I’d about given up on the original DC animated movies. They’re either stories I already read as comics — and I didn’t feel a need to see the characters move, with added mature content — or they exist mostly for big battles. Batman and Superman: Battle of the Super Sons was a pleasant change by focusing more on character interaction. I liked it a lot more than I expected — although it’s very male, with the only female characters being […]

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment has released a deluxe edition of Batman: The Long Halloween. In addition to combining the previous two separate releases into one movie, this version is now available in 4K (although there is also a Blu-ray edition). There’s also “added mature content” and a 25-minute “Evolution of Evil” featurette about “the commonalities across the film’s heroes and villains alike” with commentary by clinical psychologist Dr. Drea Letamendi, original comic writer Jeph Loeb, executive producer Butch Lukic, and […]

I’ve delayed talking about Green Lantern: Beware My Power because I didn’t really want to watch it. I’m not the audience for these cartoon movies, as they seem to prioritize fights, violence, and the occasional profanity over superhero fun and excitement. (There’s an S-word within the first few minutes of dialogue. Justifies the PG-13 rating, I guess. Also shows us that our protagonist has PTSD.) What I am the audience for are the extras. But more on that later. This […]

The pitch for Catwoman: Hunted is that it’s anime-influenced, which apparently means a very adult body styled with an 8-year-old face, and minimal plot. There are four lengthy action sequences plus a seduction scene with implied nudity. That qualifies for a PG-13 rating for “violence, bloody images, and suggestive material.” (The studio sent me a review copy.) I was bored, as there is nothing original or interesting about this, and I found it a chore to sit though. Catwoman is […]

The animated movie version of Batman: Year One came out a little over ten years ago. The studio has now released Batman: Year One Commemorative Edition on 4K UltraHD to mark the anniversary. (And they were kind enough to send me a copy!) This is one of the better DCU animated movies, as you can see in my original review. All the key extras have been carried over from the previous package. That includes the “DC Showcase Presents Catwoman” short […]

Batman: The Long Halloween was a 13-part miniseries themed around calendar events. Written by Jeph Loeb and drawn by Tim Sale, it was one of several prestige events the two teamed on in the mid-90s. (There’s a deluxe edition hardcover collection coming out, but not until October.) The premise was that a serial killer, Holiday, was murdering people once a month on holidays. It also put a young Batman in conflict with Gotham mob families and retold how Harvey Dent […]

Batman: Soul of the Dragon is a team adventure that serves as an R-rated animated love letter to 70s exploitation entertainment. (The studio sent me a review copy; I otherwise likely wouldn’t have watched it, as I’m not a fan of the period martial arts movies that inspired it.) We’re introduced to Richard Dragon (Mark Dacascos) during a mostly wordless James Bond-ian heist sequence. We spent a few minutes figuring out whether it was retro or modern day, until the […]

(This movie came out a year ago, and I just realized that although I made notes, I never actually posted my writeup. The studio provided a review copy.) Batman: Hush didn’t interest me at first, but it became the first of the original DCU animated movies in a long time that didn’t feel like an obligation to watch, something to grind through. That was due to two reasons: the prominent role for Catwoman (although you couldn’t tell that from the […]