It’s finally all coming together on Friday where all the superheroes from the Marvel Cinematic Universe clash to bring down one of the galaxy’s biggest threats. Since its introduction in 2008, Marvel and Disney have made building universe look easy, but many modern studios have proven it’s an impossible task to pull off competently. Before Marvel and DC there were many established Extended and Shared, and if you’re looking for a break from Marvel, these are five you might love.
Tag Archives: Adventure
Batman Ninja (2018)
Whether you love or hate “Batman Ninja,” you have to admit DC is at least going for something completely different and radical this time around. With a different crew and approach toward the mythology, “Batman Ninja” is a unique time traveling tale that finds Batman at his most godlike, worshipped as a near invincible warrior in Feudal Japan. Beautifully directed by Junpei Mizusaki, “Batman Ninja” puts the entire aesthetic of the DC character in to some of the wildest anime filters, and it works most of the time. Some concepts land with a thud, but when “Batman Ninja” soars, it’s quite spectacular.
You Have to See This! Kicks (2016)
It’s not so much the journey of getting the shoes but what they ultimately represent to a lot of people. Eventually the mission of young Brandon to get his Jordans back from a vicious neighborhood psycho becomes a lot more than re-claiming a piece of goods. It becomes about re-claiming a part of himself, and perhaps taking a chance on something that could either mean his doom or prove that he’s capable of going very far in his life, and perhaps farther than anyone figured.
Road House (1989)
Rowdy Herrington’s “Road House” exists in that line of the late eighties and early nineties where honky tonk trailer trash chic was in vogue. This is the re-emergence of rowdy bars in that whole period of “Black Velvet,” “Black Betty,” Stevie Ray Vaughn, and Billy Ray Cyrus. It permeates with that exact odor but with Patrick Swayze playing basically your normal everyday enigmatic superhero known as Dalton. Only Dalton. He is so bad ass he has one name, carries a thick reputation, and spends his off time stitching his own wounds in bar room bathrooms.
Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay (2018) [4K UHD/Digital/Blu-Ray]
“Hell to Pay” is chapter two in what is one of the more under appreciated animated DC series currently in stores. While DC mainly focuses on Batman and Superman, we’re given a second shot with “Suicide Squad” who DC is thankfully not above sharing for the home entertainment audiences. After the very good “Assault on Arkham,” the team known as Task Force X return with a premise that—let’s just say it—should have been the premise for the live action movie. It’s a small covert team, they should do small covert operations that involve the DC Universe, for crying out loud.
The Five Best Max Fleischer Superman Shorts
“Up in the sky, look! It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s Superman! Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, this amazing stranger from the planet Krypton, The Man of Steel: Superman! Empowered with X-ray vision, possessing remarkable physical strength, Superman fights a never-ending battle for truth and justice, disguised as a mild-mannered newspaper reporter, Clark Kent.”
Deep Blue Sea 2 (2018) [Blu-Ray/DVD/Digital]
So what do you do when you’re making a killer Shark movie but don’t have the budget for a lot of killer shark carnage? You fill the movie up with a lot of characters talking, and walking around, and talking, and explaining and arguing and pretending there’s some kind of conflict here. Say what you want about “Deep Blue Sea” but it had genuine killer shark carnage that, while silly, still featured killer sharks. “Deep Blue Sea 2,” however, does everything in its power to avoid showing killer sharks–even though they’re the basis for the entire movie.