Harley
Quinn: The Complete First Season
(2019/DVD*)/Justice
League Dark: Apokolips War 4K
(2020/4K Ultra HD Blu-ray w/Blu-ray*)/V:
The Final Battle
(1984/Warner Archive Blu-ray Set)/Watchmen
(2019 live action mini-series/HBO Blu-ray/*all DC Comics/Warner)/When
The Wind Blows
(1986/Severin Blu-ray)
4K
Ultra HD Picture: A- Picture: B-/B+/B+/B+/C+ Sound:
B-/B+/B/B+/B Extras: D/B/D/B/A Main Programs: C+/C+/C+/B+/C+
Next
up is action from animation, the pages of comic books and more...
The
new foul mouthed and adult oriented animated Harley
Quinn
series lands on DVD in its Complete
First Season
(2019)
courtesy of Warner Bros. and DC. Similar to the Harley Quinn comics
in terms of silly over the top style and zany execution, the new show
is pretty funny and again is NOT for children.
Batman
villainess Harley Quinn (voiced by Big
Bang Theory
star Kaley Cuoco), the main romantic interest of The Joker, stars in
this TV-MA-rated series that has her facing off against Gotham.
After she breaks it off with the Joker, she moves in with her friend
Poison Ivy and tries to make a name for herself outside of just her
association with the King of Crime. Along the way she encounters
Batman (voiced by Diedrich Bader), Robin, Calendar Man, Scarecrow,
Poison Ivy, Jim Gordon, Penguin, Bane, Lex Luthor, and many other
iconic DC characters. The tone of this show is akin to the goofiness
of Deadpool and doesn't hold back on the swear words, gore, and
sexual content despite its animated exterior.
The
voice cast also includes Lake Bell, Alan Tudyk, Jacob Tremblay,
Briana Cuoco, and Wayne Knight.
13
episodes make up the Complete
Season One
and include Til
Death Do Us Part, A High Bar, So, You Need A Crew?, Finding Mr.
Right, Being Harley Quinn, You're a Damn Good Cop, Jim Gordon, The
Line, L.O.D.R.S.V.P., A Seat at the Table, Bensonhurts, Harley Quinn
Highway, Devil's Snare,
and The
Final Joke.
The
animated Harley Quinn is presented in anamorphically enhanced 1.78:1
widescreen with a lossy 5.1 Dolby Digital mix, and a slightly
compressed image. The animated style is similar to the DC Harley
Quinn comics which has a look not too far from Batman:
The Animated Series.
While HD would be an improvement and fix the compression issues, the
show looks as good as it can for being on DVD.
No
extras.
As
this originally appeared on DC Comics' streaming service, there is a
season two of the show that exists as well. This is also a nice
companion piece to the new Harley Quinn movie, Birds
of Prey.
The
new DC animated film, Justice
League Dark: Apokolips War 4K
(2020),
assembles every DC character possible for the ultimate showdown
against their mutual enemy - Darkseid. The scope is pretty massive
and real fun for DC fans as characters pop up by the minute in this
feature length outing. Inspired by the comics, the Justice
League,
Teen
Titans,
The
Suicide Squad,
and the Justice
League Dark,
must all team up against Darkseid and the brainwashed Batman, both of
which threaten the planet! This has all been the conclusion of a
storyline that started back in 2014 with the release of the animated
Justice League War
film.
The
talented voice cast includes Tony Todd, Rebecca Romijn, Rosario
Dawson, Rainn Wilson, Camilla Luddington, and Taissa Farmiga to name
a few.
Justice
League Dark: Apokolips War
is presented in 2160p upscaled 2160p 4K on 4K UHD disc with a HEVC /
H.265 in 1.78:1 widescreen aspect ratio with regular HDR and an
English DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit) lossless mix.
The detail in the animation is a notice bump in resolution as opposed
to the also included 1080p Blu-ray disc with similar sound specs.
The animation is pretty sleek and on par with previous DC animated
films, many of which have been reviewed elsewhere on this site.
Special
Features include:
DC
showcase short: Adam
Strange
Darkseid:
New God, Classic Evil
featurette
Filmmaker
Commentary
Superman:
Man of Tomorrow
- upcoming animated film preview
and
From the DC Vault: 3 bonus cartoons.
If
live action, this movie would cost even more than Avengers:
Endgame,
as there are just so many characters and epic action about. I
enjoyed this animated outing a bit more than previous attempts, and
recommend it for Justice League fans.
Another
DC animated show, although different in tone, has also been released
on disc.
V:
The Final Battle
(1984)
was an interesting TV sci-fi mini-series sequel to Kenneth Johnson's
hit mini-series ''V''
(1983) a year prior, presented in three parts and here spanning two
Blu-ray discs. This edition is available exclusively from Warner
Archive. (Johnson talks about the series in an interview we did with
him a few years ago that you can read about elsewhere on this site).
To
refresh your memory, a reptilian race that appear human-like take
over the year and change the landscape of humanity. As the battle
between humanity and the aliens rages on, we struggle to reclaim the
planet that was once ours thanks to a group of resistance freedom
fighters. The show explores many political and sociological aspects
of this epic invasion.
The
sequel mini-series stars Jane Badler, Marc Singer, Faye Grant, Robert
Englund, Blair Tefkin, Peter Nelson, Michael Ironside, Michael
Durrell, and Frank Ashmore with direction by Richard T. Heffron
(Westworld
sequel Futureworld,
also reviewed on this site) and created by Kenneth Johnson (The
Bionic Woman,
The
Incredible Hulk,
TV's Alien
Nation).
The cast of the show is pretty huge with performances a pretty mixed
bag.
V:
The Final Battle
is presented in 1080p high definition with a 1.33:1 full screen
aspect ratio (the original series was framed 1.85 X 1 as well since
it was cut as a theatrical film overseas) and an English DTS-HD MA
(Master Audio) lossless 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit) mix. This is a
brand new master of the film which comes across quite nicely on this
disc, especially compared to previous releases. The image is sharp,
the special effects and makeup look dated, but overall the
presentation is definitely an improvement over previous releases, so
if you're a fan you'll want to check this edition out for sure.
Special
Features: promo pieces for ''Next on 'V' The Final Battle - Parts 1,
2, and 3''
While
it can't escape the dated feeling of a television melodrama, V:
The Final Battle
has a lot of imagination behind it and it is pretty fun to look back
on as a sci-fi fan.
Alan
Moore's graphic novel Watchmen
is one of the most celebrated of all time. Genre filmmaker Zack
Snyder brought the story to the big screen in 2009 with a mostly
faithful adaptation to the source material, a feat that up until that
point the project was thought to be 'un-filmable' after several
filmmakers tried and failed. (Terry Gilliam being one of them.)
When
I heard that this limited series was coming from HBO, I was a bit
confused as to how that would be possible seeing how the original
story / film ended on such a perfect note. Written by Daemon
Lindelof (Prometheus,
Lost)
this sequel to the original Watchmen
lore is surprisingly fresh and an interesting spin that captures the
spirit of the graphic novel. While some may find it a bit
pretentious, I personally enjoyed it and recommend it to fans. In my
opinion, this was one of the best offerings from HBO last year.
Watchmen
stars Emmy Award winning actress Regina King (The
Leftovers,
Southland,
If
Beale Street Could Talk)
leading the cast as Angela Abar/Sister Night. The series also stars
Jean Smart (Legion,
Dirty
John),
Don Johnson (Miami
Vice,
Knives
Out),
Tim Blake Nelson (O
Brother, Where Art Thou?,
Leaves
of Grass),
Hong Chau (Homecoming),
Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Aquaman),
Andrew Howard (Bates
Motel),
Jacob Ming-Trent (Ray
Donovan),
Tom Mison (Sleepy
Hollow),
Sara Vickers (The
Crown)
and Dylan Schombing (Sharp
Objects),
with Academy Award winner Louis Gossett Jr. (An
Officer and a Gentleman),
and Academy, Emmy and Tony Award winning actor Jeremy Irons (the most
recent live action Alfred the Butler, The
Lion King,
Reversal
of Fortune)
in a show stealing performance.
Set
in an alternate history, superheroes are deemed outlaws and Dr.
Manhattan has gone missing. Sister Night (King) leads a daring
mission that uncovers many conspiracies and alarming acts of racism,
cults, and other dark truths. She soon runs into other like minded
allies, including previous Watchmen Silk Spectre, who help her rage
against the machine as Dr. Manhattan finally returns. Meanwhile,
Ozymandias (Irons) has a sinister plan in the wake of being a God of
sorts himself.
The
nine episodes span three Blu-ray discs and include It's
Summer and We're Running Out of Ice, Martial Featus of Comanche
Horsemanship, She Was Killed By Space Junk, If You Don't Like My
Story Write Your Own, Little Fear of Lightning, This Extraordinary
Being, An Almost Religious Awe, A God Walks Into a Bar,
and See How They Fly.
What
I enjoyed about the writing of the show was how the first three
episodes were mostly used for world building and around the
appearance of Silk Spectre, things finally start to fall into place.
Of course in the Zack Snyder movie, the giant squid at the end was
taken out, however in this new program that element is included in a
very cool way I won't spoil here. The ending of the show is a bit of
a downer for me personally, but I enjoyed the series overall. At the
time of this writing, it's unlikely that the series will continue,
but I think this story sits fine as a being a one off limited series.
Watchmen
is presented in 1080p Blu-ray with a widescreen aspect ratio of
1.78:1 and great sounding audio mix in lossless English DTS-HD MA
(Master Audio) 5.1. Comparable to the original streaming broadcast
via HBO and television broadcast, this beautifully shot program is
captured fine here, however, I'm a bit disappointed it didn't get a
4K UHD release (at least at the time of this writing.) It is known
that HBO hasn't released too many of its programs on the new format
yet, and so maybe they are still testing the waters.
The
score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (Nine Inch Nails) is the
backbone of the whole piece, with intense and heavy themes that
perfectly capture the mood. The soundtrack sounds exceptional here
and sounds fantastic independently as well.
Special
Features:
Watchmen:
Unmasked
2019
New York Comic Con
Watchmen:
Masked and Dangerous
Watchmen
S1: Trailer
Character
Trailers: Sister Night, Blond Man and Looking Glass
Becoming
Sister Night
Notes
from the Watchmen
graphic novel artist Dave Gibbons
Rorschach
featurette
Watchmen:
Alternate History
It's
Raining Squids
Squid
Shelter
with Tim Blake Nelson
Andrij
Parekh on Directing
Sadiqua
Bynum runs, jumps and falls for Sister Night
Anatomy
of a Fight Scene
Glimpses
- The Visual
Effects of Watchmen
PLUS
two Blu-ray/DVD exclusives...
Being
a fan of
the Zack Snyder film, I would have been a bit happier to see some of
the original cast from that return as opposed to some of the casting
here. However, I understand them wanting to keep the two separate,
especially since Snyder abandoned that original ending from the
graphic novel. This is a very interesting take on the material and
HBO did a great job of producing this program.
And
finally, we have a Blu-ray reissue of the nearly-feature length
animated film, Jimmy T. Murakami's When
The Wind Blows
(1986)
with narration by David Bowie and music by Roger Waters. Just after
the war a British man come home James and tells his wife Hilda in the
countryside and said there might be another war and to prepare a
shelter for the nuclear fallout. As they follow the government
leaflet on what to do to survive, little do they know how soon their
live will depend on it...
James
come home and starts building a fallout shelter to survive the blast
from a nuclear bomb, the food, the supplies and what to do. At
first, his wife laughs and they reminisce how they survived the last
war. But no sooner than said a nuclear bomb goes off, James and
Hilda manages to survive the initial blast, but with limited food and
supplies they could only wait. But without any news, running water,
electricity, power they soon were starving, and unaware that they
were already dead and dying from radiation poisoning and as their
bodies start to fail them. The only thing keeping them going was
each other keeping their spirits up and the hope of rescue (which
never comes).
This
was one of many animated films from the 1980s teaching about nuclear
fallout. While there is some useful information there are some
outdated information, namely how to survive a nuclear blast and
emergency services. Extras include documentary from film's director,
making for When the Wind Blows, audio commentary, interview with
Raymond Briggs, Protect and Survive a Nuclear Attack, Isolated Music
(David Bowie) and effects audio tracks and trailers.
This
new Severin
Blu-ray seems to be pretty much a repeat of the excellent, out of
print limited edition from the now sadly defunct Twilight Time label.
Sound seems exactly the same too, though I was not as impressed with
the 1080p 1.33 X 1 color picture. You can read more about the film,
which we have now reviewed for the third time, at this link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/14664/Deepwater+Horizon+(2016/Summit/Lionsgate+4K
-
Ricky Chiang (Wind)
and James
Lockhart
