Weekly Cinemeh

Hello, and welcome back to Weekly Cinemeh! This week our theme was animated movies. We had a lot of choices of style, intended audiences, and genre so we went in a few directions. I don't really have a lot to say about this one in the intro so, to the list!

1: Justice League: Gods and Monsters
I love superheroes in general; I am not the biggest comic nerd, but I can hold my own. I loved this movie. It was a great alternate universe version of the Justice League and their villains. Basically, Supes is the son of Zod not Jor-El which makes him a little more cool with violence, Batman is a vampire created from a failed cancer cure, and Wonder Woman is a superpowered God/alien with a sweet ass sword and a troubled history. Together these three run the justice league, and are hated because they don't mind dropping someone who is a bad guy. Its an interesting take on the universe. I know there are a few more from this series coming out, and I will definitely watch them. I feel like DC saw Marvel going family friendlier with their movies and universe and said, hey lets go the other way. The animation was very similar to the animation of the Batman animated series I watched when I was a kid, so It felt nostalgic, and the background of the characters kept them pretty fresh. It was a good combination. The movie focuses a lot on establishing the series universes' backstory, so hopefully the other movies will expand the story a little more. I heartily recommend this movie to anyone who is a fan of super heroes, and wants something a little different.

Eshi: For the most part I'm not a huge DC fan, as is so often the case I think some of the villains are really cool, but typically only around the frayed edges of their canon. This was everything good there has ever been about DC. Superman is forceful, uncompromising and bears the confidence his ridiculous fucking powers ought to bring, all the while still being compassionate and goodhearted. Batman, voiced by the wonderful Michael C. Hall, is a very fucking welcome break from the standard borderline sociopathic Bruce Wayne. Wonder Woman manages to be a colossal bad ass without completely caving to the spectacularly disappointing flusterpation that WW so often suffers from. Gods and Monsters was superbly done and I encourage its viewing.

2: The Emperor's New Groove
This was a movie from 2000 about a selfish emperor of the Incans named Kuzco who gets betrayed by another official named Yzma when he fires her. She tries to poison him but instead turns him into a llama. Antics ensue. Its a fun movie, though not without its faults. There is a deus ex machina type edit later in the movie that they break the fourth wall to point out. as a movie meant for kids you are probably not meant to poke to many holes in it, so I will digress for now. I am not a fan, per se, of David Spade, but his douchiness helped a lot in this role. I have also pointed out how much I love John Goodman in the past, and he doesn't disappoint. Eartha Kitt and Patrick Warburton are also great. I would suggest going back and watching this movie if you haven't seen it in a while, it still holds up in some funny ways, though it is far from perfect.

Eshi: New Groove was a lot of fun, no matter how much I loathe the psychotic racist mouse god that spawned it. The cast was great, the jokes were cute and the story managed to avoid going completely saccharine. Patrick Warburton deserves more money. That is all.

3: Mardock Scramble: The First Compression
I have odd feelings about this movie. Its not bad, but it wasn't for me. The story revolves around a revived murder victim who is to be used as a witness in a trial. She gets a robot mouse that can turn into anything to help her defend herself from the men trying to kill her to keep her from testifying. The technology is cool, the world environment could be interesting, but the story gets a little out of hand, and some basic questions never get answered. The one that hit me the most was if the investigator has video of the guy committing the murder, and the mouse thing that can record everything sees the investigator for the defense threaten to straight up kill his client, yet nothing ended with anyone saying, "Oh, yeah. we've got evidence of some fucking hardcore intimidation, better tell the Judge". It could be something that comes up in the other two sequels, but I lost interest really quickly. I like anime for the most part but sometimes I have a hard time watching some of it. I think I prefer anime series more than the one shot movies because they can establish a coherent story a little better. I wouldn't recommend against it, but it just wasn't for me.

Eshi: The combat in this movie is pretty fucking metal. For the most part however, Brian is right. Most of the is movie, which is one of three, fails to completely inspire. Between the weirdly sexualized protagonist and the general why-the-fuck of the storyline I'd give this one a miss if I could do it all over again.