[Videos] Aquaman Movie Trailers

It feels like there's been a distinct shift in tone between the first trailer for DC's Aquaman movie and its most recent one released over the weekend. The first one had already been pretty promising but on the whole it felt largely in tune with the Justice League movie in terms of tone and even overall (literal) color.


Aquaman - Official Trailer 1
The latest trailer is so much brighter and feels more like how Thor Ragnarok felt when it came out given it's modern adaptation of the classic Kirby style that had defined that comic book back in the day. They even included the often ridiculed orange Aquaman costume, albeit with a modern update to make it feel more awesome.


AQUAMAN - Final Trailer - in theaters December 21
Sure, part of the differences probably involve how more post production work has been completed and thus some of the more visually impressive scenes are now included as part of the trailer. Beyond that, it certainly feels that DC is really trying to pivot how their movies are represented and may just shake off the dark and gloomy tone that Zack Snyder had imposed on the earlier movies, much to their detriment.

Basically I'm saying that the trailers look great and very un-DC movie-like and that may be a great thing when the movie finally hits theaters in December. Of course for us in the Philippines it means that we'll probably see it in January given the theater lockdown that is the Metro Manila Film Festival.

[Movies] Batman Ninja (2018) Review

Well the world of comics is filled with a lot of different experiments and explorations of alternate concepts for established characters. For DC specifically they've come to call these stories "Elseworlds" stories as they had set it as a separate publishing line. They're never part of the main series canon and they do make for entertaining reading.

Batman Ninja is the movie version of this sort of experience, but oddly enough it's an original story and not based on any existing Elseworlds-style work. It's a crazy effort to adapt the anime aesthetic to the Batman franchise with a quirky story holding things together.

While visually stunning, the story is a bit of a mess and overly complicated. But hey, do you really need a serious plot to justify some of the crazy action sequences in this movie? It's really just a wild ride and not much more than that.

[Movies] Batman: Gotham by Gaslight (2018) Review

Most of the DC Universe Animated Original Movies had either focused on the more popular stories from the various DC Comics or served to support the New 52 reboot be animating their stories. This has been a sound enough strategy and we've gotten some pretty fun stories out of the deal. But I suppose it was only a matter of time before they'd get around to their Elseworlds stories.

Batman: Gotham by Gaslight was a great choice for a first Elseworlds exploration since (1) Batman is always a good choice and (2) steampunk is still a thing, even just aesthetically more often than not. And to be fair, the comic this was based on already had a nicely solid story.

So here we are with an Elseworlds story presented as an animated feature. And versus some of the one-off animated features released in recent years, this one nicely stands out as a very enjoyable movie indeed.

[Movies] Justice League (2017) Review

Given the often dark and gloomy tone of Zack Snyder's movies, particularly his work for DC's movies, I wasn't exactly bouncing with excitement to watch the Justice League movie. As much as the Wonder Woman movie was pretty amazing and made  me eager to see the character on screen again, the sour taste of movies like  Batman v Superman still lingered in memory.

Early reviews for this movie were pretty bad, but not quite as terrible as feared. Critics don't usually rate superhero movies all that highly after all but even this movie wasn't trending low. And now that I've seen I can totally see where the criticism was coming from and the many awkward parts of the movie that didn't quite make sense.

But the movie still had its moments when it shined and felt more like a proper depiction of the sort of adventures we'd expect from DC Comics titles brought to life. It had lighter moments of banter that included some genuine-feeling camaraderie among them. Those moments helped keep the movie watchable.

[Movies] Batman and Harley Quinn (2017) Review

I grew up on Batman: The Animated Series and fell in love with that particular incarnation of the character. If anything, the show gave many previously silly characters a much better spin and thus giving characters like Mr. Freeze and Clock King a greater sense of dignity and purpose. Plus the whole thing was just super cool.

Batman and Harley Quinn was a movie that banked on the nostalgia of the Bruce Tim animated shows, particularly the old Batman ones. After all it had Harley Quinn at the very center of things, which is all the more awesome given she's a character originally created in the animated series and later adapted to the on-going comic books.

This movie follows the other DC releases that feel a bit more adult in tone given they're not limited by the restrictions of broadcast television regulations. This is either a good or a bad thing depending on your personal preferences for this sort of content, but it did result in a weird bit in the middle.

[Movies] Justice League Spinners at 7-Eleven

Because fidget spinners are still a thing, at the very least it's nice to see interesting marketing tie-ups for the crazy little distractions. And given 7-Eleven's long history of some great movie tie-up promotional items, they now have a new line of exclusive fidget spinners for the Justice League movie debuting in the Philippines this November.

To find out how you can get your hands on these fidget spinners, check out the official press release after the jump:

[Movies] Justice League Trailers

So a new "Heroes" trailer for the upcoming Justice League movie came out over the weekend and it's certainly interest. We got a lot more of what we got with the first trailer but also more teases of Superman - or at least Superman in the form of flashbacks, because the folks behind the movie still think we don't expect Superman to come back from the dead. Yeah, we're all totally convinced.

The new trailer also gives us a better view of the big villain in this movie, Steppenwolf, including more bits of Aquaman (as played by Jason Momoa) basically being a super-powered Californian surfer, if his limited dialog is an indication of anything.

Jury's still out on this movie but it seems clear that they're trying to sell us on how fun this movie is going to be by showing how chummy our heroes are in their first big battle together.


Justice League - Comic-Con Sneak Peek [HD]


JUSTICE LEAGUE - Official Heroes Trailer

[Games] Batman: The Enemy Within Trailer

I still haven't found the time to finish the action adventure game Batman: The Telltale Series and already they've released a trailer for a new sequel for the franchise, this being Batman: The Enemy Within. The enemy in focus this time around is the Riddler, although the trailer makes it quite clear that "John Doe" will continue to prove to be a problem for the dark knight.

The game is looking pretty good! Now I need to finish the first series.


Batman: The Enemy Within - OFFICIAL TRAILER

[Games] LEGO Dimensions Teen Titans Launch Trailer

Teen Titans Go! may not by my favorite animated incarnation of this superhero group, I'm more than happy that they're formally joining the LEGO Dimensions universe as formally announced during E3 this year.

And as promised, adding the Titans to your collection will unlock Teen Titans Go appropriate in-game skins for your existing Cyborg and Robin character figures.

As much as there are some fears about the future of the franchise, it's glad to see new content coming along.


LEGO Dimensions: Teen Titans Go! Trailer

[Movies] Wonder Woman (2017) Review

After her brief appearance in Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, Wonder Woman as a character started to generate a lot of buzz about what her solo movie would be like. Admittedly she was one of the better parts of the depressing movie and in many ways she has acted as a bit of hope for these DC movies.

Wonder Woman finally hit theaters and simply put, it was a great movie. Despite so many people expecting (or maybe hoping?) that the movie will be terrible, initial buzz has been pretty positive with some going as far as saying that it may be one of the best superhero movies, period.

There's  a lot going for this movie in terms of the support it has received from production to release, but even I had my doubts and fears. So I'm more than happy that the end result was a great experience that was a lot of fun and seemed to carry enough of the core Wonder Woman character at its heart to make the movie feel relevant to a wider audience casual fans and die hard comic book readers.

[Movies] Teen Titans: The Judas Contract (2017) Review

I've been half-and-half when it comes to the DC direct-to-video movies released in the past year or so given the strange direction some of them have taken and perhaps my general discomfort with the New 52. And yet I keep watching each and every DC release as they sometimes have some real gems among them.

Teen Titans: The Judas Contract is a little tricky as it's a very classic story but it's being retold using New 52 style sensibilities and all that jazz. So it's a weird mix of the old and the new in a strange package.

And lets face it, it feels like every adaptation of the Teen Titans eventually introduces the character of Terra and then brings in thee Judas Contract story. It's like Terra is forever doomed to this one story and not much else. We had it in the Teen Titans series on Cartoon Network and here we have it again as a direct-to-video movie.

Poor Terra.

[TV] Preacher: Season 1 Review

Comic book adaptations are a mixed bag on both television and movies with some missing the mark and others managing to create something amazing. It's hard to tell how good or bad things are at the start but it all sort of resolves itself soon enough.

But things have gotten better in recent years as pay-TV cable networks have taken up the mantle of creating such genre shows. These productions haven't always done well on regular network television. So yay for that.

Preacher was a comic that I had seen being advertised but not one that I had ever tried to read for one reason or another. So  I had no immediate reaction to the news that it was being adapted into a television series by AMC, the same folks who brought The Walking Dead to the small screen.

Long story short: watching this series makes me want to try reading the original comics just to see what was from the comic and what was just added in for the TV series.

[Movies] Batman and Harley Quinn First Trailer

So surprisingly a trailer and featurette video came out over the weekend to promote Batman and Harley, a new DC Universe Animated Original Movie coming out this year. What is pretty distinct about this release beyond the involvement of Bruce Timm is the fact that it's being done in the style of Batman: The Animated Series and not the gritty look of more recent releases.

While recent releases like Batman: The Killing Joke wasn't quite the best Bruce Timm project but maybe this movie will feel closer to that 90's cartoon we all grew up with. It once again features Kevin Conroy as the voice of Batman but with the surprise casting of The Big Bang Theory's Melissa Rauch voicing Harley Quinn!

You can learn more about the project in the video below:


BATMAN AND HARLEY QUINN Official Trailer Teaser + Featurette (2017) DC Superhero Animated Movie HD

[Movies] First Justice League Trailer

After going through the rather silly process of releasing individual teaser trailers in anticipation of the release of the full trailer on Saturday, the first full trailer for the Justice League movie hit the internet. Given my general dislike for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, I haven't been playing too much attention to the developments around this movie.

On the whole, we're finally seeing the members of the new Justice League fight off some parademons, as pretty much promised by the visions of the future that Batman had in the prior movie. Batman still seems a little heavy on the weapons while Aquaman is pretty much Khal Drogo with fish scales. Wonder Woman is divine while Superman remains distinctly absent. I know he's supposed to be dead, but does anyone really believe that Superman won't be a part of this Justice League movie somehow? The Flash is looking a little awkward while Cyborg may become this movie's Green Lantern horror given all the CGI involved.

DC seems determined to present this as a fun movie given the now standard practice of cueing the action in the trailer to the old school selected to accompany the clips. But we'll see what the final movie is like - it's still a Zack Snyder movie after all.


JUSTICE LEAGUE - Official Trailer 1

[TV] Constantine: Season 1

For one reason or another I haven't been too big a fan of the various efforts to bring DC heroes to the small screen. Despite the success of shows like Arrow, most DC TV ventures just seem messy to me or distracted by their efforts to attract younger viewers by playing on stereotypical notions of hormone-driven interests such as sex and gratuitous shirtlessness.

I didn't know how to feel about Constantine as a TV show since (1) he's a complex yet popular character so expectations would inevitably be high, (2) the Constantine movie was a mixed bag and (3) CW shows did not inspire much confidence. In other words, there's a lot that could go wrong with the show or even if it were good it's hard to expect it to survive for long.

And as is often the case of genre entertainment on major US television networks, the show only lasted a single season and did not go beyond that one. And while the series was not perfect, it hit a lot of the right notes and it was a shame to see it gone so soon.

[TV] Gotham: Season 2

Getting through the first season of Gotham was quite the struggle despite my general openness to comic book related entertainment. We do have to try to support various geeky initiatives out there, right? The vast majority of genre shows deserve a fighting chance to prove themselves with at least a season or two.

However, Gotham isn't quite an ideal example of this and I don't know why I decided to take a stab at watching the second season of the show over on Netflix. The main premise of the show was already weird to me. However this season takes things further down this sad rabbit hole and thus creating a version of the Batman universe that we're better of staying away from.

To be fair, maybe the story works decently enough on its own if you've never read any of the prior Batman comics or watched any of the movies. It has some potential as an Elseworlds sort of story that lives in its own continuity and has nothing to do with the rest of the Batman-related franchise creations.

[Movies] Justice League Dark (2016)

Our continued adventures in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies seems to be doing its best to celebrate the stories of the New 52 reboot. A good segment of said movies are dedicated to Batman-centric titles while others do spotlight other characters. But more often than not we see other characters and how they interact with Batman.

I had higher hopes for Justice League Dark as it was a story meant to explore the magical side of the DC Comics world, which is always a rather distinct and vibrant part of their line-up that feels rather distinct from how Marvel tackles magic.

And after the disappointment of Batman: The Killing Joke, I was really hoping that this would be a home run of sorts. And while we did get some good magic action with this latest direct-to-video animated feature, there were still some odd bits about it that kept me from loving it from start to finish.

But hey, some great voice acting choices though.

[Videos] Everything Wrong With Batman: The Killing Joke (CinemaSins)

I already posted my review of Batman: The Killing Joke and the short version is that I was disappointed with the first half but generally okay with the second half. And given the controversy around the additional content tacked on to the original story, I figured that the CinemaSins take on this story would be most interesting indeed.

And yeah, it's awesome. And at times it also looks at things from either a healthy feminist perspective or a common sense "don't to that to Batgirl!" point of view.

[Movies] Batman: The Killing Joke (2016)

I have a pretty healthy appreciation for Batman stories and one of the big ones is definitely The Killing Joke. But it's also one of those stories that is so beloved that any effort to tackle it is tricky. One of the more controversial aspects of the DC Comics New 52 reboot a few years back involved messing with some of the continuity aspects established by this story.

So yeah, I was part of the group that was excited about an animated adaptation of The Killing Joke given they had reunited most of the core team that drove the wildly popular Batman: The Animated Series back in the day. So how could you go wrong with such a great and already well-loved team, right?

But of course, some creative liberties were taken with the source material, as has been the habit for many of the DC Universe Animated Original Movies in order to make the source material somehow more appropriate for the audiovisual medium that is the full-length movie. But in this case, some of the changes felt more distracting that they needed to be so much so that it somewhat tainted the rest of the narrative.

[Movies] Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

The irony is not lost on me that as I write this review for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, the first reviews for Suicide Squad have also hit the press and the feedback isn't too encouraging. This movie was met with similar criticism when it came out earlier this year, but many fans were adamant that the critics did not know what they were talking about and probably misunderstood the movie.

And that's a weird way of looking at things - that the movie can only be truly understood by fans despite the fact that the movies don't exactly adhere closely to the original source material. If a movie can only be understood by the people who already love the character then it can't possibly be a good movie? Or at the very least, it's one that does not communicate a complete narrative since the assumption is that only "true" fans can fill in the blanks inherent to the story.

I had low expectations for this movie and I dragged my feet before we eventually caught the movie on home video. I wish we hadn't though.