Batman: Bad Blood Review

Batman fans for as long as the character of Batman has been popular he's been appearing in most forms of animation be it movies or TV shows. However in recent years it seems like Batman is the go to character for DC Animated Movies with the character appearing in more and more of them be it as a side character or as a main character and so here is my review of

 2016's "Batman: Bad Blood" enjoy.

The plot of the movie is two weeks after Batman disappears The League of Shadows are trying to create the perfect solider while also trying to brainwash people starting with Bruce Wayne and so it's up to Robin , Nightwing , Batwoman and new hero Batwing to stop them and find Bruce Wayne before it's to late. As for what I thought about the story it was honestly really good and it's not something that i've not before with the idea of what would happen if Bruce Wayne was kidnapped and then brainwashed being a generally good idea it's just a shame tho that the film doesn't go all the way with that idea which is something that I will talk more about later on in the review.

Reprising their roles from previous the previous DC Animated Movie Universe films are Jason O'Mara as Bruce Wayne / Batman , Stuart Allan as Damian Wayne / Robin , Sean Maher as Dick Grayson / Nightwing and Morena Baccarin as Talia Al Ghul. Joining them are Gaius Charles as Luke Fox / Batwing , Yvonne Strahovski as Kate Kane / Batwoman , Geoff Pierson as Colonel Jacob Kane , Ernie Hudson as Lucius Fox , Travis Willingham as The Heretic and James Garrett as Alfred Pennyworth.

Now then as for what I thought about the acting in the film given that pretty much all of these actors aren't voice actors at all they do a pretty solid job in this movie. Alot of these actors have been playing these roles for close to six years as of this writing and up to two years when this film came out so they would have an idea of what type of performance to give and in my opinion they make the right choices and thus give solid performances , altho I will admit that Yvonne Strahovski didn't really impress me as Batwoman but hey she's doing a better job then Ruby Rose is so there's that at least.

Doing the animation for the film is The Answer Studio who as far as I can tell have mostly worked on anime with the only American productions that I found being two separate Transformers series. I will say that the anime influence can be seen in this film now that I think about it with alot of the fight scenes visually looking like something that you would see in an anime and with that being said the animation quality is pretty high with alot of care being put into each and every frame.

This is the third film in the DC Animated Movie Universe otherwise known as the DCAMU for short. This is a kind of spin off line of films separate from the DC Universe Animated Original Movies line of films since films set in the DCAMU are all connected where as all of the other films effectively sit in there own universe with each film occupying it's own world with it's own set of rules and continuity.

Now I hate to bring up the Marvel Cinematic Universe on a DC related post but I really do feel that Marvel Studios has done a better job of creating a cinematic universe then DC has. Now don't get me wrong when it comes to creating a universe in animated form DC has done a really good job the problem is tho none of the stories set up in the films and so none of them feel like they are set in a universe which trust me is a huge issue when it comes to things like character development and characters arc , look at example Tony Stark in the first Iron Man film the character we meet in that film is alot different from the one we see at the end of Avengers: Endgame now let's take a look at Batman the character we see in Justice League War is the same one that we meet in this film with only very mild character development given to him in this film with his latest film Batman: Hush offering none whatsoever.

That is a huge issue because when your starting a cinematic universe your expecting your viewer to invest years of their lives into these characters and they can't do that if there's very little to no character development. Otherwise what's the point in starting a cinematic universe other then to be hip and trendy since apparently every film studio needs to have there own cinematic universe now. Also not helping matters is the fact that these films really aren't telling a story that's spanning these films again look at the MCU they started a story in Iron Man it took them over ten years spanning twenty two films in order to fully tell it here there's no story being told and so why should we invest our time and energy into these films which yes are still good films and I will still get the latest one because of that fact but still if your going to start a cinematic universe then you need to give me a reason to care about this universe.

This film sees the debut of Kate Kane as played by Yvonne Strahovski into the DCAMU which if you recall stands for DC Animated Movie Universe. I have to say that I like this version of her more then I do the version that's currently on The CW and granted i've not seen much of the live action show but i've seen enough to form an opinion on it but getting back to this version of the character tho this version of Kate is a tortured soul much like how she is in the live action but unlike that show she also hides her pain sort of in a way like Bruce would whenever he meets someone new in his live which I thought to be rather interesting.

This film is only an hour and twelve minuets long which does actually feel about the right length if i'm being honest. Simply because there's not much there in terms of story and you this film isn't one that you can get up to ninety minuets at most you'd be able to get it up to an hour and twenty and that's if you include Batwoman's backstory but there would be no way in hell you could get it any longer then that without the film feeling bloated.

Now then boys and girls this is an action film and so that does mean that we have to talk about the action that's in the film. Like I said this is where the film in my opinion becomes inspired by anime since like in an anime fight the fight scenes in this film leap f the screen and like in an anime there are alot of crazy moves and alot of camera moves done and I hope that more DC direct to DVD animated films take on an anime inspired style.

Overall this is an entertaining film and if that's all your looking for then your going to walk away happy. Now with that being said if your looking for a film that gives you heaps of character and character development then outside of one scene with Batman then your going to walk away very disappointed since the film has very little of that in it with the focus being more on the action then on the characters as such this film gets a 6.5 out of 10 from me.

 

Lego DC: Shazam!: Magic And Monsters Review

DC fans incase you don't know we have a little tradition everytime the company releases a new direct to DVD animated feature I review it the day it comes out. Well the company has a new Lego direct to DVD film out and well since it's going to be a fairly long time before I get to review a new animated film you guys better get used to seeing this one and so here is my review of "Lego DC: Shazam!: Magic and Monsters" enjoy.

The plot of the movie is Mr. Mind has turned every member of the Justice League into his servant and so it's up to Batman and Shazam to turn them back to side of good while also stopping Mr. Mind before it's to late. I honestly feel that the story was honestly really well told especially for a kids film but I hate the fact that they use the same story arc of Batman learning to trust someone that to me is just a predictable storyline that's been done to death.

Starring in the film is Sean Astin as Shazam , Troy Baker as Batman / Bruce Wayne and Zach Callison as Billy Batson & Jimmy Olsen. Also starring in the film is Nolan North as Superman / Clark Kent & Alfred Pennyworth , Grey Griffin as Wonder Woman & Lois Lane , Cristina Milizia as Green Lantern / Jessica Cruz , James Arnold Taylor as The Flash & Dummy , Imari Williams as Black Adam / Teth-Adam , Ralph Garman as Wizard and Tom Kenny as The Penguin & Perry White.

Given the amount of voice acting greats that are in this film what i'm about to say really shouldn't come as a surprise to any of you. The acting in this film is felt was honestly really top notch which again given the amount of voice acting greats that are in this film really shouldn't come as a surprise to any of you whatsoever but I honestly feel that it's true and the fact that they managed to get this many great voice actors together is in my opinion a great thing.

Doing the animation for the film is Xentrix Studios who I cannot find anything on so I have no idea what else they have worked on. I can say tho that the animation in this film is just the bog standard direct to DVD Lego DC affair but I do like the attention to detail that's in this film like the fact that you can see that each building is clearly made out of Lego bricks and there is something else but it could be considered a spoiler but let's just say that it's a cool little detail.

What I honestly was not expecting was for there to be a reference to the previous direct to DVD DC Lego movie Lego DC Batman: Family Matters. Which really caught me of guard because these movies never make references to the past movies and so to see one in here was honestly refreshing and i'm not going to lie it did get a chuckle out of me when they made the reference which i'm honestly not spoiling because it is a cute little nod to that movie.

Make no mistake about it this movie is made for and aimed at little kids and so alot of the things in this movie are going to a little bit childish. None of which I can actually say tho because they are considered spoilers and i'm trying to keep this review spoiler free I will say tho that there are no fart jokes in this film since if there was I most likely would have turned the movie of there and then since I hate fate jokes.

Like all of the direct to DVD DC Lego movies this one is also a comedy and so that does mean that we have to talk bout the jokes that are featured in the film. Which I honestly didn't think were that bad like I said there's no fart jokes which I was expecting given that this is a kids film , that being said there is a a fairly solid Wonder Woman joke which they use a few times which was decent and there's a bad Superman joke which gets run into the ground alot it wasn't funny the first time they did the joke and every time they do the joke it get's less and less funny but hey all comedy is subjective.

Now then since this is also an action film that does mean that we have to talk about the action that is in the film. Which honestly for a direct to DVD kids Lego DC movie wasn't that bad yes it's not as fun as say The Lego Batman Movie but it is still pretty creative and we get see why each hero is a member of the Justice League , heck we even get to see alot of Shazam's powers as well which was pretty cool.

Overall this film is only an hour and twenty one minuets long so if you have any kids or smaller family members that need entertaining during this difficult times this is the movie that will do just that. I really cannot be to hard on this film since like I said it's made with little kids in mind and so any real issue you have with the film you have to go a little bit easier on it and so the film gets a 5 out of 10 from me and the film is out now on Digital platforms and it will be out on DVD and blu-ray on the 16th of June 2020.

  

  

My Idea For An American Live Action Version Of Sailor Moon

Guys and girls very rarely do I get an idea that's so strong and so original that I just have to start writing about it that very second. Well today is one of those days because for no reason what so ever I started thinking about a live action version of Sailor Moon and then I got to thinking about what an American live action version of Sailor Moon could be and what it could possibly look like and so here we go and i'm going to apologise right now if this post seems all over the place i've not really thought this post through all the way and so i've not really organised it at all if i'm being freaking honest.

PLOT

For the sake of my own sanity i'm going to be using the English names for the cast just because those are the names that alot of people are going to know them by. My idea for the plot would basically follow that of the first season of the show with Serena gradually meeting up with the other Sailor Scouts altho this time to avoid the fact that her transformation involves her being naked and wearing a short skirt all of the scout will be aged aged up and will be going to the same college and will take the same approach of The Flash with a new big bad every season with Queen Beryl being the first big bad.

I feel that for the first several episodes we shouldn't have the sailor scouts come together just because it would be a bad move in terms of developing their characters and character traits. Instead each of the scouts will be fighting crime on there own but each of the villains that they face will be connected to Queen Beryl who is trying to destroy the earth and she won't just be attacking this ne city either she'll be attacking the whole world with more Sailor Scouts from all over the world defeating her and i'll explain more about why there's some in the same college soon.

CHARACTERS

Now I said that there's going to be more Sailor Scouts well that would make the series feel more epic and how they find out about each other is through telepathy. In other words they can talk to each other using mental abilities and it goes without saying but the same characters from the anime / manga will be in this show and there names would be unchanged this show will also see the debut of Sailor Venus who shall be given the name of either Kate or Sarah.

Since I haven't watched the original dub of the show I can't say what there personalities are like and so I can't say if they'll be changed or not. However I do think that for the first season at least the team shouldn't work well together with there personalities clashing with each other all the time which could lead them into more deadly citations and will force them to work together and thus the character development could come more naturally.

SIDE CHARACTERS

Now what i'm about to say will make more sense later on when I mention what network I think that this show should air on. There will be side characters in this film ranging from both students and college professors alike who will form team Sailor Scout each of these characters will have an ability that helps the team out in one way or another and each of these side characters will have there own subplots that will converge in the finale.

This is the one case where the setting actually allows for a team of friends to help the main heroes out while at the same time not taking away from the main heroes or main story. I personally wouldn't go down the route of having one of the professors have a relationship with one of the students just because that's cliche as hell to do instead a romance would be hinted at however the student will be to call it off after the professor is nearly killed due to there actions and that's when we have the moment that all superhero shows and films have where they realise that they have to make sacrifices in order to save the ones they love.

NETWORK

Now I know that this is going to put alot of people of but I honestly feel that the best place for this show to air is honestly The CW. Simply because there record with producing superhero shows that are very high quality on a TV budget is really good and that's what each season of this would be a superhero movie but done as a TV show , plus there superhero shows always have great effects which a show like this is always going to have there's just no getting around it.

The only real drawback that I can see is that they would want a romance angle which is something that I would want to try and avoid. Simply due to the fact that not all shows need a romance however if one was to come up naturally through story and character progression then I wouldn't be opposed to seeing it happen but I wouldn't want a romance just for the sake of having one in there and yes this does mean no Tuxedo Mask / Serena romance at least not for the first few seasons at least.

AMOUNT OF SEASONS

Since this is The CW you know that this show is going to last for quite a while since they renew every show they broadcast the trouble is when do you call a show like this quits. Well for me the answer is simple you do it when there's no more character development left to do so if that means it gets cancelled after three seasons then so be the story and development of the characters should always come first and if that means ending a show at it's peak then so be it that's when it ends.

Speaking of the amount of season that the show could have the amount of episodes is also fairly key as well since you couldn't really this a twenty two episode per season show. So you'd have to cut it down to about twelve per season since then you could make the best twelve episodes of that season instead of making several OK episodes which is something that alot of shows don't seem to do yes there are shows like Doctor Who which only make a handful of episodes per season but then there are shows like The Flash which make only a handful of good episodes and several OK episodes.

So there we go guys and girls that was my idea for an American produced live action Sailor Moon show yes I know alot of what I said isn't going to go over well with people but given the costumes and how short the skirts are as well as the characters being naked during the transformations alot of changes had to made. Again i'm sorry for my thoughts being all over the place but that's only because I had to get this idea out there and so I didn't have the time to collect my thoughts and organise them and I also wouldn't make this show woke at all both men and women would be treated as equals.

 

Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge Review

Well then animation fans it's not often that I get to review a new straight to DVD movie on the weekend (i'm writing this on Sunday) but tho what I believe to be the first ever animated Mortal Kombat film, which was due for digital release on Tuesday leaked out a few days early. So you can freaking bet that I was downloading this film the first chance that I got and well it's really something i'll tell you that much and so here is my review of "Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge" enjoy.

The plot of the movie is an ageing warlock named Shang Tsung hosts a yearly tournbment called with the best fighters from this world and another fighting to win but sorcerer Quan Chi makes a deal with a lost soul by restoring him as a legendary fighter known simply as Scorpion. If i'm being frank the plot of the movie is pretty thin even what I just described to you is basically the premise of the movie rather then the story that's being told which is a shame because the premise is pretty interesting.

Starring in this movie is Joel McHale as Johnny Cage , Jennifer Carpenter as Sonya Blade , Jordan Rodrigues as Liu Kang , Patrick Seitz as Hanzo Hasashi / Scorpion , Steve Blum as Kuai Liang / Sub-Zero , Artt Butler as Shang Tsung , Darin De Paul as Quan Chi , Robin Atkin Downes as Kano , Dave B. Mitchell as Raiden , Ike Amadi as Jackson "Jax" Briggs , Kevin Michael Richardson as Goro , Grey Griffin as Kitana and Satoshi Hasashi and Fred Tatasciore as Demon Torturer.

In terms of what I thought about the acting in the film it was honestly alot better then what I thought it was going to be simply because a few of these actors are actually reprising their roles from either the games of the 1995 live action movie i'll leave it up to you to work who's reprising their role and who isn't. I really cannot say who is the better actor in this film since alot of them really do deliver a good performance.

Now I can't find who did the animation for the film on the IMDB page but on the film's end credits it lists Studio Mir as doing the animation why the IMDB page couldn't tell me that I have no idea but then again the IMDB page also has DC Entertainment listed as being involved with the film. In terms of what I thought about the animation like the voice acting it was a lot better then what I thought it was going to be however it's not as good as I think that it could have been.

The film has a more anime inspired look to it like Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend Of Kora which I do feel works well enough for this film. However not every piece of animation that's aimed at adults needs to look like an anime it just needs to be have adult themes this one tho does contain a more adult look with the anime visual style but it doesn't really have that many adult themes outside of Scorpions plot that is.

Now you might be wondering why i've got the poster for the animated film version of Batman: The Killing Joke well that's because both films are rated R. However unlike The Killing Joke film this film really does earn it heck it earn it even before the the opening credits start playing because my god is there some brutal scenes in this movie and I loved every single one of them and i'm not going to lie those scene were freaking cool as hell.

Incase you can't tell i'm trying to keep this review as spoiler free as possible mostly because I want you guys to check it out but also because there's nothing to spoil whatsoever. Which to me says that the movie has nothing else to offer and is intended as a one time watch which i'm honestly fine with since not every film should be viewed multiple times but I will say that how the film ends is such sequel bait that they might as well end it with "Such And Such A Character Will Return" it's that obvious and yes that was me trying to make a joke spoiler free.

I want to take the time to do something that I very rarely do when I review an animated film and that's take the time very briefly to talk about the character designs. The designs for the characters in this movie look so freaking cool that's honestly the best word that I can use to describe them if you want proof of that all you need to do is look at the image of Kitana she looks so freaking bada*s in this movie and I like that they made Scorpions costume look like something that a samurai would wear which I thought was pretty sweet.

This film is an hour and twenty minuets long and may god do you feel it in alot of places and when I say alot I really freaking mean it. Alot of this does come down to the lack of story which does mean there's alot of stuff that ultimately adds nothing to the film and is there just to make the film as close to feature length as possible as such I feel that the film should have been at least an hour maybe even forty five minuets because that's how much actual story material they have this film didn't need to be an hour and twenty minuets long at all.

This film is an r rating and like I said before it really does earn it i'm not going to say how it earns it but if you've played the games you'll know exactly what i'm talking about. I'm honestly not that shocked that they made this film as violent as they did like there where somethings that caught me of guard but again i'm not going to spoil what they are but I will also say if you've played the games they do somethings known from the games in a really cool way.

Now this is an action film and that does mean that we need to talk about the action that's in the film itself. Even tho the franchise is indeed known for it's fighting for me personally the action in the film is very sub-par at best which is a shame because they do some really cool stuff in those action scenes it's just that they cool stuff that they do has been done better in other movies both animated or not.

Overall if your a fan of the Mortal Kombat games (of which I personally haven't played them but I have seen the two live action movies) then you'll find the movie entertaining. However if your like me and are pretty much just a casual fan then chances are your not going to find much entertainment in this film outside of some of the action and violence as such the film gets a 7 out of 10 from me and if you want to buy the film you can as it comes out on Digital release Tuesday April 14th and on DVD and Blu-Ray April 28th don't ask me how I saw it early let's just say "other methods" were used and I don't condone using those methods.