Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox Review

I love the DC animated universe stuff. Taking great books and making pretty good animated movies based on it. From what I read, they stay as close as they can to the source material but I'm not that big into all the comics. My problem is I can't just start in the middle of a story, I like to see the beginning and grow with it. Sure I could buy the trades and get caught up but I'm not made of money, so I just haven't done that yet. With the cartoons, I could get the basic back story, get to know the hero, who they are, who their villains are, and get an idea of what I should expect. There, now you know my history with the DC Universe. I watched the 90's Batman and Superman Animated Series, and the Justice League/Unlimited that followed. With that, I feel I know the characters well enough. Crucify me if you want, fanboys, but I don't have all the time in the world to read everything I missed.

 You think Flashpoint Bats reads the Red Eye?

Flash is one of my favorite DC Heroes, after Bats and Supes of course. So when I saw the trailer for this, I was excited. But to tell you how little I knew of the Flash's books, I thought this was going to be the reverse origin story. The one were Flash goes back in time and becomes the bolt of lighting that turned Berry Allen into the Flash in the first place. I was wrong, this was much better. Showing alternate realities changed by one event. Showing what would happen if Berry Allen never became Flash, if Bruce Wayne was shot and Thomas Wayne lived, if Superman crash landed in Metropolis and not Smallville, if the Hal Jordan never got the power ring, and so on. A wonderful "what if" story.

"I should have my own movie."

The acting is phenomenal in this, but I didn't recognize anyone. Kevin Conroy as Batman, sure. As well as Nathan Fillion was Green Lantern but he was barely in this. Oh and like one line from Ron Perlman as Deathstroke. Other then them, no one else popped out at me, and looking at the IMDB didn't reveal much else either. That takes nothing away from this film, it is still a ton of fun and awesome to see what hero or villain is gonna show up next. So if you want a fun action packed film with a little mystery and a different take on your favorite heroes, check this one out!

Movie Of The Week: Serenity

If you don't know what Firefly is yet, do yourself a favor and go watch all of it on Netflix right now. It is one of the best shows ever. Recently I got the itch to watch it all over again, for the 4th or 5th time now. Fourteen episodes of awesome. And this movie is the perfect end-cap to the whole thing. While not every question gets answers, it ties a nice bow on this great show turned cult favorite that got cut down way to early.

What makes Firefly/Serenity so great? Several things but mainly the great characters played by amazing actors. The future being not as shiny as Star Trek, but not as fantastical as Star Wars, or as boring as Battlestar Galactica (personal opinion on that one) and it has a wonderful sense of humor. It is also a little more realistic in its dealings of physics of space. This movie does work as a standalone, hell I saw this before I even heard of Firefly and thought it was amazing. To find out there was more, I was ecstatic. Watching it after watching all of the show is definitely more impactful with the events that transpire in the film. The movie is definitely in the same vain as the show, you can't tell the difference from the two (aside from better effects). Not like going from Star Trek The Next Generation to any of its movies, which look and feel tonally different. It helps that the main writer was still the one to write the movie, as well as direct it.

So if you have 12 hours to kill, or if you ever want to feel complete in your life, I recommend marathoning all of Firefly and Serenity. You won't be disappointed.