Praise4Media #67 - Aquaman

Apparently, I’m on a superhero kick, let’s take a look at DC’s offering with Aquaman

I think most of us agree that Justice League wasn’t good (and the Snyder Cut won't be either, I guarantee it), and Aquaman isn’t immune to criticism when it comes to the performance of Jason Mamoa but let’s be honest, he could’ve given it his all, and it would still have been sh*t so no love lost there. I don’t mind the casting of Mamoa and it’s time to give him his time to shine, and shine he did in his solo movie.

Production of an Aquaman movie can be traced back as early as 2004, but with studio mandates, recasting and the usual stuff that goes on behind the scenes with this kind of movie, it was 2018 before we saw it as part of the already very shaky DC Extended Universe.

The story was written by comic veteran Geoff Johns (who has written Aquaman before), mostly horror writer/director James Wan, and writer of Gangster Squad Will Beall, who co-wrote the screenplay with David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick. Clearly Geoff Johns is the big name when it comes to writing, as most of the others are fairly niche. James Wan is an interesting choice as director as this brings him well out of his comfort zone, not necessarily a bad thing though is it can provide a fresh perspective that the DCEU sorely needed.

The film had a mixed critical reception but was well received commercially, making over $1bn at the box office, making it the DCEU’s best outing to date. So where do I stand on this film? Let’s take a look.

RageLite review - Wonder Woman

It’s been a while since I’ve talked about any DC films and it seems like they’re starting to get back on track by basically ditching the extended universe and focusing on standalone films. Justice League being a critical and financial disaster clearly forced a rethink on they’ll handle their properties, but that doesn’t mean no good came out of it. Wonder Woman’s minimal role in Batman v Superman was among the better aspects of it. It didn’t stop that film being utter garbage but it did give me optimism going into her solo movie.

Female solo superhero movies have in general been pretty bad up to this point, with Catwoman obviously being the worst. But then you look at the writing talent, and worries start to crop up again, we have Zack Snyder, who I have had issue with in the past, Allen Heinberg, if I’m not mistaken he wrote the awful Wonder Woman run post Infinite Crisis (the one where she couldn’t pump gas) and Jason Fuchs, who… co-wrote an ice age film. Notice how there are no women on the writing team, either.

Of course, Patty Jenkins is the one directing so at least there’s representation there, but her experience is mostly in television. Does this hold the film back? Well it certainly didn’t seem to, as the film made $821m on its $150m budget, more than Man of Steel or Justice League and managed an impressive 93% Rotten Tomatoes rating and an 88% audience rating. So what helped here? Let’s take a look.

#73 - Heroes in Crisis (Part 3)

Oh goody, Heroes in Crisis, time to put this garbage to bed. Here’s a recap of what I’ve covered so far: A bloody massacre as occurred at the strange and stupidly run facility known as the Sanctuary, tapes that shouldn’t exist were leaked to Lois Lane and rather than giving essential evidence to the Justice League, she wrote an article.

Superman makes a statement to the press rather than actually looking for the killer. That honour goes to Booster gold, who after claiming innocence under the Lasso of truth, something I will not drop btw, is pursued by Harley Quinn and Batgirl who still think he’s the murderer for some reason. On his side is Ted Kord, who has donned his pre-new 52 appearance because Tom King and Jamie S Rich don’t know jack about DC continuity. And most of you are probably still wondering why I spent half my first review giving you the backstory of Wally West when he’s been dead the whole time. But don’t worry, answers will follow. Also, this is all that’s happened in 5 issues.

#72 - Heroes in Crisis (Part 2)

OK, we’re back to this, and there’s a lot to cover, so there isn’t gonna be a long preamble like last time

Previously on Heroes in Crisis: Writer Tom King destroyed the premise of his own story by starting with a massacre at a trauma centre known as the Sanctuary. Booster Gold and Harley Quinn fought, both blaming the other for said massacre. And that’s it.

Once again, trigger warning, I’m going to be describing offensive scenes and not all of them from Heroes in Crisis. Violence, death, suicide, mental health and sexual assault/rape may be covered in this review.

#71 - Heroes in Crisis (Part 1)

I was originally gonna wait on this one, but with my schedule originally there wasn’t gonna be another Rage Review until at least December, so I’m rectifying that now. Heroes in Crisis is the worst comic story I’ve ever read. I’ll make no bones about that, it’s worse than the stupid Mr Freeze retcons, worse than the revamped origins written by Scott Lobdell, worse than Felicia D Henderson’s Teen Titans rune, worse than Cry for Justice and its follow-up mini-series and worse than Secret Empire.

To understand exactly why this story p*sses me off, we need to examine a couple of mental health related issues, so trigger warning. This review, and the onecs that follow will discuss death and suicides in relation to mental health and how this story does all of it a complete disservice. Also, I’m not a doctor, most of my analysis is based on common sense and minor bits of research. If I make a mistake, please point it out to me, I do not want to be giving out inaccurate information.

                                                                                        

Before we begin we must also look at the story of Wally West, so many spoilers to follow. 

Mini Review - Superman Returns

I know it’s been a while, but we’re back to Superman.

2018 was a year I decided not to cover 2 movies because of the unfortunate and horrific things levied against Kevin Spacey (which continued after I finished writing this, seriously, f*ck Kevin Spacey). But there is a time to separate the art from an artist and refusing to cover them because of one actor is insulting to everyone else involved, so I’ll be doing mini reviews of Superman Returns and Baby Driver over the coming weeks.

Superman returns was intended as a sort of tribute to the Christopher Reeve Superman era, as well as an attempt to breathe new life into the franchise after the horrendous performance of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace. It didn’t work out very well, it made only $390m on a $200m budget, thanks to a dismal performance overseas.

Whilst critics tend to like it, most praises came with a few caveats, so let’s dig into the… 2 hours and 37 minutes!!! Holy sh*t, this is a long movie!

Guilty Pleasures #46 - Justice League

Over the course of 10 years and over a dozen movies, it’s all been building up to this, this is… wait no, that was Avengers: Infinity War, let’s take a look at Justice League

DC comics do not have a good track record with movies. Since launching the DC Cinematic Universe, only one of their movies has a been a critical success. But most made money at the box office, here we’re looking at DC’s first bonafide flop. The movie was a bit of a mess behind the scenes thanks to Zack Snyder quitting the project and being replaced by Joss Whedon, who rewrote parts of the script and that entailed intensive reshoots.

For the record, I hold no ill will to Zack Snyder for his decision to step down. The loss of a loved one, especially under those circumstances, is a horrible thing to go through and I totally understand his decision to step aside. Then studio then mandated the film be under 2 hours long and wanted it released by the end of 2017 so executives could get their bonuses before the merger of WB and AT&T, this in spite of some hiccups in post-production.

The extent of the reshoots brought the budget up to $300m, making it one of the most expensive movies ever made. It made $657m at the box office; once marketing was factored in that lead to an estimated $60m loss for the studio. So, where did this movie go wrong? And did it deserve to fail?

4 issue test #45 - Sideways

It’s been a nice few years of reviewing comics, but I’m bringing the 4 issue test to a close. There are 2 reasons behind this. The first is because they have be done much later than my usual reviews, which are usually done 2 months in advance, and I like to at least try and have a 4 issue test out before the 5^th issue comes out. Doesn’t always work, but that’s my intention

The second reason is constant reboots. And I’m particularly aiming my gun at Marvel here, if you’re gonna keep rebooting your titles every year, what’s the point in me even reading them. I’ve basically dropped my Marvel titles to Ms Marvel and Star Wars related stuff. Although a lot of that is down to titles I was enjoying coming to an end, with no other writer taking over for some reason.

Speaking of writer’s taking over, word to DC and Marvel. A new creative team is not enough to justify relaunching the entire title. We don’t need a Superman #1 just because Bendis is involved, especially if essentially it’s just continuing where it was left off. At least when Darth Vader relaunched, it decided to take place in an entirely different period of his history. But rant over, how are we gonna end this, on a brand-new DC Character: Sideways

The event Dark Knights: Metal is a decent one, it brought Martian Manhunter back into the fray after a long absence, delved into the Hawkman/Hawkgirl mystery and more importantly was a decent story in its own right, although it had far too many one-shots and tie-ins. No Justice #1, which followed immediately after was also a good read. But before we got that, we got ‘The New Age of Heroes’ a line of new characters who had origins linking to the event, there were about 8 titles, and I’ve heard good things about some of them, but the one that intrigued me was Sideways.

As plotters we have Kenneth Rocafort and Dan Didio. I’ll leave off criticising Didio, but he was involved in a lot of poor creative decisions during the New52 and even before then. You might remember Kenneth Rocafort, he was an artist during the second Teen Titans run in the New 52, at least the issues I reviewed. That wasn’t well written, but I was OK with the art. Helping Didio out with Dialogue is Justin Jordan, I have next to nothing I can say about him since I haven’t read any of his work.

Rocafort also handles the artwork, with colouring by Daniel Brown. Don’t have much to say about him either, since I haven’t read his work, but he was also on later issue of that Teen Titans volume I reviewed. So, let’s just take a look

4 issue test #45 - Doomsday Clock

#53 Superman IV - The Quest for Peace

I honestly didn’t know which format to use for this one.

I do not like Superman 3, I hope my review during the summer made that clear. I don’t like its overly comedic tone, it’s boring villains, Gus, just generally Gus and the complete waste of any potential in Smallville. Still, it was successful enough to get another sequel, although the changes are much bigger this time.

Let’s start off with the budget, a significant slash from Superman III, that’s because allegedly Golan Globulus, the studio behind the movie, took investor’s money and invested it in other projects. Either way, this movie had a budget of only $17m and boy does that show, but that’s getting ahead of ourselves. Despite the low budget, the film was a financial failure and the entire franchise was put on the back burner until Superman Returns in the 2000s (I'll cover that one eventually, but given recent allegations against Kevin Spacey, it'll be a while).

This is regarded as not just the worst Superman movie, but one of the worst movies ever made, so why am I conflicted? Let’s take a closer look at hahahahahahahahahahahahaha sorry, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace

#51 - Batman and Harley Quinn

Oh boy, we’ve got a bad one for this entry. And I wanted to start with a simple question. Bruce Timm, what happened to you?

Bruce Timm has become somewhat of a legend when it comes to superhero stuff, being one of the guys behind the excellent DCAU and the very good Green Lantern: The Animated series, which I will eventually cover as a retrospective.

Then he took some time off, when he first came back it was for Justice League: Gods and Monsters; a unique take on the trinity of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman where their morals are more grey than usual. It was good, even great, but then something happened, his next movie was the Killing Joke. I ripped this movie apart back in May, particular for that abysmal opening third featuring Batman and Batgirl having sex on a rooftop.

So, for this story, one that’s completely unique, they wanted to tone down the darker tone and focus on humour. That’s fine. Justice League Action, which is a solid if shallow show did that exact thing. But here’s the thing, being a comedy whilst also being adult-orientated can lend itself to some very bad things. I’m looking at you, FAMILY GUY!

So, are we talking At World’s End comedy or Dude, Where’s my Car? comedy? Would it really be here if it wasn’t the latter?

Guilty Pleasures #39 - Suicide Squad

Hope you enjoyed my little skit, just something I wanted to try out. But to the actual review. This is Suicide Squad

The next in the line of DC movies following Batman v Superman: Dawn of Awfulness, Suicide Squad had a rough production history, with the editing being handled by a trailer house and an effort made to inject more humour into what was a serious movie and only 6 weeks given to the writer to script it.

The end result was divisive but profitable none-the-less, and here’s how I weigh in on it.

#49 - Superman III

OK, so Superman 2 was great, wasn’t it? Only bad things to come from here.

Richard Lester is in full control and it’s time for, *sigh* a more comedic Superman movie. They did manage to make their money back but it was critically slammed and the next entry was done with a different production studio and far less money. But that’s a story for another day, let’s take a look at Superman III

#47 - Sequel Month - Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Please Note: This review was written before the announcement of Zack and Deborah Snyder stepping away from Justice League to cope with the loss of their daughter. I wish them all the best, however, I'm commenting on a product, and this product sucks!

It’s Sequel Month!

And enough of the mediocrity, let’s get into the pure sh*t. This is Batman v Superman – Dawn of Depression.

Released in March last year, this movie fell short of expectations for a movie that combines DC’s 2 most popular characters, arguably the two most popular characters in comics overall. If Iron Man 3 could reach a billion dollars in the box office, what stopped this? That’s not to say it did poorly exactly, it made over $800m but the scathing reviews, but holding only a 28% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and the fact a lot was spent on marketing this movie to the point where this movie only barely made a profit, and considering the enormous $250m spent on the movie anyway.

Zack Snyder original tease for this movie had me exceptionally worried. The Dark Knight Returns is a good story, from a time when Frank Miller could actually write coherent stories. But to take inspiration from this for Batman and Superman’s first meeting struck me as odd, especially given the themes of that book.

Because I’m a glutton for punishment, I’ll be going over the Ultimate edition of the movie, which is around 3 hours long. This is purportedly the one with the most complete story but I will say now, 3 hours is too long for a movie, whether it be Titanic, Avatar or Batman v. Superman; apparently, it got an R Rating in the US too, even though in the UK, it sits still at the equivalent of PG-13.

Lets dive in

4 issue test #40 - Super Sons

Robin has an ego, Jon Lane-Kent has powers. They’re the sons of Batman and Superman and they get on like a house on fire. And by that, I mean the fight that would inevitably ensue between them would leave the house on fire. And boy was it fun to watch them play off each other. Superman did a 2-part story featuring the both of them learning to get along, not extremely successfully, but it’s been hinted since the beginning of Rebirth that they’d be getting a title between them and here it is.

In the writer’s seat is Peter Tomasi who already has experience writing both Robin back from when he was writing Batman and Robin and Jon-Lane Kent from his Superman title. He was the one who wrote the initial crossover, and instigated the dynamic between them. In the art department we have Jorge Jiminez who has a wide range of credits from DC, having done Arrow and Smallville Comics to Earth 2: Society and issues of Superboy and Superman.

Does the gimmick wear or is this a new classic team-up? Let’s take a look at #1-4

4 issue test #39 - Kamandi Challenge

We’ve got an interesting one here, first it’s a continuation of an old DC comic style, and we have the titular Kamandi.

Kamandi is a character I only have a passing interest in. He was created by Jack Kirby as a rival to Planet of the Apes when DC couldn’t get the rights to the franchise. Jack Kirby is a legend in comics, creating the New Gods for DC and also having a hand creating a lot of Marvel staples, along with Stan Lee of course. They call him ‘The King’ for a reason.

But to the DC Challenge idea. This is where things get a bit more intriguing. Usually a 12-issue mini-series like this would have a consistent writer and artist on the whole arc. Here, though, each issue is tackled by a different artist and writer. There is a bit of a game about setting narrative traps, where an issue would end on a cliff-hanger the next writer would have to resolve. Of course, it couldn’t be impossible, since the writer would have to provide their own idea for a resolution.

Seeing how this is tackled, it doesn’t really fit the 4-issue test style I usually use, so there may be some changes to the style I use here, but we’re still looking at the first 4 issues, so let’s take a look.

#46 - The Killing Joke (Rage Issues 3rd Anniversary)

Well, we’ve done it. This tiny little site that struggles to get more than 20 views a post has managed to keep running for 3 years!

Sorry if I sound rather un-optimistic but this year’s calibre of movies just keeps getting worse, from the abysmal Barley Lethal to the insulting Riverdale and Back again, this year has been on fire for Rage reviews, and yet I still did less than I did last year. And I’ll probably do even fewer this year as I try and expand my range a bit. But today, to celebrate my third year of doing this, I’ll be reviewing a movie I’ve intended to review for a long… actually it’s the Killing Joke.

I was (un)fortunate enough to see this movie in cinemas before its release onto DVD, I gave it a mixed review but I was positive overall in my short summary. Something needs to be done about that because let me be clear, this is not a good movie.

But before we begin a little info about the Killing Joke comic book that the work is based on. Considered an iconic Joker story, it was written by Alan Moore, a writer famous for being somewhat grouchy about his work at DC and for Watchmen and V for Vendetta. He doesn’t ever attach his names to adaptations of such projects and this is no exception. In fact, he doesn’t think it’s very good and in one aspect it is controversial. I’ll get to that later. In the production team, we have an old friend in Bruce Timm, someone who should know better than this sh*t.

In the voice acting department we have some old friends. Kevin Conroy, Mark Hamill and Tara Strong are voicing Batman, the Joker and Barbara Gordon respectively, as they did during the last part of the animated series (Batgirl went through several voice actors) but on the other hand with the writer we have Brian Azzerello, who did the controversial New52 Wonder Woman, a well-acclaimed(ish) Joker story and at point of writing is working with Frank Miller to make DKIII not Suck, most likely without success because this is still Frank Miller… Yeah, I’d rather put my head in a blender than read DKIII, especially at the price they’re selling these issues at, it’s insane!

OK, I’m going off track. So, let’s just dive into Batman: The Killing Joke and see why this deserves an anniversary review.

4 issue test #39 - Teen Titans (DC Rebirth)

Yes, I know it's another cheat but they use the same logo and this review's late already

It’s DC Rebirth Time again!

I’d previously reviewed a Teen Titans book, it was one of my earliest reviews of this format. It… wasn’t great really, I did drop the book after the 4^th issue and even though a couple of ideas tossed did gain my attention, it was never really enough to bring me back in.

But DC Rebirth has shone a new light on the Titans with a new creative team and a new roster. In the writer’s chair is Ben Percy, who is also tackling the Green Arrow books and with artists… well, there are quite a few of them. The roster, I’ll cover in the description since the first issue is primarily about getting everyone together. Speaking of which, let’s get to it.

4 issue test #35 - Blue Beetle

 

If there’s one thing I learned from watching Young Justice: Invasion again is that Jaime Reyes is a fascinating character. Well, that coupled with Linkara’s retrospective on the character last year.

He hasn’t had a great history in comics, both his series were cancelled due to low sales but they’re trying again, but they have a new gimmick. Ted Kord, the previous incarnation of the Blue Beetle made his reappearance in the New52, his father was killed by Lex Luthor in the opening issue. Well, technically he was blackmailed and the crime syndicate killed him whilst Luthor ignored him but semantics. Anyway, Ted Kord was a Blue Beetle in previous continuity but it appeared that they’d retconned it, especially given how young he was in that.

Speaking of continuity, far as I can tell, this book brushes the previous Blue Beetle continuity under the rug and sets it on fire for good measure. Given what I’ve heard about it, I’m not sad about that. We have a fresh start; can they make good on it? Let’s take a look.

Guilty Pleasures #35 - Superman: The Movie (1978)

I’m just gonna put this on-record for everyone. Brace yourselves, this is a controversial opinion that I’m never gonna be able to take back...

Man of Steel sucks and Batman v. Superman sucks. I’ve already gone into detail about what I hate about Man of Steel in my review (plug) and I’ll be reviewing Batman v. Superman later this year. But before we do that, let’s take a look at the movies at the other end of the scale.

Superman: The Movie is one of the best rated superhero movies on Rotten Tomatoes, 93% puts it up there with the Dark Knight, Guardians of the Galaxy, Iron Man and the Avengers. Note how The Dark Knight is the only other DC movie in the 90+s on Rotten Tomatoes. But we’re not here to judge the ratings, I’m here to judge it for myself, using modern sensibilities because I think it'll be funnier. Let’s dig into Superman: The Movie and see what this has to offer.