Dyonus Reviews

The Batman (2004–2008)

I liked the series.

[8/10 · 10 May 2008]

I'm 23 and I grew up on Batman: TAS, but I have to say: I really like The Batman. I was sad when I heard Season 5 was its last. First off, I think each series of Batman should be judged without thought of its predecessor. It isn't meant to be a copy of it, but an adaption of the comic.

With that in mind, my only real complaint is The Joker, but after the first couple appearances, I started to like him and saw him as a different character from the one in TAS or even his comic counterpart. I didn't really think of him as The Joker as much and it made it easier to like him, I thought.

The animation isn't great, but it affords a faster paced series with really nice fighting. This and Spectacular Spider-man have some of the best action sequences I've seen in an American cartoon. And I know action isn't everything, but it's pretty important when it comes to superheroes. A nice fight sets off a story quite well, especially in the superhero genre and The Batman does that nicely, so the animation is easy to forgive because it means better fight scenes.

The writing created a freak of the week setting, but it's nothing new in this genre and it handled other villains nicely. Mr. Freeze, while great with the tragic backstory, goes back to his Bob Kane roots in that he's just a criminal who freezes things. It was actually TAS that implemented that idea.

The Riddler wasn't bad. Freddy Kreuger (can't remember the actor's name) did a nice job with him, but I didn't really like the long hair look. This Riddler would be my second favorite version of him. (First being TAS version.) Penguin was his annoying self. Clayface added depth to the show in that he was a bad guy who was conflicted. He's a tragic villain.

I could go on, but my whole point is that the show is a lot better if you aren't always trying to compare it to other Batman versions. I know you are supposed to do that with an adaption, but it is its own show. Please treat it as such.

First season--7/10, Second season 9/10 (watched the episode with the Riddler several times because it's the best episode of the series, in my opinion), Third season --9/10 (I like this version of Batgirl the best, except for Cassandra Cain's in the comic) Fourth--9/10, Fifth 7/10--(Wasn't crazy about JLA added to it.) On last thing: Rino Romano did an excellent job as Batman. His voice isn't deep and dark like Kevin Conroy's, but it did give the youthfulness that the series demanded. I've really only know three actors to pull of Batman AND Bruce Wayne (rather than one or the other) and Romano is one of them. (Conroy and Bale being the other two.) Good series, I'm sad that it ended so soon. I looked forward to it every Saturday Morning and bought the DVDs so I could watch it when I wanted. Well worth the money.

8 out of 10 stars overall.

Journeyman (2007)

Please don't judge this show by the pilot!

[9/10 · 17 December 2007]

This is one of my favorite shows of the current season and to tell you the truth, I couldn't stand the pilot. I thought it was slow to build into the plot and they kind of threw us into this family setting without any prior knowledge, but as the show went on, it was easy to be more comfortable (and slightly annoyed in a good way) with the family. Dan is a likable character when you get to know him and when his ex-fiancée shows up and starts to help him out, it does get better. Sometimes Dan works fine by himself, but it's difficult seeing a character in a situation by himself for too long. (Which is why I didn't care for Castaway...) Anyway, if you like time travel, sci-fi elements, or just drama, this show is for you and don't judge it by the pilot. The pilot is usually the worst episode. The writer, actors, and so on haven't done the show before, so it takes them a bit to get set into it. Judge it by at least episode two or three. Episode two of this show was what did it for me.

Æon Flux (2005)

Might've helped if the people making this had seen the cartoon.

[2/10 · 2 December 2005]

Aeon Flux (the movie) is horrible. The dialogue was bad, Charlize Theron had NO emotions (she won an Oscar right? Why was she in this?) The action was rather decent. It had no connection really to the cartoon except Aeon and Goodchild's names were in the cartoon.

SHE DOESN'T EVEN DIE!!! That's not Aeon Flux! Aeon Flux is suppose to die at the end and she's mysteriously in the next one.

What was great about the cartoon is that it was bizarre. They captured NONE of this in the movie. I mean...hell...the first episode had no intelligible dialogue, but it had this scantly clad chick killing a bunch of guards to get to this one guy. And then she dies. The problem with the movie is that they try to explain the story. The cartoon never made sense. People talked and you had NO clue what they were talking about.

Apart from not being close to the cartoon, it was horrible. I went with three friends that hadn't seen any of it and they hated it just as much as I did. The plot was overused, the characters were stupid, the "futuristic" world was bland and has been used so many times. (Can we have something new, please?) The clothing wasn't too terribly bad. Actually, the clothing and hair style was an improvement from the cartoon, but that's about it. There's a monkey in this one part. I bet he was the writer.

Here's the plan: Get the cartoon on DVD and watch that or if you want to go see something in theaters, Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe comes out next week.

My Hero (2000–2007)

Fecking Hillarious!

[30 April 2004]

Whether he's an idiot priest or a superhero from another planet that just doesn't get it, Ardal is hillarious.

When I first saw this show, I thought it was kind of dumb and cheap, but it soon grew on me.

The show is about a Super hero who comes from the planet Ultron. He lives on earth running an herbal medicine shop. He falls in love with the woman he saved, but because she thinks he's daft, he has to prove to her that he's Thermalman and eventually he moves in with her.

In the second season they have a child who talks, but since they have to keep everything else a secret, the kid is a bit of a risk.

It reminds me of a mix between The Adventures of Lois and Clark and Third Rock from the Sun.

I give this show **** out of five.

Pitch Black (2000)

Okay, so I rented this only because I wanted to see Chronicles of Riddick.

[8/10 · 5 March 2004]

It opens with your cliche overly long ship flying through space. All I could think at this point was "Spaceballs" and hoping there'd be a sticker on back that said "We break for Nobody." The movie then shows some cryogenic freezers with Vin Diesel's narration. I've always thought his voice sounded cool ever since I saw Fast and the Furious. From when I found out he was as criminal, I thought the movie was going to be cliche. It was. It was very cliche and fate seemed to be against them at every turn. Black out every 22 years. Lucky them, they land on that day. Aliens can only be in the darkness, hey it's a solar eclipse. As much as I thought it was too easy and just a cliche, the movie pulled through and kicked major @ss. I even went out and bought a copy of Pitch Black after seeing it. I really can't wait for Chronicles of Riddick.

Sphere (1998)

Good book, terrible movie.

[28 January 2003]

I first saw the movie in the seventh or eighth grade and I thought it was terrible, but then I went back and read the novel and I'm telling you that it is one of the best books I've read and my absolute favorite. The casting, however is wonderful for the movie. I would've chosen those men, Dustin Hoffman, and Samuel L. Jackson, but Sharon Stone, I would've been hesitant on. The movie seems like its a bit dumbed down, but a bit more complicated then it should've been. It shows in the movie how their reflection goes into the Sphere, rather then the door opening. I would've liked to have seen what Norman Johnson (Dustin Hoffman) saw when he entered the Sphere, as he did in the book and Crichton did a good job describing the foam and whatnot, but it was misdone when adapted. Other then The Lost World, this is the worst Crichton adaption I've seen.

Jurassic Park III (2001)

A disgrace to Michael Crichton's work.

[5/10 · 27 January 2003]

I am a big Crichton fan and I did NOT appreciate this movie. For starters, there was no novel for them to base it off of (even though they wouldn't have followed the novel very well.) Second, the writer obviously knew very little about the subject he wrote about seeing as the paleontologists talk in layman terms throughout the entire film, not giving it the scientific facts that add to its predecesor. Thirdly, and this one isn't all THAT big of deal, but the graphics and robot interaction was terrible. When they changed from one to the other, it wasn't very gradual or subtle. The skin looked way too plastic on the robot. This film should've been made by the original creators, then maybe it would've been better.