Tag Archives: dcu

Reviews, Television

Blu-Ray Review – Justice League Season 1

The cover art for Justice League: Season 1 on Blu-Ray

Get the Blu-Ray edition of Justice League: Season 1 from Amazon.com

If you’ve been following my reviews on Bureau42, you may know that I enjoy superhero comics, particularly judging by my reviews of DC: The New Frontier and similar works, as well as allusions to superhero comics in other reviews I’ve written. So, I missed Justice League when it first aired on TV. I missed it when it came out on DVD. However, now it’s finally out on Blu-Ray, and I’ve finally seen it. I’m pleased by what I’ve seen. My mind was not blown, but I did enjoy what I saw.

The series does what some of the best Justice League comics runs have done, such as Grant Morrison’s, and kept the league to a tight lineup: Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman (II – Diana Prince), The Flash (technically The Flash II as we see Barry Allen’s origin story, but we’re not doing prior incarnations here), Green Lantern (IV – John Stewart), Hawkgirl (I – Shayera Hol) and the Martian Manhunter. Continue reading →

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film, Reviews

Movie Review – Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut (2006)

Get the Richard Donner Cut of Superman II from Amazon.com

Get the Richard Donner Cut of Superman II from Amazon.com

Now having seen the first Superman movie, it’s time to move on to the second installment. Superman II. Not the theatrical cut, but the cut intended by the film’s original director – Richard Donner (who directed the first film). Is it as good as the original, or does the series second installment, as originally intended, lose a few points. There is a spoiler below the cut.

The Premise: Before Jor-El sent his son to Earth to save him from his home planet’s destruction, he sentenced 3 criminals, Ursa, Non, and General Zod to eternal imprisonment within the Phantom Zone. There they remained – until they were freed when one of the nuclear missles that Superman chucked into space detonated and released them. Thus, they are free to conquer Earth, with only Superman to stand in their way.

The Good: Terence Stamp is fantastic as Zod. He was great in the last movie, he was great in this movie. I now understand why “Kneel before Zod” has become a meme – justifiably so. Similarly, Brando (in his limited scenes) is still great, and Christopher Reeve is actually better than he was in the last movie. In the first film there was a broader split between mild-mannered and clumsy Clark Kent and Superman (and his stilted dialog). Here, particularly in the middle third of the film, Reeve strikes an excellent balance. Continue reading →

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comics

How Awesome Is It To Be Renee Montoya?

Renee Montoya IS The Question

Renee Montoya IS The Question

So, recently, I’ve been catching up on my podcasts, particuarly iFanboy, and particularly their episode on Final Crisis. I read comic books, and I like Superhero comics, but often times it’s the lower tier characters who capture my attention. The Green Arrows, the Deadpools, the Booster Golds of the world. For a moderate part, because it’s a little tricky to get into the big heroes and also around the time I was getting back into comics I wasn’t too into the direction the Bat-titles were going at the moment, I never quite got into Superman, and Wonder Woman never really was my thing. I like the Marvel stuff too, but also around the time I started getting back into comics (and getting a pull box started and so forth), Civil War had begun, and I wanted to see how it turned out before I anted back in – consequently, after the Iron Fascist won, I decided not to delve too deeply into the Marvel U (sticking with just Deadpool), and I went more deeply into the DC universe. However, I went with the smaller characters – Green Arrow, Blue Beetle, Booster Gold. I had JLA on my pull list, but it didn’t come out regularly enough that I could follow an arc – it seemed to be coming out quarterly, so I dropped it.

Continue reading →

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