Justice League: Gods and Monsters (2015) - Review

Spoilers ahead. Readers who wish to avoid spoilers are recommended to skip the post.

I was not impressed with the companion web series (Justice League: Gods and Monsters Chronicles) that was released last month and was not sure about this movie.

This movie proved to be a pleasant surprise. Featuring alternate versions of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman, the movie has an excellent script, screenplay, direction and astounding action choreography (as most DC Animated Movies do).

Superman is not the son of Zor-El, but of General Zod and is raised by Mexican immigrants.

Batman is Kirk Langstrom and not Bruce Wayne. In the Batman Canon, Kirk Langstrom is Man-Bat. In this universe, he becomes a pseudo-vampire in his attempts to cure his cancer. He feeds on the blood of the bad guys.

Wonder Woman is not the Princess Diana of Themyscira, but is Bekka. Bekka is a New God of New Genesis, the daughter of Himon and the wife of Orion.

A pre-credit sequence is set in Krypton. (DC fans can rest easy. The similarities with Man of Steel ends right here). Jor-El (Yuri Lowenthal) is about to imprint his DNA on his wife Lara Lor-Van's (Lauren Tom) using a machine to send their soon-to-be born son to Earth. General Zod (Bruce Thomas) intervenes and forcefully puts his own DNA instead.

The baby is adopted by migrant Mexican parents. Named Hernan Guerras, this version of Superman is a bit arrogant because of the difficulties he endures in his upbringing, 

Cut to the present. Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are based at the Tower of Justice. Unlike the regular versions, these characters are ruthless when it comes to punishing bad guys.

The government, headed by President Amanda Waller (Penny Johnson Jerald) is not willing to take any steps to challenge the Justice Leaguers.

Trouble starts for our characters, when leading scientists are killed off one by one by unidentified assassins with the specific purpose of framing Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. The victims include Dr Victor Fries (Mr Freeze), Ray Palmer (Atom) and Silas Stone.

The public's hatred of the Justice League increases, thanks to the media campaign run by reporter Lois Lane (Paget Brewster). President Waller is forced to execute “Project FairPlay”, which is a brainchild of Lex Luthor (Jason Isaacs). Lex has always been wary of Superman and has put plans in place to neutralize him and his colleagues, should they go rogue.

Are the heroes able to prove their innocence? Who is out to frame them? What happens when Waller initiates FairPlay?

I would recommend the readers to check out the movie for the answers.

The story is credited to Bruce Timm and Alan Burnett, both of whom have worked on some of the best DC Animated projects including Superman: The Animated Series and Batman: The Animated Series.

Like these classic shows, the movie also delves deep into the lead characters. Each of the DC Trinity characters get an extensive back story.

Considering that this is an animated superhero movie, the script manages to hold our attention for the most part, until the mystery is resolved. Kudos to Bruce and Alan for the excellent story and screenplay. 

The animation is done in Bruce Timm style which is refreshing after all the anime and other styles that have dominated animation in the recent past.

The action sequences are executed very well, especially the last one between Supes and the bad guys which is exceptional. The last 20 minutes has non-stop action and successfully combines great character moments and action beats.

This is classic DC Comics and a must watch for fans of Supes, Bats and Wonder Woman.

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Check out the trailer below:

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Suicide Squad Comic Con Trailer - Review and Recap

The comic-con trailer for the upcoming DC Comics movie Suicide Squad has been released.

Directed by David Ayer (Fury, Sabotage, Street Kings), the movie stars Will Smith as Floyd Lawton/Deadshot, Jared Leto as The Joker, Margot Robbie as Dr. Harleen F. Quinzel/Harley Quinn, Viola Davis as Amanda Waller, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Waylon Jones/Killer Croc and Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman.

For the uninitiated: Suicide Squad (a.k.a “Task Force X”) is a group of villains who are (forcefully) recruited by Amanda Waller to complete deadly missions. For obvious reasons, the trailer does not reveal the exact mission for which they have been assembled in this movie.

Check out the trailer:

In the 2014 animated movie, Batman: Assault on Arkham, the squad was ordered to kill The Riddler, who is currently in Arkham Asylum. Making things further interesting was the fact that The Joker (also confined in Arkham Asylum) has a ticking time bomb hidden somewhere that will bring destruction to Gotham city.

Batman's efforts to locate and defuse the bomb brings him into conflict with the Suicide Squad. The movie served as my introduction to the super-villain team. Plus, it helped that the animated movie is hands downs one of the best DC Animated Original (DCAU) Movies ever made.

That movie also happens to be the one and only reason, I was looking forward to the live action adaptation coming out next year. 

Unfortunately, the trailer does not do the movie any favors. Just as the Comic Con trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice informed us about the potential drawbacks in that movie, this movie also indicates an unmistakable lack of imagination and humor. The movie looks pretty generic and dull.

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The costumes for Katana, Killer Croc and even Deadshot look like cosplay that would look more at home at the Comic Con itself rather than in a big budget blockbuster.

Will Smith is all emo as Deadshot. As readers familiar with his character will be aware, he loses his daughter when goes to prison. And this factor is really hit over our heads in the most unimaginative way possible.

Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn is nothing like the Harley Quinn, who was introduced in the classic Batman: The Animated Series. Gone is the funny and quirky character and in her place, we have been presented with an extremely sexed-up version. Shame on Warner Bros. and the writers for making such crass and commercially motivated changes to a classic character.

After failing to wow audiences in A Good Day to Die Hard and the most recently released Terminator Genisys, Jai Courtney threatens to bore us again as Captain Boomerang.

Rest of the cast do not get much screen-time and/or mouth dialogues to leave any impression. Mention must be made that Ben Affleck's Batman makes a very brief appearance in the trailer. This is presumably taken the footage that was leaked while filming - Batman is on top of the car in which The Joker and Harley Quinn are making their escape.

The only saving grace looks to be Jared Leto's performance as The Joker. He looks to be genuinely having a blast with the role. Hope, he can inspire the same in his co-actors as well.

I do applaud the courage displayed by Warner Bros. in making a movie that does not have Superman or Batman in the lead roles. Perhaps, the marketing department did not do a great job of winning us over. I hope that is the case and that the actual movie turns out far better than what this trailer represents.

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Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Comic Con Trailer - Review

Dear Readers,

The Comic-Con trailer for the upcoming DC Comics movie has been released.

Directed by Zack Snyder (Man of Steel, 300), the movie stars Henry Cavill as Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman, Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman and Gal Gadot as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman.

Supporting cast includes Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth and  Laurence Fishburne as Perry White.

The trailer focuses primarily on why Ben Affleck's Bruce Wayne/Batman has a grudge against Henry Cavill's Man of Steel.

In the first movie, Man of Steel, we only got a quick look at one of Bruce Wayne's satellite that was damaged in the climactic fight between Superman and General Zod (Michael Shannon). But it seems, Bruce Wayne was more directly impacted than what the movie suggested.

As seen in the trailer, Bruce Wayne loses a number of his employees, when his office gets trashed in the battle between the two nearly invulnerable Kyrptonians. This convinces Bruce that he needs to step up to the alien, before he inflicts further destruction on the human race.

Alfred tries to convince his master that Superman is not their enemy, but fails to succeed. Hey, we need them to fight to justify the movie's title after all...

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We also get our first look at Gal Gadot as the Wonder Woman, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, Tao Okamoto as Mercy Graves and Holly Hunter as a US Senator. 

Lex seems to have convinced Holly Hunter's Senator to initiate legal proceedings against the Man of Steel. I am sure she will change her opinion at the end of the movie.

After romancing Hugh Jackman's Logan as Mariko in The Wolverine (2013), Tao Okamoto has entered the DC Universe as Lex Luthor's assistant/bodyguard, Mercy Graves.

The two new major players who get a lot of screentime are Gal Gadot and Jesse Eisenberg as the Amazon and Lex Luthor respectively.

Gal Gadot's character does not get to mouth any dialogue and is reduced to looking beautiful as Diana Prince and then in full battle mode as Wonder Woman. It is too early to judge her performance right now.

Jesse Eisenberg seems to be miscast as Lex Luthor. His dialogue delivery seems to be modeled on Kevin Spacey's version in Superman Returns. He also seems to be channeling his usual arrogant genius shtick that we have already seen many times (The Social Network, Now You See Me).

At least, his evil plans seem to be different. Instead of the usual land grabbing scheme we have seen in Superman (1978) and slavishly repeated in Superman Returns (2006), Lex seems to be experimenting with General Zod's corpse. My guess is that he is going to create Doomsday, the unstoppable Kryptonian villain who killed Superman.

This would also explain the reason for DC Comics Trinity to band together to stop Doomsday. And of course, other superheroes include Cyborg (played by Ray Fisher), Aquaman (played by Jason Momoa) and The Flash (played by Ezra Miller) can also lend a helping hand.

As interesting as all this sounds, the trailer indicates that the movie suffers from two major problems, that can potentially prevent the movie from being the pop culture behemoth that it intends to be.

The first one is that none of the actors/actresses seem to be in character. The only exception might be Holly Hunter and she is not playing a DC Comics character at all.

Every one from Ben Affleck to Jeremy Irons look and act in a one-note mode. Ben Affleck is all angry and Jeremy is all serious. Henry Cavill is bland as ever and for some unexplained reason, still gets to play the most iconic superhero ever. As I mentioned earlier, Eisenberg seems to be miscast. Even the reliable Diane Lane looks bored as Martha Kent, while giving some motherly advice to Clark.

I guess one possible reason is that Zack Snyder is not an actor's director i.e. one who gets some great performances from his actors. Zack's strengths seem to be in the special effects department, which brings us to the next point: Bad Special Effects.

I had hoped that this sequel would improve on the shockingly bad CGI that was quite obvious in the previous movie. Unfortunately, that does not seem to be the case here. The special effects look as bad as ever. Perhaps, the finished product will look better when the movie releases in March 25 2016. But history does not inspire confidence...

Irrespective of the box office success, in my humble opinion, the reason this movie will suck big time is because this is a studio product, as opposed to being a passion project for a visionary filmmaker. Richard Donner and Christopher Nolan made amazing movies that will stand the test of time.

This one has been made with the sole purpose of making money. Just for the sake of competing with rival studios, Warner Bros. is doing a big disservice to these classic comic book characters.

Well, looks like the late Christopher Reeve and Christian Bale will continue to be the definitive real life impersonators of Supes and Bats respectively.

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Justice League: Gods and Monsters Chronicles "Twisted" - Recap and Review

The upcoming DC Universe Animated Original Movie is Justice League: Gods and Monsters. The movie features alternate versions of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.

The story is credited to Bruce Timm and Alan Burnett, both of whom have worked on some of the best DC Animated projects including Batman: The Animated Series and Superman.

Spoilers ahead. Readers who wish to avoid spoilers are recommended to skip the post.

As a sort of prequel/primer to the characters, DC Entertainment has released a companion series consisting of three videos. The first one, “Twisted” is focused (no surprises here) on Batman. In this universe, it is not the human Bruce Wayne but Kirk Langstrom (the Man-Bat) who is Batman.

He arrives at a house whose family members have been brutally killed by an even-more-crazier-than-usual Harley Quinn. Batman does save one remaining family member just as she is about to become the last victim. Batman subdues Harley, but instead of taking her to the police, takes a bite out of her.

This series has a strong tone of horror. The animation was OK. Not bad, but not exceptional either. Hopefully, the movie will fare better.

The next two will feature Superman and Wonder Woman. Like Batman, they too have been given a twist (pun intended). Superman is not the son of Zor-El, but of General Zod and is raised by Mexican immigrants.

Wonder Woman is not the Princess Diana of Themyscira, but is Bekka. Bekka is a New God of New Genesis, the daughter of Himon and the wife of Orion.

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Update: I saw the movie and enjoyed it. Click here to read my review of the movie.

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Justice League: War DC Universe Animated Movie - Review

Justice League: War (JL: War) is based on the graphic novel “Justice League: Origin” by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee. JL: War features the The New 52 a.k.a. the rebooted DC Universe.

One of the most prominent visible changes is the new look Superman who has a significantly better fashion sense than the previous one...

The movie's plot focuses on an invasion by Darkseid on planet Earth. Our heroes team together to stop the takeover attempt.

Jay Oliva directed the movie that stars the voice talents of Alan Tudyk as Superman, Jason O'Mara as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Michelle Monaghan as Wonder Woman, Justin Kirk as Green Lantern/Hal Jordan, Shemar Moore as Cyborg/Victor Stone, Christopher Gorham as The Flash/Barry Allen, Sean Astin as Shazam, George Newbern as  Steve Trevor and Steve Blum as Darkseid.

The movie has some of the best action sequences that I have seen in an animated movie in a long time. In fact, the movie has almost non-stop action right from the start and never lets up. It only gets better... The climactic showdown between Darkseid and the Justice League lasts for nearly 30 minutes and features some intense and breathtaking choreography.

The movie also boasts of some excellent humor, mostly thanks to the Green Lantern. I also liked the  “Super Friends” reference.

There are some subtle nods to other DC Universe properties, including the 1978 Superman movie, The Dark Knight Rises and Man of Steel.

The voice work is superb. As good as the entire cast is, Jason O'Mara, Shemar Moore and Steve Blum leave a strong impression.

Among the characters, Cyborg/Victor Stone has the most compelling character arc. Cyborg is a fascinating character and presents a lot of potential for fun due to the unique nature of his superpowers.

As much as I like Bats and Supes, Cyborg represents a new breed of DC superheroes that combine the imagination of man with the power of machines. I am interested to see how Ray Fisher brings Cyborg to life in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Another character with similar powers is the Blue Beetle, whom I discovered in Batman: The Brave and the Bold and the Young Justice series. His powers are derived from Scarab, an advanced alien technology.

Speaking of Supes and Bats, they are in fine form too. Especially, Supes who not only looks better in his new costume, but has some real attitude as well.

The Kryptonian has near physical invulnerability on our planet and his mental outlook reflects that. He is not the self-effacing individual as played by the late Christopher Reeve.

This Man of Steel is quite a showboat and loves to get into scrapes. Personally, I prefer this version to the bland real life version portrayed by Henry Cavill.

The clash between Superman and Batman/Green Lantern is one of the best action set pieces in this movie. The action choreography, background score, voicework and the animation all come together flawlessly to present a very fun and memorable scene.

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I like Batman for his flaws and relatability. But Supes is just way too powerful even for Batman to face off.  And JL:War even has Batman and Green Lantern teaming up to stop Kal-El and still they come up short. Which is exactly how it should be...

I hope that the encounter between Ben Affleck's Batman and Henry Cavill's Superman will be even better than the animated version seen here.

Bats, as usual, gets a lot of screen time and Jason O'Mara does a fine job of voicing the Dark Knight. There are some really gorgeous shots of Batman and Bat fans will enjoy them immensely.

Batman has a lot of scenes with Green Lantern and their conversations are funny and lively.

Other superheroes are paired up too. Shazam and Cyborg and more importantly, Supes and Wonder Woman. It is only natural that such super-powered individuals of opposite sex would be attracted to each other.

This is the second movie directed by Jay Oliva that I have had a blast with. His Batman: Assault on Arkham also had equally great sense of humor and fantastic action sequences. That movie had a more mature tone as well.

Check out the trailer below:

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Batman: Assault on Arkham (2014) Suicide Squad movie - Review

With more and more details being revealed about the upcoming DC Comics superhero picture Suicide Squad, I thought this will be a good time to review the DC Universe Animated Original Movie - Batman: Assault on Arkham.

Directed by Jay Oliva and Ethan Spaulding, the movie features the voices of Kevin Conroy as Batman, Troy Baker as The Joker, Hynden Walch as Harley Quinn/Harleen Quinzel, Neal McDonough as Deadshot/Floyd Lawton, Jennifer Hale as Killer Frost, Greg Ellis as Captain Boomerang, Giancarlo Esposito as  Black Spider and John DiMaggio as King Shark.

The plot goes like this: Suicide Squad is a group of killers/mercenaries who are (forcefully) recruited by Amanda Waller (C.C.H. Pounder) to complete covert missions. In this movie, Waller wants the Riddler (Matthew Gray Gubler) killed due to some information he holds about the squad members.

Batman saves his life from one of Waller's attempts and has him sent to Arkham Aslyum. Hence, the need to assemble the Suicide Squad and have them assassinate Riddler.

Complicating things is the fact that The Joker (currently in Arkham Asylum) has a ticking time bomb hidden somewhere that will bring destruction to Gotham city.

Batman's efforts to locate and defuse the bomb brings him into conflict with the Suicide Squad.

Without revealing any further information, I will direct the readers to check out this movie.

Before watching the movie, all I knew about it was that it focused on a team of assassins who also happened to be Batman villains. That this was a movie based on The Dark Knight, but with limited screen-time for Batman himself. I was a bit skeptical if the movie would be any good...

Yes, I was in for a big surprise. This is hands downs one of the best DC Animated Original (DCAU) Movies in a long time.

While the concept of a movie that focuses too much of relatively lesser known characters (and villains to boot) in the DC Universe might sound foolhardy, Batman: Assault on Arkham comes out firing on all cylinders.

It has all the trademarks of a well-done DC Animated movie - great voice-work, amazing action sequences and superb animation. The plot has enough twists and turns to further add value to the movie watching experience.

The movie has a more mature tone and content. I love the way DCAU has differentiated itself from the more kid-friendly fare regularly dished out by Marvel Studios.

There are a number of other DC characters who make cameo appearances, but I will leave it unspoiled for the readers to experience it first hand.

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Check out the trailer below:

If the upcoming live action movie Suicide Squad can capture even half of the fun quotient of this animated movie, we are in for a real treat.

Superman: The Movie (1978) launched the Superhero movie genre in Hollywood and Tim Burton's Batman (1989) continued to wow audiences all over the world.

Though Joel Schumacher almost killed off the Batman movie franchise in 1997, Chris Nolan brought back fun to the DC Movies with Batman Begins (2005). Chris Nolan's The Dark Knight Trilogy, is widely considered to be one of the best Superhero movie series ever put on screen.

Warner Bros./DC Comics hit a rough patch with the disappointing Man of Steel. 

The recently released teaser trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice looks promising so far with Ben Affleck's bulked up Batman alone being worth a look in the theatres. In addition, we have Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman and Ray Fisher's Cyborg.

We then saw the image of Jared Leto as The Joker and a couple of days back David Ayer provided us our first look at the entire squad.

Click here to read my thoughts on the recently released Comic Con Trailer for the movie.

The standout is obviously Margot Robbit as Harley Quinn. She seems to be very much in character. Will Smith looks sad as Deadshot. Perhaps, he will be the most humane character of the group with a heavy emphasis on his background and his daughter (who is seen in this movie too).

In addition, Ben Affleck and Jared Leto will be appearing as Bruce Wayne/Batman and The Joker respectively.

DC Comics has been enjoying enormous success on the Television with The Flash, Gotham and Arrow. Hopefully they will retain their successful streak on the big screen as well, with these upcoming movies.

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Image Sources: DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Animation, Warner Premiere, Atlas Entertainment, Dune Entertainment, Lin Pictures

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