MAKSQUIBS CINEMATHEQUE: SUPERMAN/BATMAN: PUBLIC ENEMIES (2009) / APOCALYPSE (2010)

LABELS

There are (currently) eight different LABELS to look for on MAKSQUIBS.

CONTEST - Win a review of any available DVD or 'Streamer' of your choice* if you're the first to answer a Q attached to one of the write-ups. Please refrain from either Googling or searching for an answer via IMdB or other web movie services! These contests are plenty easy to solve just be using your little grey cells.

RECOMMENDED - Meaning Strongly Recommended. A film that's good enough or historically important enough to demand viewing. WARNING: A few real stinkers are important enough to rate this label. And, on the other hand, lots of pretty good or pretty valuable films, don't quite measure up to our RECOMMENDED level. (See also UNIQUE, below.)

FAMILY FRIENDLY - CAREFUL!! Not necessarily a KIDDIE pic, but a film that school kids may get into if the subject interests. You'll find foreign & silent pics in here as the need to read the sub-titles & inter-titles to follow the narrative and get all the jokes does wonders for ADD types.

LINK - To quickly find any Write-Up that includes an InterNet Link of interest for that specific film.

UNIQUE - Films that may not fit into the usual critical categories of Good, Bad or Indifferent, (certainly not indifferent!), but are worth watching because there just ain't nothing like 'em. Sui generis pics. (Phooey generis if they don't work for you.)

READ ALL ABOUT IT - While there's a book or two (or ten dozen) closely related to just about any film you might think of, here's a specific book you might not have known about (or thought of) that opens a window on the chosen title.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY - A place to vent those out-of-left-field thoughts.

POSTER - Hmm, I bet you can figure this one out.

(Hint: most of the posters will enlarge if you click on them.)

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT - sort of like those EAT THIS, NOT THAT diet books only with film instead of food as the topic. Sometimes, the substitute pick isn't the obvious 'better' choice, but one of those 'flawed-but-interesting' films that often get left behind.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID - some easy to miss element worth noting.

SILENT FILM - hey, figure it out (LOL)

. . . and DOUBLE-BILL - a suggested second feature.

To bring up the complete list in any of these categories, simply click on one of the LABELS when you come across one and everything with that designation will come up when the page reloads. Just scroll down. There's also a LABELS list near the bottom of all the pages.

Please let me know if there are any other LABELS you'd like to see.

AND YOU'RE DOING ALL THIS BECAUSE . . . ?

Like just about everyone with an interest in the movies, I'm watching more films on DVD and going out to movie houses a lot less. Convenience trumps the better experience.
Of course, you lose audience interaction and the poor film now has to compete with all the comforts of home.
It's a bit like seeing Rembrandts & Titians in a book reproduction, or from posters with iffy color values, no texture or weight to the surface and the wrong dimensions . . . all while snacking on chips & soda. (Oops! You get that at your local cinema,too.)
The ease of instant movie gratification risks turning an art form (well, sometimes) into little more than low-grade eye-candy & mindfodder. So, maybe it's worthwhile to write a bit down on what we're all viewing, just to keep fully engaged.

DVDs: the latest opiate of the people meets the internet, where everyone's a critic.
God help us.

Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

WELCOME! Use the search engines on this site (or your own off-site engine of choice) to gain easy access to the complete MAKSQUIBS Archive; more than 5500 posts and counting. (New posts added every day or so.)

You can check on all our titles by typing the Title, Director, Actor or 'Keyword' you're looking for in the Search Engine of your choice (include the phrase MAKSQUIBS) or just use the BLOGSPOT.com Search Box at the top left corner of the page.

Feel free to place comments directly on any of the film posts and to test your film knowledge with the CONTESTS scattered here & there. (Hey! No Googling allowed. They're pretty easy.)

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Tuesday, January 30, 2024

SUPERMAN/BATMAN: PUBLIC ENEMIES (2009) / APOCALYPSE (2010)

Loosely linked animated double-bill, each running a bit over an hour, for DC Comics’ most commercially viable yin & yang crime fighters. Hardly a natural team, Superman a force for good with a bottomless quiver of cosmic-powers/Batman a neurotic pessimist with a ready fortune for funding past revenge with new gizmos. ENEMIES sets them up against President Lex Luther (amusingly prescient of the Trumpster) and an Earthbound Kyrptonite meteor, but devolves into little more than the usual consequence-free slugfest when a billion dollar bounty is slapped on the Man of Steel. It brings out every DC character you (n)ever heard of, and overloads the pic with more pointless clashes than a three-ring WWE brawl. Slightly better, APOCALYPSE sees future SuperGirl kidnaped by the Dark Side (oops!) ‘Darkseid,’ and the boys hitting the interstellar warpath. Pity, the finale has real possibilities when a down but never out Darkseid shows up at Clark Kent’s family farm. And no one slips on a pile of cow manure?! Talk about missed opportunity! You’ll know whether or not these are for you, but the bigger Q is why, coming from the same Warner/DC animation stables, the stand-alone BATMANs are so stylish, entertaining, visually snazzy, well-voiced and suspenseful; while these turned out dumb, repetitive and physically unattractive.*

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT/LINK: *Especially in character design. Everyone so ridiculously over-muscled they’re hard to pose attractively or even stand. And while heavy with sexual innuendo, no one seems in need of a cod piece . . . even in a leotard. (That guy in the flesh-colored outfit should not be wearing a onesie. For a well designed animated Superman, hie thee to the old Fleischer Brothers shorts from the 1940s. These highly stylized mini-dramas retain their appeal when seen in good prints. All over the internet, choose carefully for a properly restored set. OR: Even on this APOCALYPSE DVD, the trailer for BATMAN: UNDER THE RED HOOD/’10 knocks the visual socks off anything seen here. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2008/07/superman-1941-43.html

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ERNST LUBITSCH

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Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

Tuesday, January 30, 2024

SUPERMAN/BATMAN: PUBLIC ENEMIES (2009) / APOCALYPSE (2010)

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