Flixd: six

I think I dropped a reference a couple posts ago that my watching in June wasn’t going to really interest anyone. That is probably false. It will interest exactly two of you. Maybe.

That said, let me state up front that if you have no interest in comic books or science fiction or animation in general, you can just skip this one and wait for my next Flixd post. That one will drop in early September and feature the regular flicks and chick flicks you have come to expect in this space.

As always, just thoughts and heads. Read on nerds.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Vol. 1 & 2
So, I never caught many of these shorts on [adult swim] when they were running. Not an easy task even for a DVR unless you set it up to record extra bits around the ends. Anyway, I figured I’d finally get the full Clone Wars experience by starting with these and moving on to the movie and finally the new, regular television series. On the whole, these weren’t bad, but imagine it would have sucked to watch them in bits and pieces as they originally ran. The animation was okay, maybe better than the computer animation used for the movie and new series, but both are kinda funky. The stories themselves were pretty good, although I don’t really remember much of them other than the over-the-top Mace Windu one. Rock ’em, Sock ’em Jedi.

Vol. 1: [ob1 3] Vol. 2: [ob1 3]

Star Wars: The Clone Wars
When this dropped in the theaters, I figured it was targeted for kids only. It had that look and stupid Lucas humor to it. However, given that the shorts above ran on [adult swim] along with the new regular series on both the regular Cartoon Network and [adult swim], I figured maybe there was something there for adults too. Well, I guess for the nerd adults. There is definitely that stupid humor for kids, but there is no shortage of death. Sure, they are clones, which might as well be robots, but a lot of it nonetheless. Basically, if you are a Star Wars fan, go ahead and watch this. I think there was less silliness here than the prequel trilogy.
[ob1 3]

Ultimate Avengers: The Movie
Having watched a few Marvel animated movies, I think they have some catching up to do with their DC counterparts with the style. That said, the story in this one and the follow-up below were pretty damn good. The story here is pretty much lifted from the Ultimates comic book series with some slight adjustments. Overall, they kept a lot of the adult stuff and it was appreciated. Now, Pym wasn’t smacking around Janet, but they did still deal with the difficult marriage. More adult type language here as well as fight scenes. I suppose on par with Wonder Woman or the Justice League flicks.
[ob1 3]

Ultimate Avengers 2
I felt like this one stumbled a bit from the first, but it was passable. With introductions out of the way from the first flick, this one focused more on the alien stuff, although it had a different spin than the comic. Basically, if you watch the first, you might as well watch this one. Especially true if you do so on Blu-ray since the first comes with this one pressed on that disc.
[ob1 2]

The Invincible Iron Man
This feature dropped not too long before the hit live action movie as a way to — I think — test the waters for what was to come. They took the same basic origin from the comic and put their own spin on it, which was what the live action one did also, but both are different. Also, the villain in this one is The Mandarin and some would argue should have been in the first flick. I’m not one of them. They kept that nice and simple and we get something more complex in the sequel. Back to the animated flick, it kinda sucked. The animation wasn’t very good and the story was kinda lame. Not enough with the armor if you ask me, especially since they had it set where there were many different models from which to choose. Sure, we got a couple, but still, they should have done more. Skip this one unless you are an Iron Man fanboy. Which you are not.
[ob1 1]

Next month, I promise… movies with people in them.