The X Generation - Dammit

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

 

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

 Batman: The Animated Series

Episode 77  

The Lion and the Unicorn

 

Batman goes to England…international spy Red Claw is back and causing international problems.  She kidnaps Alfred trying to get a password to something that will basically destroy the world.  Alfred was apparently a former spy before he gave it all up to be a butler.  She gives him a truth serum to get the password to access a system which apparently never changed after he quit his job.  That’s poor company management and the agency he works for needs to up their security protocols.  Red Claw gets the password out of Alfred just as Batman and Robin show-up to stop her. 

 

We could make the claim Red Claw was an under utilized villain in the series but that’s not really true.  She just doesn’t fit in Batman’s world.  Batman protects Gotham and Red Claw is a scourge of the world so she doesn’t really fit in Gotham.  If every time she stations herself in Gotham to do international evil spy stuff and Batman stops her, her failures would be on her.  By kidnapping Alfred she’s forced back into the world of Batman and that’s even a stretch.  

 

Ra’s al Ghul works as an international evil villain for Batman because Talhia al Ghul is in love with him.  Ra’s would steal Wayne Enterprises tech or pop up on Batman’s radar because of how dangerous he is.  There’s a relationship there that works.  Red Claw isn’t as menacing as Ra’s because she’s an evil spy for hire.   Ra’s is a terrorist who wants to rule the world.  

 

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

Josstice League - DCEU Review Series

DCEU Review Series

Justice League aka Josstice League

2017

Director: Joss Whedon/Zack Snyder

The film opens with Batman fighting some monsters from the planet Apokalips and Commissioner Gordon saying this is happening because Superman is dead.  Then there’s a montage of people being bummed out because Superman is dead. Wonder Woman stops a bank robbery.  Then we’re subjected to introductions of all the other league members since less than half the team got their own films prior to this film.   

 

There’s a truckload of exposition. We learn Steppenwolf is the villain.  Sadly not the iconic 60s/70s rock band.   This Steppenwolf is truly the lamest DC villain someone could choose for a Justice League film.  He’s barely tolerable as a bad guy in the comic and this dude is supposed to unite the most powerful heroes in DC to form a team to stop him.  There was a cool reference to the Green Lantern Corp in a flashback sequence. 

 

The costume design of the heroes is lackluster at best. Batman and Wonder Woman’s costumes are okay.  Flash is dressed in pieces of red cardboard boxes.  Cyborg is just half a face and the rest is a robot. The robot sections looks like a silver version of Flash, cardboard boxes wrapped in tin foil.  Also, he should not be considered a cyborg when only half his face is human.  Cyborg should just be called a robot since he only has half a human face. It’s a horrible design. The best Cyborg design was in Young Justice where he was actually half human/half robot.  All these complaints are Snyder related and Whedon had to use with them.  Aquaman’s costume is all shiny for no reason whatsoever.  

 

We have the “everyone meets the big villain in the middle of the movie battle” which literally happens in the middle of the movie.  The gag that got Whedon in hot water between Gadot and WB executives lasted less than a second and isn’t funny.  Flash saves Wonder Woman but trips and lands on her boob then makes a weird face.  The dude ruined his career over a boob joke about a woman who doesn't even have big boobs.  He kept inserting little gags that Flash has a crush on Wonder Woman throughout the movie.  It wasn’t endearing and was more creepy.  Also given Ezra Miller’s horrible conduct off camera after this film, it really doesn’t resonate well at all.  Gail Gadot had every right to avoid physical contact with Ezra Miller.

 

The entire film is obsessed with the motherboxes.  They’re a big deal in DC.  It serves as the equivalent of the teserack or infinity stones via the Marvel universe.  It’s derivative and boring.  They decide to use the motherbox to bring Superman back to life and that’s a good 15 minutes of predictable plot. Superman wakes up but he’s all wonky so a fight breaks out.  There’s like one cop there with his gun drawn during the fight.  Lois Lane shows up and Superman stops fighting and just takes off with her. 

 

They decide to launch their big attack without Superman and that’s basically the last thirty minutes of the film.  Antics ensue, Superman shows up toward the end of the battle.  He helps them win the day.  The film wraps up with Ma Kent’s farm being saved because Bruce Wayne Bought the bank and gave it back to her. Everyone goes back to their lives a little happier.  There’s a boring ass voiceover from Lois Lane summing up the film.  The coda cuts back to Lex Luthor escaping from prison. That breakout never has a payoff in the DCEU. He hints at starting the Injustice League.  It’s actually the coolest part of the film because we see Deathstroke and are actually interested in what those possibilities could be.  

 

The film is boring.  The characters aren’t fleshed out enough but you can tell Whedon tries.  He’s big on character development in his work.  The action isn’t particularly spectacular.  The villain is so terrible and lame.  

 

The person who might have actually fixed this film is Michael Bay.  He has a similar film style to Zach Snyder and would have added the right balance of cheesy generic audience jokes. And if he didn’t save it, no one would have cared because all his movies suck anyway.  

 

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

The X Generation - Down

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

 

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

Batman: The Animated Series

Episode 76

Baby-Doll

 

One of the worst episodes and most annoying recurring rogue in BtAS.  Babydoll is just so annoying.  Her gimmick is she’s a fully-grown adult that looks like an eternal child.  She was a TV star that failed to achieve the same level of popularity after her show went off the air.  So she flips out and kidnaps her former co-stars and tries to kill everyone.  

 

Batman and Robin investigate the kidnappings and track her down.  They defeat her goons.  She is eventually captured by Batman after some dramatic crying scene.  The gimmick is annoying, her motivation for being a criminal is lame, her character isn’t fun.  It’s all creepy and the baby voice she puts on is nails on a chalkboard.  How this got passed the inception stage is baffling.  A rare miss in DCAU and rare miss in BtAS.  

 

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

The X Generation - Free Falling

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

 

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

 Batman: The Animated Series

Episode 75

Bane

 

The man who broke the Bat! His appearance was quite a surprise since he only appeared in the comics a few years earlier.  There’s a lot of fear in the episode just based on his comic book reputation.  The show doesn’t go that dark and Batman eventually defeats him.  

 

They do a great job setting him up as a formidable foe for Batman and his origin is kept simple.  Bane escaped from a prison in South America after being given an experimental concoction called venom.   It’s basically a super steroid that makes him really strong.  Rupert Thorne hires him to kill Batman.  Bane shows up, beats up one of Batman’s physically stronger opponents Killer Croc to prove he’s tough.  Robin gets kidnaped; they don’t bother to unmask him for some reason.   Batman shows up, faces off against Bane, defeats him. 

 

There’s a moment during the epic battle you think Bane might win and Batman pulls off a miracle.  It was a nice twist for anyone who read the comic and saw Batman get his back broken.  This version Bane in the series fits and he gets tougher in later episodes.  He never truly reaches the terror scale of the comic but the audience is still left with a rather terrifying villain. 

 

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

Justice League/Zack Snyder's Justice League - DCEU Review Series

DCEU Review Series

Justice League/Zack Snyder's Justice League

2017/2021

Director: Joss Whedon/Zack Snyder

How do we tackle this installment in the DCEU?  There are two versions.  The half Zach Snyder/half Joss Whedon version and the all Zach Snyder version which came out years later.  The internet is on fire with all the theories surrounding how this fiasco happened and the news changes regularly every few years.  Let’s try to sum it up as simple as we can knowing the Hollywood politics backstory could become dated within minutes of this posting.  

 

Zach Snyder who tortured us with the turds Man of Steel and Batman vs Superman was slated to direct the Justice League movie.  Justice League (JL) is DC’s big superhero team-up comic.  All the big DC Comics players are in the JL roster. During the making of JL Zach Snyder’s daughter tragically kills herself.  And depending on which story you believe, he either steps away from the film to focus on his family or DC uses it as an excuse to force him out of a film they don’t have much confidence in.  At that point Joss Whedon who had massive success with Marvel’s Avengers (Marvel’s big team-up comic) steps in to complete the film.  

 

These are two directors with totally different styles.  Therefore Whedon is tasked with taking a bleak depressing director and trying to recraft his work into a Whedon styled film.  The result was a huge factor in ruination of Joss Whedon’s career.  Actors in the film clashed with the new director.  The most public instances were with Ray Fisher (Cyborg) and Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman). 

 

It’s hard to shift through rumor and fact when it comes to Whedon. The consensus seems to be he’s a jerk.  Most Hollywood folks are.  Fisher publicly called Whedon unprofessional after the film was released.  Some could argue it was sour grapes since his character’s storyline cut down to almost nothing in Whedon’s version.  Other’s see it as retaliation from a tyrannical director who had a vendetta against the actor.  It didn’t help Whedon’s stance when Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel actress Charisma Carpenter revealed Whedon’s horrible treatment of her during their time together on the show that made him famous.  Her fellow castmates from the show supported her claims and Whedon’s career was destroyed in matter of days.  

 

The other incident involves Whedon writing a joke where The Flash crashes into Wonder Woman and lands on her breasts. Gal Gadot refused to film the gag.  Whedon got pissed at her and threatened to ruin her career or tie her to a train and run her over or something.  Whedon blames it on a language misinterpretation, Gal Gadot refutes that claim and says she completely understood the context of what he was saying.  At that point top Warner Brother executives had to get involved to diffuse the situation.  None of that is good for filmmaking.  Top brass do not want to be mediating arguments between its stars and directors. Whedon eventually reworked the shot to use her stunt double.  Given the type of human being Ezra Miller turned out to be, no one can blame Gal Gadot for wanting to limit contact with him.  

 

It appeared there was a bit of a cast revolt when Whedon agreed to take over the film.  Whedon agreed to write a new film around what was already filmed and complete the project in 60 days.  Cast members loyal to Whedon were disappointed they were now making a film they didn’t sign up for. The back-office Hollywood politics and sympathy for Snyder’s loss, Whedon came onto the set with a deficit.  His overall demeanor and work style did not help ease tension and probably made the entire situation much worse.  The amount of stress placed on him from the studio must have been exponential and he’s dealing with a cast and crew who aren’t receptive to this change.  If Whedon had approached the cast and crew with a more open and upbeat attitude, basically if he wasn’t a huge jerk, the movie might still have tanked but he might have salvaged his reputation as a filmmaker.  The lesson to learn from Whedon in this scenario is if you’re an established filmmaker, do not take over another director’s film unless he dies or he personally asks you too.  

 

Joss Whedon’s Justice League is released, it’s hated by fans and critics, makes more than double its budget back. It’s forgotten fairly quickly after that.  As the years go on Zach Snyder starts a campaign among his fans for a push to finish his version of the film.  Rumors have it that Snyder had paid bots flood the internet to manipulate social media algorithms that would trend people wanting his version.  It thus tricked the executives into thinking there was a demand for his version of the film.  Warner Brothers caved and dropped another $70 million dollars into completing the Snyder version and these two cuts of the film now exist.   Neither version is good and it’s Snyder’s fault.  Whedon had to work around what was made which resulted in an uneven film.  Snyder had complete control over his version of the film and with an extra two hours, did nothing to make it better.  Since the Snyder version is not considered canon in the DCEU it’ll get reviewed at the same time we review “Josstice League” instead of its chronological release placing in the DCEU.  Sadly we’re stuck watching the same crappy movie twice in a row for a total of 6 hours. 

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

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