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Loonatics Unleashed (2005)
Poor Chuck
"Well Chuck Jones is dead, lets soil his characters by adding cheap explosions, an American drawn anime knock off style, and give them superpowers". "but sir?, don't we all ready have several shows in the works that are already like this? much less don't dump all over their original creators dreams". "yes! and those shows make us a bunch of cash, and we need more!". "but won't every man women and child, who grew up with these time less characters, be annoyed?". "hay you're right! set it in the future, make them all descendent's of the original characters, and change all the names slightly...but not too much though, we still need to be able to milk the success of the classics".
Well that's the only reason I can think of why this even exists. If you look past the horrible desecration of our beloved Looney Toons, then it looks like an OK show. But then there is already the teen titan's, which is the same bloody thing. All the characters are dressed like batman, they drive around in some sort of ship fighting super villains, they have superpowers, only difference is they sort of talk like the Looney tunes and have similar names and character traits.
This kind of thing falls into the "it's so ridiculous it's good" kind of category. Think of the Super Mario brother's movie, and Batman and Robin. If you want to laugh for all the wrong reasons, check this out. If you are of the younger generation (what this thing is actually intended for), and can look pass the greedy executives shamelessness, then run with it and enjoy.
If you enjoy this cartoon I don't have a problem with you, it's the people who calculated this thing together that I am mad at. You know how they say piracy is like stealing a car; this show is like grave robbing. They might as well of dug up all the people involved with the original cartoon, shoved them on a display, dressed them up in
err pirate costumes, and charged money. If this show wasn't using characters (ones that didn't resemble the Looney Toons in anyway whatsoever) that have already made the studios millions, then this would be fine. But no! For shame Warner brothers, for shame.
If I saw this thing as a 30 second gag on an episode of the Simpson's or Family Guy, I would love it. As it is I just can't believe this was ever made. I would bet anyone that 80% of the people who work on this show hate it. But whatever it doesn't really matter, in 10 years this show will have been forgotten, while the originals will live on forever
or at least until the world ends.
"Coming 2008, Snoopy and the peanut gang are back, and now they have freaking lasers and can turn invisible! Can Charley Brown defeat the evil alien warlord Zapar? Tune in and see."
Superman Returns (2006)
Silentman *SPOILERS*
After years of Burton, Peters, and other legal mumble jumble, we have a new superman movie.
I've been looking forward to this movie for a long time now. Having seen the original Chris Reeves superman movie, watched the animated cartoon, and followed Smallville as well as various comic adventures I was eagerly awaiting a kick ass action movie, with thought provoking dialogue, and an overall decent story. Well in the end it only got 1 out of 3.
A quick run down of the movie.
Superman comes back after being away for 6 odd years. He crashes in Smallville next to his old barn where his parents made him sleep because they wouldn't let him in the house. We briefly meet his elderly mother who has such a short appearance her character won't mean anything to you unless you've seen any other superman sources.
We get a quick recap of Clark as a kid, discovering his powers... Then Superman returns to Metropolis (AKA New York), we see his life as Clark for a bit, he meets up with some old friends, all the time not saying very much and being the strong silent type.
Lex appears and does some stuff Superman saves Lois from plain blowing up / crashing thing. Lois meets up with Clark and is utterly stupid because she fails to not see that Clark and Superman have returned at the same time.
Lex does more stuff with pointless close ups of the guy from Van wilder (this happens a lot for some reason) Superman goes on some random saving people montage Lex does more stuff Clark meets up with Cyclops and Lois's kid... There is a love story type thing between superman and Lois that goes no where.
...eventually the characters think to go see what Lex is up to even though there has been no interest in him before now.
Lex gets a hold of Lois and her annoying little kid Superman saves them but gets attacked by Lex who sums up his motivation in one sentence.
Superman saves the day, movie drags on for about 10 or so minutes more.
...oh and the kid is Superman's kid and has powers sort of...even though nothing is really made of this making it all pretty pointless. Or a big twist depending on your view point.
After all the years you'd think they could have come up with a good story with strong well involved characters with decent dialogue. The film relies too much on the old movies to really stand on its own, and those movies were cheesy in the first place.
There were good things about this movie; Kevin Spacey did a good Lex, Brandon Routh played a good Superman despite having so little dialogue, Kate Bosworth
well she was OK. James Marsden had a pretty big role which explains why his appearance was so short in Xmen. Considering he had more of a character then the lead he played it very well, shame he couldn't play up his hero role more with Cyclops, but alas wasn't meant to be.
The rest of the cast popped in and out of the movie, making no real impact, and are not interesting characters unless you have seen the old movies.
As a sequel to the old films its OK, the script is lacklustre, sort of like the old ones, but the special effects and settings are stunning. The character of Lex Lutor is entertaining to watch and is a more accurate portrayal from the comics then the previous movies, and what you see of Superman is great
so great you wish he got way more screen time.
The biggest problem is Superman himself; he has no real burdens, no flaws, and no problems. Sure his Love has moved on, his arch nemesis is on the loose, BUT THAT'S IT. Superman/Clark spends most of the movie as a 2D card board cut-out with nothing to help you understand the character. When there is a problem he shows up and silently saves the day and buggers off again, with the dam theme music playing every bloody moment.
Man: I say I can't open this can of tuna Woman: have you tried using a can opener (Superman flies in with the theme playing; he picks up the can opens it and hands it back to the Man) Man: thanks Superman Superman: all in a days work! (He flies of with the theme playing even louder) Even some dialogue between him a Lex would have been nice. OK so we're supposed to no what he is thinking from that look on his face. I wish there was a scene where it showed superman coping with is problems. He instead kind of shrugs it off. So he learns he is not a human being and should just run around looking after us. Hell he doesn't even find a place to live in the whole freaking movie. Maybe I mist something important and need to re watch the film.
Superman and Lex seem to take back stage to Lois and her dreary life. This is more like "The Adventures of Lois, Superkid and Cyclopes" featuring Superman and Lex Luthor.
If you have never seen the original superman movies you'd be best seeing them first as you are going to be lost through the whole movie. It doesn't matter if you have seen other superman cannons; you have to see the old movies. I tried watching this as a stand alone film and it doesn't work. This is mainly because all the character motivation is in those films and you are supposed to remember it.
Superman Returns had its good points, but at the end of the day the story is the most important thing, and it lacked important elements to make you care about what is going on and what is happening to the characters.
6/10