Blu Ray Review: The Dark Knight Returns part 2 (2013)

The Dark Knight Returns part 2

2013
76 minutes
rated PG-13
Available January 29th from WHV on all the usual home-viewing outlets.

by Scott Mendelson

Note: My review of The Dark Knight Returns part 1 can be found HERE.

One of the dangers of being too literal of an adaptation is that you start to realize, when seen in a different format, what doesn't quite hold up.  Such is the case with the second part of The Dark Knight Returns, which dramatizes the third and fourth books in the 1986 graphic novel.  At least in animated form, it is clear that Mr. Miller bit off just a bit more than he could chew, with a final chapter that expands the playing field far beyond Gotham's borders.  It doesn't quite work, taking us out of the intended story and using it as a way for Miller to discuss a broader commentary on 1980s American foreign policy (the original story was of course written in the mid-80's).  Nonetheless, those wanting a faithful adaptation of the iconic comic book will get their money's worth.  As a filmed adaptation, it is stymied only by a curious bit of miscasting and material that just-plain doesn't work as well on the screen as it did on the page.

Sorry, Dredd 3D probably still not getting a theatrical sequel.

One of the bigger pieces of news in the film blogsphere was the relatively high sales figures for the debut of Dredd 3D in its first week of its various home viewing platforms.  A press release put out by Lionsgate states that Dredd sold 650,000 DVDs and Blu Rays in its first week as well as leading in digital purchases/downloads as well.  This is of course good news for those involved in the picture, which earned just $36 million worldwide on an alleged $50 million budget, but it doesn't mean that the franchise is now magically alive-and-well.  The news has had pretty much every movie blogger screaming that we may now get that theatrical sequel after all!  Sorry folks, it ain't gonna happen.  

Blu Ray Review: The Dark Knight Returns Part I (2012) delivers a solid, engaging adaptation of its iconic source material.

Batman: The Dark Knight Returns part I

2012
76 minutes
rated PG-13

by Scott Mendelson

I don't know if an animated adaptation of Frank Miller's groundbreaking satire was entirely necessary.  There is little ground in this 1986 graphic novel that hasn't been covered in other mediums or other comic book stories in some form or another, be it The Dark Knight Rises or the Batman: The Animated Series episode "Legends of the Dark Knight".  At heart, this project seems predicated merely on the idea of 'well, we might as well adapt it because we've adapted Batman: Year One.  But this new film, which covers the first two chapters of the four part story, is a genuine improvement over the prior Frank Miller adaptation.  It is less beholden to the source material and willing to make small changes for the sake of the film as a stand-alone entertainment.  The script is 90% faithful to the original, and the changes have an unusual effect of making the story feel less like an Elseworld (which it of course was) and more like a somewhat plausible 'What If?' final Batman story.

Why I almost cancelled my Indiana Jones blu-ray order...

As with most of the geeks here and elsewhere, Amazon will be dropping off my pre-ordered set of the Indiana Jones series on Blu Ray this afternoon.  I ordered it a few months ago, despite misgivings about it.  Misgivings, you say?  Well, here's the rub: My wife and I just watched all four films just last year.  So, and I hinted at this in last week's essay about multiple theatrical viewings, the life of an adult (job, family, etc.) leaves little time for watching movies, even favorite movies, multiple times.  My wife and I just watched Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  What is the likelihood we are going to watch them again anytime in the next few years?  I almost didn't buy the Jaws blu ray for just this reason, as my wife isn't a Jaws fanatic and I can't imagine showing the film to my kids anytime terribly soon (my wife being my wife, she actually prefers Jaws 3 and Jaws the Revenge).  But in the end I eventually spent the $20 on Jaws and the $65 on the Indiana Jones set because I figured my wife would enjoy watch the copious new extras on the sets.  Well, I was half-right.

Untapped goldmine: Disney Princesses 'to the rescue'.

There is a spot near the beginning of Peggy Orenstein's Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture that details the origins of the Disney Princess brand that originated around 2000.  Long-story short, the compromise for allowing all of the various Disney princess characters to appear on the same merchandise was that they not actually interact with each other in any way.  You may not realize it, but you've never actually seen a Disney Princess t-shirt or storybook with Jasmine and Belle playing tennis together or Aurora and Cinderella picking out party gowns.  They are always staring either at us or off into the distance, but never at each other.  I bring this up because in the midst of all the 'who should be in Expendables 3' or 'who should be in that female Expendables spin-off', I realized that Disney was in fact practicing a remarkable bit of restraint when it came to financially mining their properties.  Imagine: Jasmine, Belle, Mulan, Cinderella, Aurora, Pocahontas, Snow White, Ariel, Tiana, Rapunzel all in one spectacular adventure to do some kind of derring-do and/or saving the proverbial day.  Of course since most of their arch villains are suffering from a slight case of death, the already-established antagonists would be pretty limited (although Jafar and Dr. Facilier would be the easiest to resurrect since they both perished via magic).  But putting aside the whole 'art' argument, can you imagine how such a film wouldn't gross hundreds of millions of dollars in theaters?  Can you imagine how many untold millions of DVDs or Blu-Rays such a thing would sell? Say what you will about the alleged greed of the Walt Disney studios, but it says something that they haven't leaped at such a seemingly obvious opportunity to rake in untold amounts of money.

Scott Mendelson        

Blu Ray review: Superman Vs. the Elite (2012) improves on its source material, ranks among the best DCAU features yet.

Superman vs. The Elite

2012
74 minutes
rated PG-13

by Scott Mendelson

The original story, "What's So Funny About Truth, Justice, and the American Way?" (Action Comics 775) was a better discussion piece than actual story.  Written by Joe Kelly, the story served as a rebuttal to the ultra-violent superhero storytelling found in the likes of Ultimate Avengers and The Authority.  The ideas contained within are potent, and the story took on a new level of social importance just months after its March, 2001 publication for sadly obvious reasons.  The gang over at the DCAU have taken this single 41-page story and in fact improved upon it, with an even greater emphasis of the story's moral debate while crafting a solid action drama in the process.  Rather than take multi-issue story arcs and try to whittle them down to 65-75 minutes, this time we have a single 'important' comic book brought to life in a perfectly appropriate 74 minutes.  As a result, this well-written and solidly acted drama is easily the best DCAU film since Batman: Under the Hood, which also improved on its source material as well.

Blu Ray Review: Justice League: Doom (2012) is paint-by-numbers, lacks depth.

Justice League: Doom

2012
77 minutes
rated PG-13
Available for OnDemand on February 21st, available to purchase on DVD or Blu Ray on February 28th.

by Scott Mendelson

I've complained before about the inexplicable need for the DC Animated Universe features to be so bloody short.  Only the anthology Green Lantern: Emerald Knights has run over 80 minutes and at least two (Batman: Year One and Superman/Batman: Public Enemies) were barely an hour.  For whatever reason, the thirteen features since late 2007 have all hovered around the 75 minute mark, and it's almost always been a point of contention.  But this time around, that truncated running time has become a fatal flaw, as this loose adaptation of a 2000 Justice League of America arc ends up sacrificing the entire dramatic crux of the story.  All that's left, while not boring, is a rather route pure action tale with one large-scale set piece after another.  And by holding off the story's key reveal until near the end of the picture, the film ends up being a giant set-up to a plot twist 90% of the viewers will already know about, and the other 10% will be spoiled by the synopsis on the back of the box.

Blu Ray Review: Batman: Year One (2011) - A solid, rigidly faithful adaptation that highlights the danger with adapting overly literate comics.

Batman: Year One
2011
64 minutes
rated PG-13
Available for download on October 11th, available to purchase on October 18th from WHV

by Scott Mendelson

The ideas and concepts first found in Frank Miller's Batman: Year One have been so pilfered through and copied over the last 25 years that it feels a little strange to see this work adapted for film without any narrative alterations.  It feels like less of a stand-alone movie and more of a time-capsule of sorts, a touchstone to one of the more important comic books of its generation.  What works in the book still works in the movie, although this rigidly faithful adaptation exposes the problems of adapting a relatively literate comic book into an action picture.  The film is so visually and narratively faithful that it often resembles a high-end motion comic.  For those who have never read the original story, the film works as a rock-solid Batman origin story which remains one of the better Jim Gordon stories.  And for those who have always wanted to see this tale translated to film (animated or live-action), you'll get what you paid for.  Batman: Year One is a faithful adaptation of Frank Miller's four-part series, but its slavish devotion threatens to render it not particularly necessary.

Blu Ray Review: Star Wars - The Complete Saga (2011)

This will not be an exhaustive breakdown of the set, as I do not have the time to watch and critique each bonus feature.  But I will offer a few words for those who are inexplicably on the fence about the set.  Point being, I'm guessing you've either already ordered or purchased this, or have decided for whatever reason (not the original versions, already like the DVDs, etc) not the pick up this HD upgrade.  Anyway, all six films look varying degrees of spectacular.  I'd argue that the prequels look shinier and what-not, while the original trilogy looks more impressive in relation to its age and relative production value.  There has been talk that The Phantom Menace looks lousier than the others, but I had no real objections as I scanned to a few highlights (Duel of the Red Shirts looks super).  As you all know, my sound system is whatever my Samsung DLP TV offers, so I can only say that the audio sounded fine, with a clear distinction between dialogue, the score, and various sound effects with a generally even volume level at all times (offhand, the big screw-up with the music during the 'Battle of Yavin' has been fixed).

Why We Can't Have Nice Things: Last word on Sucker Punch, as the director's cut comes to Blu Ray. It's what we claim we want, but we couldn't see past the surface.

Zach Snyder made perhaps the ultimate thesis project on the wholesale objectification of women in popular culture, especially in modern geek culture, and how women feel the need to use those tools of objectification in order to achieve some semblance of would-be independence.  Sucker Punch smashed open the absurd notions that girls wearing short-shorts and arbitrarily doing violence is somehow empowering, when in fact those images are almost designed to be titillating to the male gaze.  It was (and is even more so in the longer, more fluid director's cut which restores the original Jon Hamm finale) a sad, mournful, borderline hopeless saga of five young girls who are imprisoned against their will, exploited for their sexuality, and then forced to use the tools of that exploitation in a feeble attempt to escape the clutches of male oppression.  It is about exploitation and it is about titillation.  Yet our nation's critics and audience members couldn't see past the very tools that Snyder was mocking (the mini-skirts, the pigtails, the larger-than-life CGI-infused action) to see what was a borderline art film.

Blu Ray Review: The Rite (2011)

The Rite
2011
114 minutes
rated PG-13
Available on DVD, Blu Ray, onDemand, and iTunes on May 17th from Warner Home Video

by Scott Mendelson

The theatrical review can be found HERE.

The Blu Ray:

Well, this won't take long.  The film looks relatively sharp, although the muted palate won't make this demo material.  But the details are rich and the film seems an accurate representation of its theatrical presentation.  A standard-def DVD is also included, but like most Warner DVDs, it is an overly saturated, yellow-tinged presentation with heavy macro-blocking.  The film sounds pretty solid on my English 2.0 set-up, as dialogue is always audible and cleanly seperated from the sound effects and the score.  As for extras?  Uh... well, you get a DVD of the feature, as well as a digital copy.  Other than that, you get an alternate ending (it's more 'scary' but less credible), twelve minutes of deleted scenes (I wish Rutger Hauer's scenes had made the theatrical cut, as he underrepresented in the feature), and a seven-minute EPK about the exorcism school that I wish the film itself had focused on.

So, mediocre film, great video and audio, but a near-complete absence of extras.  This is the very definition of a 'rental-only' release.   

Press Release: Star Wars: the Complete Saga on Blu Ray

Bring home the adventure and share Star Wars™ with your whole family – when STAR WARS: THE COMPLETE SAGA comes to Blu-ray Disc from Lucasfilm Ltd. and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment! To be released beginning on September 12 internationally and on September 16 in North America, the nine-disc collection brings the wonder of the entire Saga direct to your living room, where you can revisit all of your favorite Star Wars moments – in gorgeous high definition and with pristine, 6.1 DTS Surround Sound. Dive deeper into the universe with an unprecedented 40+ hours of special features, highlighted by never-before-seen content sourced from the Lucasfilm archives.

The specs after the jump:

Press Release and Trailer: Superman: the Motion Picture Anthology (1978-2006) to Blu Ray on June 7th.

Yes, I will be picking this one up, unless Warner is kind enough to send it to be prior to June 7th. It was a great set in standard def, so hopefully it will fare no poorer in Blu Ray. I guess the only question is whether the Fleischer cartoons will be in high-def. That might be worth the purchase all by itself. Not much to add (glad to see the documentaries will be in HD), but the rather lengthy press release is after the jump.

Scott Mendelson

Blu Ray review: All-Star Superman (2011)

All-Star Superman
2011
75 minutes
rated PG (violence, action, sensuality, language, and brief innuendo)
Available from WHV on February 22nd on DVD, Blu Ray, iTunes, and OnDemand

by Scott Mendelson

If you ask most casual comic book fans to name their favorite Superman story, they are likely to choose one of the countless origin stories (A Superman For All Seasons, Superman: Birthright, Superman: Red Son, etc) or the handful of stories that deal with 'the end of Superman' (The Death of Superman, Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, etc). Frank Miller would tell you that it's because Superman is such a godlike character, that the only story worth telling is his origin, since most other tales inevitably deal with how a god deals with the puny problems of mankind. But, without knocking many of the fine stories that take place in the middle of Superman's career (Superman: Peace On Earth, Lost Souls, etc), the character is such a primal piece of American myth-making that it makes sense that the most powerful narratives would be the two distinctive Campellian archetypes: the hero's journey and the old man coming to terms with death. All-Star Superman is a solid example of the latter, even if it loses much of the impact of the original source material.

It's about time... The Incredibles arrives on Blu Ray on April 12th.

I'm not going to get into which Pixar film is 'the best', but I've watched The Incredibles more than any other thus far. And, quite frankly, when you're dealing with superhero films that aren't based on a comic book (and really, most that are), you've got Unbreakable, The Mask of Zorro, and The Incredibles, and then you've got everything else...

Scott Mendelson

Horrors! Star Wars series is indeed coming to Blu Ray in September of 2011. Will someone please think of the children?!

Yes, yes, I know... Lucas raped your childhood, the original versions of the first trilogy aren't included, Jar Jar sucks, Ewoks are lame, Jake Lloyd can't act, Natalie Portman is kinda stiff, Greedo shoots first, midichlorians are dumb, blah blah blah. Don't want it? Don't buy it. I'll be at home, showing my (then) four-year old the Star Wars series for the first time. I'm still debating on what order to screen them. I'd love to watch them ala Stephen King's It: The Phantom Menace, A New Hope, Attack of the Clones, The Empire Strikes Back, Revenge of the Sith, Return of the Jedi. But I'm not sure that a four year old would get the emotional coherency (it allows for chronological order while preserving the big plot twist for as long as possible). I'll probably just play it safe and do it the old-fashioned way (VI, V, and VI, then I, II, and III). The most promising idea behind the Blu Ray set can be seen in the trailer above. Even as a prequel defender, I've always wished that Lucas made more of an effort to make the new films look more similar to the original trilogy. That seems to be the goal this time around, with the older films looking as shiny and new as the prequel trilogy. Anyway, read the official press release after the jump.

Scott Mendelson

What may keep me out of theaters in 2011? Instant 'Extended' DVD versions.

The Wolfman, Salt, Knight and Day, The A-Team, and The Town. What do these films have in common? Not too much, except I saw all of them in theaters, all on my own dime and (more importantly) on my own time. I enjoyed The A-Team and kinda-sorta liked Knight and Day and Salt. But the one constant is that they all came to DVD/Blu Ray with extensive 'Extended Edition/Director's Cut' versions. The whole 'unrated/extended cut' thing has been around since the beginning of DVD. Usually it amounts to an R-rated comedy (Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, The Hangover, Role Models, etc) or horror film (every single Saw picture) tossing in three minutes of 'extreme' material that could have allegedly gotten the film an NC-17. But this recent wave is different. These are old-fashioned action pictures and star-vehicles, the kind that are allegedly struggling to find an audience, yet they are consistently mocking their theatrical audiences by unleashing more substantial versions on the home video platform just months after theatrical release.

Blu Ray review: Avatar: Three-Disc Blu-Ray Extended Collector's Edition

Avatar: 3 Disc Extended Collection
2010
160 min (theatrical), 168 min (special edition re-release), 179 min (extended)
rated PG-13
Available from Fox on Blu Ray on November 16th

My original review of the theatrical cut can be found here. For this review, I watched the 179 minute extended cut. It's still the same movie. Most of the new footage is just little bits and pieces, a bit more action here, a longer flight there. There is a six minute prologue that takes place on Earth, which establishes the environmental damage that the planet has sustained, while also establishing Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) as someone who cannot walk away from someone in peril. It's a bit broad, but it gives us a rooting interest in Sully beyond him simply being the lead character. There are extra moments for Grace (Sigourney Weaver), including a more detailed explanation of why her precious school for Na'vi ended up closing. There is a very brief (and non-explicit) sex scene between Jake and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). The other big change is a very different finale for Tsu'tey (Laz Alonso). Oh, he still gets his powerful final stand and subsequent death plunge, but... well, you'll have to see for yourself what happens afterward. It's an interesting addition, but I kinda liked the haunting original demise.

The Mask of Zorro finally arrives on Blu Ray today.

Nearly two years after the Blu Ray release of the less-successful (but still pretty darn good) sequel, The Legend of Zorro, Sony finally feels fit to release the original modern classic on Blu Ray today. It's no secret that I probably love this film more than anyone else on the planet. Heck, it's probably my favorite film of the 1990s and perhaps my all-time favorite superhero adventure. Before I got married, The Mask of Zorro used to be the litmus test. You didn't have to like Batman, Star Wars, Airplane!, or The Silence of the Lambs. But if you couldn't see the obvious quality at work in this Martin Campbell reinvention, then it just wasn't going to work out.

This film is why I'm such a hardcore Martin Campbell junkie. Everything about it just works. The action is full of real stunt work, and it's shot in long, fluid takes. The special effects are mainly practical and you can see the blood, dirt, and sweat on each and every actor. The swordplay is copious and varied. And while the film is pretty violent (especially in the first act), the body count is just low enough for it to be shocking whenever a life is lost (like all Martin Campbell action films, the violence stings and the dead are mourned).

Although there are four major action set pieces, the 135-minute film is long enough to have ample heapings of plot and character development. Even the villain (Stuart Wilson) is given shadings and moments of empathy, and his grand scheme is both brilliant and logical. Eleven-and-a-half years after its release, The Mask of Zorro remains Antonio Bandaras and Catherine Zeta Jones's finest hours, and it contains one of Anthony Hopkins's best performances. If by some fluke you haven't seen this one yet, you now have absolutely no excuse. If you value my opinion at all, you'll buy or rent The Mask of Zorro today.

Scott Mendelson