Blu-ray Review: Incredibles 2 (2018)

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Coming off the heels of a string of smash successes centered on talking toys, bugs, monsters, and fish, Pixar's sixth feature film was a radical departure for the always surprising computer animation house.

Revolving around not only human beings – who in 2004 had only ever been in the periphery of other Pixar releases up until that point – but superheroes at that, Brad Bird's The Incredibles managed the impossible task of delighting children with its fast-paced excitement as well as adults who undoubtedly appreciated the film's emphasis on family overall.

Though a focal point of other superhero fare including the Justice League, X-Men, or Avengers, which were subtextually built upon the idea of choosing your own surrogate family, Bird's Incredibles took the term "family picture" to a new literal level. And in doing so, he dared to make the ordinary extraordinary, which is the theme carried over in this 2018 sequel which picks up precisely where the previous film left off in spite of a fourteen year gap.

"Done properly, parenting is a heroic act," my favorite supporting player, technical super suit designer Edna Mode (voiced by Bird) says to a stressed-out Bob Parr aka Mr. Incredible (Craig T. Nelson) in Incredibles 2.

Not allowed to moonlight as a "Super" anymore, in the film, Bob experiences a role reversal with his wife Helen aka Elastigirl (Holly Hunter) after the superhero program is shut down because, as Rick Dicker (now voiced by Jonathan Banks) explains, "politicians don't understand people who do good simply because it's right."

Recruited by the private sector in the form of Bob Odenkirk's telecom giant Winston Deavor who, along with his sister Evelyn (Catherine Keener) is working to "make all supers legal again," with his connections, lobbyists, and by embedding super suits with tiny cameras for a PR campaign, soon Helen is employed full-time because she causes less property damage than her Incredible spouse.

Enjoying the perks of the job from a new Elasticycle to a luxurious temporary home for her loved ones since the Parrs are still in hiding since their last adventure, though initially cautious, soon the former stay-at-home Supermom falls back into the routine of her younger mohawk days, which amazingly Bird and company didn't bring to life in flashback.

And as Bob juggles solving complex math problems for son Dash, inadvertently embarrassing daughter Violet in front of her crush, and realizing Jack-Jack's alarming and quickly out of control super powers, Helen takes center stage in the lightning paced sequel’s most impressive sequence as she races to stop a runaway hovertrain.

While the action in the original feature was one of its benchmarks, following Brad Bird's work directing one of the most jaw-dropping Mission: Impossible films yet via Ghost Protocol in between the two Incredibles, Elastigirl's adrenaline pumping, highly cinematic hovertrain rescue thrills on the same level as a live action tentpole movie.

Although admittedly, one fight scene amid blinding white flashing lights later on in the film should necessitate an epilepsy warning before the film even begins – and indeed movie theaters alerted attendees during its initial run – Incredibles 2 never lets the epically executed action get in the way of its family-centric message.

Working together literally and metaphorically, as the rest of the Parrs including Samuel L. Jackson's "Uncle" Lucius aka Frozone predictably jump into the picture's ultimate showdown, the film still drives home the picture's overarching theme while reinforcing the lesson of its predecessor, namely that the family of distinct individuals are – like the rest of us – stronger when united.

Comprised of two Blu-rays, one DVD, and a code for a digital copy of the film, Disney Pixar fills the three disc set with a wide variety of bonus material such as behind-the-scenes featurettes, mini-docs exploring multiple characters and more, which has been the studio’s M.O. since the beginning.

And given that the production schedule was moved up a year after Pixar flipped the release date of Incredibles 2 with Toy Story 4, some of the disc’s extras (including ten deleted scenes) hint at storylines and ideas Bird has acknowledged he had to cut for time, which cast members are hoping might pay off in a third entry.

More about the people behind the quest than the quest itself, even though there are nods to previous genre favorites like Burton's Batman and Raimi's Spiderman 2, Incredibles 2 is a refreshing variation for those suffering from superhero overload.

Using the opportunity of a new release to showcase another stellar short film, in addition to Bao, be sure to look for the delightful Incredibles short Auntie Edna that – fitting into the overall narrative – plays like a five-minute deleted scene and gives us a chance to see Edna and Jack-Jack in action.

Amusing enough to make me think that Edna (and therefore Bird) could follow in the footsteps of Finding Nemo's Dory and have their own fabulous spin-off, even if this isn't the case, it's safe to say that with their history of Incredibly outside-the-box thinking, whatever Pixar cooks up next will be sure to blow our minds.

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TV on DVD Review: Batman – The Second Season: Part Two (1966-1967)

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Related Review:
Batman -- The Second Season: Part One

No longer content to coast by on the same cliffhanger dependent two part formula in the second half of the second season, Batman's behind-the-scenes team opted to take what they learned making the now-classic original movie and apply it to the hit series.

Along with supersizing the storylines into multi-episodic TV-movie style arcs that were as ambitious as they were outlandish, Batman upped the action and doubled down on the villains to raise the stakes.

From an underwater chase to a slow motion fight, Batman no doubt took a cue from the skyrocketing popularity of globetrotting James Bond blockbusters in order to keep audiences tuning in for more than just the endless alliteration and comic book bright cinematography.

Of course, it's as campy as ever – particularly when it has to rely solely on the scenery chewing charms of some of its B-villains from the Shakespeare quoting Riddler variation, The Puzzler along with The Mad Hatter, and The Sandman.

However, it still manages to win us over with the boundless energy of its core ensemble and sheer dedication to keep its audience entertained by whatever means necessary.

As we get back into the swing of things, we discover an unexpected side effect of Batman's success with the rise of prison overcrowding. Unable to keep up with the demand for more guards or cells, more villains have been sneaking out of lock-up and back into the city – partnering up with fellow mischief-makers in order to keep both the viewers and the caped crusaders on their toes.

Overworked with the rise of jail-breaks and more sophisticated attacks, Commissioner Gordon and Chief O'Hara find themselves having to rely on the Bat-signal in order to send Gotham's guardians an S.O.S. message, interrupting Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson's long overdue vacation.

From the return of Joker and Penguin as part of a Zodiac crime spree (which is all the more eerie given the actual Zodiac crimes of the era) to the flirtatious mayhem involving one villainess who wears love potion laced lipstick during the repeated takes of an on-set movie makeout, the thirty included episodes are packed with outrageously diverting plotlines.

At its best when the show swings for the fences and goes for that creative home run even if it fails, as opposed to playing it too safe by relying on the stale formula, while it's occasionally brought down by incorporating the same techniques again and again, overall there's a lot to admire about Batman's undeniably daring second season.

Growing increasingly over-the-top with each passing episode, Batman is nonetheless elevated once again by the musicality of its dialogue as well as the total commitment of its cast to play it straight.

Artistically intoxicating for its vibrant combination of setting, costume, props and makeup – while it's hard for die-hard millennial fans of the Christopher Nolan adaptations to accept something so uncharacteristically light and bright – Warner Brothers' flawless re-release of the '60s series serves as a great reminder that there are many ways to tell a story.

Text ©2015, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited and in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I may have received a review copy of this title in order to voluntarily decide to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique.

Blu-ray Review: Batman vs. Robin (2015)

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Most parents think their children are extraordinary but when Bruce Wayne says that there may not be another ten year old boy in the world quite like his own child Damian (whom we first met in Son of Batman along with the caped crusader), it's less a statement of paternal pride than it is of defeat.

 

Sudden fatherhood hasn’t exactly been easy for the two dueling alpha Waynes, which we're quick to gather in the latest DC Comics animated feature, Batman vs. Robin.

For although he'd been entrusted to keep the boy safe from those who’d murdered his grandfather Ra's Al Ghul by Damian's mother Thalia in Son, Bruce Wayne finds that his experiences with his former goodhearted (and now grown) ward Dick Grayson haven't adequately prepared him to handle a boy with Damian's anger, energy, and determination.

Instead of typical tween rebellion, as a former member of the League of Assassins headed up by the now deceased Ra's Al Ghul, Damian's favorite way to deal with his angst is by stealing the Batmobile for a night of vigilante justice that comes perilously close to crossing the line into murder. Obviously, crashing a wild party is one thing but hitting the streets with a mission for vengeance is something very different indeed.

Distracted by his new blonde-haired, blue-blooded girlfriend Samantha Vanaver, Wayne struggles to juggle not only his dual identities as the old money playboy as well as Gotham City's Dark Knight but also his relationship with his own son.

And things grow much more complicated when – in a last ditch effort to discipline the boy and keep him in line – Bruce Wayne decides to turn Damian into the new Robin.

Relying on the old Robin (now Nightwing) – Dick Grayson – to train and prepare his son, the men at Wayne Manor are soon usurped by a mysterious new player on the scene who's been tasked with recruiting both Wayne junior and senior into a secret society of elite Gothamites called the Court of Owls.

What results is a straight-to-disc feature that’s vastly superior to DC's previous production.

Ramping up the action and plotline with each successive act, the sequel does a particularly good job of better establishing Grayson's Nightwing for what I can only hope will be the character's own WB Animation and DC Comics original movie in the future.

However, because it attempts to cover so much ground, savvy viewers will be able to spot most of Robin’s double-crossing plot twists coming from a mile away.

Falling back on Batman's roots as an existential Dickensian archetype, Batman vs. Robin pays direct homage to Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist wherein, upon learning that his son has begun reading the book, "movie buff" Bruce Wayne asks Alfred to fire up the 1948 David Lean adaptation of Twist in the manor's screening room.

Far more sexually suggestive than other DC Comics films (which makes this unrated title perhaps best suited to a PG-13 audience), the implied backlit nudity is still less jarring than the new overreliance of the series to focus on "animal/human" hybrids that threaten to turn the films into B-level monster movies.

Though not as well-executed as Batman: Year One or the stellar Wonder Woman, Batman vs. Robin nonetheless shows some promising potential with a dramatic and well earned conclusion that makes us eager for another installment. Likewise, the decision to add more layers to Wayne's own backstory with the suggestion that old money Gotham's elite society just might have played a part in the death of his parents helps elevate the picture from its slightly predictable nature.

Despite the fact that the relationship between junior and senior Wayne seems pretty protracted, in their own right, the film’s characters (and Grayson in particular) nonetheless feel distinctly unique, which is quite a feat indeed for the animated realm.

Bolstered by exciting action scenes including a pulse quickening car chase, though Batman ends slightly abruptly, the gorgeous new Blu-ray gift set is loaded with bonus material including four shorts from the WB animated series archives, behind the scenes footage and a limited edition Batman figurine so you can stage your own battles... Damian’s stolen Batmobile not included.

Text ©2014, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited and in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I may have received a review copy of this title in order to voluntarily decide to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique.

TV on DVD Review: Batman -- The Second Season: Part One (1966-1967)

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Batman -- The Second Season: Part Two

Bursting with the pop, color, and flavor of a bubblegum ad on the back page of the same comic that had inspired the series, ABC's smash '60s success Batman was as gleefully campy as it was filled with endless alliteration and overwritten.

Nonetheless as unnaturally choreographed the heavily enunciated tongue-twisting dialogue was, each episode went above and beyond in its salute to semantics by loading each line with more multi-syllabic words than most modern talk radio programs boast today.

And when you couple Batman's love of the English language with the show's obvious passion for play, it's no wonder why it's so easy to get hooked on DC Comics' particular brand of phonics.

This is especially true when it's performed like a near musical call and response by Adam West and Burt Ward, complete with odd mid-sentence pauses and rhythmic give-and-take meant to underline drama, both of which add a percussive "Pow!" to the sing-song dialogue.

Yes, the series did suffer from repetition, both structurally as well as in its tendency to recycle the exact same establishing shots (including its most famous sequence that takes us – "Turbines to Speed" – by Batmobile from the Batcave to City Hall where the same handful of extras mill about in heavily used footage).

However, while the greatest villain Batman ever faced were the budgetary restraints of its own network (which later led to its cancellation while it was still a ratings heavyweight), the show never let this obstacle turn into its Achilles Heel.

To this end, it adopted a visual signature with the same tenacity that it wove the wacky wordplay which was its narrative trademark into each week's two-part episode scripts.

Yet while you could never fail to miss the show’s audible style, Batman's often utilized cinematic technique came across with a refreshing subtlety that was often absent from the rest of the show's jackhammer approach.

Whereas our heroic leads were nearly always held dominantly in the frame – looking stoic, resolved and straight as an arrow – frequently, and only whenever we were in the presence of the show's "audacious adversaries" that were "capable of such capricious crimes," the frame is almost always positioned just barely off-kilter as we size up the room for possible "malevolent mischief."

Admittedly, the first of the three seasons had the best and most creatively freewheeling material as the shows grew increasingly outrageous with time. However, thanks to a bump in budget following the now classic movie (filmed between the first and second season) that also gave Batman its super cool Batboat, they were able to attract some impressive names to the guest villain roster including former Hollywood matinee idols of the '40s and '50s that begin to fill the screen in this set.

And indeed, the star power here is as impactful as the same cartoon-style expressions of comic book of violence that took center stage during fight scenes.

But regardless of cost, the series was always at its best when one of the 1966 film's four main henchmen (Joker, Riddler, Penguin, and Catwoman) cooked up a new scheme to ensnare the heroic alter egos of millionaire Bruce Wayne and his "youthful ward" Dick Grayson.

In a nod to their own success, we see the two at home off duty and discover that when they’re not off fighting crime, they get their kicks in the manner of their audience, sitting back to watch TV's The Green Hornet.

That's just one of many nice in-joke winks at the superhero life that was thrilling on the small screen roughly a decade before the return of Superman to the big screen and the Frank Miller era Dark Knight debut of Michael Keaton's Bruce Wayne nearly 20 years later.

While this is as bright as Tim Burton's 1989 film is dark and played more for comedy than pathos and thrills, you can see the influence of Cesar Romero's Joker and Wayne's dry quips that were carried over in Burton, Keaton and Jack Nicholson's first trip to Gotham City two decades later.

And just like the introduction of Penguin and Catwoman did in Burton's Batman Returns follow-up years later, the villains bring out the worst in one another but the best in our heroic caped crusaders in this (sadly Riddler-free yet happily gorgeously restored) four disc set that delivers fans the first half of Batman's second season.

Text ©2014, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited and in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I may have received a review copy of this title in order to voluntarily decide to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique.

TV on DVD Review: Teen Titans Go! - Mission to Misbehave: Season One, Part One

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Despite its creative origins which stemmed from the original Teen Titans series that ran for five seasons as well as the D.C. Comics and animated shorts that helped build momentum for its return, Cartoon Network’s newest incarnation of Titans is a quirky hybrid that’s part animated sitcom and part superhero character-driven series.

Yet taking place in Jump City mostly when the teenage team of crime fighting titans – led by Batman’s own superpower challenged Boy Wonder sidekick Robin – are off the clock, Teen Titans finds the five characters all dealing with the unglamorous day-to-day battles of chores and roommate drama without the aid of an adult caped crusader telling them what to do.

With this all-kids-all-the-time aura, Teen Titans Go! does suffer from the unfortunate current trend of youth-oriented animation that believes that louder is better. As such, it serves up lots of unnecessary shrieks and exclamatory bursts of dialogue to punctuate the similarly hyperactive-friendly, ever-changing plotline that breaks up each eleven minute show into an A, B and sometimes even C or D storyline as well.

Nonetheless, Teen is at its best when it respects the intelligence of its viewers. And in this newly released slim-packaged two-disc DVD set that serves up the first half of the first season (or 26 eleven minute episodes), there are some dynamic examples of what this show can achieve when it does just that but unfortunately you have to endure a lot of filler to find the diamonds in the rough.

Set standouts include a Robin centric Drive inspired episode that’s so clever it’s darn near worth the price of the set alone entitled “Driver’s Ed” which was written by Batman: Year One, Tarzan and Brother Bear scribe Tab Murphy as well as original Teen Titans staff writer Amy Wolfram’s first disc Robin highlight “Dude, Relax!”

While obviously those picking up on the theme that Robin is the MVP character wouldn’t be wrong but fortunately the other voice actors get their chance to shine in other collection hits including the Telenovela themed “La Larva de Amor,” “Hey Pizza!” “Staff Meeting,” “Matched” and a truly ingenious “Colors of Raven” episode that brings out the Multiplicity-like many character traits of the usually one-note, sardonic Raven.

While most adults will find all the shouting as well as the lack of any real character development less than satisfying, thanks to the ultra-bright animation style that has a Pokemon like feel and fast moving tales, Teen Titans Go! is sure to find an audience in children who are a bit too young for some of D.C. Comics and Warner Brothers’ more mature superhero fare. 

Text ©2014, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited and in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I may have received a review copy of this title in order to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique.

Blu-ray Review -- Justice League: War (2014)

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Before they were officially known as the Justice League, the Super Friends or even the Super Seven (as suggested in this early account of the first official team-up to save the Earth by a number of DC Comics’ most notable superheroes), there was an awful lot of friction in the group.

For starters, there’s wisecracking (and scene-stealing) Green Lantern’s evolving assessment of Batman as everything from a vampire (in need of Tru Blood no less) to a “tool” or a “douchebag,” to his yelling “Dibs!” on Wonder Woman despite Superman’s obvious attraction to her that is teased in this WB Justice League themed prequel animated feature.

Furthermore when you couple the massive egos that abound along with the intergalactic sized daddy issues of the newly initiated Cybog (whose origin story is unveiled in the film), there’s a lot of progress to be made before they’ll be able to fight like a cohesive unit aligned for good.

And unfortunately, that’s a large part of the uneven DC Universe feature’s problem as despite the gorgeous artwork, impressive star caliber on display in its voice cast and memorable one-liners, Justice League: War is far too disjointed in its approach.

Whereas the one or two character centric films they’d released in years past had smoother character arcs and maximized the potential of the medium to tell tales so successful as to rival some live-action superhero fare (as in Lauren Montgomery’s phenomenal Wonder Woman, for example), this one is clunky and all over-the-place. Likewise, by constantly jumping from one point-of-view to the next, War shortchanges many of the memorable fan favorite characters in the process as some superheroes seem like they're mere cameos in a Green Lantern movie at times.

And honestly, it may have been far too ambitious for its own good in bringing the 2012 Justice League: Origin graphic novel by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee to life in such a limited running time. While the DC division at Warner Home Entertainment should’ve perhaps divided the storyline across two features to devote more time to each character before just sending them off to get lost in the background of the epic battle that unfolds after Darkseid threatens the Earth, War is nonetheless still much more entertaining than most traditional episodic comic book television fare.

Elevated not only by its spectacular visuals, War stands out even when its plot does not, thanks to its clever dialogue and writing, including a hefty seasoning of darker, more modern themes and references that serve up tongue-in-cheek observations throughout.

Yet as a graphic novel transferred to film, it’s the beauty of the work that really attracts and War looks and sounds phenomenal in its sharp Blu-ray presentation complete with a digital high definition Ultraviolet copy along with four bonus animated shorts, a sneak peek at the franchise’s upcoming Batman themed feature nicely timed to celebrate the caped crusaders seventy-fifth anniversary and a behind-the-scenes exploration of legendary DC artist Jim Lee.

Needless to say, with its super-sized bonus material, the Justice League: War Blu-ray makes up for what’s missing in the feature presentation with worthwhile extras designed to appeal to superhero devotees. And even though it isn’t as great as some of the studio’s strongest entries, DC enthusiasts won’t want to miss this early exploration of what happened when Batman first met Greet Lantern (as well as all of their other Justice League favorites), back when the superheroes thought of each other more as strangers versus than sidekicks and well before they ever became Super Friends. 

Text ©2014, Film Intuition, LLC; All Rights Reserved. http://www.filmintuition.com Unauthorized Reproduction or Publication Elsewhere is Strictly Prohibited and in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.  FTC Disclosure: Per standard professional practice, I may have received a review copy of this title in order to evaluate it for my readers, which had no impact whatsoever on whether or not it received a favorable or unfavorable critique.

TV on DVD: Marvel's X-Men-- Volumes 1 & 2

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In the '90s, the multiplex belonged largely to the world of DC Comics with the international success of Batman which was re-imagined to Dark Knight origins by way of visionary comic book artist Frank Miller and director Tim Burton that led to Christopher Nolan's turn behind the wheel (following the ghastly Schumacher camp works of the mid '90s). However on the small screen, a different group of superheroes from a rival comic book company ruled the airwaves as the decade was about Marvel's X-Men.

Wildly popular in both comic book form and as part of the Fox Kids Saturday morning lineup that threw some DC into the mix when fittingly the Bat joined the action packed comic cartoon schedule with the critically lauded Batman: The Animated Series-- the bonus that Marvel fans had over DC ones is that X-Men felt like a far more pure adaptation, moving directly from comic to television without having any major film series from which to draw any immediate popularity or visual cues.

Incredibly intelligent, gorgeously drawn with its intricate lines, shapes, and attention to detail that still stuns in DVD form from Buena Vista Home Entertainment with the recently released the first thirty-three episodes (spanning seasons one and two in their entirety along with the crucial start of season three over two volumes)-- Marvel's animated X-Men provides a superlative Origins experience to those anxious about Hugh Jackman's brand new big screen Wolverine smash.

Also coinciding with the recent release of the three feature films in trilogy form and on Blu-ray that tie in not only with Jackman's fourth foray as Wolverine but the upcoming 2011 X-Men Origins installment Magneto-- this must-own set for Marvel enthusiasts and X-Men devotees plays even better the second time around for those of us who first encountered the series in our adolescence as we're now able to delve beyond the multi-layered subtext of the show which dealt with hot button issues on a weekly basis.

The longest-lasting series on Fox Kids, as Wikipedia reports, Marvel's X-Men premiered on television nearly thirty years after author Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby creation first debuted the characters in comic book form in September of 1963 with The X-Men #1 (which introduced readers to both the central cast of heroes as well as their initial main villain Magneto).

And with its emphasis staying true to the origins, the television adaptation created by Larry Houston and Frank Squillace frequently utilized the rich history and source material of the beloved comic books but presented them visually in a style and with the same primary line-up of superheroes fans encountered on the news-stands in the early '90s comics drawn by artist Jim Lee.

The storyline of the series focuses primarily around the "outsider" status of its characters who long for peace in a world filled with intolerance. To this end, we first discover in our X-Men leader, the extraordinarily telepathic, charismatic, optimistic, wheelchair bound Professor Xavier who runs a school and idyllic, Utopian styled X-Mansion, taking in other individuals dubbed mutants by the outside world for possessing an "x-gene" that gives personalities an unexpected ability Xavier channels for the good of the planet.

Rounding out the main cast of characters, we're also introduced to personalities those only familiar with the films will no doubt recognize in the form of Scott a.k.a. Cyclops who can expel crimson beams of energy from his eyes and serves as the group's deputy leader much to the chagrin of his main romantic rival Wolverine whose sharply fine-tuned senses and genetic ability to produce deadly blades or "claws" have only made him more cynical, despite his unrequited romantic love for Cyclops' beautiful red-headed girlfriend Jean Grey. Grey, much like Professor Charles Xavier has a gift for telekinesis and telepathy.

Along with fan favorites like the rebellious Gambit who uses playing cards like throwing knives, the Shakespeare quoting, philosophical great blue Beast whose tender sensitivity and superior mind is overshadowed by his enormity, and the young fireworks spouting Jubilee whom the X-Men recruit in the first episode, we're also introduced with two regulars who-- at least in TV form-- begin to grate on the nerves a bit in their characterization with the inclusion of Rogue and Storm.

Voiced by Lenore Zahn, we become acquainted with the temperamental and folksy southern Rogue whose inability to share an intimate kiss or hug with a fellow human being for fear she'll kill them (as was the case with boys in the past growing up) comes with the trade-off of not just being able to fly but giving her the benefit of absorbing energies, the past, and special powers of anyone she touches.

While her likability fluctuates, the character who immediately makes you want to reach for the mute or fast-forward button is embodied by the unfortunately humorless and monotone prone Storm (voiced in '92 by Jona Morris until a change occurred that same year for the rest of that run by casting Alison Sealy-Smith) who whips up ferocious winds that give her the opportunity to fly and control the weather to help level the playing field.

Although they're dynamic in the comic book-- next to the poise of Jean Grey and scene-stealing Wolverine on the series-- sadly the characters don't stand much of a chance but Storm fares the worst in a characterization that just never manages to get us emotionally involved as opposed to Rogue who we empathize with from the start, understanding her pain of never being able to touch a fellow human being.

Despite the dud of Storm who was still one of the weaker parts of the ensemble when Halle Berry had the misfortune of trying to bring her to life in the films-- the episodes contained over the course of four discs contained in the two volumes that boast the "Night of the Sentinels" storyline in Volume 1 and "The Phoenix Saga" in Volume 2 are immediately addictive and make the perfect invite for a marathon viewing as numerous several episode arcs of highly compelling storylines fill out the early seasons captured in the set.

Additionally, we watch as the X-Men contend with the deadly shape-shifting Mystique whose ability to fool numerous characters in the group by impersonating the X-Men themselves leads to a more complicated dynamic when he takes advantage of Gambit's desire for Rogue and Wolverine's undying love for Jean as well as familiar comic book characters such as Magneto, Angel, Colosus, militant mutants, humans who want to manipulate the X-Men, strip them of their powers, or send them away, including that dynamite storyline with Senator Robert Kelly.

Additionally, the television writers due a wonderful job in fleshing out the back-stories of numerous characters including Wolverine and his brother Juggernaut as well as Alpha Flight-- the Canadian superhero group Wolverine was involved in before he crossed the border.

Infusing the series with some unexpected emotional depth that one doesn't typically associate with the comic book realm whether its in the love triangle central to the group in the form of Scott/Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Wolverine as Scott and Jean get married or when the Beast falls in love with a blind girl and finds that prejudice is sending him down a possibly perilous Beauty and the Beast scenario.

And true to the comics, the series also manages to serve as an allegory as it deals with issues of tolerance with thinly vieled storylines that serve to celebrate diversity (as the comics have been credited with dealing with Anti-Semitism in Holocaust and slavery styled structures and championing the rights of the disabled, LGBT communities, racism, and religious intolerance) in some episode plot-lines that deal openly with typically taboo social issues avoided in children's programming and Saturday morning animation.

Highly recommended-- the series has been preserved to its full-screen aspect ration with the additional of subtitles for the deaf and/or hearing impaired in English as well as providing French and Spanish audio and subtitle tracks-- and despite the fact that neither volume boasts a unique extra, the true special feature is in the source material itself with its bevy of multi-part episodes that you can you can watch in their entirety such as via the moving "Phoenix Saga" in all five parts back-to-back as opposed to impatiently waiting for the weekly installments.

Watchmen (2009)

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It's rare just to think of superheroes as people who simply play dress up like paper dolls donning capes or masks. For, instead of entertaining little girls, they decide to clean up the streets as efficiently and often as brutally as possible to begin where the thin blue line ends and go places the cops can't follow.

Although comic book (or graphic novel) mythology is filled with characters who were bit by radioactive spiders, born on distant planets, or find themselves gaining super powers when some sort of scientific or medical experiment goes wrong-- when you truly think about superheroes, you realize that essentially they're an existential breed altogether. After all, they are the ones who decide what's right and wrong for themselves, what they can live with, and what they're willing to do to make the world the way they'd like to see it.

While some refuse to kill and others exclusively assist the police, the self-proclaimed superheroes in director Zack Snyder's Watchmen all just donned the masks on their own and throughout the film, only one truly has super powers in the most classical sense-- namely via a radioactive accident gone horribly wrong. And because people come from all walks of life, we get quite the varied assortment in this extremely faithful adaptation of co-creator and illustrator Dave Gibbons' and writer Alan Moore's originally twelve part work published by DC Comics.

Simply put-- these aren't the superheroes championed in the previous generations who decorated themselves in the colors of the American flag and clearly understood right and wrong.

In the world of Watchmen-- we're shown a nightmarish dystopia of a New York City only a few minutes away from nuclear demise as the minute hand inches closer to the twelve of the doomsday clock. In a chaotic mid 1980s society where Richard Nixon has been president for five terms-- instead of traditional caped crusaders, we're presented with the remaining and/or second generation members of a group of crime fighters who began prior to the World War II era as the Minutemen. Following their initial fame, they've gone through several incarnations as they aided the government, halted the Vietnam war until eventually the world turned on the "Masks" and forced them into retirement.

While some ended up insane and/or dead-- just moments into the film, we're presented with the oldest original member, the Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) who is a bit of both. Morgan's Comedian is possibly only funny to the most twisted of souls. Unapologetic, vicious and coldblooded, his sociopath has been the go-to man to do our govermenment's dirty work (including being the true shooter of JFK) and personally not above attempting to rape his true love and shooting a pregnant girlfriend in the head.

Upon the film and graphic novel's opening, the Comedian is quickly forced out of a New York penthouse window and lands on the dark, slimy street, with a trickle of blood left on the yellow smiley face button he wore on his robe. Everything we need to know about the Comedian is given away pretty quickly as the film opens with him puffing on a phallic cigar and while it's hard to care about such a monster, his death nonetheless sets the chain of events that follow.

After we're given a brief overview of the history of the Watchmen during an extraordinary title sequence set to the music of Bob Dylan (just one of many phenomenal artists used throughout the soundtrack) that seems as though it was literally pulled right from the shiny pages of the original DC Comic, we encounter the remaining Watchmen including our film noir inspired psychopathic narrator Rorschach (a mind-bogglingly good Jackie Earle Haley).

Defying the bill that outlaws masked vigilantism, the unstable Rorschach-- convinced that Comedian's death is part of a larger conspiracy to kill off the superheroes-- checks in with all the rest. Dutifully keeping a journal of the events that reveals much more than his forever evolving ink blot filled mask does-- Haley's Rorschach is the most fully developed character of the lot and the one whose back-story not only hits us the hardest but helps provide a much clearer picture of the work.

As for the rest of the Watchmen-- only one has publicly revealed his identity in the form of the proclaimed "world's smartest man," and uber tycoon and entrepreneur Adrian Veidt (Matthew Goode). Veidt continues to work with the only one who truly possesses extraordinary powers-- the radioactive, forever nude, glowing blue man Dr. Manhattan (Billy Crudup)-- a former physicist who survived a freak accident that has now made him apathetic to people and obsessive about his scientific work in avoiding doomsday.

The superhero form of a shut-in whose very existence has scared nations into cooperating with the United States-- Manhattan's relationship with his younger, long-time live in girlfriend Laurie Jupiter (Malin Ackerman) is strained as he becomes much less focused on her and withdraws into his work.

Jupiter-- who had joined the Watchmen in order to please her glamorous pin-up mother Silk Spectre (Carla Gugino) as the second Spectre is still in close contact with her former colleague, Dan Dreiberg (Haley's Little Children co-star Patrick Wilson), in a role as dry as his name implies) as he now appears to be an aimless, impotent, over-the-hill boy scout who has succumbed to his retirement that consists of grabbing beers with his predecessor and reminiscing about the past.

Dan's crush on Laurie and her mutual flirtation seems obvious from the first time they're on-screen together but the film that celebrates the neuroses and deviance avoids the idea of a predictable courtship, reminding us that the only way they can be fully satisfied is to return once again to the masks in an exploitative, over-the-top sex scene that's only outdone by the gallons of blood and guts that spill out gleefully in this sadistic R rated comic come to life.

By squeezing in so many characters and a highly complex plot that takes a revisionist view of American history (yet one whose pessimism about the end of time seems sadly timely once again given the senseless wars and violence around the globe)-- Synder's production of Watchmen is a nearly three hour bloated mess that combines some truly spectacular visual tricks and musical cues and bogs it down with characters that never feel fully alive.

Far more interested in going for the same shock that Robert Rodriguez employed in adapting Frank Miller's Sin City in endless gore yet minus the ability Rodriguez had to tell a firmly cohesive story that would fully intrigue those who haven't read the graphic novel-- while it may be incredibly faithful to the work, the translation leaves us unmoved and uninspired by its unwillingness to engage us.

Dazzling with artistry as an attempt to keep us interested-- although more often that not via the wrong reasons with shocking outbursts of blood-- mostly I felt detached from a bulk of the film's characters who seemed less like the fully-formed psychologically challenging individuals promised and more like just shallow, one-dimensional cartoons come to life.

While of course, my reaction would probably have been different had I read the work beforehand, however, much like Catherine Hardwicke's tepid version of Twilight-- ultimately you have to separate the entities of the film from its source material and unless you've read the twelve part graphic novel, you're sure to feel like you're missing out on just what made the book so revered.

It has often been dubbed "the most celebrated graphic novel of all time" and one that was deemed so un-filmable that it took roughly fifteen years to get it made. Granted of course, Watchmen is sure to do great business opening tonight as both a regular theatrical feature and an IMAX experience on an unprecedented number of screens for an R-rated movie-- avid devotees will be able to fill in all the holes and under-developed characters based on their intricate knowledge of the comic.

However, the rest will probably do much better to pick up illustrator Gibbons' and author Moore's multiple-award winning graphic novel which became the first and only one to win not just a Hugo Award but also be included in "Time Magazine's 2005 list of 'the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present.'"

The despite the potential dollar signs dancing before Warner Brothers' eyes and Billy Crudup's indication that he's contractually obligated to appear in a sequel should one be made-- despite Morgan's jokes that the fans would kill 'em-- director Snyder said he wouldn't be involved in another work be it a prequel or sequel since it goes against their intention for the film.

Furthermore Gibbons explains that it was never conceived as a film in the first place with a set-in-stone twelve issue series being his and Moore's intention. And by ultimately presenting audiences with an all-flash for cash work that lacks the requisite emotional arc-- perhaps maybe they would've been better off if they listened in the first place to the original author Alan Moore who publically stated he didn't want to be involved in a film.

To put the psychopaths onscreen without delving into exactly what makes them tick seemed excruciatingly sadistic at times and makes an ultimate payoff on Mars in the third act seem far less Earth-shattering than perhaps the filmmakers had hoped. And while I'd never suggest a sequel-- maybe the best thing for the series other than perhaps leaving it alone on the page, would've been presenting it in installments since it will take more than a simple cheat sheet or pre-film chat with a devotee to give the movie the same impact for one who's never flipped through the pages of the twelve-part book.

Thus in the end, ultimately, it answers its question of "who's watching the Watchmen," by keeping us watching for nearly three hours and hoping that somehow it will all gel together or we'll feel connected in some way but unfortunately, we leave the way we went in-- not entirely certain just who's underneath those masks but even worse-- not sure we actually care to find out in the first place.