Category: Reviews

The last 20 or so years have seen an amazing advancement in home video technology.  I grew up in the VHS cassette era, but I got to see home video grow and expand into the digital realm with DVD and subsequently HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.  Now, digital streaming using platforms like Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu are almost commonplace now.  In fact, a lot of people and industry insiders believe that digital streaming is the future of home video.  That may be, but there are still people like me who are kind of old-fashioned in that we still prefer to have physical copies of movies.  I like having a hard copy of a movie, because I can hold it in my hands.  I’ve got myself a pretty large collection of films on various formats.  While I don’t think that Blu-Ray will be going anywhere anytime soon, I’ve been hearing rumors about another high-definition format that isn’t 4k.  Starting with DVD, home video releases have seen extra content in addition to the movie itself.  Behind-the-scenes footage, movie trailers and other marketing materials.  It’s really spectacular.  This trend has continued with Blu-Ray.  I’ve seen some really spectacular packages released in the past two decades.  That being said, there have also been releases that were not so good.  Quality of the films aside, I’m going to specifically target home video releases that were pretty awful.  There was one movie that I picked up over the weekend that inspired this post:

I Spit on Your Grave: Deja Vu

This isn’t a good movie at all, even when compared to the original, but that’s not why this on this list.  When I ordered the film on Amazon, I read a review that said the film was put on a BD-R disc.  BD-R is a recordable Blu-Ray disc that’s generally available to the public.  I didn’t believe it at first until I actually got the movie.  They were right, the movie is on a BD-R.  The distributors were so cheap they couldn’t even bother to get the release professionally done.  Basically, they took the film that was on somebody’s computer and burned onto a disc.  Usually, the production of a Blu-Ray disc takes a while and uses equipment and material that makes it look good.  Not here.  While the film quality isn’t awful, there are no special features here.  In fact, there are no menus whatsoever, no previews, nothing.  They don’t even bother putting in audio and subtitle options for people who might have hearing issues.  Nope.  All you get is a main screen showing clips from the film and an option that says “play movie.”  That’s it.  I thought the film was amateurish at best, but the actual disc release is one of the most unprofessional things I’ve seen in years.  It would’ve been just better to have the movie automatically play when you put it in the player.  I knew I was going to have to buy the film to see it, because it wasn’t available on Redbox or most digital platforms.  Fine, but it absolutely wasn’t worth the 22 bucks I paid for it.

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

The early days of DVD were fairly experimental.  Movie studios were trying to adapt to the new format for a new age of home video. While some early discs were decent enough to be demo disc-worthy, others really weren’t.  Perfect example?  The initial DVD release of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.  The film would get a proper DVD release some years later with an extended version of the film, but the original release was a disaster.  This was one of the first double-sided discs to come out.  For some movies, the film was on one side and the special features on the other.  It made sense.  But where Robin Hood failed was putting one half of the film on one side and the second half on the other, meaning you had to flip the disc to see the rest of the movie.  For VHS tapes, having two tapes to contain a three-to-four hour film was standard.  You really couldn’t put all that one tape without sacrificing visual quality.  I believe that Warner Bros. thought that was the case here.  The movie wasn’t even 2.5 hours long, but they split it up so they could add SOME special features, which is okay, I guess, but still.  Honestly, having a double-sided disc was risky anyway, because you could inadvertently get your finger oils on the disc that would possibly keep it from functioning properly.

Star Wars Trilogy 2006 DVD Re-release

While the original Star Wars Trilogy has seen subsequent releases on DVD and Blu-Ray, the DVD releases piss me off the most, specifically the 2006 re-release.  When George Lucas did the Special Editions of the original films in 1997, people were mixed about the results.  While some of the redone visual effects were good, others weren’t.  When the films were released on DVD in 2004, people were excited, except to find out the original versions of the films were nowhere to be found and that Lucas had continued to tinker with his movies.  It wouldn’t be until 2006 that audiences would finally get the original versions of the trilogy on DVD with the re-release.  There’s just one problem:  The visual quality sucked.  They took the transfer from the 1994 VHS wide-screen versions and slapped them on a DVD, with barely any effort.  Not only that, it was for a limited time only.  It’s great that we finally got the original theatrical versions on DVD, but we will never see them on Blu-Ray, even though Fox was bought out by Disney, so while there is a possibility it could happen, Disney has no plans to.  This one hurt a lot of people, myself included.

DiVX and Self-Destructing DVDs

This clip belongs to Oddity Archive, so all credit goes to him for the video and the information presented within.  When DVD first came out, some geniuses came up with a new way of renting out DVDs without having audiences return the discs.  The format that I had heard of was DiVX, even though FlexPlay came out afterwards, but both of these formats operated in similar ways:  Rent a movie and you have 48 hours to watch the movie before the disc becomes unusable.  The main difference between the two was the DiVX required a specific player for those discs to work while FlexPlay could be used in any standard DVD player.  It was supposed to be a cheaper alternative to buying and renting discs from a store.  Part of the problem was that DiVX required a phone line to operate so it could verify the disc, FlexPlay actually used a specific dye that would render the disc unusable within 48 hours of opening the package.  The discs had an expiration date.  Renting videos was commonplace already, but movie studios wanted to try and do something better: Planned obsolescence.  DiVX died within months of rolling out and Flexplay finally closed up shop by 2013.  I never bought into these ideas, because it sounded incredibly stupid and remarkably redundant.  The fact that you had to have a specific player for DiVX was astoundingly short-sided.  Not everybody had DVD at the time and players were fairly expensive.  So, yeah, disposable DVDs were a very bad idea.

It’s not a whole lot, but those are what I consider to be some of the worst home video releases when it comes to DVDs and Blu-Rays.  This last entry with DiVX was more about a trend that movie studios were trying to get started, but it still counts.  Those are some of the worst releases that I’VE encountered, and they really had nothing to with the actual film.  So, yeah.

Released: April 2019

Director: Meir Zarchi

Not Rated

Run Time: 148 Minutes

Distributor: Deja Vu, LLC.

Genre: Horror/Thriller

Cast:
Camille Keaton: Jennifer Hills
Jamie Bernadette: Christy Hills
Maria Olson: Becky
Jim Tavare: Herman
Jonathan Peacy: Kevin
Jeremy Ferdman: Scotty

As a fan of horror movies, I often have a tendency to look far and wide for horror movies that most people would never hear about.  When I was younger, I heard whispers of some horror movies that were banned in multiple countries and edited all to hell because of their graphic content.  In the UK, these films were put on a “Video Nasties” list which listed every movie during the late 70s and early 80s films that had graphic sexual and violent content.  Some of those films included The Evil Dead, Suspiria, The Last House on the Left, and The Hills Have Eyes.  There were two films, however, that were more notorious than anything on that list: Cannibal Holocaust and I Spit On Your Grave.  These are the movies that your parents warned you about.  They are the boogeymen that hide in the dark.  When I was younger, I had no way to get a hold of these movies.  You couldn’t just walk into a video store and pick these off a shelf.  In most video stores at the time in other states, these two movies would be found in the “adult” section.  In Utah, we didn’t get the adult section in our video stores…..dammit.  Over the past few years, I managed to get a hold of these films and……wow.  They weren’t kidding.  These movies didn’t mess around, especially I Spit On Your Grave.  Well, 40 years later, we finally get a sequel to Meir Zarchi’s original film.  Was it really a good idea?  Nope.

Deja Vu picks up 40 years after the events of the original I Spit On Your Grave.  Jennifer Hills had survived her horrendous ordeal of being gang-raped and left for dead.  She eventually took her vengeance on her attackers.  40 years later, after being acquitted of murdering her attackers, Jennifer has a best-selling book detailing her ordeal while she does therapy groups for rape victims.  She also has a daughter, Christy, who is a supermodel.  Shortly after lunch, Jennifer and Christy are kidnapped by the relatives of the men who attacked Jennifer 40 years prior.  Their intent, to deliver their own brand of justice.  I’ll be honest:  The set up to this film sounds really good on paper.  Having Jennifer having to deal with the consequences of her vengeance is a pretty nifty idea, if not original.  However, the execution is terrible.  Instead of delivering on what made the original film so notorious, Zarchi manages to make the whole affair dull as ditch-water.  There’s talking, a kidnapping, more talking……..more talking, Christy escapes, MORE talking, ad nauseum.  It’s boring.  That should never happen in a movie like this.  You want it to be a slow-burner?  Fine.  Do some proper build-up and some proper characterization.  That’s not what we get here.  It’s a bad joke.

I’m going to lay it out straight:  I Spit on Your Grave: Deja Vu is a very bad movie.  I’m not saying that the original film was a great movie by any stretch of the imagination, but the original had a few things going for it that this movie doesn’t.  For one: The time in which the original was released.  The original was released in 1978 and it made a ton of waves, not necessarily in a good way, but the film basically went after the audience with claws.  It was a vicious film with a rape scene that lasted 30-40 minutes.  As horrible as it sounds, and that scene was horrifying, it was one of the more recognizable elements of the film, but I don’t think that was what got it banned.  It was the level of violence that was unleashed towards Jennifer’s attackers.  Two: It was better paced and it was unflinching in its brutality.  Again, those were some of the qualities that attracted a certain section of the audience.  This being an I Spit on Your Grave movie, there’s got to be a rape in there somewhere, but it feels cheap and more like an afterthought.  I honestly don’t know if it was supposed to be in there originally, but it feels tacked on as if to try and shock the audience.  Yeah, it’s not a pleasant scene to watch, and no rape scene should be, but I don’t think it was taken as seriously as it should have been.  As “in-your-face” and over-the-top as the rape in the original film was, it was very devastating for Jennifer Hills, as it would be for any woman.  The actual blood and guts aspect of the film is also very tame.  There’s nothing really shocking here.  It’s utterly predictable and there’s no real payoff.

I’m not a creep.  I don’t watch these movies for the rape scenes.  Those are very hard to sit through, even for a white guy in his mid-30s.  No, you sit through that so you can get to the vengeance part of the film….but it doesn’t really deliver here.  Everything is very restrained, which is bizarre considering that the 2010 remake went full-bore with its violence, as did the sequels.  It’s a bloody movie, and there’s a decapitation, but overall, I’m disappointed in the actual revenge aspect of the film.  For one, Christy manages to become a complete bad-ass the day after she was assaulted.  There’s nothing earlier in the movie that would indicate that she had any sort of weapons training.  The original film had Hills take her time to recuperate and plan out her vengeance.  Here, Christy picks up a gun and she immediately knows how to use it.  There’s a lot of things in this movie that don’t make a lot of sense.  On top of that, the acting is really bad.  The only two that manage to “act” are Camille Keaton and Jamie Bernadette.  Look, it’s really cool to see Camille Keaton back in the role that infamously made her famous.  Jamie is a lovely woman and she definitely delivered.  Everyone else, though?  Good grief.  I haven’t seen acting THIS bad in a horror movie in years.  I’m not saying that the performances in the original film were Oscar-worthy, but at least they were competent and committed to what was going on.  Here, the rednecks are completely over-the-top to the point where they are not even funny-bad.  They’re just bad.  I don’t know if I can blame the actors for their performances, but I am going to lay the blame at Meir Zarchi’s feet.

Meir Zarchi has directed only three movies in his lifetime: The original I Spit on Your Grave, Don’t Mess With My Sister!, and this film.  You can absolutely tell that he really doesn’t have much experience in the way of making movies, as he’s also only really written four.  This was a movie made by an amateur.  It is no surprise that the original film developed a cult following, but I find it surprising that it was Meir Zarchi that got it made.  I generally don’t like coming down so hard on movies with an ultra-low budget, but this thing is bloated and could have been trimmed by about an hour, and you wouldn’t have lost anything.  Yeah, the movie is two and a half hours long.  It had no right to be.  For movies like this, you really don’t want to drag it out.  The subject matter in the original film was horrifying enough, but trying to stretch that over two hours, let alone 2.5, was a really bad idea.  The film was dull, uninteresting with mostly irritating characters that were poorly acted and violence that was watered-down.  Ultimately, this feels more like an inadvertent comedy of sorts, and when you’re dealing with a subject that is as horrific as rape, that is NOT the direction you want to take a movie like this.

I’m planning on doing a post about rape in film and television in the near future, but I want to get all my ducks in a row before I do it.  I will be using I Spit On Your Grave: Deja Vu as an example of what NOT to do in a rape/revenge thriller.  It’s going to be a tough post to write, but I think it’s a discussion that needs to happen.  If you are a fan of the original I Spit on Your Grave, or have an appreciation for what that film was trying to do, skip this mess.  It’s boring and it’s extremely tame by comparison.

My Final Recommendation:  NOT worth the 20 bucks I spent on it.  Stay away from this stinker. 2/10, and that’s because of Camille Keaton and Jamie Bernadette.

Released: April 2019

Directors: Anthony and Joe Russo

Rated PG-13

Run Time: 3 Hours

Distributor: Disney/Marvel

Genre: Action/Fantasy/Science Fiction

Cast:
Robert Downey, Jr.: Tony Stark/Iron Man
Chris Evans: Steve Rogers/Captain America
Mark Ruffalo: Bruce Banner/Hulk
Chris Hemsworth: Thor
Scarlett Johansson: Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow
Jeremy Renner: Clint Barton/Hawkeye
Don Cheadle: James Rhodes/War Machine
Paul Rudd: Scott Lang/Ant-Man

When it comes to film franchises with multiple entries, there is always a certain level of expectation when it comes to a sequel of a beloved movie.  Usually, the first sequel in a film franchise tends to be very good, sometimes even eclipsing the original film.  It’s happened on multiple occasions: Godfather Part II, The Empire Strikes, and Terminator 2 just to name a few.  If the first film in a series is really good, then the expectations for the follow-up film are going to be that much higher.  Most of the time, sequels aren’t able to reach that bar, except for the ones that I just mentioned.  It doesn’t mean that all sequels are bad, it’s just that the previous film set the bar too high.  With Marvel’s Cinematic Universe, every single movie was building up to Avengers: Infinity War.  It took them 10 years and 20 movies to do it, but it happened.  When the film was released last year, already high expectations were blown out of the water.  Now, the second part of the story, Endgame, has expectations higher than ever.  Does it meet those expectations?  Let’s find out.

After 11 years and 21 movies, we finally come to the end of the current iteration of the MCU.  After Thanos’ victory snap destroyed half of all life in the universe, including a large chunk of the Avengers, the remaining members are left in disarray, not knowing what to do next.  Tony Stark is stranded in space with Nebula and Rocket Raccon, while the rest of the universe is trying to pick up the pieces.  Scott Lang/Ant-Man, who was left in the Quantum Realm after Hank and Hope Pym were disintegrated, escapes the Quantum Realm 5 years after being trapped there, not realizing what had happened.  He shows up at the Avengers HQ with a possible solution to bring back the lost.  That’s where I’m going to end the story description for fear of spoiling the entire film.  This is one that you have to see.  What I will say, though, is that the story is fairly easy to follow, but it is also one of the most compelling stories in the MCU.  Going in, I knew it wasn’t going to be easy tackling a story that would rival Infinity War.  In all honesty, the actual story and pacing isn’t quite as good as Infinity War.  That’s not to say the story is bad, it isn’t, but Infinity War felt tighter.  The pacing here is different, but not in a bad way.  The first act is pretty down-beat, and considering the aftermath of the previous film, it was to be expected.  You needed to build-up to the final conflict, so you had to slow things down and show the main characters in a situation that you’ve never seen them before.  It is a very solid and satisfying conclusion to the MCU as it stands, although there will be more stories in the future.

In terms of expectations, mine were already very high going into this film, and it still managed to exceed them.  Not just in terms of action, but also in character development.  We see these characters that we’ve come to know and love in a very different way.  Natasha is struggling to keep things together while trying to find Thanos, so they can attempt to undo what he did.  Some of the characters that died in Infinity War are still dead.  Thor basically became depressed and let himself get out of shape while Hawkeye became a vicious vigilante.  Steve Rogers basically became a grief counselor as a result of The Snap.  Again, I don’t want to go into much more detail, because it would be spoiling things for folks who haven’t seen the film yet, so I’m not going to.  In terms of the action, Endgame turned up the dial to 11, as if it wasn’t already high enough in Infinity War.  This is one of the most epic comic book movies that I have ever seen.  The majority of the third act of the film is basically one big battle sequence and it is TOTALLY worth it.  Once more, no spoilers, but if you’ve come for the action, you are going to get it in spades.  It’s mind-blowing what they do here.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure how I was going to feel after watching the movie.  I certainly wasn’t expecting to get as emotional as I did, and I wasn’t the only one in the theater.  There was a lot of sniffling going on and I can’t blame them.  We spent 11 years watching these characters and connecting with them, so when a movie comes along that is going to be the final film for some of these characters and actors, it does sting a little bit.  I’ve invested so much time into these films that to see it all finally come to an end hit me pretty damned hard.  There weren’t a lot of Marvel’s films that made me feel the way that I did with Endgame.  That speaks volumes about the quality of the characters that we’ve seen grow and evolve over the years and the quality of the writing in the MCU.  Ultimately, I feel that Avengers: Endgame was the perfect way to wrap up most of these stories.  There will be certain characters that will continue on in future films, and there will be some that won’t.

When it was announced that Endgame was going to be 3 hours long, some people were apprehensive.  Let me put that to rest by saying that those 3 hours don’t feel that long.  Again, proper pacing and writing help make the whole thing worth sitting through.  While I don’t think Endgame is better than Infinity War in terms of story, the emotional impact that Endgame has is greater than the previous film.  So, does the film exceed expectations?  I think it does.  I really do.  There are a handful of films that define each generation: Gone With The Wind, Godfather, Star Wars, and Terminator to name a few.  Avengers: Endgame is one that will define the current generation.  Yeah, we’ve got Star Wars: Episode IX coming in December, but I don’t think that film will come close to what Endgame has achieved.  So…yeah, I definitely recommend this movie, especially if you’ve been with the MCU for the past 11 years as I have.  It is an incredibly satisfying experience that you will want to see again.  I’m already planning to see it again.

My Final Recommendation: Part of the journey is the end.  10/10.

Released: March 2019

Director: Sam Liu

Rated PG-13

Run Time: 77 Minutes

Distributor: Warner Bros. Animation/DC

Genre: Action/Fantasy/Animation

Cast:
Elyes Gabel: Starboy
Diane Guerrero: Jessica Cruz/Green Lantern
Kevin Conroy: Batman
Susan Eisenberg: Wonder Woman
George Newbern: Superman
Daniella Bobadilla: Miss Martian
Kevin Michael Richardson: Mr. Terrific
Peter Jessop: Tharok
Tom Kenny: Bloodsport/Salaak
Matthew Yang King: The Persuader
Sumalee Montano: Emerald Empress
Philip Anthony-Rodriguez: Mano

Here I am again, talking about DC superheroes and their movies.  While DC movies have seen their ups and downs, I’m still a huge fan of those movies, ever since I first saw Superman: The Movie.  While the live-action films have definitely seen their fair share of bumps over the past decade or so, the animation side of things has been….less rocky, even though some of the animated films aren’t as good as others.  Even so, the quality of the animated films tends to be a bit more consistent than their live-action counterparts.  The first animated DC film that Warner Bros put out was back in 1995 with Batman: Mask of the Phantasm.  While it wasn’t financially successful, as it went up against the live-action rendition of Batman Forever, Phantasm has since garnered a huge following and many people consider it to be the best Batman film ever made.  Since then, we’ve seen a lot of animated films based on DC’s superheroes like Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and the Justice League.  Yesterday, I watched the latest and one of the best entries in DC’s animated film line-up: Justice League vs. The Fatal Five

Opening in the 31st century, the film sees three members of the notorious Fatal Five gang, Tharok, Mano, and The Persuader travel back in time to the 21st century to find Earth’s Green Lantern so they can free their remaining members, Validus and Emerald Empress.  One of the members of the Legion of Superheroes, Starboy, manages to follow them back in time so he can help prevent them putting their master plan into motion.  The overall plot of the movie is pretty simplistic at its core.  It’s basically another “group-of-super-powered-bad-guys-trying-to-destroy-the-world” routine.  It’s one that we’ve seen time and time again.  While the main plot is what I consider to be the weakest part of the film, you really can’t do anything less than a potentially apocalyptic story-line when it involves the Justice League.  Those two concepts tend to go hand-in-hand.  There are aspects about it that are pretty good.  First of all, these guys can’t get their comrades without the aid of a Green Lantern, and the only Green Lantern in this film is Jessica Cruz, who is relatively new to the whole superhero gig, as a result, the film actually revolves around her, and that actually makes it far more compelling.

One of the best things about the new DC movies, both live-action and animated is that the superheroes are flawed characters, even Superman.  Everybody knows Batman is flawed, because he’s strictly human.  Everyone knows about his problems.  The writing in this film is surprisingly strong, especially when it comes to characterization.  While the film has Justice League in the title, the film actually focuses more on Green Lantern and Starboy.  Jessica Cruz is the latest Green Lantern, but the character went through a very traumatic experience in her past, so she’s struggling with that.  Throw superpowers into the mix and you’re already adding to a list of stressful things that the character has to contend with.  As a result, she struggles with anxiety, admitting to Wonder Woman that most days she fights just to get out of bed.  On the other side of the coin, we have Starboy, a 31st century superhero that was diagnosed with acute paranoid schizophrenia so he has to have medication in order to keep his head clear.  Having superheroes that actually have to live on a daily basis with these issues makes them far more relatable as people.  Ultimately, I think most people will relate more to Cruz than Starboy, because not everybody is schizophrenic, but everybody has dealt with anxiety issues stemming from PTSD or some other trauma.  Putting these issues into a superhero movie is a pretty risky thing, as the film-makers could inadvertently have their “issues” be front and center.  Thankfully, the folks behind Justice League vs. The Fatal Five acknowledge that these characters have these issues, but focus more on the characters themselves and their struggle to overcome these problems.  There is also humor to be found here as well.  Miss Martian bugs the hell out of Batman at every chance she gets and it’s kind of funny.  Each superhero gets a few of their own one-liners that feel natural.  Batman has one that’s my absolute favorite when he’s taking on Mano, the guy that burn things to bits when he touches them: “Bring it on, Skeletor.”  It was awesome.

For the characters to work, you need to have a strong cast, and this film definitely has that.  Diane Guerrero is the voice of Cruz/Green Lantern, and she’s absolutely fantastic.  She brings a real vulnerability to a character that should be confident, but Cruz isn’t.  Susan Eisenberg and George Newbern voice Wonder Woman and Superman respectively and they’re pretty good.  Kevin Conroy IS Batman as far as I’m concerned.  He’s been voicing the character for well over twenty years, so he knows the character inside and out.  While the character is straight-faced throughout the whole movie, some of those moments tend to be some of the funniest moments in the entire movie.  I can’t say for sure that I care for the villains though.  I have nothing against the actors that portray them, as I’m not overly familiar with the Legion of Superheroes comics or TV show, but overall the acting is pretty solid.  I also like the way the movie looks.  Instead of the New 52 universe, the character designs are based on older and more familiar look that most people would be familiar with.  The action is also pretty solid, with stuff blowing up and people doing superhero-y things.  Some of the best fights are towards the end of the film when the Justice League goes up against the Fatal Five.  While the film is PG-13, it does get a little bloody.  The pacing in the film is perfect.  While it is action-packed, Fatal Five does slow a bit to give us some more character development.

Make no mistake about it, despite the fact that the film has Justice League in the title, this is definitely a Green Lantern story.  More specifically, it’s Jessica Cruz’s story.  Having a character that’s dealing with some pretty heavy stuff and having her overcome that adversity makes for a very strong and more humanized character.  That’s even a lot more than I can say for somebody like Superman, who for the 70+ years has pretty much been invincible and have to deal with any form of mental illness.  I really do like the way they approach mental illness in this film.  Cruz’s reaction to her past, and the fact that she’s a superhero adds on to an already overbearing stress load.  Everybody experience anxiety at some point.  Sometimes it CAN be crippling or at the very least, overwhelming.  I know.  I’ve dealt with it, which makes me relate to Jessica Cruz’s plight that much more.  Starboy’s schizophrenia is also approached fairly seriously and in an honest fashion.  When Starboy doesn’t take medication, he has problems remembering things, saying stuff that makes absolutely no sense and seems out of touch with reality.  When a superhero suffers from schizophrenia, it makes for a far more unpredictable and intense situation, because you have no idea what he’s going to do.  It’s the same thing with a relatively normal person that deals with the same condition, except they’re less likely to destroy the world.  Mental illness is not something that can be easily diagnosed or even talked about, because not everybody suffers from the same kind of disease, if at all.  It’s a discussion that needs to be brought up, but I really like the way that director Sam Liu and his writers approached it here.  Putting it in a superhero film not only brings attention to the issue, but it can also be entertaining while treating the audience and folks who suffer from some form of mental illness with respect.

Justice League vs. The Fatal Five is one of the best animated films in DC’s line-up as far as I’m concerned.  It’s not perfect, as no film is, and the overall plot feels pretty same-y when put up against other films of this type.  That being said, the film’s focus on certain characters and their internal struggles is a welcome change of pace.  I would definitely recommend checking this one out.

My Final Recommendation: 9/10.