I finally watched TDOS & it was waaaay better than BVS in every way I can think of. Doomsday was soo vicious, he was in such a rage, on such a rampage, to the point where I was in actual suspense (definitely way more than any moment in all of BVS.)
I slept on this animated film for way too long so I had to post this in case a single fellow DC fan decides to finally take the plunge into the animated Superman movies, I now find myself looking forward to Reign of Supermen & Superman: Red Son, which is not something I ever expected. Then all I’ve got left to see is Apokolips War!!!
For nearly every DCEU movie, there’s a better animated version.
Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay is a better version of Suicide Squad.
Green Lantern: Emerald Knights is better than Green Lantern.
Justice League Dark: Apokolips War is better than anything Zack Snyder has ever done, etc.
I agree on Suicide Squad: HTP. I tell people about that irl haha but thanks for the tip on Green Lantern: EK because I never bothered to even go see the live action film. Thanks for the tip on Jusitice League Dark: AW also, I’m even more hyped to watch it now!
With Apokolips War, I feel like because it’s animated and direct to video, they were able to go to a place with the story that a live action film would never be allowed to. So it’s kind if not fair to compare the two- but definitely give it a watch (and be sure to have at least see Flashpoint Paradox beforehand, because it gets referenced in a big way).
While I really enjoy The Death of Superman, am I the only one that feels it’s a little bit light on story? For me the whole thing feels a bit like a Dragon Ball Z fight scene.
The Death of Superman is better at adapting the storyline of the same name than BvS is. Overall, BvS has more to offer. DOS is the best film of that particular animated DC universe, though. It especially excels at characterization. Neither film can overcome the fact that a cartoon Doomsday just isn’t that intimidating. The implications of his cruel brutality on the comic page are more impactful because the mind fills in the gaps for the violence between the panels.
I’d argue that every DC Animated movie is better than anything that has been live action over Superman 2-4, every Batman movie with the possible exception of Batman 89 between and everything else before Wonder Woman.
I take that back Gotham by Gaslight is better tha Batman 89. So basically the DC Animated films are better than their live action offerings with the possible exception of the first Reeves Superman movie, and it’s possible that DoS and Reign as a pair, or Red Sun is better than Superman 1. I need to watch DoS, Reign & Red Son again to specifically look at them in comparison to Superman 1.
DC Animated knows how to tell a story via the film medium very, very well.
I like both movies in question. BvS is one of my favorite live action movies, and DoS one of my favorite animated movies. Generally speaking, I gravitate more towards live action. I like the excitement of seeing things come to life.
I do think however that DC live action movies can learn a few things from their animated counterparts. The animated movies:
Created a connected universe without getting bogged down by continuity.
Peppered in elseworld or stand alone stories when they didn’t fit in the overall narrative. It didn’t hurt anything. Gotham by Gaslight, Red Son, and JL vs Fatal Five are good examples.
Maintained a consistent quality level/approach There’s something about the movies. I’m guilty of not checking the credits, so I’m not familiar with all the actors/directors. However, the movies feel like they were made by the same studio, and I mean that in good way. Kinda reminds me of something @DeSade-acolyte said about “house styles”. I could be wrong, don’t know.
House style in comics refers to art style.
I think in the case of DC Animated they certainly have a house style in term of how they go about telling a narrative and understand pacing and “three act structure” much better and more consistently than their live action arm.
Could very well be that. The animated movies certainly do feel like they have a beginning, middle & end, more so than the live action movies.
There’s something else though. In live action we got Man of Steel, BvS, Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, Shazam, Joker, Aquaman, Harley Quinn. It’s all over the place in terms of tone, approach, visuals, etc.
The animated movies experimented with different in and out of universe stories, and to a much lesser extent, visual styles (Fatal Five and Batman Ninja come to mind as visually different). Somehow the production value feels the same in all the movies.
I’m not very well versed in the arts or movie making. Sometimes I have no idea what I’m talking about.
I think that’s the thing. You can use many graphic styles in visual storytelling, it is really more plot, pacing, and psychologically grounded characters that matter.
I think it’s why some people get their knickers in a twist when DC Animated takes a different tack than the comics. Riddler as the big bad in Hush, immediately pops to mind. Why? Because they have to fit the story within time constraints and what flows well scene to scene. How and when do you do your three act structure. Not everything translates from page to movie well.
If you’ve ever read Bram Stokers Dracula, you quickly realize that just trying to make a movie directly from the book would make an awful movie. Books and movies are very different mediums an the best way to tell a story in one does not mean it’s the best way to tell the same story in the other.
The only DC animated films that I think actually hold up against the live-action films are the Fleischer Superman shorts. The rest of them are produced too cheaply to be serious competitors. Even Mask of the Phantasm, which is easily the best DC animated film of the last 30 years, suffers from looking like it was made for the direct-to-video market (which it was, despite the last-minute decision to release it theatrically). They all look like products, not art.
Give me something like Wizards or Heavy Metal, and then I’ll start considering them equals.
Okay, have you ever seen any GOOD animated films, then? I think the DC animated movies look like Campbell soup cans before Andy Warhol got to them. I’m not saying that I’m expecting them all to be Fantastic Planet, but they could at least look better than TV animation.
I’ve seen plenty of GOOD animated movie. Especially superhero movies. And frankly most Superhero movies today, including live-action, are mostly animated movies. Especially those of the 21st century.
That’s almost an oxymoron. DC’s output has been lousy, and Marvel’s has been so embarrassing that it’s hardly worth even mentioning. (See, for instance–never mind. Don’t see any of them.) Even in the extremely rare case where the art has been, well, artistic rather than lazily commercial (Batman: Gotham Knight and…um…?), the stories have been shallow.
