![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
matt_zimmerAlso reviews for the season premieres of Harley Quinn and the latest episodes of The Orville: New Horizons, and Westworld.
Green Lantern: Beware My Power
I didn't like it.
Now I didn't actually HATE it, and it wasn't really terrible or anything, but there were just a bunch of little things off that ruined it for me bit by bit.
I had been looking forward to exploring the origin story of John Stewart. In both animated projects I've seen him in (Justice League and Young Justice) he was already an established hero, and was never previously given an animated origin story. So I was looking forward to that.
But he's the guest star in his own movie. Once Hawkgirl and Adam Strange show up the movie becomes about them, and John is an afterthought. And once HAL shows up, it's a Parallax adaptation instead. John Stewart is no longer the starring Green Lantern of the piece. Evil Hal now is.
I also strongly dislike Hawkgirl. She's dumb. I understand not every DC interpretation needs to be the same, but Justice League version was Earthy and common-sense. And seeing somebody this violent and dumb in Maria Canals' stead really irks me. There's not even a HINT of a romance with John like in the Justice League cartoon, so her inclusion (as well as Vixen's) seems doubly pointless.
I will say this for her. I like that this is really the only other Hawkgirl interpretation besides Justice League that doesn't merely consider her Hawkman's doomed reincarnated lover. Yes, the character sucks in this version. But at least she's allowed to suck on her own terms and not be attached at the hip to a male lead. I like that much about her at least.
I liked the music in the main title. A lot. One of the few things in the movie I truly liked.
The fight in the Watchtower pissed me off. It's totally unnecessary. Not just because John is CLEARLY fighting with a Green Lantern ring, but Martian Manhunter is right there and should have immediately read his mind and intentions if he truly thought he was dangerous. It's the stupidest trope in superhero comics and cartoons, and it's SUCH a stupid trope I am always amused at the outrage fanboys have towards people who think comics are stupid kids stuff. As long as fans tolerate stuff like that, that's what they actually are. I'm sorry. That fact chaps your ass? Then tell creators to stop doing this crap. It's insulting to everybody's intelligence. This is why nobody takes us seriously. You can like superhero stuff if you want. For the most part, I tend to myself, as grumpy as I get. But I will never for one second begrudge somebody who thinks superhero comics, cartoons, and movies are juvenile. As long as this stuff exists, on some level they are. Which is why I'm unhappy. Comic book fans do NOT need to tolerate this. If they spoke up creators would listen and course correct. But you guys LIKE those fights. And as long as you guys do, yours is not an adult, serious fandom. I want it to be. I believe it can be. But too much crap is currently tolerated for me to pretend it qualifies as such now.
Man, I loved Watchmen. Why can't more comics be Watchmen? I don't mean dark, grim, and depressing. I mean intelligently written and seemingly timeless. Instead we get crap like Vixen noticing John's GL Uniform AFTER fighting his multiple GL constructs. It's a bit tiresome for me.
In fairness to this movie, I LIKE projects designed for kids. I always have and I feel no shame for that fact. But as long as that scene and scenes like it exist I refuse to consider the genre an adult one. It's unreasonable if someone demands I treat it as such after crap like that.
This next complaint was the thing that told me I'd probably wind up giving this a negative review. And it occurred so damn early, that I really did not like feeling like the movie was on shaky footing from the start. But the bit of the bum shambling about and drinking straight from the bottle was... I can't even describe how bad it was. What bothers my cynical ass most about it is that I am certain nobody else will complain about it. Not because they think it's great or anything, but because all of these types of movies contain scenes like this, and many of them a TON of them.
The guy drinking the booze is doing it so theatrically, it's like the producers are screaming in the audience's face "Look what we can get away with off Saturday morning!" He's making a noisy glugging sound just to sell how obviously he's drinking it. By the end of the scene he's less imbibing, and more making love to the bottle with his mouth. It's exactly as explicit and cringe as that. "Look! We're for adults! See?" Except, adults don't drink booze like that (unless it's on The PJ's). It's not realistic or credible. You want to convince me an animated superhero project is for adults? Try having the background characters behave credibly during everyday situations. That is far more adult than a guy chugging hard liquor like it's a bottle of Gatorade. Can I also point out that BECAUSE it's so theatrical, the animation looks outright lousy? I know the budgets to these things are super tight. You do a stupid thing like that, any animation flaws there become even MORE noticeable.
I was not happy. Butch Lukic is letting me down. Deja Vu with James Tucker's run quickly going (and staying) downhill after a promising start. **1/2.
Harley Quinn "Harlivy"
Pretty good start. Also pleasurably sexy, which is nice, and not usual for this franchise. Most DC sexy stuff is gross. Including the previous seasons of this show.
Gordon is probably the Big Bad of the series. He is awful on every level.
Neat. ****.
Harley Quinn "There's No Ivy In Team"
I love Bane's random Sex And The City moment with the bank teller. That show was SO dumb.
Riddler's response to Batman winning the escape room was great.
Like the Dick Grayson on Batman '66 and Teen Titans Go!, this Robin / Nightwing is a punchline. But the joke feel much more satirical here to me and less obvious than those losers. Which is nice.
God Frank? Whuh oh.
Funny episode. ****1/2.
Harley Quinn "The 83rd Annual Villy Awards"
Kiteman is such a refreshingly positive character and I love Golden Glider too. I am happy for them both.
Billy Bob Thornton is a good sport. To put it mildly.
James Gunn wrote one of the Scooby Doo movies? That lost him a bit of respect from me.
Ivy's dress is a knock-out. Yowza.
Laughed at Riddler and Clock King's awkward missed kisses.
I think we just saw the scene where the infamous Batmunch was censored. DC's rules about that sort of thing are arbitrary and ridiculous.
Catwoman declaring the Joe Chill award an apology trophy awarded to her simply for her being black sounds good, but it doesn't feel right, and I think she's missing the forest for the trees in her objections. Why? Joe Chill is the villain who messed up Batman the most. The villain who messes up Batman the second most is Selina Kyle. It's entirely appropriate she won that.
I like the positive and adult take the show has on relationships. I would have expected it from the dumb and obvious show it was in the first season, but it's really evolved and matured since then. A lot like Harley and Ivy. It's been a pleasure to see. ****1/2.
The Orville: New Horizons "Domino"
I will not say that this is the episode of The Orville that lost me. What I will say is that I will be viewing all episodes past it with a bit of a jaundiced and skeptical eye.
I mentioned in last week's review how the show seems to be playing Devil's Advocate against Federation values from Star Trek. I like that. But I think they went too far here.
The ethical controversy they set up wasn't actually a controversy. Or at least it wouldn't have been on Star Trek. You might get a douchey admiral or Commodore here and there which would be just fine with building that Doomsday weapon, but not a single crew member on the first four Star Trek series would ever endorse something like that. It would be considered unambiguously wrong. I appreciate the fact that The Orville's humans are more realistic than Star Trek's because they give them facets Star Trek characters aren't allowed to have like hatred and bigotry. But you can be a realistic and flawed person and still know that there is no justification for genocide for any reason. Even using the weapon as a deterrent is a bad idea. And even if a d-bag admiral on Star Trek sanctioned the creation of such a weapon, the crews on Star Trek wouldn't be freaking incompetent enough to lose it, much less on Day One.
Also, Deep Space Nine, the BEST Star Trek show, was great because of the swiftly shifting political winds. I think The Orville having the Krill and Maclon form an alliance followed by the Union making peace with the Kalon is just pushing the idea too far, too fast. That's not appropriate.
Charly's sacrifice was not sad to me. It was the logical endpoint of any character growth she could have made. Her sacrificing her life to save the lives of the species she hated because that was her mission is where the character should have ended up. And frankly, if she hadn't died after some of the despicable things she said here, I never would have forgiven her anyways. Her arc is not just a redemption arc for her. It's a redemption arc for anyone whose prejudice negatively effects their judgment. Her sacrifice being the catalyst for the Kalon changing their minds about organics feels right too.
I did not expect Perry to be that dumb. When Halsey describes him as an antiprogressive element on the Council I thought that was another failing of the show because I never got that idea from him before.
Speaking of dumb, the Maclon allied with the Krill at the worst possible time. Even a month earlier they could have boasted some serious juice with that. I think the thing that disgusts me the most about the Maclon is the fact that their political instincts are unerringly terrible. That's good for the Union, but it pisses me off that Bortus and Clyden had to put up with that nonsense for so long.
Ed calling Speria contemptible in regards to blackmailing him with their daughter is exactly right.
The episode ended well and came to the right conclusion. What I don't like is that the right conclusion was ever in question. That's not how Star Trek would do it, and in this specific instance, The Orville failing that specific moral is something I think is an actual flaw in the show. **1/2.
Westworld "Zhuangzi"
Some interesting ideas, but last week I said I was going to take a wait and see approach. I waited and saw. I'm not digging the new premise. Christina and Teddy's stuff is good for sure. But I feel like the rest of the show is trading entirely in nihilism. Now that's always been an unpleasant factor to the show. But I'd argue before this season it wasn't the dominant one. Things have now gotten TOO bleak for me.
As a thought experiment it's interesting. As a torture I have to see characters I care about suffer through, it's extremely tough to take. **1/2.
Green Lantern: Beware My Power
I didn't like it.
Now I didn't actually HATE it, and it wasn't really terrible or anything, but there were just a bunch of little things off that ruined it for me bit by bit.
I had been looking forward to exploring the origin story of John Stewart. In both animated projects I've seen him in (Justice League and Young Justice) he was already an established hero, and was never previously given an animated origin story. So I was looking forward to that.
But he's the guest star in his own movie. Once Hawkgirl and Adam Strange show up the movie becomes about them, and John is an afterthought. And once HAL shows up, it's a Parallax adaptation instead. John Stewart is no longer the starring Green Lantern of the piece. Evil Hal now is.
I also strongly dislike Hawkgirl. She's dumb. I understand not every DC interpretation needs to be the same, but Justice League version was Earthy and common-sense. And seeing somebody this violent and dumb in Maria Canals' stead really irks me. There's not even a HINT of a romance with John like in the Justice League cartoon, so her inclusion (as well as Vixen's) seems doubly pointless.
I will say this for her. I like that this is really the only other Hawkgirl interpretation besides Justice League that doesn't merely consider her Hawkman's doomed reincarnated lover. Yes, the character sucks in this version. But at least she's allowed to suck on her own terms and not be attached at the hip to a male lead. I like that much about her at least.
I liked the music in the main title. A lot. One of the few things in the movie I truly liked.
The fight in the Watchtower pissed me off. It's totally unnecessary. Not just because John is CLEARLY fighting with a Green Lantern ring, but Martian Manhunter is right there and should have immediately read his mind and intentions if he truly thought he was dangerous. It's the stupidest trope in superhero comics and cartoons, and it's SUCH a stupid trope I am always amused at the outrage fanboys have towards people who think comics are stupid kids stuff. As long as fans tolerate stuff like that, that's what they actually are. I'm sorry. That fact chaps your ass? Then tell creators to stop doing this crap. It's insulting to everybody's intelligence. This is why nobody takes us seriously. You can like superhero stuff if you want. For the most part, I tend to myself, as grumpy as I get. But I will never for one second begrudge somebody who thinks superhero comics, cartoons, and movies are juvenile. As long as this stuff exists, on some level they are. Which is why I'm unhappy. Comic book fans do NOT need to tolerate this. If they spoke up creators would listen and course correct. But you guys LIKE those fights. And as long as you guys do, yours is not an adult, serious fandom. I want it to be. I believe it can be. But too much crap is currently tolerated for me to pretend it qualifies as such now.
Man, I loved Watchmen. Why can't more comics be Watchmen? I don't mean dark, grim, and depressing. I mean intelligently written and seemingly timeless. Instead we get crap like Vixen noticing John's GL Uniform AFTER fighting his multiple GL constructs. It's a bit tiresome for me.
In fairness to this movie, I LIKE projects designed for kids. I always have and I feel no shame for that fact. But as long as that scene and scenes like it exist I refuse to consider the genre an adult one. It's unreasonable if someone demands I treat it as such after crap like that.
This next complaint was the thing that told me I'd probably wind up giving this a negative review. And it occurred so damn early, that I really did not like feeling like the movie was on shaky footing from the start. But the bit of the bum shambling about and drinking straight from the bottle was... I can't even describe how bad it was. What bothers my cynical ass most about it is that I am certain nobody else will complain about it. Not because they think it's great or anything, but because all of these types of movies contain scenes like this, and many of them a TON of them.
The guy drinking the booze is doing it so theatrically, it's like the producers are screaming in the audience's face "Look what we can get away with off Saturday morning!" He's making a noisy glugging sound just to sell how obviously he's drinking it. By the end of the scene he's less imbibing, and more making love to the bottle with his mouth. It's exactly as explicit and cringe as that. "Look! We're for adults! See?" Except, adults don't drink booze like that (unless it's on The PJ's). It's not realistic or credible. You want to convince me an animated superhero project is for adults? Try having the background characters behave credibly during everyday situations. That is far more adult than a guy chugging hard liquor like it's a bottle of Gatorade. Can I also point out that BECAUSE it's so theatrical, the animation looks outright lousy? I know the budgets to these things are super tight. You do a stupid thing like that, any animation flaws there become even MORE noticeable.
I was not happy. Butch Lukic is letting me down. Deja Vu with James Tucker's run quickly going (and staying) downhill after a promising start. **1/2.
Harley Quinn "Harlivy"
Pretty good start. Also pleasurably sexy, which is nice, and not usual for this franchise. Most DC sexy stuff is gross. Including the previous seasons of this show.
Gordon is probably the Big Bad of the series. He is awful on every level.
Neat. ****.
Harley Quinn "There's No Ivy In Team"
I love Bane's random Sex And The City moment with the bank teller. That show was SO dumb.
Riddler's response to Batman winning the escape room was great.
Like the Dick Grayson on Batman '66 and Teen Titans Go!, this Robin / Nightwing is a punchline. But the joke feel much more satirical here to me and less obvious than those losers. Which is nice.
God Frank? Whuh oh.
Funny episode. ****1/2.
Harley Quinn "The 83rd Annual Villy Awards"
Kiteman is such a refreshingly positive character and I love Golden Glider too. I am happy for them both.
Billy Bob Thornton is a good sport. To put it mildly.
James Gunn wrote one of the Scooby Doo movies? That lost him a bit of respect from me.
Ivy's dress is a knock-out. Yowza.
Laughed at Riddler and Clock King's awkward missed kisses.
I think we just saw the scene where the infamous Batmunch was censored. DC's rules about that sort of thing are arbitrary and ridiculous.
Catwoman declaring the Joe Chill award an apology trophy awarded to her simply for her being black sounds good, but it doesn't feel right, and I think she's missing the forest for the trees in her objections. Why? Joe Chill is the villain who messed up Batman the most. The villain who messes up Batman the second most is Selina Kyle. It's entirely appropriate she won that.
I like the positive and adult take the show has on relationships. I would have expected it from the dumb and obvious show it was in the first season, but it's really evolved and matured since then. A lot like Harley and Ivy. It's been a pleasure to see. ****1/2.
The Orville: New Horizons "Domino"
I will not say that this is the episode of The Orville that lost me. What I will say is that I will be viewing all episodes past it with a bit of a jaundiced and skeptical eye.
I mentioned in last week's review how the show seems to be playing Devil's Advocate against Federation values from Star Trek. I like that. But I think they went too far here.
The ethical controversy they set up wasn't actually a controversy. Or at least it wouldn't have been on Star Trek. You might get a douchey admiral or Commodore here and there which would be just fine with building that Doomsday weapon, but not a single crew member on the first four Star Trek series would ever endorse something like that. It would be considered unambiguously wrong. I appreciate the fact that The Orville's humans are more realistic than Star Trek's because they give them facets Star Trek characters aren't allowed to have like hatred and bigotry. But you can be a realistic and flawed person and still know that there is no justification for genocide for any reason. Even using the weapon as a deterrent is a bad idea. And even if a d-bag admiral on Star Trek sanctioned the creation of such a weapon, the crews on Star Trek wouldn't be freaking incompetent enough to lose it, much less on Day One.
Also, Deep Space Nine, the BEST Star Trek show, was great because of the swiftly shifting political winds. I think The Orville having the Krill and Maclon form an alliance followed by the Union making peace with the Kalon is just pushing the idea too far, too fast. That's not appropriate.
Charly's sacrifice was not sad to me. It was the logical endpoint of any character growth she could have made. Her sacrificing her life to save the lives of the species she hated because that was her mission is where the character should have ended up. And frankly, if she hadn't died after some of the despicable things she said here, I never would have forgiven her anyways. Her arc is not just a redemption arc for her. It's a redemption arc for anyone whose prejudice negatively effects their judgment. Her sacrifice being the catalyst for the Kalon changing their minds about organics feels right too.
I did not expect Perry to be that dumb. When Halsey describes him as an antiprogressive element on the Council I thought that was another failing of the show because I never got that idea from him before.
Speaking of dumb, the Maclon allied with the Krill at the worst possible time. Even a month earlier they could have boasted some serious juice with that. I think the thing that disgusts me the most about the Maclon is the fact that their political instincts are unerringly terrible. That's good for the Union, but it pisses me off that Bortus and Clyden had to put up with that nonsense for so long.
Ed calling Speria contemptible in regards to blackmailing him with their daughter is exactly right.
The episode ended well and came to the right conclusion. What I don't like is that the right conclusion was ever in question. That's not how Star Trek would do it, and in this specific instance, The Orville failing that specific moral is something I think is an actual flaw in the show. **1/2.
Westworld "Zhuangzi"
Some interesting ideas, but last week I said I was going to take a wait and see approach. I waited and saw. I'm not digging the new premise. Christina and Teddy's stuff is good for sure. But I feel like the rest of the show is trading entirely in nihilism. Now that's always been an unpleasant factor to the show. But I'd argue before this season it wasn't the dominant one. Things have now gotten TOO bleak for me.
As a thought experiment it's interesting. As a torture I have to see characters I care about suffer through, it's extremely tough to take. **1/2.
