Reviews and More

I’m not much of a drinker (anymore), but I still enjoy having a few beers every now and then — especially while watching football with friends. During the NFL season, I have at least three or four Sunday afternoon gatherings at my own home, and attend at least a couple more at local sports bars or friends’ houses. No matter where I’m at, I always drink the same thing: Bud Light in a bottle.

I know, I know: a lot of you are probably snickering at my choice in light beer, but I don’t really care. I’ve never been one to buy expensive beers or indulge in trendy labels from microbreweries. I just want something cold and refreshing, and Bud Light does the trick every time, so that’s good enough for me.

The last time I had a Bud Light was back on Super Bowl Sunday. I had a small party at my place with four other diehard football fans, and together we had a blast watching the New York Giants come from behind to pull off an amazing upset and topple the undefeated Patriots. We must have gone through a couple dozen bottles of light beer that day — as well as several pizzas, some Italian beef sandwiches, and countless bags of chips. It was definitely a good time!

Anyway, I just heard about a cool mobile survey that I think would be fun to participate in. It consists of 10 text questions about drinking beer, and anyone who completes the survey will automatically be entered into a drawing for a $300 Amazon gift card. From what I’ve read, the survey is limited to a relatively small pool of participants, which means your chances of winning should be pretty good. To begin, all you have to do is text the word beer to 247365, and your questions will start rolling in.

The sweepstakes period is from March 1 until midnight on March 14, so be sure to take the survey within that time frame.

I’m off to enter the contest right now!

I’m not much of a comic book fan, so I was a bit worried about how my lack of superhero knowledge would affect my ability to enjoy a complimentary copy of the new Justice League: The New Frontier DVD that I received. From the trailers, I gathered that this film sought to explain how the legendary Justice League crime-fighting team was formed back in the 1950s.

Yes, you read that right: this is an animated “period piece” that takes us back more than half a century to a time when several once-popular superheroes were facing a downturn in public support. Batman saves a child from menacing cult leaders, but is just as scary to the boy as the villains were. Government officials try to nab The Flash to perform invasive tests on him. Wonder Woman becomes an expat.

These and other backstories form the central plot of The New Frontier, a surprisingly complex film that I liked much more than I thought I would.

Plot summary (with possible spoilers): At the beginning of the film, we see Batman (voiced by Jeremy Sisto), Superman (Kyle MacLachlan), Wonder Woman (Lucy Lawless), Hal Jordan/Green Lantern (David Boreanaz), the Flash (Neil Patrick Harris), and the Martian Manhunter (Miguel Ferrer) as they all hit rock bottom. For superheroes, this entails losing the trust of the general public and/or authorities, and, in the case of Hal Jordan, going through a period of self-doubt and despair.

In these early stages, the superheroes do not interact with each other very much. Superman and Wonder Woman have a few encounters, as do Batman and the Martian Manhunter, but there’s no real indication that they’re all interested in working with each other.

It’s only later on when Batman and Martian Manhunter stumble across a nefarious group known as The Center. I have to admit that this whole thing was a bit hazy to me, but as far as I can tell, the villains unleashed (or actually were) a flying saucer full of rampaging dinosaurs. When these creatures threaten humankind, the superheroes leap into action to protect civilization.

Once they defeat the enemies, they all agree to pool their talents in the Justice League.

My Reaction: Because the film is so short, several of the story threads receive only cursory treatment. While this didn’t affect the overall quality of the movie, it did lead to some very short scenes and quick jumps to all the different characters. This proved to be pretty confusing for me at first, but I soon got used to what was happening.

As I said before, I don’t read comics at all, so I’m not sure how faithful this adaptation is to the graphic novel. I therefore can only evaluate Justice League: The New Frontier as a standalone film viewed through the eyes of a complete newbie, so you’ll have to keep that in mind here.

Hal Jordan and the Martian Mindhunter received the bulk of the screentime here. I thought Jordan’s story was particularly interesting — simply because I was able to learn so much about the character. From his stint as a pacifist fighter pilot during the Korean War who had to shoot an enemy combatant in the head at close range in order to survive, to his subsequent search for acceptance into an astronaut training program and his developing relationship with Carol Ferris, Hal Jordan was definitely the most three-dimensional of all the characters.

The weakest part of the film for me was the whole idea of The Center. Again, I either completely missed the explanation of what it was or somehow had it go over my head as I was watching, because I couldn’t figure out what was going on with that. It would have been nice to have a more concrete enemy for the superheroes to rally behind, but I guess that wasn’t in the cards.

Overall, however, I have to say that I really enjoyed Justice League: The New Frontier. The voice work was great, and the film moved along at a fast enough pace that it was impossible to become bored. I give this movie 7.0 stars out of 10 and recommend that you see it!