Batman vs Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2019)

Batman vs. TMNT (2019)

Dir. Jake Castorena

I was a huge fan of the Turtles as a teenager, but it didn't carry through to adulthood like my love of Batman did. I've thought of revisiting the first ever TMNT comicbook a few times in the past decade, but that hasn't happened yet. Maybe someday it will.

It might seem like an odd pairing, but a connection is made between the two franchises, so it'll be helpful to have a level of familiarity with both. A basic knowledge of the Turtles' origin will suffice, but you'll need significantly more awareness of Batman's rogues gallery to get the most from it.

The world itself is a respectful merger of the two. It's set in Gotham, so favours that style, particularity during rooftop scenes, but the street level action has a Turtley NY vibe.

Constantine: The House of Mystery (2022)

DC Showcase Animated Shorts:

Constantine: The House of Mystery (2022)

Dir. Matt Peters

C: THoM is a kind of epilogue to the Justice League Dark: Apokolips War (2020) movie, showing what happened to John Constantine after he made his fateful decision therein. [1]

He's now in the House of Mystery and, as is normal for the magic user, his luck is mostly bad. But he's not alone. Many of his friends are there, too. That's good, right? Right?

The story is a 'time reset' scenario, wherein we witness the same starting event more than once, but it moves at a speedy pace and there's a welcome level of dark humour throughout that helps it not feel repetitive.

If he's to escape the cycle, he'll need to use his cunning and his cynicism yet again.

Matt Ryan reprises the role. The honed level of wry wit in his portrayal works better for me in animation than it did in live action.

Batman: Soul of the Dragon (2021)

Batman: Soul of the Dragon (2021)

Dir. Sam Liu

It would be natural to assume that Soul of the Dragon is an actual Batman story, seeing as how it's got his name in the title and he's on the cover art, but it's more accurately a story that just happens to feature Batman a few times throughout.

It's more of a Bruce Wayne (David Giuntoli) story, showing via flashback the time he spent in the Himalayas learning martial arts, honing skills that his Batman persona relies on in the modern era.

At the same time, training under the same sensei (James Hong), are five other students, all of whom are lesser-known DC characters, namely Richard Dragon (Mark Dacascos), Ben Turner (Michael Jai White), Shiva (Kelly Hu), Jade Nguyen (Jamie Chung), and Rip Jagger (Chris Cox).

You can see now why they put Batman in the title. The others may be familiar to long-time comic fans, but for many movie-only fans they may be total unknowns, except for maybe Shiva.

Superman: The Last Son of Krypton (1996)

Superman: The Last Son of Krypton (1996)

Dirs. Dan Riba / Scott Jeralds + Curt Geda / Bruce Timm + Dan Riba

The Last Son of Krypton — not an adaptation of Superman: Last Son of Krypton, which is a 1978 novel by Elliot S. Maggin — is episodes 01-03 of Superman The Animated Series merged together into a one-hour TV Movie. The join could've been better, but the pacing is pretty good.

It's the now-familiar origin story of Krypton's finest son, but familiarity doesn't dull it. In fact, the scenes on the doomed planet are the best part. So too is the voice work; the Earth cast are good, too, but not as impressive as Krypton's.

Clark / Superman's (Tim Daly) adolescence feels a little hurried, but the key players do each get some time in the spotlight. So too does the main villain of the series proper, Superman's nemesis, the bald billionaire Lex Luthor (Clancy Brown).

Being sold as a pick-up-and-watch movie makes the open ending feel a little awkward, so you might want to get TAS afterwards for the rest.

Batman: The Long Halloween (2021)

Batman: The Long Halloween (2021)

Dir. Chris Palmer

The 'Deluxe Edition' of TLH comprises the third and fourth instalments of DC's stupidly named Tomorrowverse continuity. Originally released in two separate parts, the total combined running time is 2:48:18. [1]

That's pretty long as it is, but it felt even longer to me because the pacing is bad, the story is a bit of a mess, and the animation is in the same ugly style as previous instalments.

It's based on a 1996-97 thirteen-issue limited series written by Jeph Loeb and illustrated by Tim Sale, but there are many changes, courtesy of Tim Sheridan, who gets primary writing credit, for some reason. [2]

The original story isn't perfect, either, but the pairing of Loeb and Sale was something special, with Loeb's taut situations brought to life wonderfully by Sale's fluid, dynamic linework and super-dramatic angles. The animation has none of that power. It's bland and has the 'cardboard cut out' feel that I alluded to in a previous review. (E.g., note the bottom of Batman's cape as he walks toward camera - just awful!)

Justice Society: World War II (2021)

Justice Society: World War II (2021)

Dir. Jeff Wamester

An animated tale that's set mostly during WW II, unsurprisingly. In addition to forcibly occupying as much of Europe as they can, Hitler's Nazi forces also hunt for magical items that could sway the tide of war in their favour; e.g., things like the Lance of Longinus, or the Ark of the Covenant, etc. But America send a group of skilled and/or superpowered US citizens under the radar to prevent that from happening.

[If they thought they could feasibly get away with it, I sincerely believe that the US military would want the rest of the world to think that they won that war all by themselves.]

Like the superior JL: The Flashpoint Paradox (2013) movie, the events in JS:WWII occur because of Barry Allen / Flash's unique abilities.

Superman: Man of Tomorrow (2020)

Superman: Man of Tomorrow (2020)

Dir. Chris Palmer

As soon as the DCAMU was ended, the Tomorrowverse continuity was launched. The Adam Strange DC Showcase short (on the JLD: Apokolips War disc) is its beginning, but the first feature-length movie was the aptly named Superman: Man of Tomorrow (2020).

It explores the Kryptonian's early years, firstly as a youth in Smallville and then as a twenty-something adult in Metropolis working as an intern at the Daily Planet newspaper. The latter period is a modern 'smartphone' era. In ways that are both subtle and not, we see his pain at feeling alien and misunderstood.

Things thereafter descend into mostly mediocrity and blandness, with some very uninspired directing choices. It was the director's first feature film, so some allowances must be made, but even with those in place some scenes — such as the one wherein a costumed Supes first meets Lex Luthor — are amateurish at best. I don't mean that to sound unkind; it's simply an opinion.