DailyView: Day 311, Movie 440

Stan Lee is one of my idols. He created so much of my childhood with the hand that he had in designing the Marvel Universe of characters. Spider-Man, X-Men, Hulk etc. were so important to me then, and remain so to this day. It is a legacy that Stan Lee will never lose.

However, not everything Stan Lee did turned into a classic. Case in point, The Condor.

Stan Lee created a series of heroes for POW Entertainment in the early 2000s, which included a character named Mosaic. Here, Lee introduced a Latino character called the Condor, which was a skateboarder with nanotech technology. This film and the hero surrounding it was lifeless.

Tony Valdez (Wilmer Valderrama) was a famous skateboarder who was up for a major championship. When his skateboard was sabotaged, Tony wound up losing the competition. His parents were killed in a car wreck after they were run off the road and Tony wound up being beaten up by the same assailants, who break his legs terribly.

With a diagnosis of not being able to walk again, Tony’s friend Sammi (Kathleen Barr) brought him the nanotech and a powered up skateboard. Tony wound up in a costume as The Condor, and he went to try to gain justice for his parents.

The animated movie is typical for the low budget type of animation. Basically, what you would expect on a cable network show. None of the animation stands out.

The voice cast was average too. Wilmer Valderrama, from That 70’s Show, is fine as Tony, but nothing else stands out. Stan Lee makes his typical cameo in the film as a random grandfather of a girl saved by the Condor.

The story is your typical superhero fare, nothing remarkable or interesting. The character of Condor is basically like the character of Rocket Racer from Marvel, which should tell you how uninspiring he is. It takes too long to set up the conflict and the villains are as stereotypical as you are going to find.

Not everything can be Spider-Man. The Condor doesn’t even come close.