Captian Underpants: The First Epic Movie

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland















Michael's Movie Grade: B+

Review: Excellent film is just simply a lot of fun.

This film is a great mixture of clever humor, childish bathroom humor, fantastic animation and just pure fun. What really makes the movie work though is the main characters Harold and George. These characters maintain all of the likability they had in the books. You fully understand their love of pranks. They are not doing it because they are mean, but rather because their school is so boring they need to find someway to entertain themselves. This is something I can easily relate to. While for the most part I liked school, there was on the other hand science classes, which I found so boring it drove me crazy to just sit there. Because of this my mind would wander easily and I could simply entertain myself with my own imagination through these classes. Because of this what Harold and George do makes perfect sense to me and feels so relatable. On top of this most of the humor hits very well. While there are times when it can miss such as an extend sequence where the kids tell Captain Underpants to impersonate a principal that goes on too long, most of the humor is quite funny. Again these jokes range from childish potty humor to very clever humor, and some how the two mix perfectly here. These jokes are perfectly complemented by the animation. The animation is very cartoony, energetic and just plain fun. Many of the jokes are timed so well, that they hit perfectly. Also helping make the movie so fun is the use of various animation styles. This is not a gimmick as it is utilized perfectly to complement the story. These scenes include a great look into the boys' brains, the use of child like drawings for the comic books and most importantly a flip-o-rama action scene (which is very funny).

Just a fun movie.

-Michael J. Ruhland  

Wonder Woman

Review Written by Michael J. Ruhland














Michael's Movie Grade: C+

Review: A good movie, even if it isn't a great one. However despite any faults after Batman VS. Superman and Suicide Squad this movie being good is a very pleasant surprise.

The best things about this film are the characters of Diana and Steve as well as the world of Themyscira. After the unpleasant look to many of DC's most recent live action films, the world of  Themyscira is a revelation. It is in fact beautiful to look at. When this place was first shown I couldn't believe my eyes, here was something in a live action DC movie that was pleasant to look at. However the goodness doesn't end there. This world is very well set up and ends up feeling very real to us. The two main characters are also delightful. They feel very well fleshed out and really grow on the audience. Over the course of the movie you really get to care about these two and just enjoy seeing them.

However despite the good points this film has its share of faults. While the two main characters are interesting they are the only ones. Every other character is undeveloped and even boring. This especially goes for the villains. Most of these villains are just plain boring and with very little interesting about them. Two of them especially feel like the time dedicated to them is just wasted. These two feel like they are simply there to pad the length of the movie*. A surprise villain (not giving away who it is) would be interesting if he hadn't been done so many times before in other recent superhero movies. While there are more faults in the movie, none of them are as big as this fault is. Despite any other, faults boring characters (again not including the main two who are very likable) is easily the worst of them. There is also the problem that the movie is longer than it needs to be and can sometimes feel padded out. The humor is very hit and miss, however even when it hits it gets more of a chuckle than a real laugh.

While this movie has its faults (including one huge one), it is still a good movie. And hopefully this means that the DC live action films will continue to get better, and we will never see more DC films of the poor quality of Batman VS. Superman and Suicide Squad again. Justice League is coming let us keep our fingers crossed. Wonder Woman is a good sign things could be getting better. Just don't bring back the Batman VS. Superman version of Lex Luther ever, please Warner Brothers.  

 -Michael J. Ruhland

*Spoiler Alert: They also act as red herrings for the audience, however this and taking up time is all they amount to.