direct to DVD

Having released Superman: Doomsday, Justice League: New Frontier and the new Wonder Woman animated movie (which I found to be quite good), DC has on its plate to release Green Lantern next year. But after that, it looks like Superman/Batman:Public Enemies will be released in the Fall of 2009.

Public Enemies was a story from DC's World's Finest comic. I have been enjoying this new venture from DC, but why do they choose such mediocre stories to base an animated feature on? When will they try animating the heavy-hitters like The Dark Knight Returns or Kingdom Come (admittedly a difficult task in animating Alex Ross' art) or something from the Vertigo line?

Plus, they're diving back into the whole "President Luthor" storyline which I felt was more of a commentary on the Bush presidency and is therefore kind of irrelevant now. Perhaps DC wants to use the concept before people forget the previous administration entirely.

If this direct-to-DVD animated movie wasn't written by Joss Whedon (and according to the credits, it wasn't), it was certainly inspired by him. I cannot help but wonder after seeing an advance preview of this animated movie if this is how the failed Wonder Woman motion picture would have turned out.

(Speaking of Joss Whedon, those who caught the screening at the New York Comic Con, like me, were lucky enough to see a pre-recorded intro by Nathan Fillion, who voices Steve Trevor in the film. He said he would have loved to be here but he was busy filming Serenity 2. He then said he was kidding. I then threw my shoe at the screen.)

If this movie had a rating, it would be PG-13. There was tremendous violence and blood and even a bit of Amazon skin (but the naughty bits were obscured a la Austin Powers). There was also a lot of snappy patter between the characters which cleverly disguised some philosophical dialogue about modern relationship issues between the sexes.

That's a direct-to-DVD movie, not a TV movie or one for the theaters.

The movie was announced in 2005, and now Babylon 5 creator/writer J. Michael Straczynski confirms that not only is there a movie coming this year but it's just about done. The film has been shot and now they're just working on post-production stuff (title sequence, music, special effects, etc). He tells the Babylon 5 newsgroup that the DVD will be released around July 27.

I never watched Babylon 5, and I always thought I missed out on something good. Straczynski is a good writer, and I know that Harlan Ellison was involved in the show too, so I should really get the DVDs. The movie will star Bruce Boxleitner, Tracy Scoggins, and Peter Woodward.