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Notes -
My list of ones worth watching would be:
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns 1 and 2- Very good, classics
Batman: Year One- It's been a while since I actually watched it, but I remember it being good. More focus on Jim Gordon
Batman: Assault on Arkham- Really good, I don't think it's that brainless. My favourite Suicide Squad piece of media.
Flashpoint Paradox- Excellent, one of my favourites, but I've also always had a soft spot for alternate timelines
Justice League: War- Good intro to the Justice League
Justice League Dark: Apokolips War- Really good if you've seen all the other DC animated movies, but there are like a dozen that aren't worth watching, and I don't know how good it'd be without more context
What I like from comic book stories, in order of priority, are:
a) Lack of plotholes and reasonable motivations from everyone. If the villain's utility function is just causing other's to suffer and they act like the Joker, that's fine. If the villain's utility function is they want more money, and they act like the Joker, that annoys me because being a domestic terrorist is not a good money making strategy. I want this from pretty much all media, not just comic book stories.
b) A real challenge to overcome. I have to believe the character is struggling to accomplish their goal, and also related to a) aren't only struggling because they're holding an idiot ball.
c) Impressive/superhuman abilities. I like seeing characters do the impossible like punch through walls or fly, it's satisfying in a simple way.
Yeah, they just get repetitive after a while though. That is why I love Mask of the Phantasm, Under the Red Hood, The Long Halloween(both parts), Gotham by Gaslight. All 4 have different villains who have objectives beyond money, who you have not seen before in other movies and have a personal struggle for both Batman and Bruce Wayne.
I dislike the Justice league stuff somewhat given Batman punches robots that superman fights, even though one is a normal dude whilst other is an alien capable of smashing planets. The lack of consistency in this stuff does make me a bit bored but otherwise these are good movies. I liked all 4, the fourth especially.
Also Assault on Arkham is a more action oriented movie and yeah, it is great. I too think it is the best piece of Suicide Squad media. I just wish they could make more movies like the ones listed in this post.
That's definitely an issue for me, I consider it a plot hole, but at this point I've basically just accepted that, like how I accept that Superman can fly and shoot lasers out of his head. But some of the movies still go too far for me, like Throne of Atlantis, where whichever character was using the Trident was essentially more powerful than the rest of the Justice League combined. It's been a while since I've seen the movie, so maybe I'm being unfair to it, but I think Ocean Master should've had a more complex strategy to defeat the Justice League than just "Get my hands on the trident", and the Justice League should've had a more complex plan to defeat Ocean Master than just "Get the trident into Aquaman's hands".
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