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Firia_lyta
Reviews
Justice League: The New Frontier (2008)
A teenage boys wet dream.
Do you want to see backstory and irrelevant side-story for the majority of the movie that fails to bring any of that together by the end? JL: New Frontier is for you! (I'll try to keep spoilers separate, and at the end.)
The movie brings us back to an age of post Vietnam war in the 1950's. The Justice League isn't a thing yet, but all of our heroes are there. Well almost. The movie follows all the characters independently, giving them full stories, and backgrounds. The camera focuses an unusual amount of time on Hal Jordan, which isn't the Green Lantern (yet) as he's recruited to be in some top secret testing program. We skip around between him, and the Martian (John) a fair bit more than anyone else. Superman, Batman, the Flash, Wonder Woman- they all get minimal screen time compared to Hal and John.
Early on we're given a creepy introduction on what to expect; The "Center" is coming to wipe out all of Humanity. Some of our heroes are investigating its coming as cults devoted to this dark god begin to spring up all over the world.
Ultimately JL: New Frontier tries to jam in to much content to quickly, and resolves the end plot with the finesse of a young teenage boy. Many of our heroes do come through the plot with a kill-count, and there's far more blood than expected. The final climax of the movie expects the viewer to be totally on board with its plot, but the rest of the movie fails to do anything to get you the viewer there.
The themes are also something that never hold up. There's some theme of the coming end, but then it's a theme on putting aside differences to stand together, then there's a theme of a better tomorrow. It's a jumbled mess by the end. By the end, there's characters and faces that never had screen time prior, and someone not familiar with the comics in general would have no idea what to make of.
The one enjoyable aspect is the focus on John the Martian as he investigates the cult of the Center as a detective. The movie could have just been that, and had been totally watchable.
I would just avoid this movie. It's to childish for adults, and it's to adult for children. It tries to cram to much into a tiny package, and just fails to deliver. There's to little of its redeeming qualities to make it worth anything of anyones time.
*** SPOILER SECTION *** *** SPOILER SECTION ***
(This starts with weak spoilers and builds to the big spoilers. No accidental ruining for people!)
Here's some things that come up and make me immediately face palm.
Hal Jordan is apparently a pacifist, but we don't learn about that until the beginning of the final climax. Was I supposed to know that before hand? The assumption is of course that I'm familiar with the comic books.
Hal is suffering from some form of PTSD for having killed someone in the War. That is preventing him from advancing to realize his dream of becoming an astronaut. Except Secret-Government-Organization totally wants him, and he's amazing, and totally not suffering from PTSD.
Secret-Government-Organization starts off as very gun-ho with plans to attack Mars with the very greatest of America's weapons. They're painted as almost bad guys, but suddenly become man-kinds best hope by the end. And it is sudden.
The Center... throughout the movie is portrayed as some kind of god that can take over peoples thoughts and actions. It is interesting at first, especially as it randomly speaks to some of the Heroes at times. But by the end, the Center is nothing more than a flying island with tentacles, and "energy blasts." It's world ending payload? Dinosaurs. By the end of the movie, mankind has to fight off... Dinosaurs.
And the Heroes of the movie do JUST that! The kill the ever-loving daylights out of these creatures! But it would seem that death is just the beginning of the end, as smaller, other dinosaurs spring to life from the carcass of the fallen dinos!
And the best of the worst was the death of the man that ran Secret-Government-Organization, as he's accidentally elbowed in the face by John, torn away from Dinosaur tentacles, and self destructs with a pair of grenades inside the maw of a T-Rex, blowing its head to smithereens.
*** END SPOILERS ***
Dragonball Evolution (2009)
An I the only one that liked it?
By and large I think, Dragonball Evo was alright. It wasn't ground breaking, or necessarily a mirror of the original Dragonball series. It's quality wasn't exactly stellar either, though.
I'm an artist, and a fan of the Dragonball universe. I wouldn't want to make a movie that was a mirror of what has already been made. That'd be like me trying to recreate the Dragonball comics. In terms of making a movie based on something as extensive as Dragonball, there are sacrifices that need to be made. There are over 100 eps of the original DB universe, and that needed to be shaved into a single movie.
All the base elements are there. Roshi is a perv, Goku loves his food and rigorous training at the hands of Roshi, Bulma has capsules (which was her big thing in the original series), there ARE capsules, Yamcha is a desert bandit, Grampa Gohan raises Goku, etc etc. The base elements are all there, and the director deserves some credit for even making that effort. Not every director tries that hard.
Now, do I agree with all the liberties with the characters made? Not at all. Roshi was a hoot, but wasn't a bent over OLD man. Chow Yun Fat did a brilliant job with one of the series' most memorable characters, but there were some aesthetic changes that didn't sit right with me. Also, no Krillin. Yamcha, but no Krillin? Dang.
Ironicly enough, Dragonball Evo maintains the history of pacing issues renounced throughout the Dragonball universe. Except for episodes full of staring and gruntings, it was lightning fast the whole way through. It even felt rushed by the end.
Riddled with flaws, and by no means the perfect take on the Dragonball universe, it was still kind of entertaining. :) It has all of the base elements necessary to make a Dragonball movie, and it's own unique twist of the story. They did alright, I think. :) Now they need to train their movie making skills to make a better movie. :) Train at 100 times gravity!
Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight (2008)
First, you need a drink.
Four stars of ten.
I've seen the movie twice. The first time was the obvious 'sit down, and enjoy the story from my youth," viewing. The second time was, "lets see that again in drunk-o-vision." I won't say what has already been said time and time again; choppy animation, bad mixture of dated 2d with dated 3d, and an average of 5 or 10 frames. Oops! I said it. :) This, of course, pales if you've had a couple shots first. Sure, this is the unexplored review. The Story is mostly intact, and the heart in the right place, but still it remains; this is a badly done movie. Of course, have the right beverage, and suddenly it's a great movie! No more will Verminards dishtowel face mask bother you! Fuzzy animation won't be an issue, because your vision will be fuzzy. Tas will be funnier, Raistlin will be creepier, and the Forestmaster will... well the Forestmaster will still be downright wrong, and no amount of drinking will stop that. :) Drinking helps, but it doesn't cure.
The movie earns points for trying, on what was obviously a tight and tiny budget. I grant the makers that. The end result wasn't up to the expectations of the public, and I'm sorry for that. Wizards of the Coast doesn't like taking big risks, and their products show this (any D&D movie shows this to be true). A good story got squandered with bad production because of it.
... but drinking helps. ;)