My Adventures with Superman- Season 1

8.5/10

In this new Superman cartoon on Adult Swim and Max, a fresh-out-of-college Clark Kent/Superman (voiced by Hunger Games/Scream's Jack Quaid) and Jimmy Olson (Jury Duty's Ishmel Sahid) meet Lois Lane (Zoey's Extraordianry Playlist's Alice Lee) when they all intern at the Daily Planet.

Though on Adult Swim, MAwS is really a family/children's show. (Kids aren't watching broadcast television nowadays, and from what I've heard, Adult Swim gets better viewership due to an older audience.) This show also seems to be a reaction to recent darker Superman and other DC projects. MAwS has a classic bright and optimistic Superman feel to it. Heck, it's a lot lighter than the 90's Superman cartoon. (Remember that episode where Clark tries to help that guy on death row for a woman's murder? I'm still surprised they were able to get away with all that dark subject matter on children's television.) Not to say the show doesn't have any stakes. Deaths are referenced in the show, but they're backstory deaths. MAwS is about Superman saving people.

The lifeblood of this show is the relationship and trust and support between the three friends. Jimmy, who's a big mystery guy, like as in Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster, is especially wholesome and fun to watch. That having been said Lois can be really selfish or hypocritical at times, but I wouldn't call it a dealbreaker. Also, he's not in this much, but the Daily Planet's sports writer Steve Lombard (voiced by the Ninjago show's Vincent Tong) is really fun. He has this goofy, overinflated bravado about him.

A lot of credit should be given to this show being able to repackage the same old story of Superman in a new way. Some fans may be annoyed that a lot of villains had their natural powers converted to weaponry, but it is a unique take. I appreciate that this show focused on multiple names from Superman's and DC's rogues gallery and that there's no Lex Luthor this season (he's so overexposed, and you can only do so many plotting evil businessman storylines.)  

One big annoyance of the show is that any character that doesn't trust Superman is incredibly one-note without any nuance or at times even rationality to their reasoning.

The animation is very anime-style inspired (even the end credits feel more like an anime end credits than a western one), and it all looks really good. The line work in this is top notch. Animation allows you to do a lot more with Superman fighting and the plentiful action scenes are all smooth. I especially liked some of the reinvisioned designs for some of the antagonists.

Highly recommended. This show is genuinely entertaining, old fashioned Saturday cartoon fun.

Zack Snyder's Justice League

 

8/10

Having helmed Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman, director Zack Snyder's nextstep was to direct the Justice League. The whole thing was mapped out (WB gave Snyder a lot of control as the sort of architect of DCU), with more Justice League films planned. However, BvS didn't do as well as expected, resulting in the studios having less trust in Snyder and his darker, more serious angle. Then tragedy struck, his daughter committed suicide and he bowed out of the project. However, it seems WB execs had were losing  faith anyway: https://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/wb-reportedly-blames-zack-snyder-justice-leagues-poor-performance/. Joss Whedon was brought in, and a lot was thrown out and an active attempt was made to make the movie more friendly to a traditional audience. However, now due to intense audience curiosity and AT&T wanting something big to sell HBOMax with, we've got what Snyder intended. 

The basic plot is the same: The Justice League forms to stop extraterrestrial baddie Steppenwolf (voiced by Ciarán Hinds) from conquering Earth. This is definitely a stronger work story-wise than the theatrical cut; the tone just didn't match with or had the confident setup of BvS. More weight is given to everything.  

The world building is so much more stronger than in the Whedon cut. This is probably the biggest strength to the film. Snyder is going for epic scope in this, and it does come across. Both Cyborg (Ray Fisher), Flash (Ezra Miller), especially Cyborg, have far better stories. 

It's been a while since I the theatrical cut, so I can't remember if Alfred (Jeremy Irons)  had less or the same amount of time, so I can't say they did him better here, but he definitely stands out with some of the best lines. (Flash has some good ones, too). I think I'll miss Irons the most out of the actors who'll no longer be reprising their roles after this. 

I know everyone else has said it already, but Steppenwolf is improved from the basic, paper-thin villian he was in the Whedon cut.  Now, he's still not the greatest villain. In the grand scheme of things, he's not that broad a character, still just the basic warrior type. But he's given legit background and motivation. 

I did think Batman (Ben Affleck) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), who were already introduced in BVS, weren't given as much to do as the new characters. I thought Superman (Henry Cavill) was as improperly utilized as he was in the theatrical version.

Snyder has learned to make the characters more accessible. Sure, the movie is still about them having the weight of responsibility on their shoulders that comes from being demigods and keeps them separated a lot from the common folk, but it feels a lot less in-your-face.

Though I am glad I got to see Snyder make the film he wanted, I think he was allowed a little too much freedom. Snyder didn't need to make this 4 HOURS LONG. Quatro, Quatre, Vier. Don't get me wrong, I don't think this had to be under two hours, but this long? The thing is that there were several scenes that could've been cut or shortened without damaging the film. The epilogue feels especially indulgent and overkill.

Visually, Snyder is one of the most visually distinctive directors out there right now. No other types of films look quite like his. This movie is no exception, great cinematography and action. But, Snyder's gonna Snyder. Everything still looks grey. (You wonder how crops grow in this world when the sun never shines.

Several of the computer animated characters aren't polished enough. Snyder's love of grey is lended to the color scheme of three of the antagonists. I guess this is particularly frustrating since in the comics, Steppenwolf and the other baddies from the planet Apokolips tended to be more colorful-looking. I also found it unnecessary for him to make Steppenwolf and two other baddies computer animated when their original counterparts were humanoid, or in the case of Steppenwolf who was originally yellow-skinned, human-looking enough. One of these computer designs felt particularly weird since the character isn't alien-looking at all.

I think that Snyder cut Steppenwolf is tougher-looking and leaves more of an impression then theatrical cut Steppenwolf. (They look completely different.) However, I still think he is kinda basic-looking. (You'd think Snyder'd learn his lesson after the criticism of how uninspired-looking Doomsday was in BVS.) The various tiny pieces of his armor are constantly moving and it's distracting. They don't move in accordance with Steppenwolf's body movements, they just move completely at random, and I can only ask "Why?!"

How does this movie compare to the theatrical? I'll level with you, my memory's a little sketchy, and I only saw it once. I noticed that my IMDB rating for it is higher than I thought it was. I can say that I think this is the second best of Snyder's DCU trilogy. Though a lot of people say BVS was the weakest, I thought it was just a stronger film than the other two with more interesting stuff thrown at you. I think this is definitely worth a watch if you can stand 4 hours and provided you don't have a total aversion to Snyder's style.

Superman: Man of Tomorrow

7/10

Superman: Man of Tomorrow is about Clark Kent/Superman (voiced by Glee/American Crime Story season 2's Darren Criss), brand new in Metropolis and trying to figure out whether he should reveal his abilities to the world. I found this to be one of DC's better animated movies.

Yeah, this isn't the first Superman origin story ever told or him feeling like an outsider and trying to find his place in the world, but to its credit, this is the first time I've seen it done as feature animation. The script does a decent job of exploring the character of Clark and his fears of the world distrusting an outsider. In fact, this includes one of the best gosh-darn-likable Clark's. Heck, this includes some of the better depictions of Lois Lane (Percy Jackson's Alexandra Daddario), Ma and Pa Kent (Bellamy Young and Scrubs/The Middle's Neil Flynn), Lex Luthor (Stare Trek/Heroes' Zachary Quinto), and other Superman/DC characters. 

There are reasons I didn't rate this higher. Not every story decision worked for me. Some things seemed to happen just because the writer wanted them to happen regardless of whether they were natural. Superman has a big speech in this that is supposed to be persuasive but comes off as schmaltzy. Also, the movie felt a little too tragic and morbid with the villain Parasite (Agent of Shield's Brett Dalton). His depressing, dark storyline seemed to be at odds with the more hopeful, upbeat feel of Superman's.   

The whole things looks great. I felt that a lot of DC animated character designs, especially recently, have been so-so. Here, some sort of new process is used giving the characters a more rotoscope-type appearance. They just feel a little more detailed than a lot of character designs today. Although I miss the old-school original humanoid appearance of the Parasite and haven't been a big fan of the comics making him look more like a parasitic creature these days, I admit that this particular monstrous design is pretty good, especially his weird feet.   

Overall, I think any DC animation or Superman fan will like this.