DC Universe

I need my Marvel fix!  Okay, so Far From Home came out 7/2/19.  Black Widow doesn’t come out until 5/1/2020.  That’s just ten months, but it feels like ages.  Realistically, this is not the longest break they’ve had.  Iron Man 2 came out nearly two years after The Incredible Hulk, and Iron Man 3  came out almost a year after The Avengers… still, arguably the MCU wasn’t in full swing yet at the time.  This break just feels longer because I’m used to a new Marvel movie every five or six months now.

Still, this was a good time for a break, and the future does look pretty saturated.  To be honest, I’m more interested in some of the upcoming TV shows than the next three movies.  Specifically, WandaVision, Loki, and What If.  But those are pretty far off.

In the meantime, I’m catching up on some DC.  I’ve always preferred DC’s characters over Marvel’s, mostly because I got into them at an early age.  Those characters just mean more to me.  It really bugs me that DC has been in such a slump lately.  Yes, I loved the Wonder Woman and Aquaman movies, but they still made me say, “Wow, that’s almost as good as a Marvel movie.”  I mean, imagine if Pepsi’s new slogan was, “Pepsi: Almost as Good as Coke.”  It’s not a flattering look.

The big difference IMO: Marvel optimizes, DC reinvents.  The MCU takes the most iconic versions of their heroes, makes little changes like modernizing their costumes so they look less like cosplay, and cleans up the details that were too convoluted or made them less cinematic.  The current DC trend is to reimagine their characters – which is great for standalone movies like Joker (which I still need to see), but is terrible for building a shared universe. 

The DCEU feels like a set of Elseworlds graphic novels.  What if Superman wasn’t a boy scout?  What if Batman was shortsighted and reactionary?  What if Ares was a foppish gentleman?  What if Aquaman was a hunky dreamboat?  What if the Flash dressed like a robot?  Look, I love Elseworlds.  They’re some of my favorite comics to read.  But for movies, these reimaginings only work as unconnected, one-off films.

We cancelled our cable last year, and we’ve been experimenting with different streaming services.  We currently have Amazon Prime, Netflix, CBS All Access, Disney+, and DC Universe.  If you’re on the fence about DC Universe, it’s… well, it depends on how much you love DC.  It’s like this… Netflix has thousands and thousands of movies and TV shows, but I’m only interested in about fifteen of them.  DC Universe has, like, twenty movies and TV shows, but I’m still interested in about fifteen of them.  I exaggerate, but the channel really is light on content. 

But that wouldn’t bother me if, at the very least, they’d make sure they had everything DC.  They’re still missing a ton of DC movies.  I understand not having the newest releases – gotta give people time to buy those DVDs before you let them stream ‘em – but even a lot of the older DC films are conspicuously absent.  Everything just looks so sparse – you go into the movie section, and you see about fifteen movies.  You go into the TV section, you see about fifteen shows.  The only thing really big is the Animated Shorts section.  Maybe DC just isn’t big enough to warrant a channel.  Maybe Warner Bros should have started a streaming channel instead, and let DC be a subset of the programming, like Disney+ does with Marvel. 

But the content that’s there is pretty cool.  Right now we’re watching Doom Patrol, which is really good.  The DC Animated Universe from the 90s-2000s is also a welcome addition to our household, even though we already own the Justice League series on DVD.  We just watched the first episode of Harley Quinn, and it was very funny, but too adult for my wife’s tastes.  I’ll have to find time to watch it without her. 

We haven’t tried Titans yet, but it’s on our list.   And we’ll want to rewatch the first two seasons of Young Justice to prep us for season three.  So yeah, there’s a ton of content for us.  But still… it just doesn’t feel like a good value.  It’s about the same price as Disney+, but only has about a quarter of the content.  And I keep finding myself doing the math – if I were to just go ahead and buy all the DC content I want on Blu-Ray, how much would that cost versus a year of DC Universe?  But the truth is, it is a pretty good value if you’re a DC fan… just not nearly as good a deal as the Marvel fans are getting with Disney+.  YMMV.

Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Something Something

Birds of Prey was surprisingly fun.  I had low hopes because the trailers were just awful.  But they really are just bad trailers, almost like the studio is trying to sabotage the movie.  Don't fall for it.  And don't fall for the huge campaign against this movie being perpetuated by sexist dudebros on Twitter.

First things first - Get over the whole "they don't look like they do in the comics" bullshit.  Movies have a history of changing things up.  When Batman came out in 1989, they gave him a new black costume to make him darker and more cinematic.  The 2000 X-Men movie didn't even attempt to dress them like their comic book versions.  The absolute best version of the Joker - from 2008's The Dark Knight - is almost nothing like the comics version.  

Also, recognize that BoP is basically an origin movie.  Just because these characters don't look like their comic equivalents now, doesn't mean they won't later.

Second thing - Those of you who are worried that the movie looks too "woke" - as in, has a SJW bias - it really doesn't.  Yes, the main characters are all women, and yes, most of the males in the movie are psychopaths, and yes, there is an overall theme of female independence... but beyond that, it really doesn't hit you over the head with any sort of message or agenda.  Hell, Deadpool had a stronger "treat women like people" message than BoP does.

And speaking of Deadpool, the writing is similar.  Harley makes a lot of fourth wall jokes, and the movie doesn't take itself too seriously.  I didn't think it was quite as violent as Deadpool, but it does earn its R rating.

The characters:
Harley Quinn - Despite the Birds of Prey getting top billing, it's Harley's movie.  If you liked her from Suicide Squad, you'll like this movie.  Her best moments are when she reminds you she was once a psychiatrist, and lapses into psychobabble until she's distracted by something shiny.

Black Canary - She really didn't have much to do with her comic book counterpart, but she was still a solid character.  I felt like it didn't give her enough background to explain why she was such a good fighter.  A lot of people complained about them hiring an African American actress.  To me, that's like complaining they cast 6'2" Hugh Jackman to play a much shorter X-Man.  If they nail the role, skin tone is a tiny quibble.  And she did fine.

Huntress - She was my favorite character in the movie, but she doesn't get much screentime.  Her personality didn't seem very fleshed out, but I think that's because when she's not living for revenge, even she doesn't know who she is.  I saw touches of Starlord - the whole "Haven't you heard of me" shtick from the first GotG.  But other times, she almost feels like she didn't have any scripted lines.  Still, I liked her.

Renee Montoya - I didn't really like her.  This version of Montoya was disillusioned and fed up with the system, and she was unnecessarily foul-mouthed and irrationally unprofessional.  There was a great joke in there about how cops do their best work after they've been ordered to abandon the case and put on suspension, but this Montoya is so disrespectful to her coworkers that I'm surprised she's lasted this long on the force.

Cassandra Cain - She's a great character, but I wish they'd named her something else.  She has nothing to do with the comic book character of the same name.  This wouldn't bother me, except Cassie was a great Batgirl in the comics, and this closes the door on that version of Batgirl getting a movie any time soon.

Black Mask - Ewan MacGregor isn't bad, but he feels a little miscast.  My wife suggested Sam Rockwell might have been better for that role, and I see her point.  Black Mask doesn't really remind me of his comic book version here, but I never thought he was that interesting in the comics anyway.

The fighting choreography is fantastic.  I've heard that the fight scenes were done by the same person who did The Transporter and John Wick.  It really shows.  Great use of improvised weapons and slow-mo shots.  Unfortunately, sometimes you could spot the victim of a move getting into position to take the blow, or helping the attacker throw them.  That's an editing problem.  But the fight scenes are worth the price of admission.

I didn't like the whole 70's lounge aesthetic.  It reminded me of Quentin Tarantino and why I hate his movies.  But it wasn't so bad as to affect my overall enjoyment.

When they handed this movie to Margot Robbie, she got to choose between this and Gotham City Sirens, which would be about the trio of Harley, Catwoman, and Ivy.  Robbie chose Birds of Prey because she wanted to give the spotlight to some lesser-known characters.  But if BoP does well, Robbie will probably get to proceed with the Sirens movie.  I really want that to happen, but so far BoP isn't doing well.  So if you're reading this, please go see BoP.

I'm not going to say Birds of Prey was a masterpiece - it's just a fun afternoon, and nothing I need to see a second time.  But it's much better than the trailers make it out to be.