A Look Back at Watchmen (2009)

 NOTE!: For This Review I Watched The Director's Cut, As Supposed To The Theatrical Cut. So I'm Reviewing The Director's Cut, Not The Theatrical One.

That's right, in preparation for the animated movie, I'm not stopping at just the comics.

Watchmen is comic book movie based on the acclaimed comic miniseries of the same name. It was produced by DC Entertainment, Warner Bros. Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Legendary Pictures, Lawrence Gordon/Lloyd Levin Productions, and Cruel and Unusual Films and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. Watchmen is written by David Hayter and Alex Tse and directed by Zack Snyder.

• Negatives

I've got nothing.

• Mix

My only slight problem stems from the pacing. While not as long as The Ultimate Cut, I'll give my thoughts on that cut later, there's still time when things are going pretty slow. While other times things are going just right with no complaints.

• Positives

One positive goes to the performances. The cast did a tremendous job with their characters, and I feel nobody was out of place. I especially want to praise Jackie Earle Haley as Rorschach. The guy just embodied the character.

Then there's the special effects. It's amazing how this movie is over ten years old, and the effects to this day still look incredible. I've seen this movie and all three of its different cuts numerous times, and I'm still blown away by the effects.

I'd also like to praise the action. Love him or hate him, you can't deny that Zack Snyder always cranks out amazing action scenes. The opening fight scene alone, is a top notch fight scene. I even got a kick out of Dan and Laurie's fight with random muggers. Even if that scene makes me clench my arm afterwards. Just watch that fight and you'll see what I mean.

The last thing I'll praise is the story. First, I'll admit Snyder and co. did miss some parts were the comic satirizes superheroes. However, I give them credit for making sure the story primarily focuses on character and the mystery surrounding the death of one of their teammates. Also, I don't care how many of you come after, but I'm thankful we didn't get the squid. I'm sorry folks, but you can go on and on about how Alan Moore used it to satirize the Cold War, but you're not changing my mind.

While not perfect, I really liked this movie. Mainly the director's cut since that has a lot more substance than the theatrical cut.

My final rating is, Good.

My Thoughts on The Ultimate Cut

Now the only difference to focus on when it comes to comparing the Ultimate Cut and the Director's Cut is that the animated adaptation of The Black Freighter is included in The Ultimate Cut, but not the Director's Cut.

I'm not a fan of the Ultimate Cut. Sure, by including The Black Freighter, you do get a movie even more closer to the original source material. However, much like the comic itself, by switching to The Black Freighter story, the main storyline feels like it's being put on pause.

But hey, if you're a hardcore fan of Watchmen, then by all means, watch The Ultimate Cut.

All done here. Come back on Thursday, Aug 1st, for my A Look Back at review of, Batman: The Animated Series. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.

Deadpool & Wolverine Review

 

Deadpool & Wolverine is a comic book movie based on the Marvel Comics' characters Deadpool and Wolverine. It serves as the 34th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and is the sequel to Deadpool & Deadpool 2. It's produced by Marvel Studios, Maximum Effort, and 21 Laps Entertainment and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Deadpool & Wolverine is written by Shawn Levy, Ryan Reynolds, Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, and Zeb Wells and directed by Shawn Levy.

The story is, it's been years since Wade's last adventure as Deadpool, however while he's thankfully to have friends he feels very unaccomplished. However, things changed when not do the TVA (Time Variance Authority) offers Wade to join the MCU, but he learns that things his universe is dying. Now, Deadpool must find a way to save his universe, all while teaming up with a very reluctant Wolverine.

Initial Reaction

At first I was full blown, no questions asked excited about this movie. But then I thought about how Logan had a great ending and hoped they didn't ruin that, then my excitement dropped more when I read one of the writers is Zeb Wells. For any of who wondering why that's just a big deal, just read the Vol.6 (the 2022 edition) of The Amazing Spider-Man, then you'll have read and seen why that's awful and why Zeb being one of the writers had people worried. None the less, I went to this movie with an opened mind.

Cons

I've got nothing.

Middle Ground

If this one mix bag it was the special effects. There are times when it's pretty good and well made, other times...yeah. Other times get tell clear as day that a green screen or CGI was used.

Pros

Let's get the obvious out of the way first, yes, the action is great. Even though I mentioned obvious green screen and/or CGI, I still really enjoyed a lot of the action scenes. Especially the opening, Wolverine and Deadpool fighting each other, and Wolverine and Deadpool slaughtering/fighting an entire army. Those were awesome. Then there's Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman. These two had fantastic chemistry. Whether the scenes were serious, funny, or mix of both, these two were amazing together, and me and the audience couldn't get enough of them. Then there's the humor. I'll admit sometimes it didn't work, but for 95% of the movie, I had a blast. Can't give away thing without spoiling it, but let me tell you, I've seen all three Deadpool and this one, this one has my favorite opening. It was bloody as well as hilarious. The last thing I'll give credit to is the story. While the Deadpool movies do primarily get recognize for the rated R stuff, much like the previous movies, there's quite a bit of character put into this. But the biggest surprise was it actually pays tribute to the none-MCU movies, more specially the 20th Century Fox ones. Sure the characters have comedic moments, hell one is played as a joke, but the other four characters were treated with a lot of respect. Even the one that didn't even get the chance to have a movie gets his badass moments. There's even a montage at the end credits, that regardless of quality the films from Fox's Marvel flicks are being shown as fond memories. I figured the writers would've brought these characters down and prop up the MCU characters as the greatest just like Twitter/X does, but nope.

Despite some flaws, I still had an absolute blast with Deadpool & Wolverine, and it was will worth the wait.

My final rating is, Good.

That's all for now, come back on Monday, Jul 29th, for my Look Back at review of, Zack Snyder's Watchmen. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.

Cinematic Disasters - X-Men Origins: Wolverine

 

With Deadpool & Wolverine FINALLY around the corner, I thought it'd be a good idea to look at the first time we saw those two characters on screen together...and let tell ya, yikes.

X-Men Origins: Wolverine is a comic book movie based on the Marvel Comics' character Wolverine. It serves as the fourth installment of the X-Men film series, the first part of the Wolverine trilogy, and a prequel to 2000's X-Men. It was produced by 20th Century Fox, Marvel Entertainment, Dune Entertainment, Donner's Company, and Seed Productions and distributed by 20th Century Fox. X-Men Origins: Wolverine was written by David Benioff and Skip Woods and directed by Gavin Hood.

The story is, after so many years of fighting, Logan believes he's finally found peace along with his girlfriend Kayla. But when Kayla is killed by an enemy from Logan's past, he goes on the warpath to get his revenge.

My Thoughts

Now the movie does have an amazing opening. We see Logan as a child, when his claws first popped out, and then were treated to a perfectly done montage of all the wars Logan & Sabretooth were in, from the Civil War to Vietnam. Then after that we see both men join Team X and go on their first mission. Oh and we also get our first glimpse of Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool. Not in the full costume but we could've just chalked that down to this being before Wade got sick. Regardless, after the mission is done, Wolverine quits because he hates the groups lack of self-control and empathy. Which is a good reason for Logan to quit. He may be a beast himself but he's not a heartless monster. So this entire part is incredible, I love it...sadly after Logan quits and we jump ahead six years later.

We do get a slight glimpse into Wolverine's new life, but before we go full force into that, we go to Victor (aka Sabretooth) who kills one of his former teammates. And let say this, Hugh Jackman's performance is rightfully praise, but wow, Liev Schreiber is amazing. He's perfect for this role, which makes it a bummer he wasn't given another chance.

Afterwards Logan's old boss Stryker arrives, gives him details about the old team getting hunted and killed, and after more words are exchanged Logan leaves. Then he and Kayla, and we given the story of how Logan got the name Wolverine. Now I have read and watched videos where people have made fun of this, because they believe it's just some sort of thing about the title dropping, an excuse for how he got the name, etc. It personally didn't bother me, but I guess I can kinda understand.

Now honestly all of this stuff up in Canada isn't bad, is it perfect? No, but for what it is it's pretty decent, sadly it all comes crashing down when Victor kills Kayla and Wolverine wants rightfully wants revenge. So you'd think this'll get good, because if you read the comics, Wolverine and Sabretooth always have great and bloody battles. Well not in this movie. I can forgive them for not making it over the top bloody. I mean Wolverine can stab people and no blood splatters. It happened in X2 and The Wolverine. What I can't forgive is how this fight was shot. The camera is way too close in some shots, we quickly edit to one actor to another, and then the shaky cam, because apparently it was too much to ask to keep the camera still. It also doesn't help that none of the impact is felt. There's one moment where during this fight, logs fall on top of Wolverine, and they just fall. No sense of gravity or anything, they just fell.

So after a scene in an hospital where Logan agrees to work with Stryker, we're finally at the moment where Wolverine gets his adamantium, and it's disappointing. First off, here's what it looked like when Logan got his adamantium in X2.

Now that looks absolutely terrifying. Almost like a horror movie. But here's what it looks like in this movie.

What the hell? This looks way too clean. Not too mention but Logan never once looked terrified about what happened to him. Do nobody bothered to watch X2, or at least look up the scene? Not too mention but much like the fight between Logan and Victor previously, the editing is just awkward. It's like the filmmakers wanted to do a slow-mo to fast forward similar to 300, but instead of making it look good like it did in that movie, it looks bad. It didn't help they used it too much. First it's normal speed, then out of nowhere it's slow-mo to fast forward. Normal speed then slow-mo to fast forward, and just repeats. Over and over again.

So Logan escapes and runs into an elderly couple who are nice enough to give him a place to stay, new clothes and something to eat. Also during this scene, we see Logan's new adamantium claws and THE CGI IS ABSOLUTELY ATROCIOUS! Just look at them!

How could anybody in the editing room, look at this and think for even a nanosecond that this looked good enough for theaters?! For crying out loud the coloring alone doesn't match the coloring of the entire cinematography. Worst off the CGI claws look awful throughout the entire the movie. There's not one scene where they look good. This poor CGI is made even worst when the first X-Men movie used CGI for the claws, and looked vastly superior. And that movie came out in 2000, nine years before this one was released.

Also, getting the adamantium put into was the most traumatic experience of Wolverine's life. But in this movie, he doesn't seem bothered at all. A matter of fact, he just seems okay with it. But what really pissed me off was the filmmakers also made a joke about Logan's new claws. While in the couples' bathroom, he accidentally cuts the shelve, sink, among other things as well. Cause apparently despite having claws for many centuries before (albeit bone claws), Logan is clueless of how to work these things.

Afterwards we get a chase scene. Although the obvious green screen bothered me a bit, the chase scene is overall pretty decent. There's even a cool moment where an explosion propels Logan in the air, sending him flying, and cuts up a helicopter.

Then we cut to seeing a young Scott Summers aka Cyclops. I'll get into him later. Back to the Wolverine side of things, he meets up with will.i.am. Not the actual singer, the guy is playing a character but I completely forgot what his name is. So I'm gonna use will.i.am. Anyways, will.i.am talks about why Victor is the way he is now, and let's it slip how Team X started hunting mutants, or as Stryker put it, "hunting the bad ones to make a difference". They need to figure something out about an island, and only Fred (The Blob), knows. During this Fred somehow misheard Wolverine's "bub" for "blob". Which leads to them fighting. Which I don't understand how Fred made this mistake. Yes, Blob is never the smartest guy, but there's no way he should've made that mistake. Bub and blob sound nothing alike.

I'm gonna speed things up a bit. So Scott is captured by Sabretooth, it's revealed that he's working with Stryker. Afterwards Logan & will.i.am have some sort of info from Fred, they go to New Orleans to find Gambit because he escaped The Island years ago. Speaking of Gambit, what a wasted character. He has a fight with Wolverine, flys him to The Island, disappears, and comes back at the very end of the movie to save Logan from being crushed. And that was it. He did those four things. That's all. Not to mention, but this Gambit is an idiot. He says he hates Victor, but the moment the guy is literally right in front of him, he doesn't take the chance to kill him, he just let's him walk away, and for no reason at all, fights Wolverine. I mean it, he has no reason to fight Wolverine. None!

So we finally arrive at The Island. Where Logan is face to face with Stryker, and it's revealed that Kayla is alive and working with Stryker?!? This revelation continues with Stryker saying he was doing because since Logan has a healing factor this would help his son, and it would also help with his mutant killer project, "Deadpool". Oh don't worry I'll get into THAT later. Anyways, Stryker realized that the only way Wolverine would've ever came to him, would be revenge. So he had Kayla and Sabretooth fake her death. Oh boy, the problems this brings up.

1) Okay, so they were able to get pass the heart beating thing by injecting her with a drug that would slow her heart down. That's a smart way to get pass Logan's senses, but what about wounds? We saw Kayla's "dead body", she was covered in blood. Sure it was blood from a jar, probably something Stryker kept in handy. But, this would give Logan the impression that Victor cut her up and since Logan held her "dead body", he would've noticed some sort cuts or scrapes on her.

2) If Stryker wanted Wolverine so badly, why didn't he abducted him while he was unconscious after his first fight with Sabretooth? He was right there for the taken. He had no reason why he couldn't take advantage of this moment.

3) He didn't need to do this convulsed fake death bullshit. He could've had Victor ambush Logan and then once again, abduct him whenever Victor finally knocked him out, and then force him into his twisted experiments. He had Victor sneak attack everybody else, why is Logan who's the only one who gets special treatment?

After that bit of nonsense, Wolverine frees all of the imprisoned mutant kids, including Scott Summers. Which begs the question, why doesn't Scott remember Logan? He couldn't see him because he was blindfolded but he has heard his voice. And even if we ignore that, you mean to tell me, that no kids talked about the badass with the metal claws that saved them? Not even once?

Do I even need to say anything about...this?

Why? Why did they do this to Deadpool?! You don't sew the mouth of The Merc with The Mouth!

So after a bloated fight, Kayla dies for real, Wolverine loses his memories because Stryker shot him with an adamantium bullet, Logan and Gambit run off before the authorities arrive, and the kidnapped mutant children escaped thanks to the help of Professor Xavier. Oh and we got a credit scene showing us Deadpool survived. Cause they really thought we wanted to see more of this version of Wade, when we didn't want to see him the first time.

I know throughout this review I criticized bad CGI, weird editing, lackluster action scenes, and etc. But what really pisses me off is somewhere in here there's more than likely a good movie. That opening montage and setting in Canada were really good moments. Sadly after those we're treated to just a garbage flick.

My final rating is, Awful.

Thankfully after this we got The Wolverine and Logan, and given a proper Deadpool with Deadpool 1 & 2. Anyways, come back on Saturday, Jul 27th, for my review of Deadpool & Wolverine. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.

Watchmen & Doomsday Clock Review

With the animated movie coming out next month, I decide to review two Watchmen comics. Those being Watchmen and Doomsday Clock. I'm while aware of the Before Watchmen prequel comics, but I decided to keep it to these two, because I didn't want to this post to be too long. Having said that, let's get to it.

Watchmen is a twelve issue comic book limited series. It was written by Alan Moore and drawn by Dave Gibbons, and published by DC Comics.

The story is, police are investigating the death of a man named Edward Blake but have no leads. Vigilante Rorschach finds out Edward was the hero known as "The Comedian", and believes it's part a plan to kill costumed heroes. While everybody is struggling with their own personal demons, the Watchmen will soon realize that there's a bigger plan at play.

• Negatives

I've got nothing.

• Mix

Now, let's get one thing straight, the story is great and I'll touch upon those aspects later. For now let me get out some grievances. One, there's a story within this story called The Black Freighter. Its basic thing is it parallels one of the Watchmens turn to villainy. The problem is it takes up so much space it slows down the story. So the pacing gets messed up. Not to mention, but we are gonna know why this guy turns into a bad guy by the end. So now The Black Freighter story feels pointless. 🚨 !SPOILER ALERT! 🚨: I'M GONNA GIVE AWAY THE ENDING! SO IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THIS, JUST KEEP SCROLLING! Okay, so by the end of the story, the villain makes a giant squid appear in the middle of New York. My issue with this is it just comes right out of nowhere. Sure Dr. Manhattan is an all-powerful god, but he's primarily base in science. Not too mention but the story is based in a dark, gritter, and reality based world. So again, this squid is one big WTF! compared to everything else.

Alright, now let's get into the good stuff. One thing that's amazing is Alan Moore originally wanted the story to center around DC Comics characters, specifically characters from Charlton Comics, but that got rejected. So instead of characters like Blue Beetle and The Question, you get Nite Owl and the fan favorite Rorschach. I bring this up and praise it, because not only did Moore not let the set back stop, but he managed to not only make original characters, but a fully established world. I mean it you would of thought these characters and the world they live in has been around for years prior to this comic. We get backstories to our characters, how the emergence of superheroes affected real world events, etc. Just some top notch world building. Another praise goes towards the tension. As the story goes on the tension from another world war breaking out just keeps building and building and building, and you just feel that. So in a way this can be a very stressful read. Then there's the characters. They're very well written. We get entire backstories, we see how the impending doom is changing them as while as how the murder mystery is effecting them. And in the end, we also read about their moral dilemma about what they should do regarding what happened in New York. Speaking of the murder mystery, it's also really good. I already went into detail about the ending, so I'm not going to go into detail about the mystery. What I will say is there's plenty of twist and turns that'll keep you guessing.

• Positives

While I had slight issues with the story, one thing I know for a fact everybody can agree is Dave Gibbons' art. His work on the story's use of a nine-panel grid layout is brilliantly done. He also has great clean lines, and all of his character designs are very different from one another, so there's no way you're mistaken one character for another.

While I do have a some issues with the story, Watchmen is one of many essential comics you need to read.

My final rating is, A Must Read.

Doomsday Clock is a twelve issue limited series, that concludes a long storyline established in The New 52 and DC Rebirth, and a direct sequel to Watchmen. It was written by Geoff Johns and drawn by Gary Frank, and published by DC Comics.

The story is, after the events of Watchmen, Rorschach's journal has been published and now everybody knows the truth of what really happened all of those years ago, with that world put into chaos, Ozymandias travels to the DC Universe to find Dr. Manhattan in the hopes of saving their world. But things aren't that easy, especially since Dr. Manhattan sees a vision in where he and Superman are on the path towards a collision course.

• Negatives

I've got nothing.

• Mix

Let me start off by saying I'm a big fan of Geoff Johns comics. I love his Rebirth comics with Green Lantern and The Flash, I thought what he did with all three volumes of Batman: Earth One was entertaining, his Superman: Brianiac story was awesome, I'm quite fond of his Teen Titans run, and etc, etc, etc. So I did get a kick out of Doomsday Clock. One aspect of the story that was really good, was much like Alan Moore before him, Geoff wrote a story where the world is on the verge of a powder keg that's about to blow. But with Doomsday Clock is not about nuclear bombs about to go off like with Watchmen. It's which side is gonna have the most powerful group of metahumans. Which is an idea I really liked, for not only being interesting but fitting perfectly in the DC Universe. But what also made the story really good was on Superman focused it was. The story is greatly telling us why Superman is so important to the DC franchise. The story is saying he's the center and without him there is no DC. Which is true. If Action Comics #1 didn't feature Superman, I don't think comics would have superheroes. Now previously I said I'm a Geoff Johns, but even then I'm not a blind fanboy when it comes to his work. Sometimes he does have a flaw or flaws even if his stories are great. Doomsday Clock is no expectation. While Johns did great with the DC half of the story, the Watchmen half was a bit iffy. Dr. Manhattan was written really well, even redeeming himself thanks to Superman's words and actions. The villain from Watchmen is also given a pretty good story, because yet again he believes because of his high intelligence he thinks the world needs his form of "saving". Then we have the new Rorschach. His story arc was fairly simple, nothing to mind blowing, but I guess it did work. The worst part was The Comedian. He didn't really do much and I think Geoff Johns just part him in there because he's such a popular character.

• Positives

Once again, the truly positive thing is the art. Gary Frank is not only one of my many favorite Superman artist, but one of my favorite artists. Even though there's times he's emulating Dave Gibbons, Gary still managed to make the art his own thing. He's also got great details, and whether the moment is dramatic, quiet, action-driven, etc. Gary's art is just plain beautiful.

While I can see others people's problems with it, I really enjoyed Doomsday Clock. It wasn't a perfect sequel to Watchmen, but it's still worth a read.

My final rating is, Great.

That's all for now. Come back on Thursday, Jul 25th, for my Cinematic Disasters review of, X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.

Twisters Review

 

Twisters is a disaster movie and the standalone sequel to 1996's Twister. It was produced by Amblin Entertainment and distributed by Universal Pictures. Twisters is written by Mark L. Smith and Joseph Kosinski and directed by Lee Isaac Chung.

The story is, storm chaser Kate Cooper lost her friends in a devastating tornado and because of this tragic event she retired. Five years later, she convinced to come back after being told about a new storm chasing technology. However things aren't going to be easy, because not only does she have to deal with a reckless social media superstar, but her own problems as well.

Initial Reaction

Having enjoyed Twister I was excited for the sequel. Although, a part of me was worried it just be a copy of the first movie, to the point where it's just gonna be shot by shot remake.

Cons

I've got nothing.

Middle Ground

One grey area comes from the characters. Our main ones are Kate and Tyler, they got some pretty good development, and I enjoyed seeing them together. The others I really didn't care that much. It's not that I hated them, it's just they can be forgettable even though I do recall them having their own personalities.

Pros

One pro goes to the humor. While sometimes it's not as funny as the first, there were still some pretty funny moments. Then there's the pacing. The movie clocks in at two hours and two minutes, but man I didn't feel that way at all. You'll just breeze past this movie. Even when things are slow downed, I didn't feel the movie was on pause or was now going at a snail's pace. The last thing I'll credit is this is a fun movie. Much like the first, you'll have a blast watching all of the destruction unfold. But what also made it fun was it wasn't what I feared it be. Despite maybe a moment or two where there were callbacks to the first, it wasn't nostalgia baiting. The movie still managed to be it's own thing. I also just realized that you can just jump into this, without any knowledge of the first.

Twisters is a fun disaster flick, and if you're the mode to just kick back and watch something like that, or just be entertained in general, then I say give this one a shot.

My final rating is, Good.

That's all for now. Come back on Monday, Jul 22nd for my reviews of some Watchmen comics, in celebration of the animated movie releasing next month. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part Three Review

 

NOTE!: After This Review I'll Be Giving My Thoughts On The Ending & About Certain Universes Being "Erased", Which Will Contain Spoilers. I'll Also Be Giving My Thoughts On Where DC Should Go From Here. So If Don't Want To Read Those, Just Leave After I Give My Rating.

Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part Three is an animated comic book movie based on the comic book event story arc, Crisis on Infinite Earths. It serves as the sequel to Part Two, the final part of the trilogy, as well as the final installment of the Tomorrowverse. It's produced by DC Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation and distributed by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. Justice League - Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part Three is written by James Krieg and directed by Jeff Wamester.

The story is, the Justice League along with their fellow heroes whether from their Earth or others are making their final stand against the entity responsible from the Crisis. Both time and options are running out, can the heroes pull through, or will all of the multiverse fall?

Initial Reaction

While I was still interested in this movie, I'll admit I was skeptical. Because while I didn't hate Part Two, I wasn't extremely pleased about it either. So I was going into this with some doubts but still hoped for the best.

Cons

I've got nothing.

Middle Ground

One mix bag was the pacing. The first half have this is is pretty slow. Sure seeing the Supermen fighting dinosaurs and the Bat Family fighting Nazis with weapons from Batman's villains was fun, but at the same time I felt like we were just killing time until we finally circle back to the Anti-Monitor. Then there's the art style. Since Superman: Man of Tomorrow, I've have no real issue with the art style. Sure some character designs leave more to be desired, but overall I didn't hate it like most people. However, and without spoiling too much, Batman along with somebody else travel to another universe, and it's the same art style. So what's the problem per say? While the thing is we've traveled to that universe before, and they had no issue changing the art style, so why didn't they do it here? Maybe this is more than likely just me nitpicking but it felt like they could've done that trick again. It was actually a tiny bit cool when they did it.

Pros

One positive came from the story. Yes, I know I wrote about a slight issue, but I still liked the story, not love, but liked. Anyhow, I especially enjoyed how we finally got an answer of how the crisis came to be. After so much teasing back in Part One, we're given a really good answer. I'll explain why, after the review. The next thing I'll give credit is the action. Like I said, Two Supermans fighting dinosaurs and the Bat Family fight was fun, but the final fight with the Anti-Monitor was not only exciting, but there's actually a pretty good bit of drama and build-up to it. I was truly getting excited for the final blow to be struck.

While there are flaws, I still had a good time with this one, far more than I did with Part Two. However I think the good aspects slightly helped a bit. I won't be saying this is the greatest movie of all time, but it was a lot better than I thought it was gonna be.

My final rating is, Good.

Questions Answered

Okay! This is your final warning! I'm gonna be heading into spoiler territory! So back out now!

So after waiting for so long, we finally have an explanation to the Crisis came to be. When Batman & Constantine were investigating we travel back to Justice League Dark: Apokolips War. There were told Constantine put a spell on The Flash (aka Barry), where yes, Barry did do another Flashpoint, but not in the traditionally sense. While it did go back in time, where he was gonna kill a baby Darkseid because that's the only time Darkseid was ever vulnerable. However, because Constantine knew Flash didn't have it him, his spell not only convinced Flash to do another Flashpoint, but it also turned him into a walking plague. So Barry didn't need physically kill Darkseid, he just needed to be in the same space as he was. And because Darkseid is an essential piece to the multiverse, this would cause a shattering to said multiverse. Like I said, it's actually a really good explanation. Because for the life of me I was trying to figure out how Constantine & Flash could've possibly screwed up THIS badly.

The "Erased" Universes

Now during this movie, we see a lot of childhood favorite universes be "erased". We see the SuperFriends universe be wiped out, we see the DC Animated Universe (the franchise that gave us Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, Justice League, etc.) be wiped out, and we the 2003 Teen Titans universe be wiped out.

Why do I bring this up? Because I read so many people get upset about how this was disrespectful, and now the stories that were told don't mean anything. It was basically the same complaints I saw last year with The Flash. I want to rant on this because I feel like people are blowing this way out of proportion.

People can be rightfully upset, but I don't think they should act like we never gonna see those universes again. Take me example with The Flash. In that movie we see Christopher Reeve's Superman be "erased", and guess what? That verison of Superman still got a comic miniseries five months after that movie was released. And you know what happens in all of these big Crisis events? A universe gets "erased", and next thing you know through some sort of miracle the "erased" universe is back fully restored.

So if anything were more than likely gonna see those universes again one way or another. Although the DC Animated Universe one might be tricky given the fact of Kevin Conroy's tragic passing. But if we don't, everybody's fully aware you still buy the DVDs and Blu-Rays right? You can act this film isn't canon. It's the fun part about being a fan of all the superhero/supervillain stuff.

Where To Go Now?

So, now the question is where to go now? Well if any of you have been keeping track, you know we're going to get a two-part animated Watchmen movie. Hell, Chapter I is gonna come out next month.

Now people have speculated that the ending of Part Three is gonna connect to James Gunn's upcoming DC Universe. I have no conformation if that's true, it's just people guessing. I say, what DC needs to do is, no animated cinematic universes! At least not for awhile. DC needs to a break from that. Cause first we had the DC Animated Movie Universe which turned into the Tomorrowverse. What should happen is we get some stand-alone movies. Focus on making movies based on critical acclaimed/fan favorite comic story arcs, make something original, give us an Elseworlds, revisit those universes that got "erased". Just do something that's not connected to a cinematic universe, James Gunn's or otherwise.

Okay everybody, that's all for now. Sorry if you felt like this was too long, but there were somethings I wanted to write about. Anyways, come back on Saturday, Jun 20th, for my review of, Twisters. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.

Road to Superman (2025) - Superman II + The Richard Donner Cut Review

 

That's right, for the first time on a Road to I'm doing double duty by reviewing two versions of the same film, and also deciding which is better. But enough rambling let's get to it.

Superman II is a comic book movie, the sequel to 1978's Superman, and the second installment of the original Superman film series. It was produced by Dovemead Ltd. and International Film Production and distributed by Warner Bros. Superman II was written by Mario Puzo, David Newman, and Leslie Newman and directed by Richard Lester.

The story is, after finally being free from their prison, General Zod and his cohorts plan to take their revenge by going to Earth an conquering it. To make matters worse, in effort to be closer to Lois, Superman renounce his powers. Can Superman find a way to get his powers back, or will all of Earth kneel before Zod?

• Negatives

I've got nothing.

• Mix

Alright, we've got three slight issues with this. One of them being Lester's directing. Now, he is quite good, the problem was the stuff he shot really clashed with the tone of the movie. Where it feels as though the movie wants to be serious, there's quite a few campy moments that follow. This clash didn't absolutely ruin the entire movie for me, but it does bring the quality down a bit.

Then there's the action. Some are really fun, but Lester had this vision where he it wanted to be more like the comics. What's the issue with that? Well for starters technology wasn't up to par back then, and because of this the action can be slow at times. I remember this one moment when Superman goes to kick Non in the face, but because of Lester's decision it came off as Superman did so slowly that you're surprised Non didn't do anything because it looked like he had all the time in the world to move the other way or block.

The last thing I'll touch on is the special effects. Now yes, the first movie had it's not so good effects, but for the most part it's not too bad. Here, there's still some good effect work on display, but man the blue screen effects are just bad. I just can't defend those.

• Positives

If there's one thing to give credit to, it's the performances. And yes Christopher Reeve does get credit, but I also want to give credit to the likes of Margot Kidder, Terence Stamp, Sarah Douglas, etc. Despite having to go through some backstage drama, everybody managed to give some very good acting in.

While I'm the biggest fan of this verison of Superman II, I still feel it was a pretty decent sequel overall. Besides, it's a hell of a lot better than Superman III and IV.

My final rating is, Okay.

Alright, with the theatrical cut out of the away, let's move onto....

The Richard Donner Cut is of course a re-edited director's cut of Superman II, it was produced and distributed by Warner Bros. This one has huge amounts of discarded footage, alternate takes, and story elements not featured in the theatrical cut. While it was edited by Michael Thau, Richard Donner was overseeing production.

My Thoughts

Now many of praises, okay one of my praise, is in the theatrical cut, I won't touched too much on that. So let's focus on other aspects such as tone. One of my slight issues with the Lester cut was the comedy. Now Donner still has some humorous moments, but! The tone with this cut is very much similar, if not exactly like the first movie. So we do get some darker moments, while the more campy stuff is significantly toned down.

Then there's the action. Now most the action was stuff that was still the theatrical cut before Lester and co. came along and made their changes. However, the fight in Metropolis is a big improvement. It's not as long as I was expecting, but the fights are way better. Primarily cause it actually looks like the actors are actually in motion, which I greatly appreciate.

The last praise I'll give is the story. It feels so much stronger, probably thanks to the tone, I wrote about earlier. But I was also liked about the story was what Donner had in mind. The relationship story between Clark and Lois feels much stronger and I felt had a lot more development to it, and I also liked the conversation Superman had with his father about giving up his powers. They have a really good conversation about how yes Clark is aware he's being selfish by wanting to be with Lois, while Jor-El makes an argument that he can't favor one over all. So there's much more weight in this discussing than the other verison.

Now if I do have one slight criticism it is the footage. There's quite a few instances where you plainly tell things just are finished. Hell, there's test footage of Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder right in the middle of the movie, and it's very noticeable. Although, while we still should criticize this part, we really shouldn't be too harsh. Mainly because it was the best Richard Donner had to work with. Hell, even he wasn't too satisfied with the ending he used, saying had he completed the movie back the 1980, he definitely would've shot a different ending. And considering how much he cared about making these movies, I believe him.

The Richard Donner Cut does have it's undisputed flaws, however, between this and the theatrical cut, I'm picking the Donner Cut because it's much closer to what Richard had in mind. And unless the quality says otherwise, I'll be a supporting to a director's vision than something a corporate community wanted.

My final rating is, Good.

That's a wrap. Come back on Thursday, Jul 18th, for review of Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part Three. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.