The State of Comic Book Films
“I am Iron Man. Think you are the only superhero in the world? Mr. Stark, you’ve become part of a bigger universe, but you just don’t know it yet,” Nick Fury, director of SHIELD. “I’m here to talk to you about the Avengers Initiative.”
Those words, spoken by Samuel L. Jackson at the end of 2008’s Iron Man are words that may have shaken up the way comic book movies are made. On its own Iron Man was a great comic book superhero-based film. It had just about everything you could have asked for in a thrilling, smart, and at times comedic popcorn entertainment action flick. But, those words were the lynch-pin of what Marvel Studio hoped would be the next evolution of comic book movie storytelling. Essentially taking the idea of a fully fledged “universe” and transform that into film.
For years of course comic book character films have been presented as if the characters spotlighted were the only heroes in their world. Oh sure Metropolis got named dropped in Batman Forever, and there is the “This is why Superman works ALONE” quip in Batman & Robin, but in every movie, and even live action television, for the most part (after the series ended, the Incredible Hulk TV show came back in TV movie form a couple of times featuring both Thor and Daredevil, and Smallville has the Green Arrow as a cast member, as well as appearances by other non-Superman supporting characters), done featuring a comic book character whom is part of a bigger comic book universe, it is apparent that for that movie or TV program they are the ONLY super hero on the scene.
Marvel Studios was set to change all of that, and it started in that summer of 2008. Shortly after it appeared Iron Man was a big hit, its sequels were green-lit and pre-production was full steam ahead for other projects that would all go into what will be the first Avengers movie in 2012. The plans were further cemented in that summer’s Incredible Hulk, which included a cameo by Robert Downey, Jr. as Tony Stark telling General Ross that he and a “team” that was being formed could help with the Hulk problem. And now Iron Man 2 has given the Mighty Marvel Movie Society even more steam by being a blockbusting success, and setting the stage for next summer’s Thor film. Oh, and next summer Captain America is set to shake off the aftertaste of the 1990 flop as well.
With Ant-Man, another Iron Man film and The Avengers coming down the pipeline as well, it seems things are running smoothly in terms of Marvel Studios creating a “Movie Universe.” Even with its biggest heavyweights; Spider-Man, the X-Men and Fantastic Four, as well as Daredevil still tied up with other studios as Disney seems content with honoring pre-existing deals.
And DC? Well, there is the follow up to The Dark Knight slated for 2012. As well as the next Superman project which is being “Godfathered” by Batman Begins and The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan. Oh, and Green Lantern is coming out next year.
While one can expect the third, and Nolan’s final, Batman flick to be a success, maybe not as wild as The Dark Knight as one could chalk a good percentage of its popularity to the “morbid curiosity” surrounding Heath Ledger’s passing, the fact that it will be the final Nolan directed film in the series should trouble a DC movie fan. Where will the Bat-Franchise go from here? Logic would dictate that the next director could pick up where Nolan leaves off, but hey this is Hollywood, and there is enough of a chance of Warner Brothers rebooting the whole darn thing as there are as them letting the next guy continue what Nolan started.
But where does this leave the various projects that have been speculated, and in some cases even gone through the pre-production stage, only to be shut down like the JLA movie? Good question. The hope is that the Green Lantern film becomes as wild of a success as the first Iron Man was. The proof will be in the pudding of course, but at the same time it was clear that Marvel had all its ducks in a row when Iron Man came out. Right now DC/WB is looking at a Batman movie universe where Batman is the only known costumed hero, and Nolan has gone on record as saying he’d like the Superman movie universe to be the same. Okay, so how are you going to rectify that with a possible JLA film? Oh sure movie audiences aren’t that stupid to realize the Batman in a JLA film isn’t the same as Christian Bale’s Batman, or even Adam West’s, Michael Keaton’s, Val Kilmer’s, George Clooney, or heck even Kevin Conroy’s and Diedrich Bader’s. But the fact is, it’s hard to sell two different continuities going on at the same time. Heck, it’s hard even for DC to sell multiple continuities in comic books! Say what you will about Batman Confidential and Superman/Batman, they probably aren’t selling nearly as much as the other Bat-Titles because they are OOC books while all the others are.
Well, that is the current state of affairs with comic book movies. While the next Batman film should bring in the dough that will make Warner very, very happy, and despite the critical responses to Superman Returns one can still say Superman is still a very profitable on-screen franchise, it does seem that DC is still light years behind Marvel in terms of innovation in crafting big screen storytelling. In some cases it might be fine, as DC still holds arguably the two most popular super heroes of all-time in its arsenal, but if Marvel is able to completely pull of what it hopes to with the Marvel Movie Universe, DC will have to change its game plan in terms of how their properties are treated by Hollywood.
Posted by SteveJRogers
The DC DTV animated movie series has had its fair share of ups and downs. It has put out awesome movies, like Green Lantern, or Wonder Woman, and it has put out very bad movies, like Superman Batman: Public Enemies. So where does JL: CTE, the latest film in this series, sit? Well, it’s at the top. This movie was fantastic!
Before I actually review it though, I want to go into the history of the film. It originally was supposed to be Justice League: Worlds Collide, and was going to be part of the DCAU. The film was intended to be released between Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. It would have served as a bridge between the two series. However, the film never got made, and Justice League Unlimited began, albeit, bridge-less. Now, many years later, the film has finally been released, but rewritten as Crisis on Two Earths. Even though The Film has been rewritten, not much has changed. We get to see the League building the new Watchtower, how the expanded roster came about, and even how Wonder Woman got her Invisible Jet. The only actual difference is that Green Lantern is Hal Jordan, not John Stewart. Other than that, CTE fits nicely into the DCAU, and perfectly fills the gap between JL and JLU.
The story is simple enough, a good version of Lex Luthor, from an alternate earth, comes to the Justice Leagues world, asking the league to help him defeat the Crime Syndicate of America, super powered criminals who have the country’s crime under their thumbs. The League goes to Luthor’s earth to take down the Syndicate, but soon discover a more sinister plot to destroy all of reality. The story is not to complex, but excellent nonetheless. Though the movie is made primarily of action sequences (awesome action sequences), it has some nice character development, especially a subplot involving John Jonzz. Dwayne McDuffie delivers one his best scripts with this movie.
The animation is absolutely top notch. The fight sequences are brutal, and exciting, and just look great all-around. The character designs are very good too. They seem to take some inspiration from Frank Quitley’s artwork on the JLA Earth 2 graphic novel written by Grant Morrison. I particularly liked Batman’s fight with Owlman at the end of the movie. It was one of the coolest animated fight scenes I have seen in a while. I won’t talk about it though; you just have to see it.
One of the things that makes the movie so good is the flawless voice cast. Everyone involved is great, there is no weakness in the cast (can we expect less from Andrea Romano though?) In the Justice league we have Mark Harmon as Superman, William Baldwin as Batman, Josh Keaton as Flash (he was awesome, and had the perfect voice for The Flash), Vanessa Marshall as Wonder Woman, Jonathan Adams as Martian Manhunter, and Nolan North as Green Lantern. From the Crime Syndicate we have James Woods as Owlman, Gina Torres as Superwoman, Brian Bloom as Ultraman, and James Patrick Stuart as Johnny Quick. Also from the Crime Syndicate world is Chris Noth as Lex Luthor. Focusing on Batman for a minute; William Baldwin was great! At first I was a little jarred by his voice, it’s definitely different from Kevin Conroy’s DCAU portrayal. However, as the film progressed, I liked his performance more and more. He is actually really good, and I would like him to return to the role. His last line to Owlman is awesome! Speaking of Owlman, James Woods’ performance is one of the highlights of the film. He was the perfect actor for the role, and it shows! His performance alone makes the movie worth watching!
Also, one more thing I loved; the music. The film is scored by James L. Venable, and though he is new to me, I hope I hear more of him soon. His score was very good, and had a big budget cinematic feel.
So all in all, I can’t say enough good things about his movie. It’s certainly the best of the DC DTVs, and I highly recommend that you see it.
Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths:
Reviewed by TheCapedCrusader
This is another show that you most likely have already seen. You might even already own the individual seasons. For the very first time the series is collected in one form on DVD. The series first aired in the late nineties after the success of Batman: The Animated Series. It featured Big Red saving Metropolis from the perils of many of his own rogues' gallery. It aired over three seasons and ended before the Timmverse continued on with Batman Beyond.
This set consists of seven discs. It has a total of fifty-four episodes for over eleven hundred minutes. There are special features throughout and even a brand new special feature specifically for this set. The new feature focuses on Darkseid.
The series featured all kinds of villains that you have heard of and some new ones that were made for the series. Metallo, Parasite, and Toyman are all present. Many may not know that Mercy Graves was created for the series. The classic voices of Clancy Brown as Lex Luthor and Tim Daly as Superman are obviously present as well. There is even a three-part episode that crosses over with Batman and Gotham City where Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill make an appearance.
Overall, the series is another great release from Warner Bros. I don't have any complaints about this set like I had with the past ones. The discs are still numbered as if they were separate seasons, but I get why now. Another great series to add to this year's Christmas list.
Superman: The Complete Series:
The series became available on November 24, so you can get it at most retailers. If you want to get it from Amazon, click here. Warner Bros. sent over this clip to promote the release as well.
Posted by Dustin
A week and a half ago, one of our contacts at Warner Bros. sent over a DVD version of Superman/Batman: Public Enemies for us to review. So what better way to review the film then by posting it the day the film comes out so that you can find out what I think of the film and whether it is worth buying or not. Let’s get into it.
When I first heard about this film being made, I was kind of excited. It had been quite some time since I first read the story in Superman/Batman. I debated for a good amount of time of whether I should read it or not before I see the film. Well, one night when I didn’t have a lot to do, I caved and picked up the six issues and read them again. That was probably a mistake. You are probably asking yourself, "Why would that be?" Well, when watching the film, I found myself comparing the two. I was nitpicking the entire film. Not something I normally do when watching a Batman film. I think I was already in line to criticize more than normal since this story is more about Superman than Batman.
The comics were written by Jeph Loeb and the art was done by Ed McGuinness. The story was a little over the top for most comics, but it was the first story arc of a brand new series that DC was launching. So over-the-top/epic is acceptable for first story arcs by my standards. The art was really what made this arc great. McGuinness’ art is amazing. Some may say that the art is too cartoony, but I have a thing for art like that. It is clean and smooth. The story starts off by going through how Lex Luthor has come to be President of the US. It then cuts to a good amount of side story that involves Metallo. We find out later why Metallo was such a large focus early in the story. Without going into a synopsis of each issue, I can say that there are very significant changes to the story in the film.
Instead of following the story from the comics, Stan Berkowitz modified the story to not only be self-contained, but also make sense in the current economy. The Metallo-part of the story is shortened by making him a Secret Service agent for Luthor. This is what makes the entire first issue of the story arc take place in less than 5 minutes. There were specific parts that were taken straight from the comics. Most of them were the one-liners between Batman and Superman. Nice nod to Loeb, but does not make up what was taken out. The first major fight sequence involving a gaggle of villains is pretty close to what it was in the original story, but seemed to be more of a situation where they were trying to say, "We are following the comics," than anything else. I thought that if they wanted to expand a sequence that fight scene would have been it. That wasn’t the case though, as I felt as if I was given just the amount needed, but nothing extra.
The second fight sequence felt way too short. It specifically was cut down and did not have the final outcome that it did in the comics. It worked for the film, but it affected the conclusion of the film. Moving on to the conclusion, the part of the film that dealt with Toyman seemed very rushed. I won’t ruin the end of the film, as I know everyone has not read the comics, but I was disappointed. It was pointed out earlier in the film that the meteor gives off a large amount of radiation that even Superman could not block with a lead suit. When you watch the film, see if you catch the plot hole. Also if you have read the comics, compare the ending in the comics to the ending of the film and ask yourself if it felt "too" epic.
Overall, I can’t say that I was too thrilled with this film. I had high hopes, but felt let down by the end of the film. The run time was the largest letdown. At only sixty-seven minutes long, it was too short. The film could have been longer. When I compare the comics to the film, I can’t understand why it was so short. There were a lot of things that were cut out of the film that were in the comics that could have easily made the film longer. Certain scenes could have been extended to make the film longer. The fight sequence with all of the villains could have been longer and made a little more smooth compared to being cut to a new set of villains like it was done in the comics. Th difference is that eh comics were showing the fight sequence on panels compared to animation. In animation, things should be smoother, not so cut-and-dry. If there was one sequence that could have been different it was that scene.
The pro’s of the film were the art and the voice talent. The art was amazing. It was a splitting image of McGuinness’ art. Superman looked like Superman and Batman looked like Batman pulled straight from the comics. The reunion of Kevin Conroy, Tim Daly, and Clancy Brown was great. Hearing all of their voices reminded me of earlier days of watching the animated series on TV. All of them were spot on with their parts. Even though the art was different and it did not follow the normal DCAU, it still worked.
In conclusion, the film was mediocre. It did not blow me away, and for certain parts I was disappointed. To be completely frank, let me ask you a question. Have you ever seen The Batman Superman Movie: World’s Finest? If you answered no, go find it in the five dollar bin at your local store and give it a watch. If you answered yes, did you like Superman/Batman Public Enemies more or less? In my opinion, World’s Finest was better. But the kicker is that World’s Finest is actually three episodes of the Superman animated series. This film seems like it should have been three episodes of an animated series. It had the voices, the feel, and the run time. So should you buy it? You decide that. For myself, this film will be sitting on my shelf for quite some time collecting dust.
Superman/Batman: Public Enemies:
Posted by Dustin