JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE FLASHPOINT PARADOX Review


"Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox represents yet another leap forward for DC Animation, as they continue to "earn the PG-13", pushing the boundaries of the shape and scale of stories that they tell from feature to feature. In many ways, this moving and profound parable of loss and grief is by far the most complex and darkest yet take on the DC animated universe. Believe it or not, Flashpoint Paradox is darker than The Dark Knight Returns."

Review: DRUG WAR Takes The Battle To Mainland China


"For a good time, go see Johnnie To's latest film Drug War, which features some masterfully made high-octane entertainment. Heroic cops battle villainous thugs and it all looks slick and stylish. Is it a classic? Probably not. Did I like it? Oh HELL yes!


Not every last little thing may work in Johnnie To's new crime thriller, but the vast majority of it clicks together as a damn solid piece of action craftsmanship, anchored by two good leads. Seeing this film in the middle of a festival felt like drinking a strong cup of coffee when I REALLY needed one."

Dvader said:

Its just one of those things where the best animation will never match the best live action for me. It can't. There is no connection with me to the cartoon like there is if its actual people.

Animated superhero shows and movies are surging miles ahead of live action stories, they can and do cover far more stories. The Ultron saga has been done ages ago in the Earths Mightiest Heroes show for instance, it's looking back in the rear view mirror as a tiny speck in the distance. DC animation has done 91 Justice league episodes for instance where the entire DC lineup faces off and teams up - while we've been waiting two decades for Batman and Superman to appear together in live action. DC animation also does around 3-4 high quality movies a year while you have to wait 2 years minimum for one live action pic. In terms of budget there's a reason most Superhero films and stuff like Transformers is always set on Earth. What Hollywood can't afford, animation can. They don't need to worry about budget or location costs.

Also live action superhero movies are usually affected through interpretation by a directors 'vision' and can often veer away from very good comic book stories. DC animation in recent years have been directly adapting famous graphic novels. Because there are so few live action superhero flicks you have a relatively clueless mainstream audience which limits most superhero movies to early, mostly well worn but fairly boring origin stories. With animation they hit the ground running and can move forward with better stories with less pandering to the people who only get exposure to Superheroes via the odd movie.

Oh and I just want to add that what the avengers have done is change comic movies fovever. Before that like you mentioned mostive action movies take away all the really crazy stuff, they keeping grounded in reality or on earth. Avengers has shown that if you treat the material with respect and you get quality actors that buy into the story you can do any story you want no matter how comic booky it is. The audience will buy in.

So now we got a crazy time traveling xmen movie. We got avengers going full steam with space monsters and heading toward thanos. Batman and superman teaming up will lead to justice league who will most likely battle darkseid. That stay grounded rule has been thrown out the window and now we are getting some of the most awesome comic book movies being made.

Also Gamegeek the 8 minute preview link they took down the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DkKOp45c9U

Dvader said:

No worries GG. I get why you like it but for me those reasons kind of work in reverse. A cartoon is basically an animated comic book, many look the same, some are close to direct adaptations. Don't get me wrong I love seeing my comics become animated but it is not the same as it becoming real. When I see a comic or cartoon the feeling is the same, it's both animation, I want to see that world come to life. Yes it's hard to do, that makes the movies that much more exciting. You wait for years and years and hopefully one day someone has the balls to translate these stories into film. We are getting a time traveling xmen movie with sentinels, how absolutely amazing is that. Have I seen that story done to death in animation, yup but that can never replace the wow factor of having it done live action for me.

I see what you mean and I feel that too in parts. Sometimes the way things are slightly off from what I know annoys me at first in live action. I feel with animation that same joy you feel, seeing the comics come to life as it were. What DC Animation is doing with its movies is in some cases, is trying to ape the style of the graphic novel in question and different artists in the comic books have very different interpretations of the characters.

Superman Batman Public Enemies is very muscular

Justice League New Frontier is retro and 50s,

All Star Superman is fairly classical and rounded.

What Iga was saying about things that look fairly outlandish in live action, I mean the Green Goblin in Spiderman was reprehensible.

But in 1994 Spiderman I didn't even bat an eye at this:

There is some stuff that cannot be done in live action decently, Modok  who is an Avengers regular:

Also it annoys me in live action just how often these masked superheroes need to be unmasked. We always need to see their faces in movies, so their headpiece is always ripped off, like in Captain America, Spiderman etc. Thor hardly ever wears his helmet:

Also with live action the actors, it is difficult to get someone who perfect matches the part, you can get someone who looks, or sounds off. When an animated Superhero show is done right the characters look AND sound how they should, Steve Blum is Wolverine to me, Mark Hamill is the Joker, Kevin Conroy is Batman, Eric Loomis out Downy's Downy as Iron Man.

What someone said about animation being able to do things - the actual visual portrayal of them, the actual act of animation itself - and here I am not talking about Superhero stuff but the best of animation. If you watch something like the scene in Ponyo where the car struggles against the storm, the way the harbour guards coats puff in the wind, the way the waves plume, rise and sink, the way the car actually feels like a personality in itself, it's something Miyazaki did years before in Lupin and that Spielberg for instance took inspiration from for some of his movie chases scenes. Christopher Nolan's much lauded Inception is something of a rip (self admitted inspiration) from two animated movies from Satoshi Kon.

With animated Super heroe shows, they have like 20 minutes an episode so they have to be lean and mean, cut out the guff and get rolling with the story so it's often more entertaining. But some shows like Clone Wars and Justice League can stretch story arcs over 4 to 5 episodes so in the end you see like 1 hour 40 minutes like a mini-movie at the end of it. Clone Wars never reaches the heights of the Obi Wan Vader fight in Episode 3 but by its very nature of being a series with 5 seasons and over 100 episodes it has massively expanded the Clone Wars universe and told acres more story and brought tons more detail out in the universe.

It's not just animation vs live action it's what television can do vs movies. Movies will always have better production values and the best talent, special effects etc. But always limited to 2 hours for instance whilst every season of Clone Wars has 20 plus episodes. I was the huge movie guy but in recent years I appreciate a great tv series more as it simply gives me more and isn't a one shot event.

With regard to animated Avengers, Justice League is miles ahead, so much better. The stories are more interesting and in particular the way the characters interact is more natural. And from what I have read in comics, DC seems better to me and I was always the Marvel guy. Marvel has the more showy, popular characters but DC comics seem better written.

Oh BTW the new Avengers series premiered, Avengers Assemble, it's more based on the aftermath of the movie. It's not great so far, seems like a pointless reboot of Earths' Mightiest Heroes. It doesn't help that the Captain America and Tony Stark voice actor sound identical and Black Widow is now a regular, ehhhhh. She was always a side attraction in EMH. It also seems to be made by Man of Action the group responsible for the Ultimate Spiderman shitfest show.

travo said:

Everyone has seen TAS.  I watch it at least five times a week with my son.  It's an awesome show...but not as good as TDK.

It's a great show but nowhere near being the best ever. It's perilously old now yet still holds up well as it's fairly timeless. The Batman TAS team went on to make the Superman series which had its ups and downs and then Justice League which was great, then it became Justice League Unlimited and used any and every character in  the DC stable and it became epic.

Without a doubt it's the best animated superhero show.

It was followed up (sort of) with Young Justice featuring the younger sidekicks of the Justice League with many appearances from the actual JLA too, and that's a great show too. Miles better than the Avengers shows.

In terms of the absolute best, most exciting, dynamic well told and untimately fufilling animted shows you can watch, check out Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood

And Avatar the Last Airbender in series order.

Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood is 'Lost' level good.

Hollywood made an Avatar Last Airbender movie and it sucked balls, you cannot compress a whole seasons worth of episodes into one movie. Another reason why an animated tv series can be better, they could never do a live action series of it because the cost would be astronomical.

EDIT: Also I think the fight scenes are better in animation the creativity seems higher, every more is meticulously planned by a storyboard artist.

SUPERMAN vs. DARKSEID in Smallville!!!

Trying to do the martial arts scenes in Avatar would be tough getting english speaking actors/martial artists good enough to pull it off.

Well said GG. I should reall try to sit down to watch a full show. As always with TV they can create storylines and characters that you end up missing, they become a part of you almost in a way a movie cant do.

Some of my pics weren't working earlier, I have updated them.

Days of future past?

We have the details on THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY Extended Edition Blu-ray, VOD, and DVD releases! Plus a clip from the Extended Edition

Zhang Yimou may direct Josh Brolin as QUASIMODO!


Variety has reported that Zhang Yimou, he of HERO and HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS fame, is eyeballing the director's chair for Warner Bros.' HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME update, QUASIMODO. Josh Brolin as been attached to play the lead character for quite some time, and the PAPER MAN/SHERLOCK HOLMES: GAME OF SHADOWS writing team of Michele and Kieran Mulroney have drafted the current script. Tim Burton was previously in talks to direct the picture, but I guess he couldn't figure out how to properly render Johnny Depp as a hunchbacked monstrosity, and now it looks like we got Yimou.

Actually purple. Nice.