Unintentional Hilarity - Babylon 5, Batman, Star Trek

I delight in life.  Little joys, big triumphs, dancing a tiny jig in the bookstore when they play a song I like, a large grin on my wife's face when I crack some silly joke. One tiny pleasure I take is the small moments of unintentional hilarity in the sci-fi and fantasy shows and movies I watch.  I'm not talking about something that's intended to be funny, nor am I talking about the so-bad-it's-good kind of joy I get from shows like The Cape.  (BTW, we're having a Curtains for the Cape party at my house this Saturday, if you're in LA email for details.)  Nope, I mean those minuscule moments in an otherwise quality program that make me laugh out loud at their absurdity.  Often they require a moment to think about, but having trod that mental road it's impossible to not laugh at the absurdity.

Here's one that always gets me.  I'm a huge fan of Babylon 5.  It had so much potential, and though there were some issues towards the end it remains one of the most ambitious sci-fi undertaking ever attempted on television.  This scene is from Infection, the fourth episode aired but the first one (post-pilot) produced.  They were still finding their feet, and it's regarded as one of the weaker episodes.  But there's one line in particular, that's delivered with such sincerity and zeal that I almost want Dr. Franklin's response to be something like, "well, you raise a valid point."  I'll remember this scene the next time I'm doing a little bit of harmless smuggling.

I feel funny bashing B5 without taking a little poke at Star Trek.  Now, to be sure, there's a ton of cheese in Star Trek.  However, one line in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country made me chuckle then and has in fact entered my lexicon.  Keep in mind that Scotty is supposed to be one of Kirk's very best friends in the universe, loyal to the point that he'd break the laws of the universe for this man.  So, when Spock asks him to visually inspect some torpedoes to clear Kirk's name...

Is it just me or should the next line from Spock be a sarcastic, "well, then don't do it."  My friends and I now use this phrase in a whiny voice when someone asks us to do something perfectly reasonable and necessary.  "That could take hours!!!"

Finally, here's one from Batman: The Animated Series.  The episode? The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne, where Hugo Strange gets video proof of Batman's secret identity and attempt to auction it off to the Joker, Two-Face, and the Penguin.  I'll admit that this might be a bit of a cheat.  It's entirely possible that this line was SUPPOSED to be funny.  However, the tone of the episode is so serious that that's not at all clear.  Still, Strange's reaction is so wonderfully understated that it cracks me up every time.  I'd certainly be less caviler if the Joker was given reason to believe I was trying to screw him!

Hope you enjoy!  If there's some unintentional hilarity that you've found in otherwise quality sci-fi, please let me know and I'll check it out.

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies DVD review

Today is Bish's birthday! Many happy returns to my intrepid co-blogger. That being the case, he probably won't have time to review Target: 2006 part 4 today. I figured I'd look through my recent purchases for a good review candidate. Lo and behold, there was one: Superman/Batman: Public Enemies (Two-Disc Special Edition).

In the interest of full disclosure, I have not read the comics on which this story is based. A friend of mine ran through some of the differences, but ultimately I'm just not knowledgeable enough to point out the differences in a coherent way. That said, any time an adaptation from one medium to another takes place, especially a serial medium to a stand-alone medium, changes have to be made. In some ways, that lets me more readily judge this DVD on its own merits. There will be spoilers ahead.

Superman/Batman: Public Enemies tells the story of Lex Luthor's presidency, and the clash that it precipitates. Luthor comes into office as a third party candidate, on the back of a massive economic collapse. These events are briefly summarized in a pre-opening credit montage, complete with a lampooning of the former supervillian by a Daily Show parody and an interview of Luthor conducted by a Larry King knock-off. After his victory, Luthor makes it clear that superheroes are subject to the same laws as everyone else. He's even taken the step of bringing several of them into the service of the government. It's a very slick way to introduce the story. The intersection of the political process and the media, juxtaposed with comic book characters, grounds the story nicely.

Events quickly spins out of control. A huge Kryptonite meteor is going to smash into Earth, wiping out most of civilization. Luthor thinks that he can handle it, but uses it as an opportunity to frame Superman anyway. A meeting, ostensibly to discuss working together, turns into a battle between Superman and Secret Service agent Metallo. Batman shows up to help, but eventually they're forced to flee. A mysterious figure, though, murders Metallo. The Metallo reveal was one of the best moments of the video, and the fight that followed was terrific.

Luthor pins the murder of Metallo, complete with video footage, on the Man of Steel and offers a one billion dollar reward for Superman's capture. We get some truly massive fights as a result of this. One highlight was Batman facing off against Mister Freeze, Captain Cold, Icicle and Killer Frost. Another was the reveal that many of the villains were acting under Grodd's control.

The fight is interrupted by the arrival of Luthor's goon squad of heroes. Power Girl reveals her doubts about Luthor, and Batman tricks Major Force into revealing that he was behind Metallo's death, turning the others against him. It's not quite as satisfying as the massive supervillain brawl, but it's still decent action. Batman proves again his worth, even when teamed with probably the world's most powerful superhero.

From here, though, the story gets weaker. Luthor's plan to destroy the meteor (remember that?) fails. Superman and Batman try to get at government data and run into Captain Marvel and Hawkman. We cut away from the battle with the antagonistic heroes winning. Waller finds out that Luthor has been injecting himself a Venom/Kryptonite mixture and it's driving him a little mad. He's willing to let the Earth burn and rebuild what's left. In the middle of his ranting, he unexpectedly kisses her, a nicely bizarre moment. Hawkman and Captain Marvel then show up at Luthor's anti-meteor base, but it turns out that they're actually Superman and Batman. Luthor tries to erase all government data on the impending calamity, but Waller hands them a jump drive filled with data.

While Superman and Batman go off to save the world, Waller attempts to arrest Luthor. Luthor, though, is ready for this and has prepared one of his probably-not-patented supervillain suits. He's going to prevent the heroes from saving the world. It's a shame that the story went in this direction. Luthor was working so well as the face of the government. While I appreciate where they were going with him injecting himself with Venom, from one of Batman's villains, and Kryptonite, Superman's Achilles heal, it seems like a massive step down from just being President. Him fighting to destroy the world, because chemicals have driven him crazy, just seem out of character for this monomaniacal titan. JLU had the same problem - him as President was much more menacing than him as a partner to Brainiac or, worse, a Brainiac junkie.

With the data in hand, Superman and Batman fly to Japan to meet Hiro, the Toyman. It's a WTF moment, to be sure; Hiro had been alluded to a grand total of twice in this story, and once was pretty late in the game while the other was extremely subtle. He's built a rocket to save the Earth based on an existing design from when he was seven, a massive half-Superman half-Batman behemoth. Luthor pursues them and smashes up the controls, forcing Batman to pilot it manually. While Batman flies into space and saves the world, Superman battles Luthor around the globe, eventually downing him in (where else?) Metropolis. As Luthor is carted away, much too abruptly really, there is much rejoicing in the street. The giant rocket is silly, but it's at least appropriately silly and the writers attempt to justify it by having Hiro bashfully state that he had a bad case of hero-worship when he designed it.

All told, it's an ambitious story that doesn't quite know what to do with itself. The idea of Luthor fighting to destroy the world seems so out of character that they needed to justify it by having him be out of his mind. A huge Superman / power-suit Luthor fight is just about the most pedestrian way this story could possibly end. The animation was beautiful, though I didn't care for Power Girl's design. She just seemed plastic somehow, not very real. The fight scenes, especially the Metallo fight and the Superman / Luthor fight, were amazing. The voice acting was great, and they got a bunch of the DCAU actors to reprise their roles. It's a good story, only suffering from not living up to its own potential. At $17 or so on Amazon, it's mildly recommended.