Author: Robert Greenberger

I was only vaguely aware of the French graphic novels featuring Valérian and Laureline, created by writer Pierre Christin and artist Jean-Claude Mézières. The albums ran from 1967 through 2010 and well incredibly well-received, leading first to an animated series before Luc Besson bought the rights for a feature film in 2012.

Well, five years later, he delivered Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, out now from Lionsgate Home Entertainment, and he lavished so much of the $200 million budget on spectacular visuals, he seemingly did not have enough left for a good script. The movie looked promising with its trailers, but it was all gloss, covering up a compelling story or well-delineated characters.

Despite loving the series as a youngster, Besson lost the charm of the series, ignoring Laureline’s origins as a peasant from the 11^th century who encountered Valérian on a time travel trip and convinced him to bring her back to his era. In the film, they are seen as equals, partners, and friends as played by Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne respectively.

The film starts promisingly with a montage of first contacts through the ages that helps explore the origins of the city of a thousand planets but once we get to the 28^th century, the story ignites into frenetic chaos and not much plot. No single character is well defined and the dialogue more perfunctory than revelatory. Basically, the plot involves the pair being sent by their commander, Arün Filitt (Clive Owen), to the fabled city of Alpha to determine what mystery lay in the center, which is connected to a world that has seen its share of misery. This beatific world has its share of interesting visuals and a pretty princess and her pet, called a Convertor for its ability to, well, convert materials.

Overall, this is a pretty movie with many interesting ideas thrown here and there like a Pollock painting, but there’s no heart or soul, no worldbuilding to sustain the ideas. As a result, it’s mildly entertaining but leaves you hugely dissatisfied.

The Blu-ray is an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1, nicely capturing the colorful visuals. (Note: There is no home video version of the theatrical 3-D release.) The Dolby Atmos track is equally a match for the video.

The Blu-ray offers up a Valerian: Enhancement Mode, letting the viewer branching to a number of supplemental featurettes. Among the Enhancement Pods (35:58) are: Alpha Introduction, Princess Liho-Minaa, Empress Aloi, Destruction of Mui, Igon Siruss, Motion Capture Cameras, Kris Wu Set Tour, Melo the Convertor, Pearl Guns, Kris Wu 4D Scan, Paradise Alley, Boulan Bathor Emperor, Emperor Haban-Limai, and K-Trons. There is also the interesting Citizens of Imagination: Creating the Universe of Valerian (59:04) properly focused on bringing the graphic novels to visual life.

Finally, there is The Art of Valerian still gallery and pair of trailers.

After James Bond and Jason Bourne, the bar has been raised high for espionage films that mingle international intrigue with edge-of-the-seat action. Many have tried and failed to reach the upper echelon of the genre and none have featured a female lead. Atomic Blonde, starring Charlize Theron, is pretty close and if she returns for a sequel, just might find a place in the pantheon.

The summer film was based on The Coldest City graphic novel from Antony Johnston and Sam Hart and was chosen for development prior to publication by Theron, then looking at properties for her production company. She brought on Kurt Johnstad to adapt the story which was fine given his previous work adapting 300 from comic to screen. He also wrote an Aquaman script losing last year’s bake-off to Will Beall.

Set in the waning days of Cold War Berlin, an MI6 agent is shot, the microfilm he was carrying stolen, and the hunt is on for his killer and the list of field agents in the USSR. Lorraine Broughton is set on the hunt and from there, the pace rarely lessens. We start with the end, seeing a naked, battered and bruised Lorraine soaking in a bathtub full of ice then reporting to her superior Eric Gray (Toby Jones) and his CIA counterpart Emmett Kurzfield (John Goodman). During her recounting of the actions, we gain an increasing sense of unease; someone is a mole, endangering the mission. The audience is left wondering who it might be starting with David Percival (James McAvoy), the Berlin station chief who may or may not have gone native.

Complicating her mission is Delphine (Sofia Boutella), a rookie French agent posing as a local, who gets too close to Lorraine. She’s a Bond girl but her affair with Lorraine packs more emotional heart than most similar heterosexual encounters.

That action was hyped during the trailers but what you don’t appreciate until you see the film is how much director David Leitch, pushed the action. He made a name for himself with uncredited work on John Wick and was coaxed away from the sequel to this film and he made Theron work hard and its pays off in some of the freshest fighting sequences captured on film in years.

He nicely integrates mostly familiar 1980s music to the film, helping ground it. Director of Photography Jonathan Sela does a nice job maintaining a gritty, run down look and feel to East Berlin, contrasting it with its Western twin.

There’s a relentlessness to the pace which nicely matches the ticking clock as the Wall crumbles and the microfilm is out to auction. By the end, everything is neatly tied up and I’ll admit to being surprised as to who was the mole.

The film, out now in a variety of formats from Universal Home Entertainment has a fine, not exceptional, high definition transfer with a solid DTS:X Master Audio soundtrack.

The 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray discs contain an assortment of interesting special features starting with Deleted/Extended Scenes (7:23), six sequences, two of which focus on Delphine and would have been nice to have in the main feature. Welcome to Berlin (4:33) is a cursory look at the city along with shooting locations and production design. Blondes Have More Gun (7:01) focuses on Theron with a nice look at the intensive training that went into readying her for the action sequences where she did the vast majority of her own stunts. Spymaster (4:18) lets Leith talk about what drew him to this project. The best feature is Anatomy of a Fight Scene (7:52), focusing on the protracted fight sequence inside an apartment building before spilling into the streets. There some nice picture-in-picture director commentary along with split screen behind the scenes footage.

Finally, there’s Story in Motion, animated storyboards for two scenes: Agent Broughton (2:16) and The Chase (1:38), each offer optional Leitch commentary.

The Audio Commentary: Director David Leitch and Editor Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir is interesting and informative so if you enjoy the film, you’ll learn plenty from a second pass with this option.

While Warner Animation and Warner Home Entertainment celebrate ten years of DC Comics adaptations with next month’s 30-disc set, they are also spotlighting one of their best efforts with the current release of Justice League: The New Frontier – Commemorative Edition in a steelbook.

Based on Darwyn Cooke’s 2004 acclaimed miniseries, the 2008 animated adaptation received an 8/10 here at ComicMix. The 75-minute story deserves a fresh look and it’s a loving tribute to Cooke, who died in 2016, leaving behind a fine legacy. Directed by Dave Bullock from a script by Cooke and Stan Berkowitz, the largely faithful story is a loving tribute to an earlier era when heroes needed courage first, powers were secondary.

While the characters hail from the first days of comics’ Silver Age, the story is a fresh take, involving an alien entity known as The Centre, threatening all life of earth. With each feint and direct attack, men and women rise to the challenge, some demonstrating powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal men. J’Onn J’Onzz (Miguel Ferrer) reveals himself a Martian while Wonder Woman (Lucy Lawless) comes from Paradise Island to participate in the world’s defense. Bit by bit, the heroes band together so you have the birth of the Justice League, but we also have the Challengers of the Unknown, the original Suicide Squad, Dinosaur Island, the Losers, and others making an appearance.

You have to watch this to absorb all the Easter Eggs and marvel at Cooke’s deft ability to make each character recognizable and distinct. This is action-packed and perhaps one of the best adaptations over the last decade. No doubt, Cooke’s involvement guarantees that. The vocal cast, anchored by Jeremy Sisto, David Boreanez, Neil Patrick Harris, Kyle MacLachlan, Phil Morris, and John Heard is one of the stronger assemblages of talent.

The Blu-ray remains visually striking but no different than the original edition. The original special features — Audio Commentary: Bruce Timm, Michael Goguen, David Bullock, Stan Berkowitz, Andrea Romano and Gregory Noveck; Audio Commentary: Writer/Artist Darwyn Cooke; Super Heroes United! The Complete Justice League History; The Legion of Doom: The Pathology of the DC Super Villain; Comic Book Commentary: Homage to the New Frontier – are retained here.

What is new, though, is Retro Action Cool: The Story of Darwyn Cooke where friends and colleagues talk about Cooke the creator and his legacy. Many get emotional talking about their departed friend, especially Art Director Mark Chiarello, who found his work in an editor’s slush pile, and offered to get him published. It’s nice that Cooke’s work for IDW’s Parker adaptations is featured in addition to his DC material. And in a welcome touch, you actually get some interview outtakes that humanize the earnest talking heads, especially DC co-publisher Dan DiDio.

If you missed this then, get it now.

You can’t help but watch the just-released Batman vs. Two-Face with a tear in your eye and weight in your heart. Adam West’s final performance was thankfully completed well before his untimely death in June. He goes out with some fine tributes but it’s a shame the concluding chapter of his Batman career is such a mess of a story.

For whatever reason, ABC and 20^th Century-Fox chose not to use Two-Face, perhaps fearing he was too gruesome for 7:30 p.m. viewing. That’s a shame since the Harlan Ellison treatment for a two-parter, had some promise. The tortured psyche of District Attorney Harvey Dent makes for a wonderful examination of mankind’s duality and the obsession with the number two fits in with the rest of the rogues’ gallery. For whatever reason, the screenwriters eschewed the comic origins in favor of something hewing closer to Dr. Jekyll and Mister Hyde (appropriately name-checked here).

There are storytelling lapses in logic that one could argue is in keeping with the rushed pace of producing the original story but for a sustained, feature-length story, you need a far stronger premise. We have Prof. Hugo Strange (Jim Ward) making his debut, demonstrating he has figured out how to extract “evil” from Batman’s foes. To test it, some genius has allowed him to experiment on five of the most dangerous foes rather than one, so yes it works, but so much evil has been extracted that the machine predictably explodes. And so Two-Face is born.

The rest of the story presents an opportunity to showcase large numbers of familiar felons in a wrong-headed bit of fan service (we got them last time so this feels repetitive) while creating an oddly dissatisfying subplot of Dick Grayson (Burt Ward) actually feeling jealous of Bruce Wayne (West) having an adult male friendship with Dent (William Shatner); something to feed the homosexual theories that have existed between the duo since Fredric Wertham first raised the issue in the 1950s. Thankfully, we have the welcome dalliance between Batman and Catwoman (Julie Newmar) early in the story to cement the notion that Bruce is straight. His opening scene of reciting poetry to her from outside her prison cell is one of the most romantic elements in the series.

Given the pedigree shared by writers James Tucker and Michael Jelenic, I expected a tighter story. There’s a lot of fighting, wheel-spinning, and effort to wink at the fans to prolong the story of Two-Face’s efforts to rule Gotham, especially after he unmasks Batman, and Dent’s struggle to retain his humanity. We get a nice focus on King Tut (Wally Wingert) and his own duality issues while little used villain Bookworm (Jeff Bergman) makes for a nice red herring. There is also the introduction of Dr. Quinzel (Sirena Irwin) which is tonally wrong and out of place.

Director Rick Morales does a serviceable job but may have allowed too many inside jokes, marring the actual pathos of the story. That said, of the various puns and jokes, the best may be that Dent is treated after the initial explosion at the Sisters of Perpetual Irony Hospital.

While West, Ward, and Newmar are welcome familiar voices, Shatner surprises with a nuanced performance as Dent/Two-Face. What could have been over-the-top, even for this series, actually helps ground the character’s torment. They are all well-supported by an able vocal cast.

Visually, the designs for Batman/Wayne and Robin/Grayson are less effective than the previous feature. In some angles, Robin actually looks aged and too often, neither look like their live-action counterparts. Thankfully, the animators literally copied Filmation’s Captain Kirk poses so Shatner is recognizable as his 1966 self and his Two-Face is appropriately creepy.

The Blu-ray combo pack comes with the Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD code. The Special Features open with “The Wonderful World of Burt Ward” (14:30), a look at the actor’s career and half-century relationship with West. The actor is remember during the Adam West Tribute Panel from Comic-Con International 2017 (39:30), where radio personality Ralph Garman, director Kevin Smith, producer James Tucker, actress Lee Meriwether, and moderator Gary Miereanu talk about the man’s influence over generations; “Burt Ward on Being Starstruck” (2:00); “Burt Ward on Ambition” (1:00); and “Julie Newmar on Inspiration” (2:00). Look for a 30-second Easter Egg which is fun, but obvious.: bAT

There has been a certain joyfulness to the CW’s iZombie which was missing in the original Vertigo series. Producer Rob Thomas has also been wise in making each season feel slightly different than the preceding one to keep things fresh. It certainly helps to have shorter seasons for a more potent viewing experience. Warner Home Entertainment has released iZombie the Complete Third Season on DVD while Warner Archive offers up a Blu-ray version.

Much of the credit beyond Thomas’ light touch goes to Rose McIver who plays Liv, the zombie who must consume a deceased’s brains once a month otherwise be turned into your stereotypical monster. Once she devours the brains, she briefly takes on the person’s aspect giving her a chance to go from vamp to klutz, a performance second only to Tatiana Maslany’s many-faceted clone over at Orphan Black.

She’s surrounded by a strong supporting cast led by Liv’s ex-fiancé Major (Robert Buckley), also a zombie. We open the third season to deal with ramifications of Chase Graves’ (Jason Dohring) company Filmore Graves having taken over energy drink producer Max Rager for reasons that get spelled out throughout the season. The idea of a home in Seattle for the growing population of zombies is an interesting one but things are never simple.

The inter-relationships have deepened this year as police detective Clive Babineaux (Malcolm Goodwin) learns the truth about Liv, making him more of an ally. Being a CW show, there are plenty of romantic complications, notably Ravi Chakrabarti (Rahul Kohli) learning that Peyton (Aly Michalka) has slept with former zombie, once more human Blaine (David Anders).

Everything, gets shoved aside as D-Day approaches, with Carey Gold (Anjali Jay) releasing the Aleutian Fly as part of the master plan. When Aleutian Flu vaccines containing zombie virus are beginning to spread among the populace. The final episodes packs a little too much exposition into the beginning, which may show some earlier plotting missteps. To warn America about the plot, Liv agrees to let Johnny Frost (Daran Norris) broadcast that is not only warning about the tainted vaccine but that zombies already walk among them. This sets up an intriguing new status quo for the forthcoming season four.

The DVD set has fine transfers so audio and video are good for rewatching. There are a handful of deleted scenes throughout, including a thread about the Major seeking zombie turned called girl Natalie (Brooke Lyons). Beyond that we have the obligatory 2016 iZombie panel from San Diego Comic-Con.

The Transformers mythology is an eons-long inter-galactic tale that is rich in its own history. We have the rise of intelligent techno-organic lifeforms, a split between rival points of view, and a struggle for supremacy. All along the way, for reasons that are never spelled out in their history, Earth has been of particular interest to the Autobots and Decepticons.

That much has powered countless comics, animated episodes, and four live-action feature films. Rather than marvel at the wonders of the cosmos or reveal to us why the planet is important, the fifth installment, The Last Knight, retrofit the Knights of the Round Table to an already convoluted and, frankly, boring film series. This film, out now on disc from Paramount Home Entertainment, more or less retreads the first four films, mixing returning humans and Transformers and adding in a few new figures to freshen things, and yet, no one cares. The film was widely panned and crashed at the box office, another sequel that failed to interest its core audience nor attract new fans.

The blame clearly has to be laid at the feet of director Michael Bay, who is endlessly repeating himself and may have grown just as bored as his audience. The title is a clear link between Cybertron and King Arthur (Liam Garrigan) and tries to make this mess sound important. We have Optimus Prime (voiced by Peter Cullen) turned into his evil twin Nemesis Prime, we have Quintessa (Gemma Chan), who claims to be leader of the Decpticons and a physical manifestation of  Unicron, the source for all Transformers, and even Viviane Wembly (Laura Haddock), who turns out to be Merlin’s descendant, channeling the great wizard. Lots of reincarnation and resurrection, but really, lots of sound and fury without signifying a damn thing we care about.

Mark Wahlberg is back and we wonder why, much as we question Stanley Tucci and Anthony Hopkins slumming here for the paycheck. What should be a Big Kids’ action-adventure romp has grown weighty and ponderous with each successive installment so we can hope the pitiful box office means they will retire or at least retool.

The film is available in all the usual digital formats including the popular Blu-ray, DVD, Digital HD combo pack. There, the high def transfer is sharp and satisfying, surpassed by the top notch audio track.

And if you think the film franchise is tired, the extras carry that theme onto a bonus second Blu-ray disc. There, you can watch Merging Mythologies (19:53), Climbing the Ranks (8:48), The Royal Treatment: Transformers in the UK (27:04), Motors and Magic (14:47), Alien Landscape: Cybertron (7:15), and One More Giant Effin’ Movie (6:45). What it needed was a primer on the larger Transformers mythology and how this film fits in.