Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom - DCEU Review Series

DCEU Review Series

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

2023

Director: James Wan

 

The torture is finally over.  The last DCEU film. We didn’t like the first Aquaman but the audience and critics seemed to tolerate it.  Therefore it got a sequel.  Aquaman is sporting his traditional comic clothes and beating up pirates and recounting the story to his son and dad Boba Fett.  We get a lame voiceover from him summing up the first film.  We see Amber Turd have Aquaman’s baby’s excrement hit him in the face.  Life imitates art.

 

Aquaman is not too happy about his role as King of Atlantis but isn’t miserable.  He’s somewhere in the middle.  Meanwhile in the arctic some scientist and Black Manta find a monster.  Aquaman needs to bust his brother Ocean Master out for help. Some mediocre action ensues and now we have a 48hrs style comedy with Aquaman and Ocean Master. Perhaps it’s more of a rip off of when Thor teamed up with Loki in Thor Ragnorok. 

 

They journey to Black Manta, action ensues. There’s a fairly nice fight sequence here, Black Manta takes on Ocean Master and Aquaman at the same time.  Then it gets overloaded with CGI and loses all its cool factor.  

 

We finally get information about The Lost Kingdom, the 7^th ocean kingdom.  They got frozen solid for being douchebags.  Black Manta discovers them thanks to global warming.  To awaken the people in The Lost Kingdom it requires blood from the royal family.  Aquaman’s baby is target number one.  Black Manta severely injures Boba Fett who’s babysitting, Aquaman and friends show up after all the excitement.  Amber Turd overacts the crap out of the scene. 

 

Everyone teams up to rescue Aquaman’s baby. A giant assault on Black Manta’s base happens.  We’re left to wonder if a six-year-old wrote this.  We get another fight between Aquaman and Black Manta.  The fight’s pretty cool until it gets overly CGI again.  Ocean Master gets possessed by the true big bad Kordax.  Aquaman talks him down but not before Kordax bust lose.  Aquaman throws his trident at Kordax, killing him.  As everything starts to collapse Black Manta chooses to die instead of being saved by Aquaman.  

 

Aquaman decides to fake Ocean Master’s death as a backdoor way of giving him his freedom.  The we get some lame ass Superman IV: The Quest for Peace ending where Aquaman gives a speech to a bunch of people.  And the last sequence in the DCEU is Ocean Master eating a hamburger and adding a cockroach for flavor.  A perfect summary of the entirety of DCEU.  A burger with a cockroach in it.  

 

The film does not move.  It’s a giant standstill 40 minutes in. A common problem with DCEU movies. It doesn’t get remotely interesting until the 1hr 17min mark.  It then gets very boring again.  This film is a dud.  The DCEU opened with a soul sucking intro via Man of Steel and closes out with a less than mediocre Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom.  Let’s be grateful this universe has been put out to pasture.  

 

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

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

Superman: The Animated Series

Episode 20

Target

 

This is a nice episode, a solid base hit.  Someone is trying to kill Lois Lane and Superman keeps saving her.  As an investigative reporter she’s made a lot of enemies.  Were introduced to the jerk Detective Bowman who has a payoff in a later episode.  There are some nice twists and turns over who’s actually trying to kill Lois Lane.  The culprit turns out to be Edward Lytener a former employee of Lex Luthor who got fired after whistle blowing on LexCorp.  He was angry because he had a thing for Lois Lane but she never noticed.  There are now whistle blower laws that would protect Lytener from getting fired for such actions.

 

It’s a nice change of pace.  Superman and Clark Kent are not the focus, neither is one of the villains.  We get a nice look at Lois Lane.  She’s an aggressive news reporter, strong willed, confident, etc.  This reinforces her character but doesn’t add anything we didn’t know from prior episodes.  It’s nice to see the spotlight directly on her as opposed to being just a side character or person Superman needs to save.  

 

There is an interesting dream sequence where Lois Lane is sleeping in her apartment, an intruder breaks in and throws her over the balcony.  It pushes boundaries, we see the fall, not the splatter, she wakes up at the last moment.  Her pajamas are the stuff of male fantasy.  She’s wearing this little black number and no woman is sleeping in something that elegant when she’s alone.  Her curtains are wide open which allows anyone in the nearby high rises to peep on her.  Maybe she’s hoping Superman will flyby one night.  It's unrealistic how completely exposed she is.  Especially since someone is trying to kill her.

 

Also, the place is fantastic. Well above her pay-grade.  Yes, she’s an award winning newspaper reporter but that place is well above her means.  Maybe Metropolis housing costs are incredibly reasonable but it’s one of the largest cities in the world, so that’s doubtful.   How does Lois Lane afford that nice place?  One would have to guess she subsidized her income with a book deal.  There’s plenty of money in the book industry, she must have an unmentioned best selling book under her belt. 

 

Once the villain is discovered, Superman saves her with relative ease.  Problem solved, the episode ends.

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

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

Superman: The Animated Series

Episode 19

Identity Crisis

 

Bizarro makes his first appearance.  His origin is different from the comics and much more logical.  He’s a Superman clone created by Lex Luthor in an attempt to have a Superman he can control.  Something goes wrong in the cloning process and Bizarro is the result. Bizarro isn’t truly a bad guy, just really stupid, and causing lots of problems in the process. 

 

A bunch of wacky and life endangering stuff happens.  Bizarro realizes he’s not the real Superman and sacrifices himself to save Lois Lane and a bunch of other people.  There isn’t much to critique in this episode but it’s still a fun watch.  It’s Bizarro’s best episode.  His follow-ups are far more annoying.  His origin story is spot-on.

 

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

Blue Beetle - DCEU Review Series

 DCEU Review Series

Blue Beetle

2023

Director: Angel Manuel Soto

 

The DCEU burn-off continues with Blue Beetle which had a lot of potential but ultimately comes off as a made for TV comic book movie.  The acting is weak, the plot is derivative, the characters are one dimensional.  The big Hollywood trope these days is the need to emphasize family when making films that don’t involve white people.  Hollywood leans on the family devotion card anytime they make a film with a main character of a nontraditional Hollywood ethnicity.  It’s like Hollywood feels the need to explain to white people that ethnic people have families.  Or they don’t think white folks watching the film will be able to relate to anything other than family devotion.  

 

Xolo Maridueña Comes with a lot of clout as an actor after his stint on Cobra Kai.  He plays Jamie Reyes/Blue Beetle which should be perfect casting. The acting is phoned in like a bad single camera format sitcom.  Susan Sarandon as Victoria Kord does no better.  All the performances are staler than a soap opera.  This isn’t the result of poor talent.  It’s poor writing and bad directing.  

 

The plot is Blue Beetle comes back from college and finds out his family is broke.  Susan Sarandon is making military weapons despite Jenny Kord’s (played by Bruna Marquezine) objections.  Blue Beetle sports a total crush on Jenny Kord and befriends her.  

 

Through circumstances which require movie magic Jenny passes a special scarab to Blue Beetle which gives him his power.  It’s some piece of tech which infuses itself to a host and gives him superpowers.  One nice twist on the superhero trope is his entire family sees him get the powers, so there isn’t a secret identity.  The implementation of that could have been better.  George Lopez was too over the top with his reactions.  The director went for comedy where it should have been genuine concern.  The discovery of his powers is a rip off of Iron Man.  

 

Jenny pops in and explains the origin of the scarab and how Susan Sarandon will kill Blue Beetle to get it back.  Team Blue Beetle form a plan to get intel to help him remove the scarab.  Antics ensue and they infiltrate the bad guy compound.  Blue Beetle fights a villain very similar to Iron Man’s villain Warmonger.  We learn Blue Beetle doesn’t want to kill people but the robot voice in the scarab attached to him has no issue doing that.  Blue Beetle learns the scarab is attached to him until he dies.  It’s a Hollywood requirement to dislike this finding, need time alone to think, followed by a pep talk from a mentor, love interest, or elder. In this case George Lopez gives him the talk. 

 

Susan Sarandon attacks Blue Beetles family to draw him out.  Blue Beetle shows up to save them and action ensues.  During the battle Blue Beetle’s dad has a heart attack and dies.  This distracts Blue Beetle enough that he ends up getting captured.  His family rallies together to rescue him with the help of Jenny.  She hooks them up with the original old school Blue Beetle tech.  Before they can reach him, Blue Beetle is about to die while Susan Sarandon downloads the scarab’s code.  Blue Beetle’s dead dad shows up in a vision as he’s about to die and gives some extra inspirational guidance, like in Thor: Ragnorok.  He bust loose from his captivity and takes down the bad guys. Everyone gets a happy ending.  Blue Beetle gets the girl. 

 

It’s not a terrible film but there’s nothing truly unique or interesting.  They took Marvel plot points, tossed them in a blender, and we got Blue Beetle.  The film is a four-ball walk.  There are arguments this is not part of the DCEU but the intention was there.  It has been made clear it’s not part of the new DC film universe but the lead actor is supposed to play Blue Beetle in future installments of the new universe.  Xolo can thank how awesome Cobra Kai is for the second chance and the job security.  

 

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

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

Superman: The Animated Series

Episode 18

Speed Demons

 

Superman meets the Flash!!!  It doesn’t get more exciting than Superman’s first superhero crossover.  Yes, there was his episode with Lobo, but Lobo was a villain in that episode and he’s more of an anti-hero.  This is a legit future Justice League member who is going to race Superman for charity.  

 

Little do they know, the duo are being manipulated to generate energy for The Weather Wizard who wants to hold the world hostage with his weather control device.  It’s really a ridiculous plan.  The man can control the weather.  He can make billions by selling his device to governments.  Plenty of locations want water for dams, snow for ski season, proper sunlight/rain balance for crops. Instead of marketing his invention for countless amounts of money he holds the world ransom for pennies on the dollar of what it’s actually worth.  In the process he tries to kill his own brother who actually invented the machine when he doesn’t want to participate with the plan.  Superman and Flash save him though. 

 

Send this idiot to Arkham.  If you look at someone like the Mad Hatter who made a million dollar invention but turned evil after being rejected by a woman he was obsessed with, that makes sense.  It wasn’t a crime for money, it was a crime of love.  Weather Wizard is small-minded.  

 

Superman and Flash team-up and stop him.  He goes to jail.  They agree to finish their race but we don’t learn who won.   Also, Weather Wizard is a weak villain without his weather staff.  He loses that in this episode but goes on to return in Justice League with it again.  We already know he wasn’t the inventor, so how does he recreate his destroyed device?  The brother he tried to kill gives him a second one? Doubtful. Lots of plot holes.  

 

Overall since Flash is in it, the episode holds up.  But we have another weak poorly executed motivation from a Superman rogue.  We never learn which Flash this is in the DCAU.  Is it Barry Allen? It’s a different voice than his Justice League actor but voices get recast often in the DCAU.  Is it Wally West, the hero we love in Justice League?  Best guess is this is Barry Allen since the costume is a little different and the voice is different.

 

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

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

Superman: The Animated Series

Episode 17

Livewire

 

Livewire is a custom made villain for the TV show because the writers wanted to flesh out Superman’s rogues gallery.  Leslie Willis starts out as a female Howard Stern copy who talks trash about Superman for ratings.  During a big anti-Superman rally she is hosting in the Metropolis version of Central Park, a lightning storm happens.  Superman shows up and tries to convince the crowd to disperse, for their own safety.  The crowd refuses, Willis incites them.  Lightning strikes, Superman tries to stop her from getting struck, in the process they both get struck and she ends up with electric super powers. 

 

It’s the most tired trope in television and film.  Lightning is this magical finger from the gods that gives abilities to everyone who comes across it.  Once you get past the trope the episode moves along.  Livewire looks all white and blue now.  She’s upset she looks like a freak but she’s actually much hotter than her human self ever did. 

 

She discovers her electric powers and holds the city hostage for money.  It’s a ridiculous plan.  She’s a popular radio DJ who was deformed in a freak accident. She could make more money with a book deal or possibly a lawsuit against the city.  Holding the city ransom with the power of electricity is not needed.  She could easily land a job with her electric powers and not have to resort to super villain status.  There could be a logical argument for insanity in her case. Her physical transformation could have affected her mind and caused her to freak out.  

 

Superman confronts her and during the fight she gets water all over her and totally fries her abilities.  She’s catatonic and placed in special holding facility to return again later.  

 

The villain herself is great.  Her origin is weak.  How can Superman being struck by lightning transfer powers to other people?  If a piece of his power is now in her, how can she ever be a challenge for Superman?  He’s still the stronger one.  Giving him a weakness to extreme electricity is believable.  If someone can generate enough voltage, Superman can be hurt.  It appears the writers struggled to create comparable adversaries to Superman.  Ultimately they succeeded but the episode demonstrates how thin they were truly stretched in this endeavor.  

 

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