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Astonishing X-Men: Dangerous
R1 - America - Shout! Factory Review written by and copyright: Anthony Arrigo (11th November 2012). |
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The Film
 I am not what one would consider to be an avid comic book fan. Sure, back in the halcyon days of youth I had a longbox or two filled with my favorite books, but they were mostly of the horror/sci-fi/creature variety. I possessed little interest in tomes such as "The Uncanny X-Men", "Fantastic Four", "The Amazing Spider-Man"… you know, all the major books that had fervent followings. Despite this, I’m still a fan of their respective films (well, some of them at least); I just never had the desire to get into that world. I’ll admit, not being well-versed in comic lingo and lore, I can recall many moments spent staring at a wall of recently releases issues and counting dozens of "X-Men" issues. I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of storylines and crossovers going at any one time. And rather than attempt to reign them all in and get a handle on where things were at, I simply neglected to read them entirely. But, being that the X-Men are so ubiquitous (now more than ever), I’ve at least been fortunate enough to know the roster of who’s who. Limited knowledge aside, I’m at least aware that there have been many publications throughout the years that were met with great fan acclaim, and Marvel Knights has sought to recreate some of them as motion comics. This works well to both satisfy fans of the series, as well as opening the plotlines up to those who enjoy the films but don’t like to read comics. The latest release in this line, “Astonishing X-Men: Dangerous” (2012), brings not only the popular, titular team to the small screen, but with them comes the writing work of one Joss Whedon, who many are now greatly familiar with since “The Avengers” (2012) Hulk-smashed the crap out of cinemas everywhere this Summer. This is the second of a continuing series, which began with “Astonishing X-Men: Gifted” (2009), and continues with “Astonishing X-Men: Torn” (2012). The story, adapted from a series written by Joss Whedon and illustrated by John Cassaday, covers issues 7-12 of that series. A Sentinel, controlled by an unknown master, attacks the X-Men and forces them into a deadly trap that leaves them all vulnerable. It turns out that the Danger Room has become sentient, transforming into a robotic entity called ‘Danger’, and it’s trying to dismantle the team using all of the knowledge of their fighting styles it has acquired throughout the years. Considering I’m practically a layman in the X-Men universe, I mostly liked this story. Right from the get-go, Whedon’s dialogue is very evident. The guy has a distinct style that echoes throughout his work, much different than what most are typically accustomed to hearing in a comic or film. His writing is often highlighted by sarcastic quips, acerbic dialogue, and a penchant for wearing his geek badge proudly on his sleeve. Also, this maintains his recurring theme of writing powerful, capable female roles where the women are in many ways equal to, or superior than, their male counterparts. You won’t find any sexualizing of leather-clad, buxom busty ladies in his pages. That’s perfectly fine by me since I love his style. I clearly don’t read enough comic books to know how unique his voice is within that world, but I’m going to wager that he’s taken a distinctive enough approach that people certainly took notice. Now, on to these “motion comics”, which have been effective in breathing new life into books which were (apparently) highly lauded by comic fans. This is the second one I’ve viewed, after “Iron Man: Extremis” (2010), and while I’ve found the stories to be interesting in their literal sense, their animation is severely lacking and limited in execution. What might have read as a thrilling story on the page has all the excitement of a child’s pop-up book on screen. More often than not, characters move and talk like two-dimensional cutouts. This might not be such a terrible thing if the stories were small scale, dialogue-heavy dramas without a need for high octane action scenes, but when a group of mutants is fighting a massive Sentinel and it looks so… bland and static, then that’s the time to rethink your approach. As a full-fledged animated movie, this would’ve been much more impactful. The process can’t be as simple as importing the printed characters into a computer and making them move around like string-puppets. Furthermore, get some decent voice talents on board. Everyone here sounds like they’re reading a eulogy at someone’s funeral. There’s no hint of danger, passion, intensity, strife; you know, the kind of emotion you’d expect someone in these situations to react with. Make me feel like the stakes have been upped, that these other characters matter to somebody. Anyone can read lines off a page (and, seriously, if that’s all Marvel Knights wants people to do I’m totally available for hire), but to imbue that with some pathos for the viewing audience, well, that’s going to take some legit work. This is why celebs are frequently paid for voice talent since, even though you can’t see them and they’re likely doing their job wearing sweatpants and chain smoking between takes, they know how to sell that shit. On a final note, these episodes are each around 12 minutes long, with 6 of them included on the disc. They’re available to watch via the ever-useful “play all” option. Just note that each short episode (annoyingly) plays intro and ending credits, so you can cut a solid 15 minutes out of the total running time by chapter skipping them as they come up. I verified that the credits are their own chapters, so skip with impunity and don’t worry about missing a beat.
Video
The 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen image is good, but far from great. Limitations of the animation style aside (since they’ve been well covered), the image exhibits a fair enough amount of edge enhancement and macroblocking that, while not entirely distracting, certainly prevents the picture from looking as vibrant and punchy as it could have. Would an HD release have been cost prohibitive? Colors are pleasing enough, although they lack pop. The image as a whole looks a bit “thick”, partially due to the animation style, partially due to the compression of the film. For a simple, no frills release such as this, it’s passable.
Audio
Again, color me unimpressed by the film’s limited English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo mix, which packs all the wallop of a 5-year-old child’s punch. The sound design is very thin, with a severely limited range that sounds flat and lifeless. There’s virtually nothing going on in the low end of things until the final couple of episodes, when my LFE suddenly sprang to life and realized it should probably do something. I’m not sure why this wasn’t mixed into a beefier 5.1 surround sound track, especially since that would have overshadowed the lackluster video presentation. There are no subtitles.
Extras
Not a thing. Seriously, not even trailers.
Packaging
The single disc comes housed in a cardboard digi-pack that opens like a book. The packaging itself is adorned with lots of key art from the episodes, something Shout! Factory has always excelled at. A plastic slip (similar to a comic book sleeve) is included to preserve the package as much as possible.
Overall
Of the two Marvel Knights films I’ve seen, both have had a good story hampered by mediocre visuals. I don’t know if the reason for such simple crude animation is budgetary or stylistic. Had they gone with a more traditional style, I would certainly rate both much higher. I honestly don’t know what the fan reaction to these has been, but I would imagine it has been positive enough that they’re still cranking them out.
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