Win/Lose
By Ryan O'Neill
August 10, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com
One of the fascinating aspects of film is to compare two movies that are analogous in tone or genre, but not equivalent in their entertainment value. If the two were directly competing for an audience's satisfaction, one would win easily and the other would lose severely.
The biggest craze in Hollywood over the last few years has been to adapt comic books into hopeful mega-profit franchises. Some of these efforts have been hugely successful, while others were massive mistakes. In 2008, it was the summer of the superhero, with several more on the way, but this summer there was only Wolverine to hold down the comic book fort. Unfortunately, my main memory of that film is of its horrible, blurry CGI figures hopping all over the place like Q*bert. Recently, I watched two direct-to-DVD animated movies from DC Comics. Surprisingly, the film based on the comic that I have followed for several years ended up being a brutal experience, and the hero that I have never had any interest in beside the awesome green costume was easily the most entertaining to watch.
Green Lantern: First Flight
Green Lantern: First Flight is the latest DC Universe animated movie. Much like the Wonder Woman cartoon before it, I had zero interest in the comic book series and was not looking forward to watching the film, but I ended up being pleasantly surprised.
I was slightly familiar with the Green Lantern character due to a few Justice League of America comics, but I always found the use of the green power ring to be too silly. Over a decade ago, comics started to mature in order to retain their aging fans and attempt to gain new readers. Green Lantern using a big green fist to clobber people and seeing a humongous green pair of scissors floating around always seemed way too immature for my tastes. Fortunately, the use of the ring's ability to generate various weapons suits the animated form perfectly. I'm hopeful that the upcoming feature length movie with Ryan Reynolds in the title role can be as successful as the cartoon.
First Flight does not waste much time in creating the origin of Hal Jordan and his first encounter with an alien life form who bestows upon him the green power ring. In less than ten minutes, the new Green Lantern is introduced to the Green Lantern Corps and whisked away into space. The cartoon then becomes a quality science fiction tale with several action set pieces that were very nicely staged. The voice work, score, and 2-D animation are also very well done. Incredibly, the movie even manages to explain the Green Lantern Corps' one weakness, the color yellow, without sounding completely ludicrous. Once again, I hope that the feature film will follow suit with the animated production and write a screenplay involving several planets and alien races as the science fiction genre is criminally underutilized.
Christopher Meloni as Hal Jordan and Michael Madsen as Kilowog are the only two voice actors in Green Lantern that I was familiar with, but I was particularly impressed with the work of Victor Garber who plays Sinestro, the main villain of the piece.
I believe that there are several different types of audiences that would enjoy Green Lantern: First Flight. Fans of alien movies, science fiction, action, comic books, and quality animation will all be impressed by First Flight. If Mr. Deeds was reviewing the film, he would only have three words to say, "It's Wicked Cool!"
Batman: Gotham Knight
Released last summer, Batman: Gotham Knight was part of the tremendous hype machine unleashed by Warner Bros. to promote the upcoming Dark Knight. I had high hopes coming into the film, especially considering that Kevin Conroy was returning to play the voice of Batman. I was a big fan of Batman: The Animated Series in the '90s, where Conroy first voiced the character. Regrettably, Gotham Knight was a miserable experience that brought back memories of The Animatrix, and that is not a good thing.
Batman: Gotham Knight is an anthology of six animated films that each run for approximately 12 minutes. The first five shorts are complete garbage, with only the sixth being a worthy addition to the Batman mythology. With each short having a Japanese director, it is no surprise that they have more of a Japanese anime style than a traditional animated production. I would not normally have a problem with this except for the fact that Batman looks disgusting in the first five shorts. One of the main rules to adapting a successful comic book is to make sure that the hero looks cool. Gotham Knight is an absolute failure on this issue.
The first short, titled Have I Got a Story For You, is the worst of the six. Beginning an anthology with the weakest segment is never a good idea when trying to keep the full attention of an audience. The storyline involves four kids at a skate park detailing their encounters with Batman. Each child embellishes their tale by turning Batman into some kind of demon, ghost, or robot. Although I understand the concept of exaggerating the visuals for effect, it is a very poor choice to begin a Batman film without Batman actually looking like Batman. When a proper depiction of Batman finally takes place near the end, he is drawn to look like a fat guy who should be chasing doughnuts instead of criminals. I think that everyone involved with this short should be embarrassed by the result.
Crossfire is next. In this story, Batman jumps into the middle of a mob shootout to protect a couple of police officers. Again, the hero does not look correct, and the director seems to be giving a pitiful homage to Sam Raimi throughout by using multiple camera flashes and quick close ups.
In Field Test, Bruce Wayne is drawn to resemble a teenage Japanese girl, and Batman looks like Hawkman on cocaine with an elongated nose and funky costume. This tries to tie into the second short by following a Russian mob and the testing of a new electromagnetic device that helps Batman deflect bullets, but it is more boring and weirdly animated drivel.
David Goyer wrote In Darkness Dwells and it finally features a couple of villains from the classic Rogues Gallery. However, Scarecrow's costume in this anime style is as ridiculous as Batman's, who for the fourth time looks bizarre. Killer Croc also shows up to have a ten second brawl with the hero before he vanishes into a sewer. More wasted potential in a film that is becoming more tedious to watch by the minute. At least I finally noticed the score in this outing.
In the first minute of Working Through Pain, another strange looking Batman follows a criminal in a sewer only to be shot and fall over as the villain escapes. Why Batman is chasing the gunman, how he got shot so easily, and what the hell he is doing in a sewer is anybody's guess. As Batman bleeds, he has a flashback to his early training where he met Cassandra, a woman who teaches him how to ignore pain. Apparently, Cassandra is a Hindu who wanted to become a Fakir but she was cast out for pretending to be a boy. When members of her village come to her home and proceed to assault her, Bruce Wayne kicks their ass. However, Cassandra decides that she doesn't like violence from the student who just happened to potentially save her life, and she sends the young Wayne packing. Alfred ends up rescuing the injured Batman in the present time, but the Caped Crusader finds a cache of guns hidden in the water beforehand and refuses to grab the butler's hand because he is too busy making strange faces over the weapons.
Finally, Deadshot keeps the anthology from batting an 0-for-6 and manages to actually be entertaining. Deadshot, a hired assassin, sets a trap for Batman and the two foes square off on top of a train. Luckily, I finally got to see a good looking Batman costume, Kevin Conroy sounds gruff and threatening, the villain puts forth a respectable effort to thwart the hero, and the nostalgia for the original series and comic returns.
Unless someone is a die hard Batman or anime junkie or just can't resist a solid 12 minutes of classic DC action, I recommend avoiding Batman: Gotham Knight and sticking with the '90s Animated Series masterpiece.