The DC Animated Movieverse 2013-2020

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Ares
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The DC Animated Movieverse 2013-2020

Post by Ares »

So with Justice League Dark: The Apocalypse War, the DC Animated Movie-verse that began in 2013 with The Flashpoint Paradox comes to a close. A new continuity is set to start with a new film titled Superman: The Man of Tomorrow.

My thoughts?

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

Seriously, I hated the vast majority of these films. It really came off as the creators wasting good animation on super edgy storylines that focused on the grimdark. Everything was just so violent, bloody and morose that I don't know how anyone was suppose to care about anything. And the swearing. Lots and lots of swearing.

The only two movies I liked were the Death of Superman and Reign of the Supermen films, because those actually tried to be somewhat faithful to the original story.

Meanwhile Justice League: War and Throne of Atlantis had very few likable characters, a focus on ultra-violence, and just weren't good generally speaking. The two Suicide Squad films and Flashpoint itself just seemed to enjoy wallowing in misery. Maybe the Batman ones were better, but I didn't feel motivated enough to check them out.

It's honestly kind of sad how Barry Allen originally sacrificed his life to ensure the survival of the DCU, but here, thanks to Flashpoint and Apocalypse War, he's now basically destroyed the DCU three times. Once to set off Flashpoint, once to fix Flashpoint, and now to fix things again. Barry was suppose to be a savior, not a reset button.

I don't mind seeing this version of the DCAU go away. The DC animated movies like Public Enemies, Crisis on Two Earths, Doom, Return of Black Adam, First Flight and others were generally more enjoyable. I fully support a DC movie-verse or a new animated series, but if so, maybe something a little less Justice League War and Young Justice and more Justice League Unlimited, The Batman and Teen Titans.

On a personal note, I HATED this version of Shazam about as much as the official Nu-52 version. The only thing this one has going for him is that he's not quite the tool Geoff Johns made him out to be, and there was one genuinely nice moment where he helped Cyborg reaffirm his humanity. Apart from that, he's been a watered down dumbass, and the latest movie actually has him actually be a little bit of a coward. When the invasion of Apocalypse initially fails, three people escape. John Constantine due to a compulsion Zatanna placed on him. Lex Luthor due to selling out Earth and swearing to help Darkseid. And Shazam, because he was flying away from the fight and Cyborg Boom Tubed him back to Earth. And despite escaping, he contributes less to stopping the threat than Swamp Thing.

Nu-Shazam sucks.

I will give Apocalypse War this: I laughed HARD when King Shark revealed that he's the ultimate troll.
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saint_matthew
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Re: The DC Animated Movieverse 2013-2020

Post by saint_matthew »

Ares wrote: Wed May 06, 2020 5:57 amSo with Justice League Dark: The Apocalypse War, the DC Animated Movie-verse that began in 2013 with The Flashpoint Paradox comes to a close. A new continuity is set to start with a new film titled Superman: The Man of Tomorrow.
I did not know that, but I can't say I will be sad to see the end of that stupid era of shitty DC animated films.
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Re: The DC Animated Movieverse 2013-2020

Post by squirrelly-sama »

One thing I really didn't like for this era was the art style, especially the way they started drawing the male faces. Every one of them looked like the had a botched face lift and injections.
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Re: The DC Animated Movieverse 2013-2020

Post by saint_matthew »

squirrelly-sama wrote: Wed May 06, 2020 10:18 amOne thing I really didn't like for this era was the art style, especially the way they started drawing the male faces. Every one of them looked like the had a botched face lift and injections.
Or the colours. It's like this version of the DC universe was suffering from "player two syndrome", where all the characters looked like they had been coloured to match the second character pallet swap you get in fighting game when the second player chooses the same character as the first player.

All the colours were just off.
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Re: The DC Animated Movieverse 2013-2020

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Apparently the same people involved with these movies are making the animated Mortal Kombat movies, which honestly seems like a better fit. Let the people who want to indulge in their edgelord hyperviolence work on Mortal Kombat and let the people who want the films to actually resemble previous DC animated series to work on the new films.

And for the love of God, just stop letting the people doing Teen Titans GO! from doing anything related to the DCU ever again.
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Re: The DC Animated Movieverse 2013-2020

Post by Ken »

I haven't seen a new animated DC film since either Doom or Crisis on Two Earths.
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Re: The DC Animated Movieverse 2013-2020

Post by greycrusader »

I enjoyed the Fatal Five movie, though I'm not sure which continuity it was set in-at first I thought the B:TAS/S:TAS/JLU version, but that setting had an episode where three JLAers encountered the Legion, with Supergirl choosing to remain in the 31st century. It could still conceivably fit, given that alternate timelines/parallel universes were canonical in the JLU series, or perhaps the League simply encountered a Legion which (due to the issues of time travel) existed PRIOR to the events which saw Supergirl join the latter team.

Also disappointed the Justice League/Crime Syndicate Earth-3 tale wasn't consistent with the JLU, since it would have required only minor changes to make it so.

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Re: The DC Animated Movieverse 2013-2020

Post by catsi563 »

Well Im going to go out ina blaze of glory as a defender of these movies. I enjoyed them all. great animation and characterization of the essential characters. a few id have done slightly differently but for the most part i was entertained by the series and own most of them.
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Re: The DC Animated Movieverse 2013-2020

Post by Spectrum »

According to Wikipedia, the following movies are part of this series
1.1 Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox (2013)
1.2 Justice League: War (2014)
1.3 Son of Batman (2014)
1.4 Justice League: Throne of Atlantis (2015)
1.5 Batman vs. Robin (2015)
1.6 Batman: Bad Blood (2016)
1.7 Justice League vs. Teen Titans (2016)
1.8 Justice League Dark (2017)
1.9 Teen Titans: The Judas Contract (2017)
1.10 Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay (2018)
1.11 The Death of Superman (2018)
1.12 Reign of the Supermen (2019)
1.13 Batman: Hush (2019)
1.14 Wonder Woman: Bloodlines (2019)
1.15 Justice League Dark: Apokolips War (2020)

Which makes me happy because I really enjoyed the first Suicide Squad movie and Batman and Harley Quinn- great visuals and a fun sense of humor about both of them. The others weren't worth watching.
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Re: The DC Animated Movieverse 2013-2020

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Spectrum wrote: Mon May 11, 2020 2:45 pm
Which makes me happy because I really enjoyed the first Suicide Squad movie and Batman and Harley Quinn- great visuals and a fun sense of humor about both of them. The others weren't worth watching.
Both Batman & Harley Quinn and the Fatal Five movie were both set in versions of the Timm-verse, albeit with some more adult themes. So I don't see the end of the DC Animated Movie-verse as being detrimental to them.

I definitely don't begrudge anyone who enjoyed these movies, but to me they felt like animated versions of the DC Cinematic Universe - given to violent excess and darkness, verging into the emo and edgelord, getting fundamental aspects of the characters wrong while having the occasional gem here and there.

What DC really needs right now is a solid DC Animated Universe series that isn't Young Justice or Justice League Action. YJ has gone too far into talking heads and navel gazing while Justice League Action is just stupid. Not Teen Titans Go! stupid, but pretty dumb none-the-less.

I'm honestly not sure what kind of series I'd want tho. Whether it'd be a Justice League series that explores the rest of the DCU, or just a general DCU series that skips the focus around.

Ideally I'd want something akin to what Marvel did, where it had Ultimate Spider-Man, Avengers Assemble and Guardians of the Galaxy all taking place in the same universe, only done properly. Maybe have a Justice League series to set the tone, but then spin off a Titans series, a Green Lantern series, individual series for Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, maybe even have a Brave and the Bold style team-up series.
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Re: The DC Animated Movieverse 2013-2020

Post by Spectrum »

Can we agree that the current Harley Quinn series just isn't it?

I've watched a few snippets of it here and there on YouTube and just twitch every time.
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Re: The DC Animated Movieverse 2013-2020

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Spectrum wrote: Mon May 11, 2020 3:33 pm Can we agree that the current Harley Quinn series just isn't it?

I've watched a few snippets of it here and there on YouTube and just twitch every time.
Oh God, that new Harley Quinn series is definitely not the series we need right now. If anything it takes the worst aspects of the recent DC Animated Movie-verse, throws in some politics, and then goes full on mean-spirited deconstructive parody.

I mean, I'm sure there's an audience for it, Venture Bros. lasted forever and Rick and Morty is still on, but it's just not what I'm looking for in a DC cartoon.
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Re: The DC Animated Movieverse 2013-2020

Post by squirrelly-sama »

Ares wrote: Mon May 11, 2020 3:10 pm
Spectrum wrote: Mon May 11, 2020 2:45 pm
Which makes me happy because I really enjoyed the first Suicide Squad movie and Batman and Harley Quinn- great visuals and a fun sense of humor about both of them. The others weren't worth watching.
Both Batman & Harley Quinn and the Fatal Five movie were both set in versions of the Timm-verse, albeit with some more adult themes. So I don't see the end of the DC Animated Movie-verse as being detrimental to them.

I definitely don't begrudge anyone who enjoyed these movies, but to me they felt like animated versions of the DC Cinematic Universe - given to violent excess and darkness, verging into the emo and edgelord, getting fundamental aspects of the characters wrong while having the occasional gem here and there.

What DC really needs right now is a solid DC Animated Universe series that isn't Young Justice or Justice League Action. YJ has gone too far into talking heads and navel gazing while Justice League Action is just stupid. Not Teen Titans Go! stupid, but pretty dumb none-the-less.

I'm honestly not sure what kind of series I'd want tho. Whether it'd be a Justice League series that explores the rest of the DCU, or just a general DCU series that skips the focus around.

Ideally I'd want something akin to what Marvel did, where it had Ultimate Spider-Man, Avengers Assemble and Guardians of the Galaxy all taking place in the same universe, only done properly. Maybe have a Justice League series to set the tone, but then spin off a Titans series, a Green Lantern series, individual series for Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, maybe even have a Brave and the Bold style team-up series.
I'm okay with JLA, not the best but it's not insultingly terrible or intolerable to watch, it honestly is what I figured TTG was going to be before it actually aired, light hearted comedy skits about super heroes that doesn't take itself too seriously rather than random idiocy key waving that goes on too long that takes itself entirely too seriously, TTG is basically the next generations Family Guy. I would much prefer if JLA took over TTGs place.
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Re: The DC Animated Movieverse 2013-2020

Post by NoOneofConsequence »

I remember seeing Justice League: War and thinking "apparently the A in JLA now stands for A-holes". It was like everyone was a complete jerk, except Wonder Woman who was a child-like idiot, and Barry, who was apparently some kind of saint. I mean, when you've got Batman introducing himself by telling you how much he respects you and your work, it's a good sign you might be the writer's Mary Sue character.

While I did watch Flashpoint later on, all of the others I've passed on.
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