this story is apparently, the creators’ inability to think of another villain for him to fight.  While it might be hard to come up with worthy adversaries for Superman, no one should be tapped by the second film.  

 

We’re then watching a flashback to Man of Steel during the Zod fight and Bruce Wayne is driving like a dick all around Metropolis trying to not die, or help people, or have a good excuse for speeding in a densely populated city.  He has no cell phone service which really bothers rich people and one of his buildings gets destroyed.  So now Batman and Superman aren’t allowed to be friends because some douchebag aliens picked a fight with Superman.  

Cut to: Lois Lane is interviewing some warlord in a generic Hollywood movie African desert country with Jimmy Olsen but it turns out Jimmy Olsen works for the CIA and gets killed.  Superman saves Lois Lane just in time but it causes the US government to care for some reason.  Some lady from the country of Africa hates Superman because some random kid of hers died.  The most ridiculous part of this sequence is killing off Jimmy Olsen.  Zach Snyder said in interviews since they weren’t using Jimmy Olsen in their universe they thought it’d be fun to kill him in the beginning of the film.  Yes, somehow the death of one of Superman’s closest friends in the comic book is “fun.” If that doesn’t say just how out of touch Snyder was with a mainstream audience, what does?  

 

Then around the 30-minute mark of this “Ultimate Cut” we start getting tossed countless quotes from Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns.  The graphic novel is directly quoted from the film so much throughout the film, Frank Miller should have been given a writing credit.  It’s one thing to pay homage it’s another to just lift line after line from a comic you’re doing a crappy version of.  

 

We then meet Lex Luthor and Jessie Eisenberg’s bipolar performance.  Was he deliberately trying to tank the performance so he wouldn’t have to appear in any sequels?   Every performance choice he makes is the wrong choice.  The best villains aren’t maniacally crazy.  The best villains are cool under pressure.  If you watch from a different point of view a person could actually root for the best villains in cinema.  This Lex Luthor is just annoying.  

Then we get what feels like unlimited hours of people talking to one another about stuff they don’t like.  All of it could be condensed into a plot that actually moves, but this, this is the Ultimate Cut!  The Ultimately Boring Cut.  It takes 50 minutes before we get our first glimpse at Wonder Woman and it’s as pointless as the rest of the film.  Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne have a little conversation and Bruce gets insulted that Clark doesn’t like Batman.  Meanwhile Bruce Wayne typically makes fun of Batman in public in order to maintain his cover.  But in this interaction, there’s all this tension about Clark disliking a vigilante because they’re destined to fight at the end of the film.  I keep hoping the film will just abruptly end and put me out of my misery but there’s no such mercy granted, still over two hours left in this snooze fest. 

 

We see a montage of Superman saving people as if it’s the most horrible thing that’s ever happened.  In every Superman film that ever-made sense, he saves people and it’s a good thing, people are happy.  In this depressing crap universe, somehow people hate Superman.  In reality they would be the minority, people like heroes. Also, what is Holly Hunter doing? She’s wasting everyone’s time pushing a boring plot along with stupid comments. Why is the only action in the film a 20-minute dream sequence?  That’s right, Batman’s biggest beef with Superman is over a bad dream he had about him.  There’s no actual reason these guys should be fighting except the title of the film says so.  We also get a lame Flash cameo saying Superman is bad. 

 

At the halfway mark some dude whom got paralyzed in the Zod battle in Man of Steel decides to blow-up the capital building while Superman appears before some useless subcommittee.  He stands there like a tool as it happens.  And the plot hits another standstill.  This isn’t a slow-paced film, it’s a no-paced film. Wheelchair guy smuggled the secret explosive wheelchair in with the help of Lex Luthor to help turn public opinion against Superman.  I’m falling asleep just thinking about it. Pointless plot twist, the dude didn’t plan to blow up anything, Luthor set it all up. 

Then we get a workout montage, a kryptonite montage, a Justice League movie advertisement (because you have to plug the bigger franchise in these films).  What we don’t get is plot progression. Lex Luthor decides to create Doomsday with his DNA and the dead body of Zod.  Kevin Costner comes back for no reason and mumbles a bunch of nonsense.  

 

Superman’s mom gets kidnapped. Batman puts on a mehca-suit.  Lois Lane gets kidnapped to draw Superman out. Lex Luthor uses Superman’s mom as a hostage to fight Batman.  They could have just opened the film with this and saved us a ton of time. It wouldn’t have improved the movie but at least it would have been shorter. 

 

At the two hour mark they finally start fighting because this Batman is a total jerk who barely uses his brain and doesn’t try to talk it out at all.  It’s not a particularly exciting fight.  It goes back and forth a little and Batman uses some kryptonite gadgets that takes out Superman.  As he’s about to deliver the final blow Superman starts ranting about his mother Martha and Batman decides to become his best friend because they have a mom with the same name.  All fights between dudes are settled when dudes find out their moms have the same name. 

 

Batman goes to save Martha Kent while Superman goes to hangout on a boat.  Batman saves Martha by killing a bunch of dudes because that’s what this Batman does. Superman confronts Lex Luthor whose lame version of Doomsday appears.  He’s a rip-off of the cave trolls from Lord of the Rings.  Now everyone is scared of Doomsday for no reason whatsoever.  The government launches missiles at Superman and Doomsday which do nothing and make no sense.  Superman is taken out of commission for a while.  So Batman fights Doomsday with his tech.  He sucks at his job.  Wonder Woman shows up and saves Batman at the 2-hour 30-minute mark and is the only person with any personality and the movie wakes up for a moment.  Superman pops back on the scene.  It’s become a mildly interesting story while they all team up to fight Lord of the Rings cave troll Doomsday.  Lois is there doing Lois things.  Superman sacrifices his life to stop Doomsday and there’s twenty minutes left.  It won’t end, it will never end.  This is absolute torture. 

 

Lex Luthor gets arrested.  They shave his head because that’s how he ended up bald in this world.  The concept of hair growing back is nonexistent in the Snyderverse.  People are sad about Superman after hating him the entire film.  There’s a funeral.  Batman decides to form the Justice League.  

 

Boring film, a plot that moves slower than molasses, terribly written characters, lackluster action.  It’s only the second film in the franchise.  A horrible closing speech that’s supposed to inspire people without a single piece of optimism. A ton of plugs for the franchise.  Zack Snyder has no concept of positivity or entertainment.  Don’t watch this movie.  It’s horrible. Save yourself three hours and watch paint dry. At least when you watch paint dry you’re rewarded with a newly colored wall. 

 

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

The X Generation - Smooth Criminal

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

 

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

 Batman: The Animated Series

Episode 68

Trial

 

Almost Got ‘Im 2.0.  It’s a good episode and certainly funny to see how all the rogues interact with one another.  But somehow it lacks complexity for a “All of Batman’s rogues in the same episode.”  There’s a new District Attorney who hates Batman and wants him in jail with the nuts he fights. There is an uprising in Arkham, the DA and Batman end up captured and she’s forced to defend him in a mock trial about if Batman created them, if found guilty Batman and the DA will be killed.  They lightly go through the history of some of the rogues’ origins.  The DA comes to the realization that Batman is needed and these villains would have cropped up in some form or another even without Batman.  In a nice twist the rogues jury find Batman not guilty but decide to kill them anyway.  Enough time lapsed for Batman to escape his bounds and defeat all the bad guys.  The DA leaves with a new respect for Batman.   

 

It’s as if the writers were sitting around and said “Almost Got ‘Im was popular, let’s do that but up the stakes.”  The endearing part of this episode is how it’s determined Batman isn’t the cause of the villains, they are the ones who created him.  A nice point of view, especially when looking back at the origin of these villains.  Batman is the side character in most of their stories, he comes into play after they flip out and try to kill people.  

 

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