'Guardians of Justice' is basically an alternate version of 'Watchmen". The world is hurling toward nuclear war, and there are hidden subtexts of homosexuality that become not-so-hidden in the first few minutes of this episode. Facts that are hidden become not-so-hidden, and characters that have been relatively minor suddenly became major: Ozymandias and Mind Master. They both even have the same basic purple color scheme. And Speed is basically doing a Rorschach.
Maybe it's the obsession with nuclear war that gives the show an 80s/Watchmen feel. Nuclear war and trigger-happy American presidents just aren't that big a thing in 2022. Unless you think "nuclear Armageddon" Biden is trigger-happy. Your mileage may vary on that one. Ditto for hiding that you're gay, which isn't as a big thing in the 2020s as it was in the 1980s.
I'm still bemused by the production staff's chutzpah of using animation and video game effects to cover for the fact that they can't afford actual FX. Need hundreds of mind-controlled people swarm Awesome Man. Hey, switch to animation. This makes a bit odd that the animated Awesome Man is much more impressive than Derek Mears as the live-action Awesome Man.
Basically the show is just people standing in rooms talking to each other, and animated sequences. With the occasional Speed special effects of her speeding around and taking out Knight Hawk's soldiers in Quicksilver-like sequences. Sometime they'll have a battle, like last week's fight between Golden Goddess and Awesome Man. Even then it's just two people standing around, with some screensaver-style special effects in the background. I'm sure they're most expensive than that, but they _look_ like screensavers. Which I guess is a deliberate choice by the production staff, when they can apparently afford better. Like with Speed's speed FX. So I guess it's a stylistic choice, to separate 'Guardians' from the Marvel and DC productions.
Ditto with Mortal Kombat stuff like combat hit point bars and declarations of "Finish Him!" and "Brutality!" Again, I guess it's just stylistic, and I suppose it livens things up in a way that slo-mo didn't in the Watchmen movie.
The whole thing with Speed is strange, because apparently the production team had some love for the character and dedicated a lot of the budget to her. She appears practically as much as Knight Hawk. But they alternate between some decent FX, claymation, and video game effects with her. Huh?
The episode mostly focuses on Knight Hawk, Speed, and the previously-mostly-unseen Mind Master. It does them all justice, although I'm not quite sure how Marvelous Man wiped Knight Hawk's memories so the latter doesn't remember forming his brainwashed army _after_ Marvelous Man died. Have they just been in a holding pattern while Knight Hawk has been conducting his investigation. How did Knight Hawk forget things _after_ Marvelous Man died? A lot of it seems like papering over plot holes to get the story that the writers wanted.
Sharni Vinson makes a charismatic heroic presence, although it doesn't look like she's got a lot of screen time in American productions. Or Australian ones, come to that. That's a pity, I'd pay good money to see her as a superhero in something a bit more high-profile. Ditto for RJ Mitte as Mind Master. Although he's shown up a bit more in American TV. He definitely deserves a bit more attention than he gets in "Guardians'.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
Maybe it's the obsession with nuclear war that gives the show an 80s/Watchmen feel. Nuclear war and trigger-happy American presidents just aren't that big a thing in 2022. Unless you think "nuclear Armageddon" Biden is trigger-happy. Your mileage may vary on that one. Ditto for hiding that you're gay, which isn't as a big thing in the 2020s as it was in the 1980s.
I'm still bemused by the production staff's chutzpah of using animation and video game effects to cover for the fact that they can't afford actual FX. Need hundreds of mind-controlled people swarm Awesome Man. Hey, switch to animation. This makes a bit odd that the animated Awesome Man is much more impressive than Derek Mears as the live-action Awesome Man.
Basically the show is just people standing in rooms talking to each other, and animated sequences. With the occasional Speed special effects of her speeding around and taking out Knight Hawk's soldiers in Quicksilver-like sequences. Sometime they'll have a battle, like last week's fight between Golden Goddess and Awesome Man. Even then it's just two people standing around, with some screensaver-style special effects in the background. I'm sure they're most expensive than that, but they _look_ like screensavers. Which I guess is a deliberate choice by the production staff, when they can apparently afford better. Like with Speed's speed FX. So I guess it's a stylistic choice, to separate 'Guardians' from the Marvel and DC productions.
Ditto with Mortal Kombat stuff like combat hit point bars and declarations of "Finish Him!" and "Brutality!" Again, I guess it's just stylistic, and I suppose it livens things up in a way that slo-mo didn't in the Watchmen movie.
The whole thing with Speed is strange, because apparently the production team had some love for the character and dedicated a lot of the budget to her. She appears practically as much as Knight Hawk. But they alternate between some decent FX, claymation, and video game effects with her. Huh?
The episode mostly focuses on Knight Hawk, Speed, and the previously-mostly-unseen Mind Master. It does them all justice, although I'm not quite sure how Marvelous Man wiped Knight Hawk's memories so the latter doesn't remember forming his brainwashed army _after_ Marvelous Man died. Have they just been in a holding pattern while Knight Hawk has been conducting his investigation. How did Knight Hawk forget things _after_ Marvelous Man died? A lot of it seems like papering over plot holes to get the story that the writers wanted.
Sharni Vinson makes a charismatic heroic presence, although it doesn't look like she's got a lot of screen time in American productions. Or Australian ones, come to that. That's a pity, I'd pay good money to see her as a superhero in something a bit more high-profile. Ditto for RJ Mitte as Mind Master. Although he's shown up a bit more in American TV. He definitely deserves a bit more attention than he gets in "Guardians'.
But that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. What do you think?
