The Batman: Pics, Videos, and Other Awesomeness

With Marvel creating unspeakably awful cringy teenaged heroes such as Safe Space and Snowflake all DC has to do to bury Marvel is to do something indiotic.

via Imgflip Meme Generator

 

That was painful for me to watch. I guess I am a big fan of Batman so I cannot quietly watch Batman get destroyed the way I can watch Star Trek, Star Wars, Dr. Who, Terminator, and the X-Men destroyed.

 

The only positive thing about Gotham High is the Critical Drinker's review, as at least i can have a laugh.
But the price to pay for that laugh is too high.

 

I know as soon as buy a DC movie it's going to pop up on a streaming service the next day, but I couldn't wait anymore and I had a a government stimulus check burning a hole in my metaphorical pocket.

I bought a digital copy of Justice League Dark Apocalips War and I am pleased with my purchase.

It's very good. Then again I am a super DC fan boy. I don't know if a normie would like it. This is sort of the equivalent to Avengers End Game for the Animated DC universe. Like the MCU, Warner Brothers created a bunch of linked movies with their own subplots and like End Game, Apocalips War brought together most of the subplots and resolved them.

It's sometimes hard to tell which films and TV shows belong in what universe but the way I understand, this self contained universe is loosely based on the "New 52" series of comic books. My understanding is that before the New 52, comic books of different heroes sometimes lined up and sometimes did not. In 2011, every comic line was ended simultaneously and then rebooted for the for the New 52. DC tried to make every single comic book exist in the same universe with a shared timeline The New 52 comics were not very popular. They weren't hated, fans were just lukewarm.

They set up a massive final conflagration for the fate of the universe, then officially ended the New 52 in 2016 and created the "Rebirth" series.

Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox (2013)
9.5/10 Really awesome.

Justice League: War (2014)
9.4/10 Really awsome

Son of Batman (2014)
6/10 The weakest of the batch, merely okay. If you are not a Batman fanatic, skip it. Basically this introduces Damien Wayne.

Justice League: Throne of Atlantis (2015)
7/10 this is fine on it's own but it recycles the same plot of "The Enemy Below" in the Justice League show over ten years previous just with more side plots.

Batman vs. Robin (2015)
6.5/10. It's not really about Batman and Robin fighting. The marketing focus groups believe put versus in the title sells. This is a very character driven movie that helps redeem Damien Wayne both in character and in meta terms (the fans generally disliked him the first time). I dislike him less now. The villains are really well done. The villains make pull this movie from meh to good.

Batman: Bad Blood (2016)
No, this one is the weakest of the batch. 5/10. Batman is missing and his proteges struggle to keep Gotham together. That's a fine plot, but they overloaded it. This is supposed to be a character driven plot but there are so many characters no one gets much development. Not counting Alfred, Batman has six sidekicks make an appearance in this.

It's not unwatchable, I was mildly entertained. It's just not on the level of the others.

Justice League vs. Teen Titans (2016)
9/10 Very awesome movie though again, the title is a misnomer. Teen Titans and Justice League fight Trigon just doesn't sell. This has a good mix of action and character development. I finally stopped disliking Damien Wayne.


Justice League Dark (2017)
8.5/10 They add a bunch of new characters, but they add the characters slowly in a reasonable way. There is a solid villain and good character arcs.

Teen Titans: The Judas Contract (2017)
8/10 Sort of a sequel to Bad Blood and Justice League vs. Teen Titans (you can/should skip Bad Blood, you don't really need to see it as a prereq). Nice mix of action and character growth, leaning towards character growth. I finally kind of sort of like Damien Wayne.

Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay (2018)
7.5/10 Really clever premise. I'm just not a huge fan of villain heroes. Very good pacing and it's nice to know that the world doesn't revolve 100% on what super heroes do.


The Death of Superman (2018)
7/10 Spoiler, Superman dies! That said this had good character arcs for everyone, not just Superman. They sort of pulled Lois Lane in out of nowhere. She was barely in any previous movies.

Reign of the Supermen (2019)
7.5/10 Spoiler, Superman comes back, but only after being gone long enough for people to miss him. The character arcs were very good.

Batman: Hush (2019)
9/10 Finally a solid Batman story that doesn't worry about literally saving the world and Damien Wayne is barely in this. A good detective story.

Wonder Woman: Bloodlines (2019)
7.5/10 Wonderwoman gets a standalone and it's pretty good. She had standalones before but not in THIS universe. This shows you can have a Girl Power movie without making all the male characters evil, weak, or dumb. Also, women can be villains and antiheroes too #feminism #equality

Justice League Dark: Apokolips War (2020)
9/10 End game. I still like the new and improved Damien Wayne.

 

WTM Ruby Rose! You know you will never get hired for anything in Hollywood again after this show. You might as well ride the show into the ground.

I only saw her in crossover shows, she is pretty awful but I think that's 90% of the script writing and only 10% because of her acting. I have listened to some Youtube critics I trust dissecting episodes. The show is not worth watching.

I cannot believe Batwoman is getting a second season with the viewership so low. Viewership is dropping like a stone at at time when more people are watching TV than they have in ten years!

Besides the identity politics rut, the CW has announced that due to social distancing they are going to put more drama into their shows and less action. Yerch. CW shows need more action.

I used to like Arrow and Flash a lot. I thought Supergirl and Legends were okay shows. but the CW superhero cinematic universe (often called Arrowverse) is getting stale as is. The last thing the Arrowverse needs is to double down on identity politics while cutting back on the action scenes.

While I really liked Arrow and Flash for the first four or five seasons I started to notice the plots were getting a bit repetitive so I lost interest. At a certain point, Team Arrow and Team Flash should learn to stop keeping harmful secrets from their friends because those machinations always blow up in their face but they keep doing it every time.

I will never stop praising Young Justice. Young Justice only has three seasons (but their seasons are 20 or 26 episodes) but so far they keep it fresh. Unlike in the Arrowverse, the good guys don't fall for the same basic bad guy plots over and over again. They wise up and figure out how to turn the tables on the bad guys. The bad guys change their tactics which forces the good guys to change their tactics. It feels real. The super heroes and super villains are in a true Cold War. It's very satisfying to watch the villains do good deeds for bad reasons and to watch the heroes do bad deeds for good reasons.

I realize it cannot last forever, but the series has yet to jump the shark and I look forward to season 4 with much anticipation. It's confirmed to be happening but there is no official release date or anything yet.

Another thing that Young Justice does well that the CW Arrowverse and to a lesser extant the Marvel Cinematic Universe both struggle with is answering the question, "If all the superheroes know each other, why don't they work together more often."

Superman only made a cameo on the Supergirl show two or three times a season, but he's faster than a speeding bullet. If Supergirl is fighting a Monster of the Week, why not call her cousin to fly in. If one Kryptonian can beat the bad guy with a tough struggle, two Kryptonians should own the bad guy.

Flash and Arrow are pretty silly too. In most cases, the Flash could physically dominate the Arrow's nemeses. Generally Flash's nemeses out smart him, but Arrow has the crazy detective skills and giant spy network. They could probably wrap up a 20 episode season in three or four episodes if they pooled their resources.

In Young Justice there is nearly always a reason given for the question "Why don't we call ______, he can solve this problem!" Which also feeds into something that is rarely seen in superhero stories. How would governments react to the presence of super powered individuals? In a lot of cases the Justice League is banned from certain actions by UN charter. A big thing in Young Justice is that the superhero sidekicks are 1) technically not members of the Justice League and 2) they are minors so in a worst case scenario would not be criminally liable for super vigilantism in the same way the Justice League is.

That's sort of the central premise of the show. Even the villains bring up that's an ironic twist that the "heroes" are essentially employing child soldiers.



But back on topic. I don't see how Ruby Rose can save her career by leaving Batwoman. I don't see why the CW thinks it's a good idea to continue the show in the face of 1) low ratings, 2) bad publicity, 3) CCP virus making action scenes difficult and now 4) losing their star.

At this point, they could do everything correct on season 2 and still fail commercially. It's like Rise of Skywalker. Since The Last Jedi was so bad and then you had directors and writers play musical chairs it was impossible to build a good third act on that foundation.

 

Lots of Youtubers have covered the Ruby Rose thing, but only the Critical Drinker managed to cover all the bases in under five minutes.



That's all I have for today. Go away now.