Fathom Events today provided two DC Animated movies that showed that it is possible to make a compelling and interesting film focusing on Superman.

The Death of Superman was a direct-to-DVD from last year and told the story from the iconic DC Comics comic book from 1993, Superman #75.  This was one of the comics that Batman v. Superman took and crammed together for their story arc.  This is evidence proving that the choice to rush through the storyline in the live action films was a huge mistake.  At the end of the animated version, when Superman sacrificed his life to save Lois Lane from the rampaging Doomsday, I was feeling the emotions.  There were some tears in my eyes whereas I felt nothing during the whole BvS mess.

They followed this up with a new release of Reign of the Supermen, which continued the storyline from the comics where a group of “new” Supermen (a clone Superboy, The Eradicator, Steel and Cyborg Superman) stepped forward in the absence of Kal-El to stand in his stead.

Quick takes on these two animated films.  I thought The Death of Superman was fantastic from start to finish.  Loved just about everything about it.  Reign of the Supermen dragged a bit for me at the start, but the last half of the film was just excellent.

Once again, as I stated with my review of Justice League: Gods and Monsters, maybe it is time that Warner Brothers divvy up some cash so these DC Animated movies can get some better animation.  There is no doubt that the animation on these films are below average, if not downright cheap looking and that is a damn shame because the storytelling is top-notch.  WB should take some of that Aquaman moolah and see if they couldn’t come up with the next Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse-style film using the wealth of wonderful characters that DC has.

Back to the double feature, I found the pay off to be strongly done once again.  Not only did we get the best representation of Superman we have gotten since Christopher Reeve (or maybe Superman: The Animated Series), but we got the Justice League cameos as well.  Both Flash (Christopher Gorham) and Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion) stole the show.  Rosario Dawson’s Wonder Woman was another highlight.

The voice cast was solid.  Jerry O’Connell as Superman.  Rebecca Romojn as Lois Lane.  Rainn Wilson as Lex Luthor.  All three stood out as great castings.

Being able to watch the two films together in one event was an awesome treat and it really helped the second film.  I feel that if it hadn’t had that strong intro, the relatively weaker beginning of the second film would have stood out more.  As it is, it just felt like a slower bit necessary in the story.

This is what the DCEU should have worked toward instead of throwing away Superman’s death as a moment in a movie that did not need it.  This is so much more compelling and emotional than the Superman death in BvS that it showed what could have been.

The Death of Superman is…

While Reign of the Supermen is…

So last weekend I watched the three great (okay two great and one okay) Indiana Jones movies and I made a smart aleck remark about the fourth film not really existing.  Of course, we know that the infamous fourth film of this franchise did indeed exist and it was also on NetFlix.  So, in spirit of completion and in second chances, I decided to give Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull a second look.

It was absolutely as bad as I remembered.

Now, I told myself at the beginning that I would specifically look for parts that I liked, because there had to be some, and, in fact, I did find some parts of the movie that was directed by Steven Spielberg and written by George Lucas that I liked.

What I liked:

• Harrison Ford is always fun, even if he was way too old for this.
• The early part of the film’s motorcycle chase.
• During that chase scene, there was a moment where Mutt (Shia LaBeouf) looked at Indy with a “look what I did” look and Indy looked back with an unimpressed glare that was taken directly from The Last Crusade.  It was meant to hearken back to the relationship between Indy and his father (Sean Connery).  That was cute.
• There were some classic Indy lines and banter
• Cate Blanchett.  You’ve got to respect her as she always throws herself into the role, even with a terrible Russian accent.

Unfortunately, that is where the “What I liked” ended.

What I did not like/hated:

• Mutt.  He was really forced, and yet, in the third act, he disappeared.
• Almost everything in the jungle chase.
• The “Call it a rope, not a snake” gag.
• Marion Ravenwood did not fit in this film and forcing her in just did not work.
• All the peripheral characters (Oxley, Mac, Dean Stanford) took away from what should have been the focus of the film, the relationship between Indy and Mutt.
• Mac, in particular… the “triple agent”?
• The sci-fi ending was just stupid.
• Why can’t Russians hit anything with a machine gun?
• The monkeys.
• Oh… I nearly forgot… “Nuking the Fridge.”  All of that. And groundhogs.
• The FBI hating on Indy only to drop out of the story completely after the first act.
• Most of the comedy was over-the-top and missed badly.
• The story was confusing and you could not connect to any of it.

In the end, this was one of the most disappointing film going experiences I had had.  I remember walking out of the film with my friends in shock.  We turned to each other and we all just admitted that Kingdom of the Crystal Skull sucked.  Nothing about the rewatch or second chance made me change that opinion.

The third and final film of the Indiana Jones trilogy (yeah, there is a fourth one, but I try not to think about that one much) is one of my favorites.  Honestly, I am never sure if I prefer Raiders of the Lost Ark or this one, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.

The Last Crusade went back to Indiana Jones basics as they sent Indy on a quest for the Holy Grail and they kept the mystical stuff to the ending.  The film followed the pattern of the original film but this one had some extra special.

Sean Connery.

Sean Connery played Dr. Henry Jones, the estranged father of Indiana Jones and the connection between Connery and Harrison Ford is magic.

Magic I tell you.

The film was great from the beginning with young Indiana Jones (River Phoenix) through the set-up, but the movie truly caught on fire when Indy crashed through the window and gets smashed in the head with a vase… thankfully a fake one.

The constant dialogue and bickering between Henry Jones and “Junior” was just tremendous.

These characters were so deeply rooted in love despite the fact that they had barely been talking that you can feel it through the screen. The scene where Indy was believed to have been killed in the tank that went over the cliff was some of the best, most subtle acting from Connery that we have ever seen.

There was great action as in any Indiana Jones movie and the humor is a perfect fit and hit nearly every time.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is a wonderful movie and a great way to end the series…

The second film in the Indiana Jones series was quite a step down from the brilliance of Raiders of the Lost Ark, but it was still a good time.  Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom took the archaeologist into a prequel and made it a much more pulpy type serial than we got in the first one.

Indy starts out in Singapore trying to make a deal for a diamond, but that deal falls through.  The opening bit of the film is not very effective as it depends too much on slapstick and silly coincidences.  It also introduces us to the singer and this film’s love interest Willie Scott (Kate Capshaw) and Indy’s sidekick Short Round (Jonathan Ke Quan, who later stars as Data in The Goonies).

There is just no denying that Temple of Doom is several steps down from the Raiders of the Lost Ark, and that the film suffers from the portrayal of the Indian villains of the movie as bloodthirsty cultists and that this would be considered seriously racist these days.  Some people include Short Round in this mix, but I do not.  The young boy is one of the highlights of the film here, filling the young sidekick trope that these types of serials would have.  Short Round is shown as capable and heroic and I take nothing from the broken English.  I am sure that is how the actor spoke.  There are plenty of racist parts to Temple of Doom without adding Short round into the discussion.

And the relationship between Indy and Short Round feels real and sweet.  It feels as if they have been together for years and have grown into a close knit pair.  This, of course, begs the question of exactly what has happened to Short Round after this movie as there is no mention of him in Raiders of the Lost Ark or the remaining films.  Did Short Round meet with a terrible fate on an adventure?

This falls into the category of white savior films as the white man arrives and saves the day for the Indian people, who apparently cannot do it for themselves.  And the mysticism of the film adds another component to the question of race relations.

That mysticism angle just does not work as well for Indiana Jones as does the adventure and swashbuckling action, which is why the action picks up drastically when the film gets away from the mystics and the mind controlling blood and features on a mineshaft chase scenes and a final confrontation on a rope bridge.  These moments feel like classic Indiana Jones and help elevate the remainder of this.

I was not a fan of Kate Capshaw and her role as Willie.  She was more annoying than anything else as the helpless, dumb blonde.  She was nowhere near Indy’s equal as Marion had been, and, had we seen Willie first, maybe we would have liked her more.

In the end, Temple of Doom is a good, but not great Indiana Jones movie.  They took away the parts that worked best for Indiana Jones and tried to add in a different kind of pulp story that was not as effective.  Still, Harrison Ford is always entertaining and Short Round was a fun and interesting addition (and way more than just a racial stereotype).

Next Up:  Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

As I was going to Netflix to watch the new season of A Series of Unfortunate Events, I spotted that Raiders of the Lost Ark and the Indiana Jones movies that followed it were now on Netflix and I immediately thought….triple feature!

Of course, Raiders of the Lost Ark is one of the greatest movies of all time and its rating was never going to be in doubt.  It is absolutely the highest rating I can give which makes it a…

I can remember watching this movie at a special event at school while I was at our junior high.  We watched the film on reels in the gym and I was completely mesmerized. Indiana Jones, played by the amazing Harrison Ford, was everything you could have wanted from a hero. He was brave, adventurous, and determined.  He brought this adventurer to life like few others could have possibly done.

This is perhaps the ultimate collaboration between Steven Spielberg and George Lucas.  Throw in an iconic score form John Williams that makes every scene more epic and fills you with that feeling deep down inside.

The chemistry between Harrison Ford and Karen Allen was off the charts and, despite being kind of whiny at times, the character if Marion Ravenwood was the perfect pairing with Indiana Jones. The lack of Marion in future films was a drawback.

The Nazis make awesome villains as they did in the old serial adventures that this was based on and you can find such a wonderful mixture of exciting action, laugh out loud humor and a cleverness that you can rarely find.

There are scenes here that are some of the greatest ever put to film.  The moment Indiana Jones shot the swordsman was as perfect as you were going to get (and the idea that this was an improv moment from Harrison Ford that everyone went with is even more epic).  The fight on the airplane is one that I will always remember.  Harrison Ford adds so much to each scene with a simple facial expression that does a brilliant job of informing about this character.

Raiders of the Lost Ark and the character of Indiana Jones are members of the EYG Hall of Fame and it is well deserved.  It is one of my personal favorite movies of all time and those people who complain about Indiana Jones not really affecting the plot are just looking for something to complain about.  Raiders of the Lost Ark is near perfect.

Next up:  Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

I have to say… this has been the biggest surprise of the 2018/19 New Year’s Eve/Day Binge-a-Thon so far.  A Fish Called Wanda was pretty boring.

I know, right? I didn’t see that coming.

I could not get into the film at all.  Sure they have a great cast and I thought that, when I saw the movie years ago I liked it, but watching it today, I just could not wait to get it over.

I know that I am distinctly on the minority side of this, but I just did not enjoy A Fish Called Wanda.  Just a glance had the score at 93% on Rotten Tomatoes.  EYG Hall of Famer Roger Ebert had given the film 4/4 stars.  The audience number on Rotten Tomatoes is 84%. Google users had it at 81%.  These are all very high numbers.

And yet, it goes to show that movies are subjective and it falls into the idea that everyone has their own opinions.  I did not like this movie, I found it mean-spirited and nowhere near as funny as I thought it would be.  Maybe it did not age well for me since my memory was that I liked it originally.

In the end, this will not be a film that I want to revisit again.

Happy New Year!  The first movie I watched in 2019, and the next film in the 2018/19 New Year’s Eve/Day Binge-a-Thon is Russell Crowe’s starring vessel, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.

I will admit, there was a chunk of this movie that I was not sure exactly what was going on.  I feel that is as much my fault, if not more, than that of the movie.  This feels as if Master and Commander is a movie that demands 100% attention right from the start and I was a little bit sleepy yet when I started it.

Nevertheless, I got more into the film as it progressed.  I found it to be a strong film with a lot of great sea faring action.

Russell Crowe was great as Captain Jack Aubrey but my favorite character was easily Doctor Stephen Maturin, played by the awesome Paul Bettany.  The scene where he operates on himself is just stunning.  I found the relationship between Captain Aubrey and Dr. Maturin to be strong and compelling.  The relationship was the focus of the novels that this movie was based on, specifically two Napoleonic War-era adventure novels by author Patrick O’Brian.

I am not sure there is a real through-line for the story as the film felt like it was more a series of scenes on the open seas strung together.  The French ship they were chasing was really more of a white whale for most of the movie than a real enemy.  However, I did enjoy the scenes of sea battle.  I did have some trouble following it at times, but the spectacle is without doubt.

I admired this movie.  It was a good time, and it needs me to institute a new category.  The “Good Stuff” category is around the “Fun Time” category, but leans toward a more serious tone and film.