Has anyone seen this animated movie yet?
On one hand, it's a diverting piece of animation. On the other, it really sums up DC's attitude towards its characters and why I'm not behind the reboot and the lazy way comics are being modernised.
Also, this movie signals the move away from DC adapting well-known storylines like The Dark Knight Returns and focusing on the New 52 universe ... I assume this is Bruce Timm resigned as DC DVD Producer.
I want to see it, mainly because from what I understand, it's a Flash centered movie, but also because I never read the Flashpoint comic series.
They're not going completely over to the New 52 for their animated movies. They're also adapting the first arc of Morrison's Batman run, Batman and Son, which introduces Daimian! I can't wait for that one.
Haven't seen (or read) Flashpoint. Could prove interesting.
I just watched this. It's one of the best justice league animations I've seen. I'm not sure what the rating on the movie is but all should be warned that it is for mature audiences. It's a very violent movie. That said the blood and guts (and there is plenty of it) is well connected in the context of the story. I have a few gripes about the film that are fading the more that I think about the story. The biggest gripe is the character drawings. I didn't like any of them. Did Rob Lifeld animate this movie? Anyway, I gotta talk about some spoilers.
Spoiler
Batman is Thomas Wayne....and the Joker is Martha Wayne. How awesome is that?!?! That must have been one heck of a divorce case. I wish I had a chance to read the comics series based on this story arc.
Since when was Grifter part of the DCU? Are the rest of the WildCats in it too?
I kept wanting Superman to come in and save the day, but I had to remember that in that world there was no superman and after all it's a move about Flash. The writers did a great job of keeping fanboys of supes saving the day in suspense. Supes was so puny it was pathetic.
Humanity really didn't have its act together in this arc. There was no plan in place at all...that's pretty lazy of the writers. Humans always had a plan, especially Lex Luthor.
DC is using this movie to launch new 52 stories for DCUA movies. As you can see, the next film will be based on the first storyarc of new 52 Justice League. Titled Justice League: War.
I've heard that this movie really sort of nerfs Aquaman's awesomeness from the comic arc, which is a crying shame. Anyway, while I think the idea of an irate Aquaman conquering (or nearly conquering) the world is a fairly awesome basis for an alternative reality story, I can't say that this interests me too much. It's just such a dreary world they've created.
I hope that the new animated films will improve the JLA's characterizations a bit. The ridiculous posturing and clunky dialog from the book could really use some punching up. If they make some movies out of those stories, I wouldn't mind seeing a Throne of Atlantis adaptation. That would be fairly awesome, actually.
I hadn't heard Timm stepped down from the DCU Animated Movies. I've seen most of them and liked a few of them, but I don't think that role was the best use of Timm's talents, so I'll be happy to see what he does next on superhero media.
Think about what might have been if Timm had a free hand to make awesome things... :mellow:
Timm stepping down is just another example of modern DC shedding writers/creators who don't fit it's new direction :/ His replacement has gone on record saying he's not a fan of adapting stories, too.
Is it just me, or did this movie just have gore for the cool factor? Characters being hung and dismembered, children stabbed, a character blowing a hole through another characters head and peeking through it ... it was just trying too hard to be "mature" and having the opposite effect. Quite a bit of these violent scenes werent in the comics, either.
It's sort of disturbing that a lot of people are saying this is DCs best animated movie. The story is so-so, the anime-style character design poor with good animation, and some solid voice acting. But is this really better than Crisis on Two Earths, Under The Red Hood, The Dark Knight Returns, All Star Superman, etc? This is the direction people want DC Comics to take?
Quote from: Starman on July 25, 2013, 12:02:05 PM
Timm stepping down is just another example of modern DC shedding writers/creators who don't fit it's new direction :/ His replacement has gone on record saying he's not a fan of adapting stories, too.
Is it just me, or did this movie just have gore for the cool factor? Characters being hung and dismembered, children stabbed, a character blowing a hole through another characters head and peeking through it ... it was just trying too hard to be "mature" and having the opposite effect. Quite a bit of these violent scenes werent in the comics, either.
It's sort of disturbing that a lot of people are saying this is DCs best animated movie. The story is so-so, the anime-style character design poor with good animation, and some solid voice acting. But is this really better than Crisis on Two Earths, Under The Red Hood, The Dark Knight Returns, All Star Superman, etc? This is the direction people want DC Comics to take?
I think that in previous movies fans felt DC was pulling back a little to appeal to younger audiences. Clearly this new movie is for older audiences. Us older fanboys can enjoy this while the kids are sleeping and keep it from them until they're old enough to watch...it can go in our private adult stash of comic book goodness. for me it's not so much that the story is better but that I don't feel like anything was held back and that gives it a WOW factor that previous films were missing. The gore was there but this movie is clearly animated (judging from the style) by one of the best blood and guts animae companies around. I think it's done by the Ninja Scroll guys...heck I would even say Fist of the Northstar; I've long lost track of being able to tell animae companies by their animations.
Anyway, I finished this movie trying to piece together why Supes didn't save the day...why the day really wasn't saved at all. Previous movies had me wondering about stuff that the story held back (ie not enough collateral damage).
While I'm typing again...Just how strong is Aquaman?
Spoiler
He survived an attack from Cyborg, Flash, Grifter, and others then beat them down...but WW kills him with a few swipes of her blade
Thalaw, he's pretty tough and pretty strong. Here is my post that includes some of his strength and durability feats, as well as much more:
http://freedomreborn.net/forums/index.php?topic=50451.msg711921#msg711921
In terms of pure toughness, he ranks below Wonder Woman, but not by a whole lot, and he's arguably faster. He's bullet-resistant or bullet-proof, depending on the incarnation, and he's one of the toughest MINDED of the League, meaning he's usually able to push himself to ridiculous physical feats by pure willpower.
Aquaman has clearly been working out for this films, as you can tell by his mass shoulders and traps yet tiny head and feet. Actually, it looks like he's been hitting the Atlantean juice.
Has this been released yet?
I got a DVD screener (I work for a magazine), but the movie has been floating around online for the past few weeks. The Blu Ray comes out in a couple of days.
Quote from: captainawesome on July 26, 2013, 02:00:57 AM
Has this been released yet?
I was going to ask the same thing, I thought it didn't come out until Tuesday.
Maybe it hasn't been released in the US yet. I got it in China...I'm not sure where the source is though.
Quote from: Starman on July 26, 2013, 02:54:18 AM
but the movie has been floating around online for the past few weeks.
Man, if Nintendo's Masahiro Sakurai was in charge of this project, he might just cancel the official release altogether!
:lol: ;)
Just watched this and it was one of the best animated superhero movies I've ever seen, totally loved it!
My better half just surprised me with this and I just finished watching this, WOW...I was captivated from the start to the finish.
Really? I just watched it myself, and as someone who really doesn't remember flashpoint's plot at all(I barely followed it because I was just waiting for the n52), I found it to be choppy, poorly animated, and it left me with too many questions left unanswered about how this could have happened.
Spoiler
I can buy that a ton of stuff happened due to a butterfly effect from Barry's changes to the timeline, specifically the absence of the flash in this universe (I remember a similar story in Wally's time as the Flash) but too much of what happened in this story happened BEFORE her death, and every single thing that happened seemed to go out of its way to make the world a horrible place. Too many of the events seemed so wildly out of character that I do not and never did buy the idea that all this resulted from a single change to the timeline... the only hero in this revised world that acted in character was bloody Superman, and he said maybe 3 words the entire film. Aquaman would NEVER betray Mera like that, Wonder Woman is too honorable to LET him betray Mera like that(not to mention the fact that, as the spirit of TRUTH, she wouldn't have a secret affair regardless), Thomas Wayne was never the Punisher waiting to happen, Black Manta would never work with Aquaman, Cyborg isn't that old (even in the n52 he's college age at best), and why is Barry so happy that he retained his memory when, aside from his mom being alive, his life must have been cruddy (especially since I can't imagine the economy being any good with europe SINKING INTO THE OCEAN)
Flashpoint presents us with a pretty cool elseworlds, with ideas and concepts that would be really interesting... except that it's not presented as an elseworlds, it's presented as what would happen if one thing changed. The thing about the Wally story I mentioned is that, in that scenario, the story laid out how the dominos fell. Flash wasn't there in the original JLA, so things went badly, and because KF wasn't with the titans Mr Twister killed them all, etc. But with Flashpoint, instead of making events stem out of Barry's change specificly, we get a ton of changes with no explanation other than "oh, you made a time boom, which is totally like a sonic boom even though that makes no sense when you actually have any knowledge whatsoever as to how a sonic boom is freaking caused, nor has anything like this happened the last 50,000 times barry has traveled in time.
Wait, wait, wait:
Spoiler
It turns on Aquaman having an affair with WW? He cheats on Mera? That's one of the most asinine plots I've ever heard! That utterly violates the core of both characters!
Tbh I always thought that
Spoiler
Flash messing with the timeline created twisted versions of the DCU characters. For example Aquaman and Thomas Wayne are different personalities all together in this timeline, they are not just products of what happened to them.
Quote from: BentonGrey on August 05, 2013, 02:11:45 PM
Wait, wait, wait:
Spoiler
It turns on Aquaman having an affair with WW? He cheats on Mera? That's one of the most asinine plots I've ever heard! That utterly violates the core of both characters!
Spoiler
Basically, yeah. It's very brief, but their explanation for how the war started is that Mera catches WW and Arthur doing it, gets upset, tries to kill WW, and WW kills her in self defense. And Arthur is SO upset by the fact that WW killed his wife (who, again, he was cheating on) that Atlantis and Themiscrya go to war.
And no, I don't care if it was handled slightly different in the comics. That is how it was presented IN THIS FILM.
Quote from: BentonGrey on August 05, 2013, 02:11:45 PM
Wait, wait, wait:
Spoiler
It turns on Aquaman having an affair with WW? He cheats on Mera? That's one of the most asinine plots I've ever heard! That utterly violates the core of both characters!
Spoiler
Doesn't this movie take place in a parallel universe? The core of both characters you speak of only exists in the universe you are familiar with.
Quote from: captmorgan72 on August 05, 2013, 07:06:04 PM
Quote from: BentonGrey on August 05, 2013, 02:11:45 PM
Wait, wait, wait:
Spoiler
It turns on Aquaman having an affair with WW? He cheats on Mera? That's one of the most asinine plots I've ever heard! That utterly violates the core of both characters!
Spoiler
Doesn't this movie take place in a parallel universe? The core of both characters you speak of only exists in the universe you are familiar with.
It happens in our universe which was altered, but other than the events seems that characters were altered too. They dont act like their regular selves would in same situation. Don't remember the last part being explicitly explained in comics, that's just how i understood the whole thing.
therein lies my major problem with the story. In order for the story to work the way it is presented to us, all the changes must be a result of Barry's actions. It has to be his fault that all this happened in order for his journey to have any meaning. But SO MUCH changes that the new world doesn't even feel similar to the original one, and there is no way all that could result from one change.
This story COULD work as an elseworlds, but without more explanation than "because time booms are totally a thing" it completely fails as an altered timeline story. I compare this to Brave New World (Justice Lords) where the JL takes over the world because flash is killed. The change to the timeline is clearly explained, the results make sense given the stories context, and none of the "evil" characters felt out of character.
Quote from: Cyber Burn on August 02, 2013, 05:02:35 AM
My better half just surprised me with this and I just finished watching this, WOW...I was captivated from the start to the finish.
Just for the record, by no means am I stating that this is the "Best" animated movie that DC has ever released, far from it in fact. However, I am stating that because the characters were so different than the norm, it really drew me in. The art and voice acting weren't perfect, but I did enjoy both. As far as the story goes, I went into this being completely unfamiliar with the comic version, so for me, it was something new and different.