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The Batman Superman Movie: World's Finest (1997) dir. Toshihiko Masuda

In Gotham City, the Joker (Mark Hamill) and Harley Quinn (Arlene Sorkin) steal a jade dragon. Based on fragments left behind, Batman suspects he knows where the Clown Prince of Crime is headed. As it so happens, Bruce Wayne has business in Metropolis; Waynetech has partnered with Lexcorp to develop space exploration robots. This puts him conveniently nearby when the Joker offers a deal to Lex Luthor (Clancy Brown) to murder Superman (Tim Daly) in exchange for one billion dollars.

While he's in town, Bruce discovers that he's got a bit of a thing for feisty reporter Lois Lane (Dana Delaney), and she reciprocates, much to the annoyance of her fellow journalist Clark Kent.

Superman isn't keen on having Batman (who has a shady reputation outside Gotham) operating in his city, and soon learns the Caped Crusader's secret identity and vice versa. The two heroes clash in both costumed and civilian identities, but must learn to work together to defeat the villains' plans.

This short movie is actually a edited compilation of a three-part story in the Superman: The Animated Series television show. It's a good edit that doesn't show the seams as much as some other compilation movies I've seen.

About the title: World's Finest Comics was an anthology comic book series that began featuring Batman (and Robin) teaming up with Superman in every issue starting with #71 (July 1954). Thus the title became a nickname for the team-up. The story also pays homage to the first "official" Batman-Superman team-up in Superman #76 (1952) which had Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent sharing a cruise ship stateroom...for reasons...and accidentally learning each other's secret identities. That story also featured a bit of teasing of a Lois/Bruce relationship--though she chose to grant Robin a "date" at the end! In this story, the cruise ship in danger appears as a way to get Superman out of town for a bit.

The 1990s Batman and Superman animated series were excellent, and spawned a couple decades of a "DC Animated Universe." They used innovative animation techniques and superior voice acting, and some of the character and characterization bled back into the print comics.

Harley Quinn here is before the background reveals and character development that moved her into sympathetic territory and eventual anti-hero status with her own comic books and animated series, but the madcap antics and zany personality make her a delight in the movie. By comparison, stoic Mercy Graves (Lisa Edelstein), bodyguard of "legitimate businessman" Lex Luthor, is a bit of a lump and spends most of her time on screen getting beat up. No spinoffs for her!

Joker and Lex Luthor also play off each other well. The Joker is manic and theatrical, while Lex is trying to appear civilized but has a nasty temper underneath.

A good character moment for Lois as she learns Batman's secret identity and keeps it safe without him needing to ask.

Content note: Comic book style violence, with Mercy suffering lasting injuries, and the Joker supposedly dying offscreen (no body found.) Some relatively scanty outfits on women, particularly in a bad guy dance club.

This is an excellent long episode of a classic animated series, well worth finding and watching again, with your kids if you have them.

Green Lantern: First Flight (2009) Dir. Lauren Montgomery

Test Pilot Hal Jordan is practicing in a flight simulator when that non-vehicle is suddenly surrounded by a green glow and transported to a nearby desert. There he finds a crashed spacecraft and its dying pilot, an alien named Abin Sur. Abin Sur bequeaths his power ring, a device that uses green energy to create various effects, to Hal. The ring creates a uniform for Hal, making him a member of the Green Lantern Corps, an elite force of universal peacekeepers and law enforcement. To start with, he uses this power to become a superhero on Earth.

The story proper picks up several months later. The Guardians of the Universe have finally found time to send a delegation of Green Lanterns to Earth to summon Hal Jordan for examination. The squad is led by Sinestro (whose name in his native Korugarian means "trustworthy person who will never turn evil on you"), a top-ranked Lantern; and also includes attractive woman Boodikka, who seems sympathetic towards Hal; and Kilowog, a Lantern drill sergeant who is less than impressed that a human got hold of a power ring. They take him to Oa, center of the universe, and headquarters of the Corps.

The aliens that have previously visited Earth have given it bad reviews, and humans have a less than stellar reputation. So the Guardians are skeptical about Hal Jordan's qualifications for the Corps, and annoyed by his non-deferential attitude. "And then there's the smell." Named Guardians are Appa Ali Apsa, the nominal leader, Ranakar the hide-bound conservative, and Ganthet the relatively progressive. They're about ready to dismiss Hal out of hand, but Sinestro steps in to propose that he personally take charge of Hal's training to see if he's really got the stuff for the Corps.

Sinestro turns out to be a hardass who believes in on the job training, and the first case he's taking his rookie on is "find and capture the being who murdered Abin Sur." This turns out to be a nasty fellow name Cuch, who works for alien warlord Kanjar Ro. Hal intervenes when Sinestro's questioning of a contact looks more like torture than interrogation. Then the suspect shows up, a firefight ensues, and Hal eventually captures Cuch. Sinestro is less pleased by Hal's success in completing the actual mission, and more angry that Hal is "soft" and made Sinestro look "weak" in front of others. Sinestro's not satisfied with his role as a space cop, and wants to bring order and a lack of crime to the whole universe using the power that the Guardians now fritter away on "cleaning up garbage."

Sinestro interrogates Cuch, uninterrupted this time, and learns the location of Kanjar Ro, who is in possession of something called the "Yellow Element" which is the one thing the Corps' green energy is vulnerable to. The Guardians are not pleased with the comatose state Cuch is left in, and demand that Sinestro bring in Kanjar Ro alive and unharmed so the Guardians can do their own questioning. Sinestro grudgingly agrees.

The hunt for Kanjar Ro begins, but as long time fans of the Green Lantern Corps and/or people who just know how superhero stories work guessed, Sinestro has ulterior motives, and this spells trouble for Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps.

Since much of the same crew had previously worked on Justice League: The New Frontier which had covered Hal Jordan's origin story in some detail, they decided to recap it very briefly and move on to newer material. This movie's continuity is largely based on the Post-Crisis version of Hal Jordan's early days, having the later organization of the Green Lantern Corps retrofitted as something already existing when Hal gets the ring, and characters who originally joined the organization after Hal preceding him as established Lanterns, as well as giving him a personal relationship with Sinestro before that person left the Corps.

The animation is decent and gets the job done, and I also enjoyed the voice acting without thinking about it too hard.

Hal Jordan is sometimes considered the "boring" Green Lantern, as a standard straight white American man whose schtick was fearlessness. All the subsequent Green Lanterns were designed as complements or contrasts to him, so he sometimes comes across as generic, and too often his "fighter jock" personality traits are exaggerated to give him "personality." Here, that's somewhat muted by his being the "rookie" who's learning the ropes of his new job. Mind, to make him the central hero of the movie, in the last act the rest of the Corps is forced on to the sidelines to let Hal shine. I'd have liked to have seen the other Corps members trying to think of ways they could contribute despite their rings not being useful at the time.

I did like this version of the Weaponers of Qward, who were nicely creepy and do a good job of foreshadowing later developments, and the very E.E. "Doc" Smith way Hal deals with the Yellow Element.

Overall: An acceptable movie for introducing Hal Jordan as a solo(ish) character for potential future movies or a continuing series.

My DVD set also included a Duck Dodgers episode in which Dodgers (played by Daffy Duck) temporarily joins the Green Lantern Corps, and Sinestro is played much more in his Silver Age dastardly villain who just wants personal power mode; and two episodes of the Justice League Unlimited series in which Green Lantern John Stewart, Batman and Wonder Woman are sucked into the Wild West and then the dark future of Batman Beyond by Chronos the Time Thief. The second episode has a brief Hal Jordan appearance.

Doctor Strange (2007) dir. Patrick Archibald

The world you see is not all there is. Monsters roam the streets of New York, smashing and killing their way to a point called the Sanctum. Opposing them are the disciples of the Ancient One, wizards and sorcerers who conceal their activities from the world with simple spells. There are those, however, who have the gift of seeing magic and the hidden truths of the world. One of them, only beginning to realize it, is Doctor Stephen Strange.

Dr. Strange is one of the world's most gifted neurosurgeons, and he knows it. But since the death of his younger sister, Stephen has grown cold-hearted, only concerned with earning fame and money by treating difficult cases. It's not that he doesn't want to heal people, he just feels that there are doctors who are better suited to handling charity cases and ordinary ills, and he shouldn't be bothered. The glimpses he's seen of things that should not be he shrugs off as daydreams caused by overwork.

Under pressure from the hospital administrator, Stephen finally goes to consult with a colleague working in the coma ward. She's got what looks like an epidemic of kids in comas. Stephen doesn't do pediatrics, but this is interesting based on what's happening in their brains. When he touches one of the children, he shares her nightmare of a burning face, one that all the children had before they went comatose. Shaken, he refuses to help.

Still disturbed by his recent visions, Dr. Strange drives recklessly, and when he sees what appear to be ghostly children in the road, he swerves to miss them and winds up crashing. Stephen lives, but his hands are smashed, and there is subtle nerve damage. He refuses to consider not being a brain surgeon, and rapidly spirals into a cycle of seeking out ever more unlikely cures and draining his funds. At last he is broke and homeless, still unable to properly use his hands. At this point, Stephen is contacted by a man named Wong, who tells him that "healing" is available in Tibet.

After a perilous journey, Dr. Strange arrives at the monastery of the Ancient One to begin rethinking his life, not yet realizing that the "healing" spoken of was not merely his hands. Meanwhile, the disciples of the Ancient One continue to go out to fight the monsters of Dormammu, but fewer of them return each time. Field leader Mordo believes that the Ancient One's too conservative about tactics and that this should be treated with a warrior (himself) in charge. He too has misunderstood the Ancient One's intentions.

This Lionsgate animated movie has strong similarities to the later Marvel live action film about Doctor Strange. When Stan Lee and Steve Ditko created the character in the early 1960s. the initial origin story was a handful of pages that could have easily fitted into a half hour program. So quite a bit of detail created for later stories is added to fill out a more substantial run time. And since Stephen doesn't come into his powers until well into the story, a number of fight scenes involving mostly interchangeable other disciples are added to keep interest up.

It's easy to empathize a bit with Mordo. The Ancient One has known all along that Mordo will turn against him to work for Dormammu the moment he learns he's not going to be the Sorcerer Supreme, so has allowed his disciple to think he's in the running for that position for years while the Ancient One waited for his true successor (Strange) to come along. I'd be ticked too if I had worked my butt off for my entire adult life on a vague promise of promotion only to be discarded for some new guy who just started training a few months ago. On the other hand, Mordo's rotten attitude makes it clear to everyone around him that he's not a good leader, spiritual or otherwise. The far more experienced Wong is much more philosophical about the fact that he's topped out in his sorcerous occupation.

The art is okay, but I'd have liked more homage to Ditko's trippy visuals that made the early Dr. Strange comics so appealing. The voice acting is okay, but uninspired. Stephen's female colleague is especially feeling phoned in. The disposable disciples get a bit more oomph, but little to do with it as the story doesn't bother giving them personalities, just nice visual cues.

And Dr Strange is given an extra power he doesn't have in the comics to make it plausible that he and he alone can stand against the dread Dormammu.

It's an okay movie, but it's easy to see why there wasn't a direct sequel or a rush of interest in the character.

The Green Hornet Strikes Again! (1940) dir. Ford Beebe

A little background first. The Green Hornet was created for radio in 1936 by Fran Striker, who had also created the Lone Ranger. In the backstory, Dan Reid, nephew of the Lone Ranger, eventually grew up to become a newspaper publisher in an unnamed big city, putting out The Sentinel. He married relatively late in life, and had one son, Brit Reid. In the present day, Dan is quite elderly, and is thinking of turning over his newspaper to Brit, but worries that Brit is a lazy playboy who won't be able to handle the responsibility. Brit and his East Asian servant Kato have been working on an advanced experimental automobile to show that Brit isn't useless. Meanwhile, the city is overrun with racketeers. A chance remark that what the city needs is a "modern day Robin Hood" convinces Brit to try fighting crime as the Green Hornet.

The Green Hornet's modus operandi relied on people's natural suspicion of masked weirdos. He pretended to be a criminal himself, cutting in on the rackets of other organized crime gangs. But in reality, he was fully on the side of justice and avoided hurting police officers or innocent bystanders. Brit Reid, meanwhile, took a strong stance against racketeers and the Green Hornet in editorials, convincing Dan that he would be a good head for the Sentinel.

The Green Hornet is on the lower end of the scale of what would soon become known as superheroes. He's an ordinary man who uses a few gadgets and his fists to fight relatively normal criminals. His partner Kato is an inventor who came up with the Black Beauty's silent-running engine that can move the car at 200 mph (the car is also bulletproofed) and the gas gun that stuns opponents rather than killing them. Brit Reid also relies on the reporters at the Sentinel to bring him information on events that he can then use as the Green Hornet.

On to the current story. After his successful campaign against crime in the first movie serial, The Green Hornet, Brit Reid (Warren Hull) recuperates by taking a few weeks to vacation in Hawaii with Kato (Keye Luke). Unfortunately, while he's been away, a man named Crogan (Pierre Watkin) has managed to become head of the Syndicate, a coalition of racketeers. Crogan's got his fingers in many pies, including working with foreign interests, but knows that the Sentinel's anti-racketeering crusades could do considerable damage. Thus, he's planted his own man Frederick Harper (William Forrest) on the paper with forged credentials. Apparently Harper was a legitimate newspaperman long ago, the forged background just makes it look like he still is. Harper's managed to get the editor in chief out of the way temporarily so he can squash anti-racket stories, but that's raising the suspicions of the staff.

Important members of the staff include Lenore "Casey" Case (Anne Nagel), Brit Reid's secretary, who thinks that the Green Hornet isn't as crooked as he pretends; Lowery (Eddie Acuff), a fast-talking, cynical reporter who loves wisecracks; and Michael Axford (Wade Boteler), a retired Irish-American cop who is officially Brit's bodyguard but works as a crime beat reporter thanks to his connections on the force, and is the main comic relief. They send a telegram hinting that Brit should come back from his vacation early.

An attempt to kill Brit in Hawaii fails, but does make him miss his plane, forcing him to take a slower ship. Also aboard is one of Crogan's chief henchmen, Bordine (James Seay). Thanks to Kato's foresight, Brit dons the garb of the Green Hornet to extract a confession from Bordine, but by complete coincidence, the ship catches on fire and Bordine disappears, presumed dead. Brit arrives back in the big city (which appears to be on the West Coast for purposes of the story) and exposes Harper, but the crooked newspaperman is silenced before he can give the name of the man in charge, leaving only a notebook of cryptic references.

Between Harper's notes, clues from the reporters, good instincts, and a healthy amount of coincidence, the Green Hornet is remarkably able to thwart each racketeer plot as it is happening. Crogan gets increasingly desperate as the Syndicate bleeds money, and his greed leads to the Syndicate's ultimate downfall.

This was the second 15-episode movie serial created for the popular character by Universal Studios. The modest budget is well-used so that it never looks cheap. The acting is good to adequate, and the racketeers' plots varied enough to keep up interest. The characters are fun to watch, and the dialogue is decent.

As this was planned to be shown once a week at movie theaters, there are some weaknesses when seen all at once. Taking its cue from the radio show, the film's soundtrack is almost exclusively classical music, "The Flight of the Bumblebee" and bits of Swan Lake over and over. They are fine pieces, but lose something when repeated constantly. The serial's "cliffhanger copouts" aren't as egregious as some other serials' were, but you can spot a couple of "that could not have happened based on what we saw last episode" moments.

Kato's role is pretty good for an Asian character in 1940s Hollywood. He may be Brit Reid's servant, but the Green Hornet treats him as a full partner. Kato is more technically trained than Brit, and when a scientist's notes need to be deciphered, it's Kato that does it. It feels like the only reason he's the sidekick is a certain lack of initiative which makes it easier for him to follow instructions than make plans himself. While Keye Luke plays him with an accent, Kato's ethnic background is never discussed or an issue.

There's an episode where a young woman, Frances Grayson (Dorothy Lovett), inherits a controlling interest in an aluminum company, and the men are worried that she will actually try to use that control because she's..."inexperienced", yeah, that's the ticket. It's a fun role for Ms. Lovett though, as she gets to play both the heiress and a criminal actress that impersonates her.

Another bit that's interesting is that the Green Hornet tends to underuse his gas gun, as he keeps trying to get information from criminals that they can't give while unconscious. This backfires on him multiple times. While the Hornet scrupulously does not kill people himself, he's not too concerned if criminals die as a result of trying to kill him, which happens a few times.

You might want to spread viewing this serial over several weeks, as the makers intended, having it be the short in front of your main feature for movie night. Recommended for fans of old-school masked heroes.

Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D. (1990) dir. Michael Herz

Every thousand years, there is a certain celestial conjunction known as "the Dragon Dances Through the Hoop of Jupiter." If certain events happen at the same time on Earth, the being known as the Evil One will attain immortality and be able to rule the world. The responsibility of stopping the Evil One falls to the hero called "Kabukiman." The current Kabukiman is elderly and can no longer use the powers effectively. Good news: A worthy successor has been found and has been training for the mission for the last twenty-five years. Bad news: The Evil One has discovered who this successor is and murdered him--and his entire family just to be safe. This bodes ill.

Lotus (Susan Byun), granddaughter of the current Kabukiman, suspects something has happened to Ichiro, the Chosen One, and asks her grandfather to consider passing the powers to her. When the Evil One's minions attack the Kabuki performance the old man is in and mortally wound him, he must make a decision. As it happens, Detective Sergeant Harry Griswold (Rick Gianasi) of the New York Police Department is at the theater following up a lead when the violence goes down. The dying old man forces the transfer of Kabukiman's powers on Griswold.

Without the proper training, Griswold is initially unable to understand or fully control his transformations into Kabukiman or the powers it gives him. It does not help that the understandably miffed Lotus is more inclined to berate Griswold for his failings than to explain the situation in terms he can grasp. Things will get worse before they get better, helped along by the Evil One's plans.

This film was created by Troma Entertainment, an indie film studio known for its deliberately trashy exploitation movies, with their most famous creation being The Toxic Avenger. It's fairly typical of the studio's output, with gory violence, lowbrow humor, tits (in the unrated version which is what I saw) and grotesque transformations. A particularly well-done car flip and explosion made for this movie was reused in several other Troma films.

The movie embraces its nonsensical nature and seldom slows down for snoozy serious scenes. There's even an extended sequence where Griswold incorrectly triggers his transformation and has to flee the criminals while in the guise of a circus clown. The criminals are suitably goofy, from the incipient Evil One, billionaire Reginald Stuart (Bill Weeden), owner of Stuart Pendex; through the Reverend Snipes (Larry Robinson) who pretends to be concerned with the poor and downtrodden but is actually a drug kingpin; to Rembrandt (Thomas Crnkovich), a vain hitman who thinks he's an "artist."

This movie is one of the earliest examples of a plotline I've since seen multiple times. Schlubby male (Griswold's apartment is filled with beer cans and he's seriously out of shape for a police officer, and is honestly barely competent at his job) meets kickass awesome woman who should be the hero (Lotus is a skilled martial artist, well educated and fully familiar with the Kabukiman history and tradition). For the first third of the story, the woman gets to show off how competent she is. But the schlub has some special quality that makes him the Chosen One instead, so the woman must train him how to be awesome. In the last quarter of the film, the woman is sidelined in some way, so that the man can show off how awesome he's become and be the hero of the story. Also, he and the woman become romantically linked. You can probably think of three or four movies you've seen since 2000 that match the pattern.

If the central premise of "white American is transformed into a living collection of stereotypes about Japanese culture" is something you can't deal with, skip this movie. While it's not using stereotypes about Japanese people, it's going to be uncomfortable for many viewers.

Topical: A police officer murders criminals in various amusing ways and faces no consequences for this. Yes, he does this mostly in his superhero form, but he doesn't have a secret identity. The police are depicted as generally well-meaning, if incompetent and ham-strung by politics. Lawyers are depicted as amoral people who are happy to get criminals off the hook in exchange for large sums of money.

Content note: Body function humor, rape, female nudity, onscreen sex (no genitals), gory violence, harm to children, transphobic/homophobic humor, drug use.

Overall: If you can deal with the cringy bits, this is a fun trash movie for watching with friends or as a mood-lifter.

It is that time of year again, when I send mix CDs to people who like music. This year, the mix honors Stan Lee, creator of beloved Marvel Comics character Stan Lee.

STAN THE MAN

1. "Samson and Delilah"--The Barry Sisters & Jan Bart: Stan was born Stanley Leiber, so here's a song he might have heard on Yiddish radio back in the 1930s, about a proto-superhero.
2. "Rose Garden"--Lynn Anderson: Stan was nearly forty years old when he finally got to write a superhero comic he'd actually want to read as an adult, and hit on the Marvel Comics formula.
3. "Mon Super Heros"--AM: The Fantastic Four, the first heroes with clashing personalities and character arcs in superhero comics.
4. "Spider-Man TV Theme"--Ramones: Spider-Man, a teen hero who wasn't a sidekick!
5. "Fury of the Storm"--Dragonforce: Thor, god of thunder!
6. "Man of Constant Sorrow"--Osaka Popstar: The Hulk, man and monster in one!
7. "Steel Angel"--Steel Angel Kurumi soundtrack: Iron Man, the millionaire with an artificial heart!
8. "I Will Not Stand Alone"--Kayhan Kalhor & Ali Bahrami Fard: And there came a time when Earth's Mightiest Heroes stood together to defeat dangers no single hero could withstand...and they became the Avengers!
9. "Magic Music: March of the Toreadors"--Violinist of Hameln OST: Doctor Strange, the Sorcerer Supreme.
10. "Monsters & Angels"--Voice of the Beehive: The mutant X-Men, when Stan got tired of coming up with new secret origins, and just went with mutants who were "born that way."
11. "Invisible Woman"--Celena Rae: Stan and his collaborators weren't that hot at coming up with effective female characters but got better at it over the years, and character development improved matters.
12. "Legendary Hero"--Yuji Yoshino: And many other heroes over the decades, an entire Marvel Universe.
13. "Skullcrusher Mountain"--Jonathan Coulton: Let's not forget the villains! Whether they were scientific masterminds...
14. "Loki's Song"--Justin Eiler: ...mythological gods...
15. "May All the Fools Before Us Be Destroyed By the Power You and I Possess""--Slayers the Movie soundtrack: ...or evil wizards...
16. "The Red Invasion"--The K-Pers: ...Communists, aliens or Communists disguised as aliens (surprisingly common in the early days)...
17. "Seeking Power"--Final Fantasy XII soundtrack: ...or just ordinary crooks, Stan had a gift for memorable bad guys.
18. "Protectors of the Earth"--Two Steps from Hell: But we knew in the end, the good guys would step up and win the battle, even if not always neatly, or getting the full credit.
19. "Pep, Vim and Verve"--Andy Paley/Jeff Vincent: Stan Lee had his faults, but he was always full of boundless enthusiasm for his product and its spinoffs.
20. "Human Freedom"--The James Connolly Songs of Human Freedom Band: And Stan believed that Marvel Comics had no place for bigotry.
21. "Passage of Time"--Alan Silvestri: And so we bid Stan Lee farewell...at least until the clone is ready.

Your thoughts, comments and Stan Lee tributes?