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

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

The X Generation - THE MIDDLE

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

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

 Batman: The Animated Series

Episode 67 

A Bullet for Bullock

 

Another underrated episode.  This episode explores the character Harvey Bullock.  He’s a cop who hates Batman that leaves fans wondering why Commissioner Gordon doesn’t just fire him, why is he part of the inner circle?  His episode sums up his character fairly well.  He’s a cop who’s very rough around the edges but ultimately a good person.  He’s not crooked, just a jerk.  Bullock wants to put an end to crime just as much as Batman does.  His dislike for the caped crusader while not thoroughly explained or justified in the episode, at least makes you understand what type of person he is.  It was based on the Detective Comics #651 and was as solid of an adaptation that anyone can ask for.  

 

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

DCEU Review Series

DCEU Review Series

Man of Steel

2013

Zack Snyder

The hype and excitement around this film was too large to meet expectation.  Superman is a beloved icon in comics and film.  Everyone has an opinion, Christopher Reeves will forever loom over any Superman project as the quintessential definition of the character.  He set the standard. So it’s already working off a deficit.   

 

There’s the infamous Tim Burton/Nicholas Cage failed Superman project of the 1990s.  That lead to Superman Returns (2006), a loosely defined sequel film directed by Brian Singer starring Brandon Routh in the mid 2000s.   Superman Returns made over $391 million and was considered a failure.  It lacked a certain action dynamic but the characters were consistent with the world Richard Donner created back in the 1970s.

But here we are 7 years later, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is killing it at the box office and Warner Brothers wants a piece of the superhero pie.  They tap into their most iconic characters to create a universe to compete with Marvel.  Christopher Nolan is pulled in as a producer.  He had just come off massive critical acclaim and financial success from The Dark Knight Trilogy.  He was teamed up with Zach Snyder whose first feature was a commercial friendly translation the more art provoking George A Romero Dawn of the Dead.  (Side note the Snyder version was written by 2025 Superman director James Gunn). Snyder’s Dawn of the Dead was less artistic but more action packed, made a ton of money, well received by fans and critics. Snyder’s follow up films were other comic book adaptations; 300 and Watchmen.  Those films seemed to be page for page adaptations, lacked any real depth or originality.  He copied the material without understanding the material.  It led to inconsistent performances and visuals that didn’t match the tones of the source comics.  Each film made tons of money though and comic fans had more to like in those films than to hate.  

 

Therefore Zach Snyder teaming up with Christopher Nolan to make a Superman film should have been Warner Brothers/DC printing their own money. What we ended up with was a bleak and depressing character.  The studio pushed for a dark gritty story because Nolan’s Batman was a successfully told dark gritty story.  The only problem is Batman is a dark character.  Superman is about American optimism.  An immigrant coming to America, adopting its culture, becoming beloved by the people as he supports truth, justice, and the American way. Snyder missed the memo.  

 

It all comes down to how Superman defeats the villain Zod. He not only kills Zod, he breaks his neck.  It has been pointed out that Christopher Reeves threw Zod down a bottomless pit and killed him, but it was far less graphic.  Christopher Nolan stated to the press he argued in the writers’ room not to have Superman kill Zod.  He lost the faceoff. Snyder got the film he wanted.  Nolan didn’t produce additional DCEU films after first film.  Nothing has ever been publicly stated but the writing seems to be on the wall.  Nolan was unhappy with the direction of this new DC franchise and left to pursue other projects.  

 

So let’s look at the story in its entirety.  It opens with Superman’s dad Jor El (played by Russel Crowe) dealing with the fall of the planet Kypton.  The action was intensified compared to the original Marlon Brando portrayal.  Zod is leading a rebellion against Krypton while Jor El is working his own game to save his son and Krypton’s lineage.  Government ineptitude has caused them to ignore signs the planet is being destroyed which dominoed into the rebellion.  Zod’s rebellion is stopped, him and his soldiers are tossed into the phantom zone.  Jor-El launches his son Kal-El in a single ship to Earth to save him.  Krypton is destroyed, Kal-El crashes on Earth, is adopted by American farmers Jonathan and Martha Kent, and raised as an Earthling. They name him Clark and raise him as their own son.  

 

This version of the Kent’s are more paranoid.  They raise him with the constant worry his secret will be discovered.  That paranoia oozes through the entire plot, infecting its story with melancholy.  It doesn’t get more Americana in cinema than Diane Lane and Kevin Costner but their characters really suck the air out of the room.  Jonathan Kent is telling his son to let people die so no one knows he has superpowers. He eventually gets himself killed during a tornado while trying to save the family dog.  His teenage son (who looks thirty) could have saved Johnathan Kent but waves him off because a ton of people might see him get rescued.  Absolute travesty of writing, anyone who thinks that’s great characterization has no clue what makes Superman such a popular hero.  

 

Then we have Lois Lane chasing down leads about an alien space ship which leads into her tracking down Clark Kent.  She figures out Clark Kent has powers before Superman even exists.  That change isn’t so terrible but it doesn’t match the source material.  The real issue is the overall treatment of the plot being an “alien first encounter” film. 

At some point Zod and his cronies escape the Phantom Zone and track Kal-El to earth.  They make a bunch of weird threats demanding Kal-El be turned over.  There’s some boring philosophical debates on if he should “save the world” as if we think he’ll keep hiding.  The conversation about it is boring and we know what he’s going to do.  He’s going to become Superman.  So why is thirty minutes devoted to this?  Then he has to earn the trust of the government and Earth and stuff.  It gets pretty boring, though not cliché. 

 

He confronts Zod, tries to play nice in the sandbox, eventually an epic battle takes place.  Superman wins but massive devastation happens in the process.  Basically an entire city is destroyed, millions are probably dead.  All because Kryptonians with superpowers fight on Earth.  We then get the infamous neck breaking scene.  Zod is about to kill some family with his laser vision as Superman has him in a hold.  Somehow the people can’t make a run for it so Superman breaks his neck and cries like a little baby about it.   It’s graphic and lame and the thing that makes Superman awesome is he finds better ways to save people than just killing the bad guy.  Also, the people could have just ran out of the way.  They weren’t cornered to the point they could shimmy around the fallen pillar and the lasers.  There’s bad plot and there’s bad blocking.  You can forgive plot holes for solid emotion, forgiving bad blocking is hard and ultimately a failure of the director.  

 

The day is saved, Superman keeps getting tracked by the government because of, reasons.  He’s all like, I want to be a hero in my own way, and flies off.  Then the Daily Planet where Lois Lane works gets a new reporter named Clark Kent and Lois is all googly-eyed because it’s really Superman. 

It’s a tolerable film and as the first in a giant crossover franchise it leaves people hopeful for better films to come.  Unfortunately, Zack Snyder doesn’t understand happy since he’s just Michael Bay without the racism and sexism.  So what we get is a series of follow-up films all devoted to dark and gritty crap.  Therefore, looking at this film in retrospect and the tone it eventually set, it becomes far worse than watching it for the first time. 

 

Not a fault by the creators but they tried to distance themselves from the original Superman films.  Thus a new theme song was created.  This film actually taught everyone it’s better to embrace John Williams original score than run from it.  The logic is sound, new Superman, new song.  But the Superman theme is so iconic that not having it in a film actually scaled down the films vibe, it made the movie more depressing.  It was a nice attempt but ultimately a failure that they needed to learn.  

 

The same issue goes to the costume design.  When this film was made DC’s New 52 (the worst thing to ever happen to comics) was in full swing.  Comic creators changed his costume to get rid of the red underwear.  The film followed the current costume style of those comics.  The suit isn’t terrible but that change to the classic costume is another missing piece that takes away from the value of the film.  They also toned down the colors, it’s not the bright primary colors of yellow, red, blue. They are darker shades for a darker feeling film.  

 

Ultimately Superman shouldn’t be a dark character. He’s supposed to be a hopeful character.  The film even tries to reflect this but having his S symbol stand for hope in his alien language.  Unfortunately they dropped the ball everywhere else.  

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