MOVIE REVIEW – It doesn’t necessarily add to a film’s brand to stamp it with a glowing iron DC signal, however, the studio has proven a few times that it can make something quite good and lasting: the DC League of Super-Pets has become the veterinary superhorse for universe-building. The film struggles like a pegasus to max out its supernatural powers despite the childish -and admittedly lame- basic concept.

DC’s League of Super-Pets is not as bad as its trailer let us imagine. But the question still makes us worry: why it was necessary to include the 2 super letters in the movie title? They would have been enough on the posters only. The 2nd trailer already hints at some depth, and although I wanted to laugh, and I could, some of the jokes could have been wittier. A couple of times I felt that a punchline should be written at the end of some scenes – even under limited inspiration. There are, of course, fresh solutions, such as a clumsy character: a turtle with censored swearing, who shakes up the whole movie theatre – including the adults as well. There were also cat-like clawed ones who ‘want to play’, sounding familiar for us from creepy movies where you don’t want to hear this invitation at night times. I can’t tell you any more about this because my contract prevents me. 🙂

However, if my non-existent super-dog was named Crypto, he could mine bitcoins for me, but despite the fictional framework, this little lapdog is quite lovable. He after all reinforces all the stereotypes of four-legged creatures. A dog is jealous when its owner is in love and can be bribed with a reward wall. These ‘human’ essence make his character so likeable, and in this respect he was a well chosen character for a default super pet, especially as he sometimes looks after his sleepy owner, so he is a real little ‘S’ doggy dog.

Release from shelter on bail only

In every company there is a Pinky and a Brain to complement each other intellectual level. At the state pet shop, you get the madman: guinea pig in a cage who wants to break free to the dark side of power. And an inept team is out to ‘strengthen’ the bright side of energy. Having seen a lot of animation, for me these many characters are started to become schematic, although: there is nothing new under the sun (superstar), and perhaps not even expected, but still given me some boring-factor. The graphics are a bit cartoon-like, so we’re talking about a relatively shadowless contour, with similar power to Shadow the hedgehog. The character portrayal is reminiscent of The Secret Life of Pets, while the fight scenes and character introductions were like in The Bad Guys. The dogs were easy to feel alone and orphaned, but the feeling reminds me of the super-dog: Bolt, created by Disney. As we will know, there are special colours of the kryptonite, just like the ever-present chaos emeralds in Sonic universe (only in the games for so far).

Justice League – with fur this time

It’s hard to forget DC’s sudden-created and premiered universe with Justice warriors collaborating, and we were just looking, trying to figure out where those non-marvel characters were coming from, and who they are anyway. The origin films have become more stable: Wonder Woman 1984’s story was fine, Aquaman was stunningly spectacular, with panning shots and shifts in depth that kept us watching. But for me, this movie is still hanging in the atmosphere. The human-warriors are outmatched by the animal vile, and then the lapdogs get together without human help, come on, are you serious? It would have been more believable to have 2 mixed teams fighting where animals help their owners and vice versa. Maybe in the sequel, since this was supposed to be the start of exciting series.

I was sorry to see the Green Lantern was displayed as a girl-character, and the rest of the league became mostly just parodies of themselves. Let’s say self-criticism is to be appreciated, but please don’t make Aquaman (aka ‘waterguy’) act like a stupid fish, as he never was that. Batman is still a grumpy dark knight, but at least we can keep our fingers crossed that he’ll get a dog friend. And if the heroes have got this parallel drawn universe, they’ll have to compete with the graphical excellence of the Spiderverse, as both are built in parallel, so they should meet at infinity (or at least in quality). There’s no shortage of action, but more slow motion would have been better, I missed the moral discussions (power of persuasion) with the main villain, and the brain-relaxing, eye-freshening scenes during the finale would have added a lot to the recipient’s alertness.

I would also have liked to have seen a more serious moral struggle during the fights, trying to concern someone, revival, conversion, duplicity, fake or real regret, character development, because these were not really brought to the top by this time. DC’s League of Super-Pets tried not to neglect the character histories, but some of the battle scenes were a bit tedious for me. Somehow, the dynamics could have been played with better, and I missed additional story twists. Most of the storyline was kind of predictable, but this was good as a whole to create a lovable supermovie for children. Maybe the Warner Bros water tower has a leak, which makes the potential power flow away. All in all, it wasn’t a super bad story, but Aquaword 2 should blast the water in the whirlpool of arriving movies. DC took a bold risk, but the sequel needs to be more layered, and the secret abbreviation of this 2 letter above should be revealed next time (or gain a new sense of meaning.) Build the universe more accurately and get higher to allow for some destruction (just in case), but at least have a consistent direct current for even power.

Jay P. Sonix