By now, most of you are probably aware of all the big superhero movies coming out this summer. However, there are a few other projects that haven’t gotten quite as much attention that I’m interested in.
Justice League: New Frontier was released recently, and since I was a huge fan of the original comic, I bought it and watched it on the first day. I’d definitely recommend it to Justice League fans in general, and it manages to keep that great retro style the comic was done in. There’s some improvements in the story overall that make the “big bad” not come quite as much out of nowhere as what happens in the comic. However, the whole thing feels rushed, much like the first in the series, Superman: Doomsday. Maybe DC will start giving these direct to DVD features a little longer running time to stretch out.
On the DVD was a trailer for Batman: Gotham Knight, the next direct to DVD feature. This, in a nutshell, is Batman meets Animatrix. In fact, it features a number of creators that worked on various Animatrix segments. Several Batman tales, written by some great comic writers, animated Japanese anime style. What could be better? Oh yes, Kevin Conroy is returning to voice Batman. It officially changed from “check out” to “must buy” for me.
Finally, not a superhero movie per se but one based on comics is the film adaptation of Scott Pilgrim. I recommend this series not just to comic fans, but video game fans (as the characters live in a video game-esque reality, where people really do level up) and fans of twenty-something comedy/dramas. But then, some more information came out recently: Micheal Cera is set to star in the lead role (of whom I’ve been a big fan since Arrested Development) and Edgar Wright of Shaun of the Dead/Hot Fuzz fame is set to direct. Yet another team I can get behind.
So while they may not have the advertising dollars of some of the blockbusters, these are all movies I recommend seeing.
So, after comic books have had their teat sucked dry by the ever creative movie industry, what next?
I would hardly criticize the movie industry for being uncreative in reference to the comic book industry since there are legions of terrible comics out there that are just re-hashes or spin-offs of what used to be a good idea.
Besides, there have been quite a few excellent comic book movies, and I wouldn’t say there are any more comic-based movies coming out then there are novel-based, or movie-remakes. So why single out the comic-based ones?