JUSTICE LEAGUE: AXIS OF VILLAINS

What happens when you combine some of DC's biggest heroes and a siege game?  In this case you get Justice League: Axis of Villains, which fails to capture the spirit or uniqueness of the characters.

Players can be Batman, Superman, Green Lantern or the Flash.  They're on the Justice League Satellite, which is surrounded by eight sides.  Each hero has five Arch Villains.  If the players clear the board of all villains, they win!  If the villains destroy the four parts of the Satellite, the players lose.

Gameplay is very similar to Castle Panic.  Each turn a player rolls a 6-sided die (Control Die) and an 8-sided die (Number Die).  Some rolls move the villains on the section indicated on the Control Die one or two spaces closer to the Satellite.  (If a villain lands on a Hot Spot, they flip a Villain Card, which can do anything from bring defeated villains back to bringing out an Ultra Villain.)  Some put an Arch Villain into play at the section of the Control Die.  If a villain makes it to the Satellite, they destroy a section, and if all four sections are destroyed the game ends; if a Ultra Villain makes it to the Satellite the players lose immediately.  And if the JL symbol comes up, the players cam move their hero that many spaces -- usually to battle the villains!

Combat is pretty simple.   A hero can play a Power Card before combat to use a power or get an advantage.  Then the player rolls two 10-sided dice against their own Arch Villains, or one 10-sided die against another villain; if another hero is on the same space, they can roll dice as well.  If the dice results are higher than the villain's points, the heroes win and remove the villain from the board (plus get a Power card); if it's a tie, nothing happens; and if the results are less than the villain, the hero(es) get moved to the Satellite.

Justice League: Axis of Villains is disappointing.  The heroes' powers aren't that impressive (usually involving moving around the board), and since they need Power Cards to use, they can't be used that much.  The game doesn't even try to balance the difference in power between Batman's villains and the others (Superman has problems defeating Two-Face?  Really?) and it can be frustrating to roll the dice over and over and over before finally being able to move one's hero.  There are several good superhero-based games out there, but I can't add Justice League: Axis of Villains to that fun group.

Overall grade: C-
Reviewed by James Lynch

GREEN LANTERN: THE ANIMATED SERIES

With the new "DC Nation" block of DC superhero shows on Cartoon Network, it's no surprise that they needed a new superhero series. The result is Green Lantern: The Animated Series, a fairly routine cgi show about superheroes in space.

The setup for Green Lantern: The Animated Series is pretty simple. In the furthest regions of space, Green Lanterns are being killed. While the Guardians don't want to do anything about it (foreshadowing some sort of dark secret of theirs), maverick hotshot Hal Jordan (Josh Keaton) and gruff tough-guy Kilowog (Kevin Michael Richardson) steal an experimental spacecraft to investigate. What they find: the Red Lantern Corps.

It seems there's a whole 'nother color of Lanterns, and the Red Lanterns' rings are powered by rage -- and Atrocitus (Jonathan Adams), their leader, wants revenge against the Green Lantern Corps. So with Hal and Kilowog's ship conveniently damaged (it can do everything but get them back home), the two Green Lanterns must work alone against the threat of the Red Lanterns. Well, not quite alone: Razer (Jason Spisak) is a Red Lantern who feels guilty about what he's done and joins the good guys; and Ava (Grey DeLisle) is the ship's artificial intelligence that wants to be a Green Lantern -- and builds herself a sexy robotic body.

While Green Lantern: The Animated Series isn't as bad as the recent live-action movie (faint praise indeed), it's also not that impressive. The cgi is adequate but not thrilling, giving us ring-generated constructs and alien species that don't thrill. And with the exception of Razer's conversion, most of the battles end in a draw: the Green Lanterns don't capture the Reds, and the Red Lanterns don't kill the Greens. The series does service to DC fans by skipping over Hal's origins, and the workings of the power rings are left vague: They're no longer vulnerable to yellow, but they need to be recharged whenever the plot dictates it. Green Lantern: The Animated Series is alright: not likely to turn off fans of Hal Jordan, but not likely to excite them either.

Overall grade: C

Reviewed by James Lynch

GREEN LANTERN

"In brightest day, in darkest night..." Say these words to any self-respecting comic book fan and they'll recognize it as the opening of the oath of the Green Lantern Corps (the fan will probably finish saying the oath as well), the intergalactic protectors of the universe armed with rings, powered by will, that can create anything the user imagines. Green Lantern brings this world to the big screen for the first time; but while the technology to make the power rings and aliens seem real is here, the human elements -- like acting and story -- are lacking.

Most of Green Lantern is split between space and Earth. Somewhere in space, a powerful entity called Parallax has been freed and is charging across the galaxy, destroying civilizations as it either sucks people's fear from them (leaving their skeletons behind) or spits bolts of yellow energy at them. The Green Lantern Corps may find itself outmatched for the first time by this being. Green Lantern Abin Sur (Temuera Morrison) was mortally wounded by Parallax and, crashing on Earth, sends his ring to choose his replacement.

That replacement is Hal Jordan (Ryan Reynolds). Hal is a terrific fighter pilot, but he's an irresponsible screw-up in the rest of his life (and scared by visions of his father dying in a plane explosion). He spends most of the movie thinking his getting the ring was a mistake -- a sentiment echoed by Green Lantern Sinestro (Mark Strong), a friend and admirer of Abin Sur.

For a romantic interest of sorts, Carol Ferris (Blake Lively) is Hal's ex, plus a fellow fighter pilot, plus a wannabe businesswoman, plus the daughter of the owner of the company they work for. And nerdy scientist Hector Hammond (Peter Sarsgaard) gets infected with a piece of Parallax, turning him into a large-headed villain with telekinetic and psychic powers.
As you might expect, a superhero movie relies largely on the actor playing the hero -- and Ryan Reynolds is a huge disappointment. Movies like this often have the hero's journey of discovery in their abilities, but Ryan spends so much time as the charming, lovable loser that his transition to hero seems unbelievable --as is his showing up the other, far-more-experienced Green Lanterns. Blake Lively is adequate as the moral support for Hal, but terrific actor Peter Sarsgaard is given a very one-dimensional role as the earthbound villain. (The movie also wastes the talent of Tim Robbins, playing Hector's father.)

Sadly, Green Lantern is also lacking in both story and action. Splitting the movie between space and Earth is distracting, plus it slows down the pacing to the point of frequent boredom. (There are also numerous "what the?" scenes where characters act in unbelievable ways.) And given the advances in cgi and special effects, there's a disappointing lack of use of the power ring -- one of the potentially most creative devices in the comic book universe -- through the movie. The pacing

Green Lantern has some chuckles here and there, but this was a letdown. If only they would have cast Nathan Fillion in the lead...

Overall grade: D+
Reviewed by James Lynch