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m-rmorgan
Reviews
Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman (2003)
A darn good movie, with it's own little problems
Well it's been ten years since the release of this one, and I've only just got around to seeing it. Why? Well probably due to its reputation of not being anywhere as good as Mask of Phantasm, Subzero or Batman/Superman: Worlds Finest.
However, I can't help but feel that this film is underrated, it maintains the the feel of the Animated Series very well, despite Bruce Timm not having any involvement, and while some would complain that it isn't as dark as the others, it is important to remember that TAS was intended for both children and adults, while Phantasm was certainly aimed more at the latter, Mystery was aimed more at the prior. This isn't a bad thing though, it contains a lot of the quirkyness of some of the more light-hearted episodes, a lot of which were brilliant, while still having a lot of content that adults could enjoy as well.
The animation for this one is superb, it really shines through, particularly on facial expressions and even the explosions look great. The mystery had me guessing for the good first 2/3s of the movie, but in the end once it's all revealed, the motives seem a little hazy, and while I did enjoy the several love interests happening at once, it did seem a little unnecessary and the very ending seemed a tad off. The music was great, but the Quentin Tarantino-esc credit scene was a little out of place. All in all a good movie:
7 out of 10
Under the Mountain (2009)
Looks nice...
I was given this film by a friend of mine who was going to get rid of it, but thought I might enjoy it. It was directed by Jonathan King, who you might know from the film Black Sheep.
Not having read the book or seen the mini-series from 1981 I didn't have any preconceived ideas about the story, which was probably a good thing because this film is utterly BORING, I was hoping to see Sam Neill be his usual bad ass self, but the whole thing was just bland.
The two twins move in with their cousins after their mother is in an accident and they notice something strange about their neighbours the Wilberforces, the twins are both telepathic for some reason and they also meet up with Mr Jones (Sam Neill) who claims he's there to stop the Wilberforces who are in fact aliens that are keeping enormous beasts under the nearby volcanoes. Mr Jones presents the twins with a pair of stones that they must use to defeat the Wilberforces by harnessing their... Twiness. That's seriously how he refers to it in the movie, I'm not sure if it's the same in the book, but on film it just sounds cheesy, but not the good kind of cheesy like Starship Troopers.
Eventually the twins harness their powers and defeater the Wilberforces, this all sounds very exciting, but the acting is just dull, there doesn't seem to be any passion and I just couldn't get myself to sympathize with the characters. It would be nice to see this redone with some better actor because the story doesn't seem half bad.