REVIEW: Astonishing X-Men: Dangerous
Motion comics remain a bizarre hybrid of comic book storytelling and the most limited of animation (reminding one of nothing more than the 1960s Marvel Super-Heroes animation, which was reviled for the longest time. Marvel Comics has been good about exploring every new form of technology and motion comics are included. They launched the line with an adaptation of Joss Whedon and John Cassaday’s Astonishing X-Men run beginning with Gifted. Now, capitalizing on Whedon’s direction of The Avengers, the second arc, Dangerous (issues 7-12), has been released on DVD by Shout! Factory.
The stripped down disc contains the complete run without extras or any clue there was a previous volume. However, watching the nine to eleven minute segments, you may be lost by references to the previous story. The story is the one when the Danger Room becomes sentient and considers the mutants “oppressors”, unleashing a damaged Sentinel after them.
The story runs nearly ninety minutes and if you liked the comic, you will enjoy this. For those unfamiliar with the title, it will be confusing. An adaptation should have tinkered with the script to allow context to be added or references beyond the storyline to be deleted. Whedon’s gift for dialogue and character, thankfully, remains intact.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjMzksNepNI[/youtube]
The motion aspect is exceptionally limited, especially compared with other efforts such as The Watchmen. And as usual, I find fault with a great many of the actors cast doing the voices. The foreign accents are comically thick and you can’t always reconcile the character you’re seeing with the voice you’re hearing.
This is for the diehard collector only, but at $14.97, it’s priced to move and might be a worth a look to see Cassady and colorist Laura Martin’s work on the screen.
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[…] from Shout! Factory and Torn is the latest installment, out this week. As noted when we reviewed Dangerous, motion comics is this weird hybrid that is really a modern day version of the cardboard cutout […]