Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

 So, the second Aquaman and the last of the DCEU movies before James Gunn is going to reboot it... meaning origin stories once again *sigh*.

Though so far, Jason Momoa is the only one apparently not sacked to be recast in the role.

Which I basically don't agree with, nothing against him but he is miles of in appearance on how Adam Curry looked in the comics.  And then the movie also had to go through all the Amber Heard issues...

 

A few years after he became king of Atlantis, Adam is married to Mera and they have a child, Arthur Jr. while he tries to toggle life between land and sea.  But Black manta continues to seek revenge against him for his father's death, working with Stephen Shin.   This is a marine biologist, and together they look for Atlantean artifacts, Shin discovering a black trident on Antartica that possesses Black Manta and promises him the power to defeat Aquaman.

 

Months later, he attacks Atlantis and breaks into their Orichalcum reserves to steal it and power the machines of ancient Atlantean design, whom even the modern day Atlanteans don't know how to operate.  The use of the material can cause a planetary extinction as it raises greenhouse gasses, something barely prevented in the old days.  To find Manta, he breaks his half-brother Orn out of prison, and travel to the pirate citadel of Sunken Citadel.

 

 

The information they gain leads them to a volcanic island in the South Pacific, where they battle Manta's forces, but when Orm comes into contact with the black trident he sees visions of it's provenance.  It was created by Kordax, the brother of King Atlan, and ruler of the lost kingdom of Necrus, who was imprisoned after a failed attempt to usurp the throne.  Realizing the blood of any Atlan descendant could release him, Black Manta kidnaps Adam's infant son.

 

In Necrus, which is located under Antartica, Arthur is almost killed by Manta before Mera arrives to save him.  He throws the trident at her, but Orm intercepts it and the spirit of Kordax transfers from Manta to Orm instead.  He starts to free Kordax, but Arthur convinces him to let go of his hatred for him, destroying both Kordax and the trident as a result.  As Necrus starts to collapse, Black Manta refuses Arthur's help and falls into a fissure as the rest escapes to safety, deciding Orm has redeemed himself.

 

They plan to inform Atlantis he has dies during the escape, but he must remain hidden in order to do so, vacating to the surface world.  Believing that unification between Atlantis and the surface is needed to prevent further damage to the oceans, Arthur reveals it's existence through an announcement at the United Nations and his intentions of making it a member state.

 

 

And thus with this 15th movie in the DCEU a cycle ends, and unfortunatly not on a high note.  I thought the movie nowhere as much fun as the first instalment, the story a bit to thin and seen before, and it just lacked the jokes of the first Aquaman movie.

 

Curious what Gunn will be doing with the franchise...

The Suicide Squad

 The second movie of the series with DC villains taking on government missions to get time of their sentences.

And I must say, I did like the first one, thinking it the turn around point where DCEU movies got "brighter" and lighter of tone.

In this movie, Task Force X needs to infiltrate the nation of Corto Maltese and bring down Project Starfish.  This is a secret project overseen by The Thinker, and located in the armed tower of Jotunheim.  But upon arrival on the beach, almost the whole team is killed except Rick Flag and Harley Quinn (sadly yes, also Captain Boomerang).  

But this team, who was made up of, let's be kind, D-level villains for the rest, was a diversion in order to have a second team consisting of Bloodsport, Peacemaker, Polka-Dot Man, King Shark and Ratcatcher II can safely infiltrate the island.  While Flag finds refuge with the resistance fighters (who lose a lot of their numbers to Bloodsport and Peacemaker, thinking it are enemies holding him captured), Harley is brought before the president... and kills him.

As she makes her escape, the two teams, having linked up with The Thinker, head towards Jotunheim.  They fight their way inside the tower, but find out the grizzly truth of the project, which is in all actuality sponsored by the US government and needs to be shut down.  This leads to a confrontation between Peacemaker, who killed Flag, and Bloodsport to get the hands on a hard drive containing all the data.  The actual project, a huge Starfish alien, breaks out and rampages through the city, leading to the remaining members of Task Force X to engage it and overcome the beast.

Buying their freedom by blackmailing Waller with the drive, the remaining members of the Task Force X are extrapolated, but in the end credit sequence it turns out Peacemaker also survived the incident.

Once more gorgeously over the top, this was a fun movie to watch, and with a high mortality rate this time amongst it's members, something not to be expected of a "superheroes" movie at all.

Birds of Prey

Yay, a new movie featuring Harley Quinn in the DCEU... or at least, that is what one would think.

But it looked to sink so hard at the box office, they expanded the title with "and the Fantabulous Emancipation of one Harley Quinn" to get more viewers.

Now, let me state something weird perhaps, I liked Suicide Squad.  Surely, Harley was one of the main characters, but all the others, even Captain Boomerang, got their moments.  Not so in this flick, the "Birds of Prey" are barely more then glorified cameo's and even Ewan McGregor's Black Mask is a rather pale villain (with an epic dead scene though), whom will soonish be forgotten.

The story focusses around, well, Harley alone mostly, and her hunt to get a diamond from a minor girl and pickpocket, Cass.  The kid has swallowed the stone after stealing it, and now everyone wants to get it out of her for their own motivations.  And with Harley still coping with her mr J. break-up, she is even more mentally unstable as usual.

Now, in Suicide Squad, there where some giggles and even a laugh or two, but the only time I laughed with this one was when, in the beginning of the movie, she went to buy a pet animal, aka a hyena she calls Bruce.

So no, even though Noshi liked the film, I thought it a big bag of rubbish and not even remotely funny to be honest.  After the stronger recent entries in the DCEU, this one for me is another peak... downwards.

Shazam!

Recently, it seems like all the superhero movies have taken one out of two roads to follow.  They are either dead serious, like the Captain America or Batman movies, or great fun like Guardians of the Galaxy.

And since DCU has been catching up in it's movies ever since Wonder Woman, they now also have their very own slapstick superhero movie with Shazam!

The movie starts in the 70s, where a young boy, Sivana, is suddenly transported to the rock lair of a wizard, Shazam, and found unworthy to inherit his powers.  He grows up in order to find this mystical place again, and unleash the power of the seven sins.  Now needing a champion to face this evil, young foster parent boy Billy Batson is brought before him... and found worthy.

He inherits the powers of Shazam, and by calling out his new name out loud, can transform into the perfect man, with a large array of superpowers.  Together with his fellow foster kid Freddy, he tries to discover his own potential when Sivana tracks him down to grab his power for his own.

It takes Billy all his childlike courage to stand up to him, and with the help of his friends he finally manages to overcome Sivana.

In this hilarious movie (okay, NOT as funny as the first Guardians mind you) you are along for some lighthearted origin story of one of the stronger members of the Justice League.

But what was up with that "Shazam Power Rangers" team?

Vixen: The Movie

And that's it, number 30 and meaning I reached this years goal of movies to watch.

Unfortunatly, this "made for CW" DC movie isn't one of the stronger DC animated movies though...

Released in 2017, the film is a compilation of season 1 and 2 of the animated webseries, with new scenes linking them together into one story.  The cool part about this movie though, is that all the CW alumi like Stephen Amell and Grant Gustin voice act their characters from the various series on the channel's Arrowverse.

Mari McCabe is a young girl who comes into possession of her families totem, allowing her to summong the powers of animals into her.  Unfortunatly, she is beset by at first her sister, who wants to bring it back to Zambesi to restore the destroyed nation for the wrong reasons, and later on the warlord that destroyed it, who wants to get all the totems in his control.

During these trials, Vixen must learn on how to control the powers and help her in fighting crime in her city, aided at times by members of the Arrowverse.

But unfortunatly, the story is at times a bit incoherent due to it being seperate episodes glued together, and while it doesn't show as such at first glance, you get the feeling during the watching that something is not quite in order.

While well animated like all DC movies, I would say this is more for the Arrowverse fan then a casual superhero movie watcher though...

Justice League Dark

A memorable animated movie this is, as it is the first one I watched in the new house while unpacking the hobby room.

In this 2017 movie from the DC brand, whom long time have been better then their theatre counterparts, we get to meet "another" Justice League.

All over the States, violent murders are committed by people halucinating that they see demonic entities all round.  The League thinks it is magic at the source, but Batman is skeptical.  However, he is briefly possessed by Deadman who tells him to find Constantine.

Looking up Zatanna, they search out Constantine, and together with Black Orchid and Deadman they look up Ritchie Simpson, a friend of Constantine and Zatanna whose days are limited due to cancer.  Their search leads to Jason Blood and he tells them about the sorcerer Destiny, planning to make a return after centuries into this world, and grouping up with Swamp Thing the hunt is on...

It is a great movie, showing "that other" Justice League in action at last, based on their comic book adventures.  The working ethos of these more sinister members is slightly different then their goodie-two-shoes counterparts, and they are way colder in their resolve of situations (especially John Constantine).

Really worth the watch!

Aquaman

"Something, something, trident"

Okay, so that actual movie quote sums up Aquaman, starring Jason Momoa, nicely: a great film with humour.

It's something that started already since Suicide Squad: more colour and humour in the DCEU movies, as they where severly losing terrain on the more light hearted MCEU movies.  Then Wonder Woman pulled up the "level" of quality of the films, and mix those two together and you get Aquaman.

It's the origin story of Arthur Curry (who looks "a bit different" from his school boy comic look), child of two worlds which where never meant to meet, let alone have a child.  But he is also the heir to the throne of Atlantis.

And let Atlantis, regented over by his half brother Orim, be in turmoil and on the brink of declaring war on the surface dwellers due to them poluting the oceans.  While orim, through treachery and plot, unites most of the tribes into a mighty army, Aquaman is convinced by the (gorgeous) Mera to stand up and claim his heritage by finding the Trident of Atlean.

This leads to some fun adventuring, in a movie which never feels like it is draging itself along, and some serious conflicts with Black Manta as the "B villain" in this flick.  Momoa does a great job, and he certainly has come a LONG way since his Stargate: Atlantis (what's in a name) days.  this film really feels like it belongs in the series of Indiana Jones or Romancing the Stone!

Really fun to watch, this is one of the beter DC movies for sure!  And it inspires me to finally start painting my Deepkin for AoS as well... those sharks come straight out of the game it seems.

Justice League

In the wake of the death of Superman, it's time for the DC heroes to assemble and fight evil all over the world... enter the formation of the Justice League

So yeah, apart from Wonder Woman and Suicide Squad, I ain't been wild about the DCEU so far, so let's see how this stuff goes...

Thousands of years ago, Steppenwolf and his legions of Parademons attempted to take over Earth with the combined energies of three Mother Boxes. They were foiled by a unified army that includes the Olympian Gods, Amazons, Atlanteans, mankind, and a Green Lantern. After repelling Steppenwolf's army, the Mother Boxes were separated and hidden in locations on the planet. In the present, mankind is in mourning over Superman, whose death triggers the Mother Boxes to reactivate and Steppenwolf's return to Earth. In an effort to regain favor with his master, Darkseid, Steppenwolf aims to gather the boxes to form "The Unity", which will destroy Earth's ecology and terraform it in the image of Steppenwolf's homeworld.

Clark Kent's body is exhumed and placed in the amniotic fluid of the genesis chamber of the Kryptonian ship alongside the Mother Box, which in turn activates and successfully resurrects Superman. However, Superman's memories have not returned, and he attacks the group after Stone accidentally launches a projectile at him. On the verge of being killed by Superman, Batman enacts his contingency plan: Lois Lane. Superman calms down and leaves with Lane to his family home in Smallville, where he reflects and his memories slowly come back. In the turmoil, the last Mother Box is left unguarded and Steppenwolf retrieves it with ease. Without Superman to aid them, the five heroes travel to a village in Russia where Steppenwolf aims to unite the Mother Boxes once again to remake Earth. The team fights their way through the Parademons to reach Steppenwolf, although they are unable to distract him enough for Stone to separate the Mother boxes. Superman arrives and assists Allen in evacuating the city, as well as Stone in separating the Mother Boxes. The team defeats Steppenwolf, who, overcome with fear, is attacked by his own Parademons before they all teleport away.


Okay.. no... I'm still not sold on the DCEU, and I'm in the camp of people thinking Grant Gustin should have played Barry.  And where is Green Lantern????

Gotham by Gaslight

The most recent Batman story from the DC animated universe, Gotham by Gaslight takes us back to the beginning of the 1900s.

Now, this is a pretty fun given, putting familiar characters in an all different setting.

When a lady of the night, Poison Ivy, is yet another victim to a murderer nicknamed Jack the Ripper, Bruce Wayne / Batman sets out to investigate this.  In a society where the poor are supressed and women are looked at as inferior, he has to rely on the singer Selina Kyle to figure out the mystery... especially when he is framed himself for the murder of an old lady, a witness at one of the attacks by the Ripper.

This was a rather nice movie due to the change of setting and the dark mystery surrounding the villain. And what a reveal it was indead when the reasons, and the person, behind the killer is found...

Another lovely movie from the DCA stable, who is putting out far greater work then their cinema counterparts.

Batman vs Robin

Perhaps storywise one of the stronger instalments of the DC Animated Universe (which, until Wonder Woman, was far superior to the cinematic outings), this is a direct to DVD movie from 2015.

And to be honest, this was a great coming of age and choices to be made story...

It all begins when Damian, the current Robin and son of Batman and Talia Al Ghul, seems to kill the Dollmaker.  This goes against everything Bruce teached Damian, though it was actually an assassin called Talon that did it.

However, this causes a rift between father and son, and when Bruce goes on a mission, Damian is babysitted by Nightwing.  He elopes though, and hooks up with Talon who wants to introduce him to the Council of Owls.

But when the Council figures out who Batman actually is, Damian is forced to make a hard choice...

It was, as I said in the beginning, a fine movie, but.  yes there is a but, and it`s totally subjective.  I`m an avid anime watcher, and I adore the japanese painting style.  And this rubs off when I watch american drawn series and movies, like this.  For me, it`s all to blocky to be honest...

But storywise, this was topnotch!

Wonder Woman

The star of the (weak) Batman vs Superman movie, Gal Gadot returns as Diana, Princess of Themyscira or better known as Wonder Woman.

And DC can use a good movie in their DCEU after the previous instalments...

Diana grows up as the only child on the hidden amazon island of Themyscira, and hopes to one day become a mighty warrior princess herself.  The island, hidden by Zeus, was created to prevent Ares to raind war and destruction on the world, but when an american spy accidentally happens to find the island, they learn war has come indeed.

When germans follow the spy, they engage in a fierce battle with the amazons, and Diana sets out in the world to find and face Ares, and stop this world war he has instigated. Travelling to the Western Front in Belgium, Diana and Steve team up with some of his collegues in an effort to stop the development of an even deadlier form of mustard gas...

Well, they did it.  I watched this movie the past night with the girlfriend, and we both agreed this was at last a good DCEU movie.  It`s not as gritty and dark in filming like the previous movies like Batman, resulting in that you can actually "see" what happens on screen.  You know, not the rainy, flashy mish mash like the Bats vs Sups fight in their movie.

Wonder Woman is certainly going to be a worthy addition to the Justice League, and if she can carrier her momentum of this outing, that might be good news for the DC cinematic adventures for sure.

Really, the best so far from DC!

Gotham season 1

Yes, I`m slowly catching up on series I still need to watch... very slowly.

Gotham, with the abundance of superhero based shows around, is a bit of an outsider as the "hero" is a regular policeman, namely Jim Gordon.

Yes, this is an origin story of Batman (or, if fan theories are to be believed, Owlman) where Bruce is still a teenager, and it explores the friendship between the caped crusader and the old commissioner.

What the show in this first season is though, is a maffia story, in which The Penguin plays a crucial role as misunderstood, ambitious snitch that is working his way upward in the Gotham crime scene.  In order to do this, he works two (well, actually three) families against each other by the use of guile and deception. 
Other villains that are slowly being introduced are the Riddler, who is a CSI for the Gotham police department, and the origins of the Scarecrow are featured rather heavily as well.

And then there is Selina Kyle, as a youthy crush for Master Wayne.  A young Wayne heir, who as in every movie and series is supported by a fantastic rendition of Alfred, who in this continueity is an ex SAS soldier with a rather clouded past.

It was a fun season to watch, and I really liked the Cobblepot character.  So in a television scene filled with "flashy" shows from the CS, this is a darker and grittier series to give a welcome change of storytelling.

The Flash season 3

Another season, another Wells... yes, it seems Tom Cavanagh gets to play another (excellent) alternate version of himself.

But this third season kicks off with a comic classic: the Flashpoint.

As Barry had returned to change the past, he quickly learns he can`t change what has to be.  But upon his return, many people have been affected in some way by him, including Wally who was Kid Flash in Flashpoint, but powerless in this timeline.

So Wally joins The Alchemist, a metahuman creator working for the ultimate god of speed, Savitar.  In a vision of the future, Barry sees how Iris gets killed by him, and now he tries everything to change this possible future... with a rather predictable finale unfortunatly.

The Flash used to be the fun show of the Arrowverse, but this place has been taken by Legends of Tomorrow, and this season of the scarlet speedster has become far grittier and darker.  Which isn`t a good thing.

It was still an okay season, but not really more then that, as it falls in repetition over the years, but we can only hope that the fourth season will take a serious change for the better again.

Another season, another Wells...

Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman

This 2003 release in the DC animated universe serves as a stand alone "in betweener" between Mask of the Phantasm and the Mr Freeze: Subzero movies.

Ironically, it still is better then what they toss at us in the cinema...

A new Bat-family heroine has arrived in Gotham, in the guise of Batwoman.  But even the world's greatest detective has no clue who she is, but she is tackling weapons manufacturing sites owned by The Penguin and Rupert Thorne.

While Batman and Robin try to figure out who she is, while in a way actually aiding her, they are faced with numerous setbacks and false trails to uncover the mystery behind the female bat.  When Bane is brought in as well by the Penguin, things start to get serious and the caped crusaders have to bond together to face the danger to Gotham city.

While not the strongest of animated batmovies, this still is an enjoyable watch, and I failed as well in solving the identity of the Batwoman.  Can you?

Legends of Tomorrow season 2

Of all the DC series The CW is running, I kinda like Legends the most due to it's humour and references to popular media.

Which has been high this season with both Star Wars and Tolkien passing the revue...

In this years main arc, the team, which has a change of roster with Captain Cold having died, Hawkman and Hawkgirl having left, and Rip missing in the timestream, the Legends must find the Spear of Destiny.

This has been timescattered by Rip and the pieces are protected by the 1940s superhero team Justice Society of America.  Not only do they have to face a single enemy, they have to oppose The Legion of Doom, which consists of Reverse Flash, Damian Darhk and Macolm Merlin, as well as Captain Cold.

Boosting their ranks with Vixen (from the JSA) and Citizen Steel, they have to hop around time to collect the fragments in order to prevent the Legion of rewriting reality... something they, even with the help of a returned Rip Hunter, fail to do so...

It was an enjoyable season, but the true shining stars where Dominic Purcell (Heat Wave) and Arthur Darvill (Rip) for me, who both put in some strong performance again this year.

Green lantern: Brightest Day, Blackest Night

Hal Jordan, John Stewart, Guy Gardner, Kyle Rayner... but who remembers Alan Scott?

This was the Green Lantern that founded the Justice Society and who saw action during WW2, and in 2002 this comic was printed.

It hails back to the golden age of comics, involving contested theme's like Nazi fanatics during the war, who want to use a secret weapon to make The reich victorious.
The plane carrying the weapon crashes in Slaughter Swamp, and this tells the origin tale of Solomon Grundy, with whome he would clash a lot in the future.

Now, with the Infinite arc, the whole setting and the origin of his Lantern and Ring have been tweaked, but it still remains fun to read in the "old style", even if it was a comic drawn decennia after the original character was at it's prime in comic world.

The Haul Report # 69

Hello all, and welcome to another week of stuffsies added to my collection.

But let's start this episode with a necessary haul... as my old faithfull warrior has met his limits.

You see, last week I switched mobile providers, and unfortunatly the current day generation of SIM cards proved to much for the 8 year old HTC (yes, I am carefull with my cellphones) as he just didn`t want to work decently with the new card.  Luckily, I had a current model still lying around "just in case" with a Huawei Y5II.  Also excuse my pictures the coming weeks, I still am getting the hang of it's camera and various settings...

The added benefit is that I can play Pokemon GO on it (at last), which helps far better in my knee exercises then a regular step counter.

Okay, that also meant I better prepare and got myself a power bank to go with it as well...

This week it was also Valentine, and the GF found me some lovely LEGO sets to build, with a DC Micro Fighters set and the gorgeous Sensei Wu dragon!

In between, I went to see the LEGO Batman movie with the BeLUG boys, and we got a lovely keychain from the movie to go with it.  I also received the The Mini Batmobile from a fellow LUGger as a gift at the movie (see the build report from past wednesday).

BrickLink wise, it was a calm week, as I only got a single minifigure for my Harley Quinn display.

Another great thing I received was my price I`d won at the Geeky Bricks 15000 subscribers raffle, it arrived safe and sound this week.

Now, the final thing I hauled where three novels by Bernard Cornwell.  I found them at the local Kringloop winkel at a mighty 50 cents a piece.

So it has been a very varied week for sure, and some great items added to my collection!

See you all again next week!