Monday at the Movies - February 27, 2017

Welcome to 2017’s first installment of “Monday at the Movies.” Today, The Cinema King catches up on DC’s animated movies.

Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders (2016) – After fifty years, Adam West and Burt Ward reteam with Julie Newmar to bring the ethos of Batman back to life in an animated film that captures perfectly the spirit of 1966. Return of the Caped Crusaders is one sustained self-aware giggle as the audience revels in every alliteration, pow-biff-bam, and straightfaced platitude that West & Co. deliver with the same wry camp from the 1966 television show. This installment finds less attention paid to the Joker/Riddler/Penguin/Catwoman team-up and more focus on a Batman descending into darkness, replete with metafictional nods to grimmer ’n’ grittier interpretations of the character. Yet despite the character’s fall from grace over the course of the plot, this film never feels out of place with the culture of the classic television show; it’s all done with a wink to the camera, an embrace of the audience, and most importantly an abiding love for the character of Batman. The filmmakers have even captured the frequently nonsensical attitude of Batman ’66, with headscratching science, overly complicated plots, and plot resolutions that practically have speed lines coming off of their rapid conclusions. There are also great one-off gags that one could imagine the show featuring, such as a temporarily unemployed Alfred Pennyworth resorting to rifling through dumpsters, replete with a rickety shopping cart. Overall, it’s just a real treat to hear West & Ward back in the voiceover equivalent of ill-fitting spandex, and it’s evident that the filmmakers are having just as much fun as the moviegoing public. The best compliment one can pay the delightful Return of the Caped Crusaders is that it’s so much of a piece with Batman ’66 that you shouldn’t be surprised if you see more of Adam West around these parts...

Justice League Dark (2017) – Meanwhile, over in DC’s more self-serious animation department, Justice League Dark follows on the new Justice League animated films with a look at DC’s magical underbelly, complete with a “darker” R-rating that doesn’t actually manifest itself as it did in The Killing Joke. I think this might be my favorite of the new wave of DC animated films that began with Justice League: War, in part because this actually feels like something new rather than a different paint job on more of the same. Not that the new Justice League or Batman cartoons have been bad, per se, but they’ve been a little forgettable. (I haven’t rewatched any, for the record.) Justice League Dark feels more – pardon the pun – magical because most of these characters heretofore haven’t gotten their day in the sun. Magicians Zatanna (Camilla Luddington, late of the Tomb Raider games) and John Constantine (Matt Ryan, late of NBC’s Constantine and CW’s Arrow) join Batman (Jason O’Mara, still growling his way through the role) and the spectral trapeze artist Deadman (Nicholas Turturro, who plays Deadman as a wise-cracking Jersey boy) to thwart a magical threat of global, demonic proportions. The film descends into a generic urban fight scene by the middle of its third act, but the character work up to that point ends up holding the audience’s attention, even as deep cuts like Etrigan the Demon and Swamp Thing show up (always a treat for this viewer!). Justice League Dark is, well, darker than its counterparts, but the grim humor that emerges makes these characters more than likeable and leads me to want more of this sort of thing.

That does it for this week’s edition of “Monday at the Movies.” We’ll see you next week!

Monday at the Movies - February 8, 2016

Welcome to another installment of “Monday at the Movies.” Before the onslaught of superhero movies this year, let’s slow things down a bit with a smaller, animated feature.

Batman: Bad Blood (2016) – Following Son of Batman and Batman vs. Robin, this is the third standalone Batman animated film in a new continuity, the most significant changes being that Jason O’Mara has replaced Kevin Conroy as The Dark Knight, and said Knight has a son, Damian (Stuart Allan). As the third movement in what is ostensibly a trilogy, a few loose ends get revisited – Damian’s tenuous status between his superhero father and his terrorist mother Talia al Ghul (Morena Baccarin, who sounds to be phoning it in more than on Son of Batman), Nightwing’s uneasy relationship with the boy, and an overall updating of the mythology to accommodate its most recent additions. It’s on the grounds of this element that Bad Blood has its greatest success – much of its central content has only just been added to the Batman mythos in the last ten years. Damian, Batwoman (Yvonne Strahovski) and Batwing (Gaius Charles), plus villain The Heretic are newcomers that fit in quite well with the standing Batman lore, and the film does them a great service in introducing them to new fans and old diehards alike. Bad Blood is, as the title suggests, a little bloodier than we’re used to (an exploding head seems out of place for Gotham City), and there’s a surprising lack of Batman here, as he spends a good portion of the film “dead.” Fortunately, the new faces rise to the occasion, particularly Allan’s Damian, who continues to steal the show. Bad Blood does feel a bit transitory, a waypoint on the way to the next film and its larger cast, but my interest in these iterations of Batwoman and Batwing is sufficiently piqued.

That does it for this week’s edition of “Monday at the Movies.” We’ll see you here next week, but stay tuned this Wednesday for the first in a brand-new feature!

Monday at the Movies - April 27, 2015

Welcome to another installment of “Monday at the Movies.”  This week, back to movies but staying firmly within the realm of superheroes. Presented in chronological (not alphabetical) order, for those playing the home game.

Justice League: Throne of Atlantis (2015) – As the title might suggest, there are two things going on in this film. On the one hand, we have a sequel to Justice League: War, inspired by the New 52 incarnation of the world’s greatest superhero team, while on the other we have the introduction of Aquaman to this animated universe. Here’s the thing about Throne of Atlantis, based on a recent popular storyline by DC’s resident blockbuster writer Geoff Johns: only one of these plotlines is terribly interesting, and unfortunately for fans of underwater mythology it isn’t the one where the guy talks to fish. The Justice League bits and the character interactions are spot-on brilliant, particularly the scenes before the big battles and action setpieces; there’s a wonderful first date between Superman (Jerry O’Connell) and Wonder Woman (Rosario Dawson), and there’s a lovely internecine clash of personalities when Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion) tries to help Batman (Jason O’Mara) on a police chase through Gotham City. And the creative team does a strong job juggling a League of seven disparate personalities. The Aquaman parts, sadly, are much less compelling; this iteration of Aquaman is part depressive alcoholic, part reticent heir to throne but only with nothing better to do. Sam Witwer is a strong choice for the voice of the film’s villain, Ocean Master, but this character is actually terribly dull, as is (sadly) Harry Lennix’s rendition of Black Manta. It’s not a terrible film by most stretches of the imagination, but there are parts of it that are more boring than they ought to be. Throne of Atlantis should have taken more cues from Johns’s more engaging reinvention of Aquaman than they have, because this Aquaman is fairly boilerplate and a little too stuffy for his own good.

Batman vs. Robin (2015) – Maybe I’m just a sucker for the Caped Crusader, because there are things about this movie that ought to be unforgivable to a true believer like myself, but I kind of liked this one, maybe even more than its predecessor Son of Batman. This animated film stitches together plotlines from two distinct comics – Grant Morrison’s Batman vs. Robin (in which Damian Wayne tries to prove himself) and Scott Snyder’s Court of Owls (in which a shadowy conspiracy makes its bid for Gotham) – and basically waters both down to make for a more coherent 80 minutes than the sum of the parts might suggest. Here’s what works: the film looks very good, especially the Court of Owls iconography, and I’m still a fan of the chemistry between Jason O’Mara’s Batman and Stuart Allen’s Damian. I did feel that the Owls plotline was shortchanged by (without spoiling too much) putting too many faces to what should be by definition a faceless organization, but I appreciated the way it allowed Damian to fall under the Court’s sway while he bristles against his father’s training. And the film’s concluding battle, taken mostly from the comics, is a crackling good fight between Batman and the Owls in the former’s gadget-laden Batcave. It’s actually quite remarkable that a storyline from 2012 has already been adapted – kudos to Snyder and artist Greg Capullo for crafting a modern-day classic – but a more faithful adaptation would have earned two enthusiastic thumbs up rather than my usual review of “Hey, it’s Batman, so not bad.”

That does it for this week’s edition of “Monday at the Movies.” We’ll see you here next week; I hear there’s some big movie coming out this Friday... something-vengers. Might review that one next.

Monday at the Movies - July 21, 2014

Welcome to another edition of “Monday at the Movies.” This week, since we haven’t mentioned him since April, Batman!

Son of Batman (2014) – Batman’s back, and this time he’s a daddy.  Jason O’Mara returns from his debut in Justice League: War for his first meeting with his son Damian (Stuart Allan).  O’Mara’s Batman is not as gruff as the quintessential Kevin Conroy, but he’s somewhere between Liam Neeson and Harrison Ford – a fine heir to the throne, for my money.  (Conroy will be back in Assault on Arkham.)  More inspired casting comes in the form of Giancarlo Esposito as Ra’s al Ghul and Morena Baccarin as his daughter Talia.  Though the film doesn’t use these characters as much as I would have liked, their inclusion leads me to believe that DC is searching out new top talent – and if there’s one thing we know about the al Ghuls, it’s their penchant for resurrection.  At the end of the day, it’s a Batman film, and so for that reason I’m inclined to review it positively; I don’t begrudge Warner Bros. the seventy-some minutes of my life, and I even tend to give movies like this a bit of leeway.  But my honest assessment is that Son of Batman does strip its source material – Grant Morrison’s Batman and Son – of some of its teeth.  The original plot had Damian introduced amid his mother’s bid for “a new kind of terror,” while here Talia is reduced to a damsel in distress in favor of a focus on antagonist Deathstroke – who, between this, Arrow, and a slew of video games, may be a bit overplayed at this point.  (An eleventh-hour twist putting Talia in the mastermind’s seat would have been welcome.)  The dynamic between Batman and Damian, however, is note-perfect from the original comics, capturing the fun sense of the latest major addition, his spirited and surly son, to the Batman mythos.

That does it for this week’s edition of “Monday at the Movies.” We’ll see you here next week!

Monday at the Movies - February 24, 2014

Welcome to another edition of “Monday at the Movies.” This week, we’re back to what we do best – reviewing comic book movies.

Justice League: War (2014) – Based on the revisionist New 52 incarnation of the Justice League, War gets the band back together again for the first time to repel the invading Darkseid, the literal god of evil.  Where the New 52 comics rebooted the DC Universe back to a publishing line of first issues, War is a reboot for the animated movie universe and – more notably – its prominent and quite popular stable of voice actors.  Gone are Tim Daly and Kevin Conroy; in are Alan Tudyk and Jason O’Mara as Superman and Batman, respectively.  Tudyk is mostly unremarkable as Superman, capturing this incarnation’s cockiness. O’Mara, meanwhile, is the more controversial choice, as Conroy’s an incredibly tough act to follow; O’Mara does lack Conroy’s bass-heavy gravitas, but he brings the Bat into a gruffer territory a la Harrison Ford.  So count me among the pro-O’Mara camp for now.  The big success in the casting, though, comes from Justin Kirk’s turn as Green Lantern.  Kirk gives the role all the braggadocio that forms the core of Hal Jordan, a swaggering portrait of masculinity that gets destabilized in a great “death wish” moment.  (It’s almost a shame he’s not playing Guy Gardner.)  We also get a comparable triumph with Wonder Woman, who's played by Michelle Monaghan as a hack-and-slash newcomer to man's world; this portrayal should appeal to audiences who want a strong female character without that being her defining attribute.  (Keep your eyes out for the foreshadowing of a romantic relationship with Superman.)  While the apocalyptic threat of Darkseid never quite carries the full weight of the comic’s incarnation (or Michael Ironside’s earlier voicework), it fulfills the plot function of “big enough threat” to get the Justice League to unite.  Indeed, the film’s great success is in introducing each Leaguer individually and positing a threat large enough for these disparate elements to join together.  If the rumors about the Man of Steel sequel are true, perhaps this is a good model for how to bring many big figures together without prior solo films.  In this respect, Justice League: War is the other side of the Avengers coin, but it works as well as DC’s other animated successes.  Except, of course, Mask of the Phantasm, which remains the gold standard.

That does it for this week’s edition of “Monday at the Movies.” We’ll see you here next week (and again when Jason O’Mara stars in Son of Batman, which adapts Grant Morrison’s popular “Batman and Son” plotline)!