Reaction & Review | Batman: The Movie

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to "Tales of the Longbox" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, we're closing out this edition of "Tales of the Longbox" with a movie that I've been really curious about for a long time. The movie came out in 1966. That movie is "Batman: The Movie".

Oh yes, guys, this is the film that I've been really anticipating the most out of this entire marathon. Which is funny to say, considering that I haven't really covered a lot of DC Comics films throughout most of this marathon, outside of that "Wonder Woman" animated movie. And while I will admit that I had thought about switching the placement of this movie with "Ultimate Avengers: The Movie", I ultimately stuck to my guns here and decide to end the marathon with this movie instead.

Now, for those of you unaware, this movie is based off the Batman series from the 60's starring Adam West. Now while I haven't seen any episodes from that show, I am aware of certain aspects from it, such as it being a campy, goofy comedy series rather than the straight-up dark and serious stories we have with the Dark Knight today. And while I do enjoy some of the serious aspects of Batman, I'm also somebody who really enjoys campy humor, as long it's done properly. And considering that this film is based off the Adam West series, I think this will cover all of that perfectly.

So, I'm really looking forward to seeing how all of this will play out. I'm hoping for it to be amazing, but I would also be shocked if this thing somehow, someway, ends up sucking hard! I have a feeling that it won't, but you never know with this series. Really, guys, the only way I'm gonna find out how good this movie can possibly be is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Batman: The Movie".

4 minutes later

So, apparently there exists a Bat Copter at the airport for anytime Batman and Robin need it. I gotta say, that Bat Copter looks really fucking cool. Hell, now that I'm looking at it more, I kinda want one of those of my own. Whether it's the real thing or even just a model of the copter would be perfectly fine with me, either way.

2 minutes later

OK...I love how when they drop the "Bat Ladder", there is a *literal* tag on it at the bottom, telling you that it's a Bat Ladder. Holy shit, that is so stupid, and yet so lovably awesome at the same time! That is just fucking hilarious as shit, guys.

4 minutes later

Wait, so that shark really did explode after being sprayed with the "shark repellent bat spray"?! OK...well, I've now learned that shark repellent bat spray is fucking deadly as shit. You learn something new everyday.

12 minutes later

Oh my god...there's a *literal* penguin submarine, and it even has little webbed feet acting as the rotors! I am *loving* this movie, guys, more and more with each passing minute. This is just amazing!

18 minutes later

I'm sorry, guys, if I'm not saying a whole lot right now, I'm really just kinda getting sucked into the story here. I'm really enjoying it so far and I'm hoping it stays this way throughout the remainder of it.

6 minutes later

OK, you know what? Out of all the vehicles I've seen so far in this movie, these, uh...parasol-looking vehicles, I guess, are probably the goofiest thing I've seen so far in this film. Mind you, it's funny as hell, but still, did you *really* need that many for all of the villains to ride on? Just something to ponder a little bit/ on, you know what I mean?

12 minutes later

So, this new weapon is able to turn people into literal ashes...O...K. Granted, it is really creative. Odd, and kinda morbid, but still, I gotta give some points for creativity.

18 minutes later

Once more, guys, I'm awfully sorry that I haven't been really saying very much. I know I should be commenting more on the movie itself. But I honestly have been so enamored with the movie that I just want to see where it's going to go next.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Batman: The Movie". And, uh...wow, what a film indeed. Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. Sorry, guys, I had to take a moment away from my laptop here to digest everything I had experienced for myself. I know, for some people, that may not seem like I took a little time away for myself, but, then again, this is the kinda thing I have to work with when writing reviews rather than doing a video of them.

But anyway, let's talk about this movie, shall we? Now, I don't want to be those kinds of people who reminisce on how movies were made back in the day are so much *better* than how movies are made today. Because honestly, that isn't really fair to all modern movies. There have been some good ones out there. Granted, I haven't really seen a whole lot of them, but I do know that they exist. You just have to look for them yourself instead of just calling everything "slop" or "cape shit" online for the sake of bitching. That being said, I will say that this movie does something, at least when compared to other superhero films in the last few years, that I don't see very much of anymore. It knows how to have fun with itself. And, unlike certain superhero films where they are going through extensive reshoots and rewrites to their movies, this film knew what it wanted to be right from the word go, and it stuck by it all the way through. Which is something that, again, I don't see a whole lot of superhero films, let alone certain big blockbuster movies do anymore. And I think that more recent movies should take a cue on how this film was able to have fun with itself, while also knowing what it wants to be, rather than trying to rewrite and reshoot everything just for the sake of it.

Now, with all that out of the way, I should probably get back on track here and actually talk about the movie itself. I'm gonna start with the writing. And honestly, guys, the story in this movie is absolutely ridiculous. But then again, seeing as how this movie is pretty much an extended episode of the Adam West "Batman" series, it's to be expected. Now again, I know I have never seen any episodes of the show before, but I'm also aware that this series has been referenced in other movies and TV shows of the like, so I have a better grasp of it thanks to that, and also having seen this movie. As for the writing itself, well, it's more of just Batman and Robin trying to stop our villains consisting of Penguin, Joker, Riddler, and Catwoman from taking over the world. And that's the best way to simplify it. And you may have noticed that I didn't really react a whole lot to the film, other than the beginning bits of it. I was really invested into what was going on in the movie that if I tried to explain every bit of detail about the story, I would be spoiling it for you guys. Now granted, there really isn't much of a plot here, but I still feel like not spoiling any of it for you guys. Because I feel like this is one of those movies that you have to experience for yourself to show how overly ridiculous and fun this movie truly is.

That said, however, I will say that while the story here is completely ridiculous, it's not overly stupid either. There are some threads of logic here that make some level of sense. For example, Penguin has disguised himself as a pirate captain that they kidnapped way early on in the film, and is trying to gain access to the Batcave to find out where it's location is. Batman and Robin easily discover that it's just Penguin being a terrible disguiser, but they still go through with it anyway. But, instead of just blindly following Penguin's suggestion, they actually have a can of sleep bat spray to keep him knocked out, so that way, Penguin won't know where the Batcave actually is. And also, when they reach the cave, long after they knock out Penguin, they also wake him up by using "wake spray" to wake him up. Yes, seriously, that is an actual thing that Batman and Robin apparently have. But still, though, it actually does make some level of sense, since they already saw through Penguin's disguise and are taking extra precautions before going through with it. The only bit that I would say is sorta weak is how Bruce didn't discover that Kitka was easily Catwoman in disguise. Though honestly, I would just chalk that bit of logic up as a case of Superman Syndrome in this case.

As for the characters, well, it's obvious that all of these characters are from the Adam West series. So naturally, all of them are goofy and over-the-top, as is the tradition of it being from a campy series. I do want to mention the villains, though, for a moment. Because, I noticed something peculiar about one of them. Now again, the villains in this movie range from Joker, Penguin, Riddler, and Catwoman. And of all the villains in this movie, Joker is the one who feels like he has less of a presence here, unlike the other villains. Which is interesting, because when I think about how over-exposed he has been within the last number of years or so, him being just one of the gang is actually a really refreshing take on him, because I'm one of those people that is just sick and tired of the Joker entirely. So him taking a back seat here in this movie is honestly a *huge* breath of fresh air here. Now oddly enough, the one villain who gets the most screen time here is Catwoman. Which makes sense, considering the amount of time she spends with Bruce in this movie. Penguin feels like a second in command of the crew, while Riddler is there to give out his riddles through a missile. And no, I'm not kidding about that either. That's how he is able to give out his riddles while Batman and Robin try to solve them. It's incredibly stupid, but still very charming at the same time.

And that's one of the best words I can describe this movie's writing. It is so filled to the brim with campy charm that I loved every moment of it. Nothing about this movie feels boring. In fact, after watching this, I really want to see if I can track down the series on DVD at some point, because this movie was just so good to where I want to see *more* of it! That's how good this movie's writing is. And to top it all off, the acting here is also fantastic. I'm talking everyone from Adam West, to Burt Ward, to Cesar Romero, to Burgess Meredith, to Frank Gorshin, and to Lee Meriwether as Catwoman. All of these actors are great here, and I'm even going to include all of the supporting cast members that didn't have as big of a presence in this movie as the others did. All of them turned in fantastic showings. If I had to nitpick at all, I would say that Burt Ward's holy-insert pun here could possibly annoy some people. But honestly, that's not really enough for me to ding on his performance here. All of the acting here is great, and again, considering that they were reprising their roles from the show into this movie is certainly a huge treat here.

Special effects are the one thing that could potentially turn some people away from this movie. I say this, because a lot of the effects in this movie are on the cheaper side. For example, the shark that is biting onto Batman's leg is totally fake as shit, and the fight sequences are laughable at best. But I also have to remember that this movie is, again, apart of a TV show that was pretty much living on a low budget to begin with. And for those people who haven't seen it, if you're someone who has never seen anything related to the Adam West series, then it's possible that you may be turned off by these cheap effects. However, as someone who's into these sorts of films to begin with, I love it. Everything about this movie looks cheap, but it's also very charming, and I could tell that there was a lot of thought and love put into this movie. I got a huge laugh out of that submarine that looks like a penguin, and the fact that they even gave the rotors webbed feet is such a nice attention detail that even I wouldn't have thought of something like that. It's really cool to see that in action, plus all of the Bat vehicles are really cool, too. Same with the costuming. All of these costumes are great and iconic. Guys, special effects in this movie, while on the cheaper side, are great for the standards of the 60's show.

Camerawork here is really good. The lighting is also really good. Sound-mix is also mixed fine. The score is great. In fact, looking at the credits, the music was done by Nelson Riddle. He's also the same person who did the score for one of my favorite John Wayne movies called "El Dorado". So yeah, I can tell you guys that the score here is fantastic just based on that alone.

And ultimately, guys, when everything is said and done, am I able to recommend "Batman: The Movie"? Well, what do you think? Absolutely, guys, you bet your ass I can recommend this movie. This film is, quite possibly, one of the best superhero films I've ever seen. It really is that awesome. It's also really funny, too. But then again, we're talking about a movie that's based off a really campy TV show, so that's sort of a moot point. But yeah, guys, this film is fantastic. It may even rival some of my other favorite Batman movies that I've seen and own on DVD and VHS. I'll probably have to rewatch some of them to give my full assessment on it, but either way, this movie is going to have a *very* happy spot on my DVD shelf next to them. Hell, I may even watch it again at some point very soon. Although now that I think about it, I kinda want to see if I can track own the series on DVD somewhere. It shouldn't be too hard to find, possibly for cheap. So, I'm gonna go see if it's running online somewhere for a cheap price. If not, then I can just wait and buy the series at one of my local video stores. But yeah, guys, I can totally recommend this film to both fans of Batman and comic book movies in general. The movie is absolutely amazing, and I can't wait to watch it again soon.

And so, we come to the close of this year's "Tales of the Longbox" marathon. And speaking of marathon's, the next one is right around the corner. Where in it, I'll be taking a look at a group of movies dedicated to Lupin The 3rd. Oh my god, I seriously cannot wait for that one. But until then, guys, take care, and I'll see you all later. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Ultimate Avengers: The Movie

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to "Tales of the Longbox" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm checking out an animated film from 2006. That movie is "Ultimate Avengers: The Movie".

Now, I do happen to remember a little bit about the Ultimate universe that Marvel ran from the mid-2000's. And when I say a little bit, I do mean that literally. It was essentially a different timeline separate from the main canon of Marvel Comics, which was also an attempt by Marvel to make the Ultimate universe well...somewhat more realistic and edgy, I guess. I don't remember all of the stories that happened in it, but I do remember stuff like Peter Parker was going out with Kitty Pryde of the X-Men instead of Mary Jane. I remember storylines like "Ultimatum", which turned out to be pretty fucking stupid. And I also happened to remember stuff like cannibalism, which happened quite a bit in the Ultimate universe. Don't ask me why, it's best you go read them for yourselves if you're really curious about that kind of thing.

But yeah, that's all I remember about the the Ultimate universe. Now admittedly, I don't know how much this movie is going to borrow from the Ultimate universe, if at all, or if it's just another origin story of how the Ultimate Avengers unite together. I don't know what this movie's going to be like, but I am still curious to find out. Now, on the off chance anyone may ask, yes, I have seen "The Avengers" MCU film that came out long after this movie, and I do remember mildly enjoying it. So, I'm hoping this movie is going to be unique in it's own way and, perhaps, maybe it'll turn out to be good.

That being said, though, I am setting my expectations low on this one. Because after watching "The Invincible Iron Man", I'm not expecting this thing to be amazing, let alone being good. In short, guys, in case you never read my review for "The Invincible Iron Man", it sucked massive throbbing dick. And this movie could possibly tread those lines of sucking as well. Now, I'm hoping that it doesn't, but considering that this thing came out a year before "The Invincible Iron Man", I'm not holding my breath on that. However, if there is any good news here, this movie is really short. It's only about an hour 10 minutes long. So, if this thing *does* suck, I can at least say that my pain will be short and sweet. Granted, I've said that about a couple of other films in the past, such as "Assault Girls" and "The Girl In The Shell", and, well, they were so awful that they ended up being on my Bottom 5 lists.

But hey, who knows? This movie could still somehow surprise me and wind up being decent. The only way I'm gonna find out, though, if it is decent at all, is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Ultimate Avengers: The Movie".

4 minutes later

So, not only are there mutant lizards working on this secret missile weapon with the Nazi's, the general commander is also himself a mutant lizard as well, who apparently has regenerative abilities. You know, somehow, I think certain groups of people would find that to be historically accurate in some way. And while I'm not gonna give out my politics here, I am gonna say that these mutant lizards look sorta cool, at least. So, I guess that's something.

17 minutes later

I didn't think this was actually possible, guys, but somehow, Tony Stark's actor sounds just about as wooden, if not more so, than how he did in "The Invincible Iron Man". And again, I should stress that this movie came out a year prior to "The Invincible Iron Man". And yet, his actor sounds almost no different than how he did before. That is a fucking accomplishment that I don't think this movie ever intended to go for, but somehow, they succeeded. That is fucking sad and depressing, guys.

12 minutes later

Guys, I'm already loving Thor in this movie. I don't know what it is exactly, but god damn it, it's already oozing with charm, and I'm hoping it stays that way with him for the remainder of this movie.

10 minutes later

Wait, so in this movie, Hank Pym is called Giant Man instead of Ant Man? I mean...it does make sense, what with his ability to grow bigger and all. But last I checked, the guy can still control ants, as has been demonstrated earlier. So, if that's the case, then who the hell is Ant Man in the Ultimate universe? I understand that it's mostly a trivial point and that it really doesn't matter here, but I'm still really curious about it.

16 minutes later

So, it took the movie almost half an hour to reintroduce Thor, after how I mentioned earlier about how much I loved him in this movie. That is...honestly, really fucking disappointing about how under-utilized he's been throughout this entire movie. That's really fucking sad, when you really think about it.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Ultimate Avengers: The Movie". Let me go ahead and shut the film off here...OK. So, what to say about this movie? Well honestly, guys, it's kind of a tough one here. I will say that the film did live up to being decent, which what I was hoping for anyways. But at the same time, it still leaves a lot to be desired here.

Why don't we start this review off proper here by first discussing the writing. Now, I mentioned earlier about how this movie has a very short runtime of 71 minutes. And that really is the biggest problem with this movie, as a whole, is that it's just really short. You only have so much time to introduce all of our primary characters, along with our story, which is really bare bones at best. Where a bunch of alien ships invade and Fury has to assemble a new team in order to stop this threat. That's really it for plot. And honestly, I'm perfectly OK with this. Because, honestly, when you're working an origin story, be it as a solo hero or team, you don't necessarily need an overly complex plot in order to introduce your characters. As long as you have a story that's easy to follow, then the build-up to your hero should also be decently developed as well. And for the most part, we do have that here. However, the short runtime is what dampers this film the most because, had this movie had gotten about 10-20 minutes more to work with, the film could've been fleshed out a whole lot more.

Now I'll get more into this as I go into the characters, but I do want to start with the positives here involving most of them. Most of our characters are very well developed and have quite a bit of personality. The best developed ones are a tie between Bruce Banner and Steve Rogers. For Banner, it's mostly about him trying to control his inner rage as the Hulk. While with Steve, aside from him being assigned to lead the Avengers, it's mostly just him trying to adjust to life in modern times after being frozen for many decades. The best moments involving him is when he goes to see Bucky, or "Buck" as he's called in this movie, as he's grown older while Steve looks the same as he did from the 40's. And we also learn that he's married to Steve's girlfriend, who's also grown older as well. This stuff is honestly the best thing about this movie, because it really shows how much things have changed with Steve being out of commission for so long. And it's especially notable when he's visiting the grave of all of his fallen soldiers and that he's the only one still active. That stuff is really powerful, and it really makes me appreciate Steve even more than when I did back when I wasn't a huge fan of him. It really shows, at least to me, how far he's really come as a character.

Now as for the other characters, most of them, like I said, are very well developed and have quite a bit of personality. Our team consists of Nick Fury, who's character design would later be used as the basis for Samuel L. Jackson in the MCU films. Then there's Black Widow, who actually speaks Russian in this movie. We also have Tony Stark who's unfortunately still poorly voiced here, but I'll get into that once I cover the acting here. We also have Hank and Janet Pym, the latter being the Wasp. Hank though, admittedly, I'm still not sure when or how he ever got the name "Giant Man" in the Ultimate comics, or who took over the role of Ant Man during that time. Which again, I know is a very trivial point, but I still find it really strange that he would not use the "Ant Man" name for this movie, even though he can still control ants here.

But then that brings us to Thor. Good lord, talk about a disappointment! I mentioned earlier about how much I was loving his character in this movie. Well, shortly after his introductory scene ends, he himself just disappears for a good portion of the entire movie, up until the last 10 minutes of it. Which makes no sense at all, especially when you consider that every other character here has some semblance of screen time to work with. But Thor, for whatever reasoning, doesn't get that luxury. My theory is that, again, this film was working with such a short runtime that they could only work with so many characters at once. And had it not gotten stuck with only 71 minutes of runtime, then Thor would've definitely gotten more of a chance to shine here along with the rest of the Avengers crew.

But, besides that, guys, the writing here is still pretty decent for what they had to work with. So yeah, I'm not gonna sit here and dwell any longer on what could've been expanded with a longer runtime. Though with that said, that leads me straight into the acting. Now, for the most part, the acting here is really good...with the one exception being Marc Worden as Tony Stark. Yeah, he's back again. Although this is technically his first time voicing Tony, with the second being "The Invincible Iron Man". And I'm just gonna tell you guys straight up that, just based on the two performances I've seen from Marc Worden, the man cannot act. At least, not as Tony Stark anyways. The acting from him is the same wooden garbage that he gave out when he voiced Tony in "The Invincible Iron Man". Nothing about it has changed, and it makes me wonder who in the casting department thought he was a good choice in voicing a character like Tony Stark? It doesn't make any sense to me, but it just goes to show that this guy was a horrible choice to play Tony Stark.

But aside from him, guys, the acting is really good from the entire cast here. Same goes for the animation. Everything here is colorful from the palettes, and the art-style is very good, too. The animation itself is very well animated, and there's very, very little usage of CG here. Which is great, because when I compare this thing to "The Invincible Iron Man", I'm left wondering what the hell happened between that film and this, where the animation in that film looked absolutely horrible, while this movie's animation was really good? And mind you, both movies came from the same studio, which is Lionsgate. So it begs the question on how drastically the animation took a dip in quality from "Ultimate Avengers: The Movie" to "The Invincible Iron Man"? I really want to know this, and quite frankly, I don't think I'm gonna get an answer for that. But, regardless of all that, I should just stick with what we did get and be happy that the animation is really good here.

Sound-mix here is mixed fine, and the score here is pretty generic and forgettable. Not terrible, but noting you're gonna remember this movie by.

Ultimately, guys, with all that said, am I able to recommend "Ultimate Avengers: The Movie"? Yes, I can still most certainly recommend it. While the writing is pretty safe and Thor's character depth is severely lacking, the rest of the movie is still definitely worth checking out. Granted, I'm not totally sure if it's worth watching on repeated viewings, but I might give this film another watch at some point, if I'm in the mood for it. And if you, yourself, are a fan of Marvel, and you want something that's different that isn't from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, then I can certainly recommend this thing to you. Now, I am aware that there is a sequel to this movie. One in which that I won't be able to cover this marathon, as I have one more film from DC to finish off the marathon, but who knows? I may consider reviewing the second movie for next year's "Tales of the Longbox" marathon. But in the meantime, I think I'm gonna continue this animated superhero trend by checking out something from DC Comics. And I think I'm gonna go watch "Justice League War". It's been a little while since I last watched that movie, and I think it needs another viewing from me. So, I'm gonna go do that next once I get done with this review.

Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.

Reaction & Review | Tokyo Ghoul

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to "Tales of the Longbox" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be checking out a horror movie from 2017. That movie is "Tokyo Ghoul".

Now, I do happen to remember watching "Tokyo Ghoul" on Toonami a few years ago, and I did wind up up enjoying it for what it was. Mind you, when I say that, I mean that I enjoyed only the first season of the show. Season 2 came around and, by the halfway point of the season, I wound up giving up on it. Because the story was not making any sense, and the way it ended, from what I remembered watching it anyway, was basically just trying to be art house bullshit, and ended up sucking because of that.

Now, setting the anime series aside, I was kinda surprised to discover that there was a live action adaptation movie of "Tokyo Ghoul" that existed. And I'm kinda intrigued by that concept alone, because I'm wondering how someone is able to turn a halfway decent series into a live action movie. Now, I know some people are already souring on the words "live action", because nowadays, there's been a bunch of those being released on streaming services. In other words, shows that were originally animated series getting turned into live action movies or shows, mostly for the sake of adding content. However, the good news here is that at least this one was made in Japan, so there is a possibility that it could be good.

Now as for what I know about "Tokyo Ghoul", all I know is that the main character is named Ken Kaneki, and he ends up turning into a vampire/human hybrid. At least, that's what I sorta remember about the series anyway. Again, it's been quite a few years since I last watched the series, so I may be missing out on some details there. Hopefully, the movie will be able to refresh my memory here, and maybe it'll end up being rather good. But the only way I'm gonna find out for myself is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Tokyo Ghoul".

8 minutes later

All right...well, that certainly took a left turn there. Mind you, it's not often that I see someone taking a bite out of someone's shoulder while hugging them, but this is one of those rare times that it happens. And it's *also* rare to see your girlfriend's eyes turn blood red, too. Yeah, I think it's safe to say that it just hasn't been Kaneki's day at all, hasn't it?

15 minutes later

OK, I have a question here, and it's sort of a stupid one, but I still want to ask it. So, we've just learned a moment ago from some scientist that says that ghouls can't eat the same kind of food humans can, because their tongues have a different taste and it's gonna end up being disgusting to them. Now if I remember correctly, Kaneki does end up working at a cafe, where they serve coffee and such. And I'm going to assume that he does end up drinking coffee there as well. Now, assuming that is the case, and I could be totally wrong here, because, again, I haven't seen the show in quite a long time, what makes coffee so special to ghouls? Is it like, the taste itself, that intrigues them? Does their tongues have some kind of natural born ability that makes them immune to coffee or something? Again, I totally understand that it's been a long time since I last watched the anime series, but I am really curious about that, and hopefully, this movie will provide some kind of explanation for it.

17 minutes later

OK, I have another dumb question here, but is anyone gonna ask why Kaneki has his eye bandaged up like that? I know the reason why Kaneki himself is covering it up, but it's strange to me that neither his best friend nor the other guy, who is also a ghoul, has asked him that. It's just kinda bugging me a little bit, you know what I mean?

19 minutes later

Wait, hang on a second here. So, Touka is trying to, well..."stomach" the food she had eaten a little while ago. And now, she just drank water to help alleviate some of the pain. So, am I to assume that water is also another kind of a liquid that they can just somewhat tolerate? Now, perhaps I'm misinterpreting this in some way, and she's using the water as some kind of medicine in case she was forced to eat human food, but it still leaves me wondering what exactly they're OK on digesting.

12 minutes later

Wait, so these two detectives have dug up the grave where Kaneki went to, to pay respects to Hinami's father. And inside his grave, they find a mask. Now, the mask itself is not really what I wanted to bring up. What I'm bringing up is the fact that they *never* checked the cloth that Hinami had wrapped up for Kaneki, which contains coffee beans. Coffee beans, I should mention, are from the same cafe that Kaneki works for. Wouldn't they be able to trace that information back to the coffee shop, which is essentially a safe haven for ghouls? Granted, I'm not sure how well that would work out, but the fact that they never checked that first seems kind of like an ass-backwards decision, you know what I mean?

18 minutes later

You know what, guys, I've been holding this off for quite a while now, but I think now is the perfect time to mention this. The CG in this movie is, uh...well, it leaves a lot to be desired. I'm gonna get more into this later when I eventually review this movie. But just to let you guys know now, I'm *very* on and off when it comes to the CG in this movie. I'll just leave it at that for now.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Tokyo Ghoul". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. Well...what to say about this movie? You guys probably noticed that I've been asking a lot of questions about this movie. Some of those I'll get into later on, but I am gonna say, first and foremost, that this movie isn't terrible. In fact, I wouldn't even call this a bad movie at all. It's actually pretty good. Mind you, when I say it's "pretty good", I am in no way saying that the movie is great or anything. But as it is, it certainly is a decent movie. Both as an adaptation of it's anime/manga counterpart, and as a pretty decent standalone horror flick as well.

So, why don't we start this review off proper, as I usually do with a lot of these reviews, by first discussing the writing. Now, as I mentioned at the start of this thing, I haven't seen the "Tokyo Ghoul" anime series in a number of years. I've also tried reading the manga at one point in time, but I don't really remember my experiences with the manga all that well. Most of that is gonna come from the anime. And like I said, I really only enjoyed the first season, and season 2...well, let's leave that aside, since it has no bearing on this movie. But anyway, since I haven't seen or read anything from this series in a long time, my memory of it is not gonna be as strong as it was back when I first watched it on Toonami all those years ago. That said, though, as I've established many times beforehand, I review these kinds of adaptations as it's own thing, rather than try and compare it to whatever source material it originally came from. So, any details I may have potentially missed from my time then are not gonna really play a factor here now.

With that said, though, I do think the movie has plenty enough to be able to stand on it's own merits. To begin with, the movie is about 2 hours long. And for the first hour or so, they spend that time delving into Kaneki's origin story about how he ended up getting bitten by a ghoul, and how he eventually ends up turning into one himself. And from there one, it's mostly about him trying to slowly adapt to his new lifestyle where he can't really eat the same kind foods that he normally would, thanks to him being a ghoul. He has to feast on human blood in order to survive, much like any other ghoul. And you can tell that it's eating him up inside, knowing all this, which shows a lot of humanity to the character, especially knowing that he had gotten into all this by accident. In fact, if there's one thing I can definitely give this movie is that they really do a good job of making you care about our main character. Most of the other characters are mostly just kinda there, but there is one more exception to this, whom I'll get to in a minute here.

But as for the rest of the writing, there is a couple of things that I wanted to discuss here. First of all, you guys probably noticed that I asked a lot of questions about certain things. Some of which don't really ever get properly answered. For starters, I brought up the whole thing about Kaneki getting to work at the coffee shop shortly after getting a sip of coffee himself. I asked why is coffee so special to ghouls and why the taste attracts them? Well...they never really say why. In fact, the owner of the coffee shop even admits that himself. So, that little detail never gets properly explained at all in this movie. Another thing is that there's another story going on where we focus on a group of investigators going through a case involving a ghoul that wears a certain type of ring around their finger. The only real problem with this whole thing is that the movie just jumps you right into it, and you're left wondering if this anything to do with the film itself. It does, of course. but to be perfectly honest, it's probably the weakest part of the writing here, as you're not gonna be as invested into it, unlike the character depth that our main characters have.

Speaking of which, there is one other character, besides Kaneki, that I wanted to talk about. It's a character that I was the most curious about, because it was a character that I really liked back when I was watching the anime. The character I'm referring to is Hinami. For those of you who don't know, Hinami is a young girl that is also a ghoul, along with her mother, whom she lives with. And the thing that made Hinami the most likable character for me was that childlike innocence to her, and, without going into any spoilers about her, despite everything she has gone through, she still maintains that innocence to her character. And I was wondering if this movie was gonna be able to adapt her character depth well enough here. And well...yes, I can safely say that they did. Now, I don't think it's as good as it was in the anime, but again, this movie did a good enough job adapting her character arc, to where I can say that it makes her character just as good as Kaneki's is here. So yeah, again, the character depth in this movie is really good, when it comes to both Kaneki and Hinami.

So, as a whole, the writing here is pretty good. Though there are some slip-ups here when it comes to the story, most of it can be ignored, as long as you don't read too much into the missing details. Fans of the series might say otherwise, though I wouldn't really know for sure since I haven't met anyone that knows about this movie. But anyway, regardless of all that, the writing here is still pretty good. And as for the acting, well, I ended up watching the subtitled version with the Japanese audio, because that's what I got when I first pushed play on the menu screen. And I can say that the acting from the cast here is great. No matter the role, everybody turned in 110% with their performances here. Nobody phones it in, and I couldn't detect any signs of phoned in acting either. Which is great, because it shows me that everybody in this movie gave a damn about turning in an awesome performance, and they did. So, props to the entire cast here for turning in the best performance that they did here.

Special effects...oh boy, um...well, I can't really get around this subject without mentioning the CG. The best way I can describe this movie's CG is that it is *definitely* a mixed bag here. And the one effect that's gonna either make or break this movie for you guys is how you feel about the tentacles, each time that a ghoul unleashes them from their body. I'm gonna tell you, guys, the first time I saw this in action, it really didn't look that great. It wasn't completely awful, but it just seemed somewhat off-putting to me. And the rest of the movie's CG is like that too. Some shots look OK, but then there are other shots involving the tentacles that just look kinda terrible. And I can't really pinpoint any particular scene in the movie because, like I said, almost every shot involving these CG tentacles are like that. So really, it's something that you're either gonna really get use to, or it's gonna pull you out of the movie entirely. For me, it was something that I eventually got use to, but I obviously can't guarantee that it'll be like that for everyone else. There's also a few cases of CG blood, and, well...it's also kinda terrible as well. Granted, it's not the worse case of CG blood I've seen in a movie, but that's not really saying very much, so I'll just leave it at that.

Camerawork here is pretty good. Lighting, in most cases, looks really good, but there are a few shots where it could've been better. Now admittedly, there are a few shots in the movie where it'll attempt to hide the CG tentacles. Probably because those shots, in particular, are some of the worst in the movie. Though whether that was actually intentional or not is something I can't say. But anyway, the sound-mix here is mixed pretty well. And the music here is just OK. Nothing about the score here is great, but it's nothing horrible either. It's just there, really.

So yeah, the technical stuff here works fine for this movie. And with all that said, am I able to recommend "Tokyo Ghoul"? I would say yes, especially if you're a fan of the series in general. As for non-fans, well, I would say it's still worth checking out, if at least just once. Which is probably the camp I'm sitting in right now, because I really don't see myself watching this thing a second time. Now let me be clear again: The movie *is* good. But as I mentioned before, I'm not really the biggest fan of "Tokyo Ghoul", and this movie didn't exactly win me over as a die-hard fan. Now I do know that there is a sequel to this movie, though I can't guarantee that I'll ever cover the sequel. It just depends on the timing, really. Right now, I don't see myself covering it anytime soon. But as for this movie, by itself, I would still recommend checking it out. And who knows, maybe as a non-fan, you'll probably end up watching it more times that I did. But as for me, I'm just gonna stick to the once-over in this case. And on that nte, I'm gonna go and watch something different. Perhaps maybe I'll watch my copy of... "Wicked City". I haven't seen that one in quite a while, so I'm gonna go do that next once I get done with this review.

Anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.

Reaction & Review | The Invincible Iron Man

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to "Tales of the Longbox", here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering an animated movie from 2007. That movie is "The Invincible Iron Man".

I don't know what it is about Iron Man, but for some reason, he's always had some sort of a presence around this series. He's been in almost every one of my "Tales of the Longbox" marathons, with the exception last year's one. I guess, maybe, it's because I've always had some sort of attachment to him in some way. Part of that would have to go the first "Iron Man" movie from the MCU, which I still believe is the best MCU movie that has ever been made.

So with that being said, I've decided to actually take a look at one of his animated outings, which is kind of a rare thing for me, considering I've only ever covered two animated movies that featured Marvel characters. But yes, I'm gonna be taking a look at this one, plus one more animated Marvel film, which I'll cover later on this marathon.

Now as for what I know about this movie, well...it's not really much, honestly. All I know is that it's an animated movie centered around Iron Man. And as for the actual content, I have no idea what it is at this time. However, I'm gonna cut that short, because I really just want to get into this one. I'm hoping for it to be good, however, I don't really know if it will be. The only way I am gonna find out for sure is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "The Invincible Iron Man".

10 minutes later

Wait, so Tony's Dad is not only alive in this movie, but he's also one of the board members of Stark Industries? And I should mention that Tony himself is a full-grown adult, yet his Dad is still alive. O...K...that's definitely gonna take some time to getting use to, I guess.

19 minutes later

So, let me if I understand all this. These guys just killed the monk that helped save Tony's life. And in exchange, they tell him that he must reverse the damage that was done from raising this ancient temple by defeating the 4 elemental guardians before they resurrect the Mandarin. Otherwise, they'll kill Rhodes within one week. I should mention, by the way, that the elemental guardians are on a mission to collect the 4 rings that they need to bring the Mandarin back to life, and that they've already found one of them already. Don't you think that, by giving Stark only a week to try and come up with a strategy, that the elemental guardians will have already have found all 4 of the rings by then? I get that this is all part of Tony's origin story in becoming Iron Man, but I still think you're giving him a rather small timetable in coming up with a strategy, you know what I mean?

16 minutes later

All right, I have a question here, and it's really starting to bother me a bit. What accent is Pepper suppose to be giving out? I can't tell if she's trying to act like a snooty British woman or what, but it's really starting to bother me a bit because her accent is just throwing me the fuck off here.

5 minutes later

Well, guys, I think now is the perfect time to mention this as any. The CG on these elemental guardians look horrible. Like, they genuinely look awful, when they're in motion. I'll get more into this later when I eventually review this thing, but I just wanted to let you guys know that right now because it's something that I couldn't ignore mentioning.

8 minutes later

You know, guys, I don't claim to be an expert on Iron Man, but I don't recall his trademark suit ever being immune to lava. So, if there's anyone out there who's reading this, could you tell me whether or not that happened at any time in the comics, where he delved into a pool of lava with his suit and came out looking fine? Otherwise, that's just kinda stupid and somewhat overpowered to me.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "The Invincible Iron Man". Let me go ahead and shut the, uh, movie off here...OK. Dear lord, what the fuck happened here...? Yeah, I'm just gonna cut right to the chase and tell you guys that this movie was *really* fucking stupid. OK, sure, it's a superhero film. And superhero movies have a tendency to be stupid at times, but at least most of those are self-aware of how ridiculous they can actually be. But this movie is stupid for completely different reasons, and they're not really for the better either.

Let's actually start this thing off here by first discussing the writing. Now, for the most part, this movie is essentially an origin story for Tony Stark becoming Iron Man. And for this being an animated film, I'm perfectly OK with that. Because, outside of having a couple of animated series dedicated to Iron Man, I do believe that this may be one of the very first animated movies that tells his origin story. I could possibly be mistaken here, but I'm gonna stick by that for now. And it's pretty much almost beat for beat how it was in the live action movie, with the only real differences being that the origin story takes place in China, while the in the live action film, it was was set somewhere in the Middle East. So, in that sense, I'm perfectly fine with the writers wanting tell his origin story here for this movie.

Unfortunately, almost everything else in terms of writing here is just a fucking stupid mess. Now, the premise itself, outside of Tony's origin story, is essentially him trying to stop the Mandarin's resurrection from happening, after Rhodes and a team of workers try to raise an ancient temple from underground for, I guess, the sake of research. However, they eventually get ambushed by a group of costumed terrorists known as the Jade Dragons, who are trying to stop the temple from ever being risen because it's part of a prophecy in order for the Mandarin's resurrection to be fulfilled. The other part of the resurrection prophecy comes from the rise of these elemental guardians, who, once they get risen, are out to search for the 5 rings that are essential in restoring the Mandarin to life. Now as for the Jade Dragons, they do eventually capture Rhodes, which forces Tony to come out of his soapbox and come to China in order to find him. And afterwards, well, it eventually leads into Tony's origin story, and, well, at this point, you probably already know what happens there with him, so I won't go into too much detail there.

OK, so the premise itself is pretty easy to follow. But now let's get into the actual problems with the writing itself. First of all, I want to show you guys something.

Now, on the back of the DVD case, one of the things that I noticed about it was this promotional artwork piece featuring Iron Man fighting the Mandarin. Why am I showing you this exactly? Well, as I watching the movie, I happened to notice this artwork piece on the back of the DVD case, and I find it to be really sad and laughable. Because you notice how you see Iron Man wearing his trademark yellow and red armored suit while battling the Mandarin? Yeah, this battle never actually happens in the entire movie. And also, you never see Tony wearing this suit either as well, while fighting him. The only time you ever see him wearing his trademark suit is during the lava scene, where he's trying to prevent one of the sacred rings from being retrieved by the elemental guardians. And then shortly afterwards, he abandons it in some unknown forest in China. Yeah, great job there, Tony. Shows how much you actually care about the fucking suit! Because instead, he abandons it later in favor of his bulky grey suit, which is what allowed him to escape from his imprisonment in the first place.

And do you know what else is very deceptive about this artwork? Aside from it being a complete and utter lie, it also undermines a very important plot-point in the movie. Because, we are told that when the Mandarin does rise from his grave after getting all of the rings together, an "Iron Knight" will show up from the ashes to do battle against the Mandarin and stop him once and for all. And that's all part of the actual prophecy! But instead, that doesn't happen, because this woman named Li Mei is the one who actually ends up defeating the Mandarin. And without going into spoilers as to how this happens, it ends in a very anti-climatic and cliche way that I've seen done many times beforehand in other movies and TV shows. Difference here is that it's not handed in a very well mannered fashion. Believe me when I tell you guys that it's *that* badly handled.

Speaking of which, all of the characters in this movie are flat and fucking lifeless. There is not a single character here that has any depth or personality to them. The one character I want to focus on most is Tony's father Howard Stark. Now, I can overlook the idea that he's actually alive in this movie. In fact, if this thing were written bitter, it would probably make for some rather decent melodrama. Unfortunately, that's not what happens here. Instead, Howard is being written as some self-centered asshole with no emotional attachments towards Tony at all. The thing that still baffles me is how the hell did he know that Tony was alive, after Tony and Rhodes escape from their imprisonment? I ask this, because after Tony and Rhodes escape and land somewhere near homeland, they're suddenly greeted by members S.H.I.E.L.D. and try to place Tony under arrest for selling his weapons to terrorists, AKA the Jade Dragons, in China. And while all this is happening, Howard Stark is behind all of them, not saying a word to Tony. And it leads me to think for a while on whether or not he was actually going to be a villain for this movie or not. Now, there *is* something of a reason as to how this all happens, but again, it's so haphazardly written that by the time you know the reason, it just comes across as really stupid and poorly put together.

And that's the best way I can summarize this movie's writing. It is just so poorly written that I could be here for hours discussing all of the failings that this movie has, when it comes to it's writing. But there are other issues here that don't just plague the writing. The acting here is also pretty bad as well. The worst actor here easily goes to Marc Worden voicing Tony Stark. Every single bit of dialogue he gives out here feels *incredibly* wooden. At no point does he put in any sort of effort into making Tony sound interesting or believable as a character. Now admittedly, this is the only time I've ever heard him voicing a character here, so I'm not gonna entirely blame his performance just based on this movie alone. I'm mostly gonna blame his poor performance on the writing because, as I've mentioned so many times beforehand, you can only do so much when you're given a script that is this poorly written. The rest of the acting isn't all that better, though, in all honesty, it's not as horrible as it could've been, so...I guess that's something of a positive, though that's not saying very much at all, really.

Now let's get into one of the big problems with this movie, besides the writing, which is the animation. Oh dear lord, where do I even start with this one...? Well, I will say that the art-style is fine for what it is, but the color palettes on this movie feel really bland and lifeless, almost as if there's barely any color to this movie. I mean, the most color you get in this movie comes from the elemental guardians. However, what ruins them is the CG, which I'll talk about in a second here. But for the most part, most of the color palette in this movie looks really bland and uninspired. It almost looks like a prototype for an animated series that never came to pass. Which, I'm gonna be honest, after watching this movie, I'm thankful that we never got an animated series out of this. Because this thing was just so bad that this thing would be a poor fucking introduction to Iron Man, as a whole. The animation is just OK, though it's not great, and, at times, looks really cheap.

Speaking of which, that transitions greatly into the CG. Oh dear heavenly fuck, where do I even start here?! Well...how about we start off with the elemental guardians themselves? Now, as I already mentioned a moment ago, the most color you'll get out of this movie comes from the elemental guardians. And I will also say that their designs don't look too bad either. But it's when you see them moving is when the problems start to arise here. But to start with, the CG, as a whole, looks as if it was a pre-rendered cutscene from an Xbox 360 game. And when I say pre-rendered, I'm talking, like, *early* Xbox 360 standards. Which makes sense, considering that this movie came out in 2007, and the Xbox 360 was still relatively new at the time. And in most cases, I would give this movie a pass for bad CG. However, I can't really do that, because if I had to seriously compare this movie's CG to an early Xbox 360 game, I would compare it to something like Sonic 06. Because as rushed as that game was, it had better in-game cutscenes, and better CG, when compared to the garbage CG that was in this movie. It seriously does look *that* bad.

And the biggest kicker out of all this is that it feels really unfinished, too. To give you guys an example, there's a scene in this movie where Iron Man is trapped underwater, and he's desperately trying to escape his situation. And I swear to you guys, I'm not making this up, his arm actually *skipped* a frame as he was moving it at one point. I thought, maybe, it might've been my poor eyesight at first, but it really did skip a frame of animation! I genuinely didn't think I would ever get to experience something like that in an animated movie, but holy shit, this movie found a way to pull something like that off. And mind you, a lot of DC's direct-to-video animated movies have had their cases of bad CG, but again, they didn't look *nearly* as horrible as the CG that was presented in this movie! And it's not just the elemental guardians that suffer from horrible CG, all of Iron Man's suits are rendered in CG, too. And as a result, all of them bulky and ugly as shit! It doesn't matter whether it's his trademark yellow and red suit, or the big bulky suits he uses, *all* of them are horribly rendered and horribly animated as well. This is, by far, some of the worst-looking CG I have ever seen produced for an animated movie of any caliber. This animation, mostly the CG anyway, is complete garbage. The traditional animation isn't all that better, mind you, but the CG is what kills this movie's animation the most here.

Now...setting aside the horrible animation, the sound-mix here is mixed fine. And the music here is a very generic score that is completely forgettable and not even worth listening to on repeat. Serviceable, sure. But ultimately, just forgettable.

And yeah, I think that's the best way I can describe this movie as a whole. So, with that all said, can I recommend "The Invincible Iron Man"? No. Even if you're a fan of the character, there's no way in hell I can ever recommend this movie to anyone. With all of the problems I discussed about this movie, there's almost nothing I can say that's even considered a positive about it. The only thing I could say that is a positive is the fact that we actually got a better introduction to the character thanks to the live action movie that came out a year after this one. So, if anything else, I guess I could say that much about this movie. But aside from that, there's nothing else that I could say is even worth checking out for. Even with this movie's $3 price tag that I bought at one of my local video stores, it's not worth picking up at all. And to be honest, I feel a little bit ripped off, knowing now how terrible this movie was. So, I'll be happy when I eventually trade this thing in, because I'm kinda sick of looking at it to be honest with you guys. So now, I'm gonna go and watch something better. And seeing as how I was mentioning how superhero films can be stupid at times, I'm gonna go and watch my DVD copy of "Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D." Because that is a stupid superhero movie done right. Or, at least, done better than how this movie handled it's stupidity.

And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.