MrMazz

Thoughts on The Amazing Spider Man 2 - The Amazing Spider Mess http://t.co/quJwkfKV1Z

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DC Animated Features Power Rankings

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Since its start in 2007 with Superman: Doomsday, Warner Bros. Animation has slowly saturated the home video (and now digital) market place with adaptations mostly of well known storylines ,to a varying degree of success. A move that capitalizes on their past success in animation with the informal DCAU and differentiate itself from comics (and corporate rival) Marvel/Disney, capitalizing on a mostly untouched marketplace. Not everything they've done is good or watchable but they have been consistently entertaining (if a bit cotton candy like at times).

This is an attempt to make a consistent list of all DC Animated features, It will be updated when new ones are released digitally or physically.

UPDATE: 1/15/15 - Justice League: Throne of Atlantis added to the list at number 18 pushing everything 18 and below, down one slot.

UPDATE: 5/5/15 - Batman vs Robin added to list at pushing Superman vs The Elite and the rest after down a slot.

UPDATE: 8/17/15 - added JL: Gods and Monsters as #5 moving Crisis on Two Earths and below down a single peg.

UPDATE 1/23/16 - added Batman: Bad Blood in at #11 pushing Superman/Batman: Apocolypse and the rest down one and swapped JL: New Frontier with TDKR Part 2.

UPDATE: 4/17/16 - added Justice League vs Teen Titans in at #10 pushing everything else downa spot. Switched Red Hood and New Frontier spots for 8/9

UPDATE: 8/2/16 - added Batman: The Killing Joke in at #27 so no changes it's the bottom of the list.

List items

  • I really didn't care for the Flashpoint event. It was big plot driven and epic in the ways I find disinteresting narratively, despite coming together in the end. With the limitations placed on these features, Flashpoint Paradox manages to both give an epic scale to the apocalyptic plot and find a legitimate emotional foundation in Barry Allen's guilt.

  • Loosely based on George Perez’ “Gods and Mortals” arc, Wonder Woman is among one of the few non-Batman/Superman features made and one of the most consistent. Kerri Russell is expertly cast as the voice of Dana Prince. Wonder Woman isn’t ground breaking from a story standpoint but has a tight script that hits the right beats and shows what can be done in 77 minutes when you have good structure.

  • The second of the Green Lantern animated features, Emerald Knights eschews Hal Jordan for the entierity fo the Green Lantern Corp. The secodn anthology style feature from Warner Bros. Animation, Emerald Knights manages to tell a vareity of stories and show the history of the Green Lantern Corp in a way that is approachable to the uninitiated.

  • The Dark Knight Returns adaptation is an interesting and novel one. Often collected as a single volume but originally released as single issues, The Dark Knight Returns: Part One focuses on the first two issues of Frank Miller's seminal work. The subtle Peter Weller performance as Bruce Wayne rediscovers himself, is among this series best. Even with its clean animation, Jay Olivia manages to imbue the dirty 80s aesthetic found in Miller’s art. The connected nature of the first issues also gives this feature a stronger structural foundation in terms of telling a self contained but open ended arc.

  • God and Monsters, marks the return of Bruce Timm to DC animation. Creating a alternate universe with a darker, more narrsistic and less heroic Trinity. But Timm rightly understands that these are not unmutable symbols but objects in constant flux. Using Gods and Monsters to tell a story that shows the generally held rules of superheroisim.

  • With all that is written, just calling this a really good Justice League story seems like easy praise and justification. But that is what this feature is: a well done Justice League story. Based on Grant Morrison's "JLA: Earth 2" shows what it could be like if the Justice League decieded they were sick of protecting the ants.

  • This being the latest feature could make this appear overrated, and it's something I'm entirely open to discussing.

    The top end of this list is there for both the quality of product and its novelty compared to the average of the line. Set in the Arkham-verse, Assault on Arkham is a Suicide Squad story first and foremost. You could honestly not realize this is related to the Arkham games if it weren't for the logo.

    Assault on Arkham capitalizes on the tight run time of these features to tell a mission of the Suicide Squad. Its plot driven rollercoaster writing, but writer Heath Corson gives everyone enough time to breathe to bump off and play personalities of another.

    The synergy and expediency used to develop and communicate character as they are pushed by the plot is exceptional and an example of how plot driven works of fiction should work.

  • The New Frontier is a hard nut to crack at first, aesthetica and temporally set in the 50's Golden Ageof comics, New Frontier goes for an epic scale and large cast that proves to be its undoing sadly. Stretched thin, the feature rubber bands hard as it moves into its finale; pulling all of its elements together in quick fashion. Still, it is a feature that goes for something grand and more interesting on a sub textual and symbolic level than most of these features.

  • I honestly don’t really like this feature. It’s formless as Batman wonders chasing ghosts and the Red Hood begins his gang war. But its final confrontation at the end and the meditation on the nature of super heroics vs. vigilantism makes this one of the better DC Animated features. Formless as it is, Red Hood features some well done action set pieces and a level of gore that set itself apart from the DC Animated feature line.

  • JL vs Teen Titans is a sneaky movie, sold on the Justice League name when this is a Titans joint through and through. A fun surprisingly bloodless teen adventure about the second generation of DC heroes.

  • Perhaps if viewed continuously as a single tome, The Dark Knight Returns Part Two would be higher. As it stands despite having a pair of iconic arcs, the final confrontation with Joker and the fight with Superman, The Dark Knight Returns Part 2 lack of time to further explore the psyche of Bruce and the characters is its undoing. Like some of these features it operates on an assumed amount of extra textual knowledge by the audience that allows for it to hit action beats but as a whole misses the character.

  • The fifth entry in the new DC Animated universe and finally an overall solid good entry. Bad Blood dosen't really blow anything away but its consistency is appreciated in comparison to the overall terrible quality of its predecessors.

  • Like New Frontier, Apocalypse goes for the epic. Getting away with it on sheer guile and imagery - like Batman going toe to toe with Darkseid or the final confrontation - Apocalypse is carried by its vocal cast, who earn emotional moments that perhaps wouldn't have otherwise.

  • Even someone like me, a disnterested reader of Supermanc cannot argue with the quality of All Star Superman. Like most of these features, I am left wanting more. Paired down as it, All-Star Superman dose an admirable if shortened job trying to adapt one of the better modern Superman stories.

  • The novelty found in Gotham Knight is immense, something that makes up for its inconsistent quality story to story. Different studios each telling different Batman-stories is a cool idea. Warner Bros. did this previoulsy with The Animatrix (the second best Matrix film) and The New Batman Adventures did something similar with "Legends of the Dark Knight". But a couple of good shorts doesn’t make up for lesser shorts.

  • For all of its bluster the famous "Death of Superman" arc isn't that interesting too me. Within the "Death of Superman", Superman: Doomsday finds an excellent excuse to go on a giant action set piece bender that is entertaining. Sadly with the limited time given to these features

  • This could have been something. First Flight's poor script structure though undermines the features impact as the training of Hal Jordan feels rushed.

  • Even if it is based on one of Frank Miller's seminal works and feature an excellent vocal cast, something about doing a Batman origin story seems so boring. Especially given the fact that Batman Begins had uses Year One's structure as a basis for another (perhaps the) rendition of the origin story. Year One isn't bad but it isn't great either. It's just an adaptation of a story that we already know.

  • Based on the "Tower of Babel" arc, Doom uses it as a basis for a cracker jack plot. But in its quickness loses the more nuanced character questions brought up by the source. Leaving them for a half hearted finale that lacks gravitas.

  • This is actually really close to being a super sloid good animated feature. Certainly the best of this new DCAU, faint praie that it is. But it has an oddly meandering second act and less than stellar vocal preformances from Jason O'Mara stunting its quality.

  • "What's So Funny About Truth, Justice & the American Way?" is among the great Superman stories but I was never able to really get the feeling that Superman was being pushed out or that Superman vs. The Elite was rebelling against some brewing change in the perception and expectations of superheroes like the original comic.

  • Is it better to be terribly unforgetable or so middle of the road that no one really cares? Throne of Atlantis is the latter. It has all the ususal problems these features have. It's nothing new.

  • An uttler lack of emotional engagment is what hurts this feature. Loosely based on "Batman and Son", Son of Batman fails to conjure any interesting questions or emotion out of the discovery that Batman is a father.

  • Poor stock does not make for good soup. Justice League: War uses as its basis a less than interesting storyline for its source and while an excellent way to contextualize mass destruction fails to become something more than its source. Fun vocal performances by Michelle Monaghan and Justin Kirk on top of some very giffable moments dose nothing to lessen the features in ability to engender a connection between its icons and the audience.

  • Being second to last is an in enviable position to be in. Clearly not good but not the worst, Superman: Unbound just didn't look good to me. Even worse when my biggest complaint is one I feel is kind of lame, I was unable to get past the art style and structure of the feature. That said John Noble's performance as Braniac is worth at least one watch.

  • As cool as seeing Batman pilot a mech is, that doesn’t make up for the wham bam structure of the film, which resembles the narrative coherency of Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen. If you want cool action set pieces, go look it up on YouTube.

  • This adaptation is so supremely misguided and ill conceived any quality that was hoped to be gained by adapting Alan Moore an Brian Bollard's one shot is lost via an original prequel and animation that reminds you why Alan Moore is best consumed in its original form.