Brief Story Line
After her failed Task Force X (Suicide Squad) program, ARGUS director Amanda Waller (Viola Davis - G20, Kung Fu Panda 4 etc) decided to form another group which later she referred to as Task Force M to be led by Rick Flag Sr. (Frank Grillo - Copshop, Reprisal etc) and consisted of monsters previously captured and jailed in Belle Reve prison. They were the Bride (Indira Varma - Disclaimer mini series, Bride and Prejudice etc), radioactive metahuman Doctor Phosphorus (Alan Tudyk - Peter Pan & Wendy, Doom Patrol TV series etc), the aquatic mutant Nina Mazursky (Zoë Chao - Senior Year, The Afterparty anthology series etc), G. I. Robot who was created with sole purpose of killing Nazis and the mysterious John Doe/Weasel (both voiced by Sean Gunn - Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Gilmore Girls TV series etc).
This task force was given the assignment to protect Princess Ilana Rostovic (Maria Bakalova - The Bubble, The Apprentice etc) of Pokolistan who was being threatened by Circe (Anya Chalotra - The Witcher TV series etc), the powerful sorceress from Themyscira. However, things would not be so easy with the Task Force members not used to work in group for the government. And it became even more complicated with the appearance of Eric Frankenstein (David Harbour - Thunderbolts *, We Have a Ghost etc) who had been trying to locate Bride.
So what would happen to these monsters and their assignment? You could find out in this series.
End of Brief Story Line
You know I was still getting used to this kind of adult animation series as I was a lot more familiar with the standard cartoons, anime or those computer animated movies. The other series that I had seen and firmly believe of similar kind was What If...?. Anyway, the early part of the series was basically introduction of the main characters with Amanda Waller being the only person that I ever saw previously during DC Extended Universe (DCEU) time, including in both Suicide Squad and The Suicide Squad. The members of Task Force M were very weird but what surprised me was the way they were portrayed as unconventional and very violent. So the tone of this series was not far from those Suicide Squad films.
The series were not shy from showing huge amount of violent and bloody killings and even some sex scenes which was a bit of unfamiliar territory for me. It actually felt like watching those R rated series albeit in animated version. What I liked about the series was not only the interesting plot but also the characters. In each episode, the members of the Task Force was given a little background story that made us root for them. The first season only consisted of 7 episodes with short duration between 23-28 minutes. I think my most favorite was the final episode which felt sad & tragic but somehow felt hopeful at the same time and it also served as the conclusion of the first season. Btw, there was post end credit scene in this episode.
There were plenty of action in here where the metahumans showed some pretty awesome abilities. The best ones I think were the Bride and Dr. Phosphorus. G. I. Robot was quite amazing too, though his specific skill was towards Nazis. The cast in general did great in portraying their roles. Aside from the names above, there were few recurring cast and guest stars such as Julian Kostov (Shadow and Bone TV series etc) as Alexi, the Knight who served Princes Ilana, Peter Serafinowicz (How to Train Your Dragon live version etc) as Victor Frankenstein, Gregg Henry (Office Uprising etc) as Edward Mazursky, Stephanie Beatriz (A Man on the Inside etc) as Professor Aisla MacPherson, Steve Agee who reprised his role as John Economos from Peacemaker series and many more. Frank Grillo's character Rick Flag Sr. actually reappear in Superman portrayed by himself.
I understand the series was well received by critics who praised its story telling and voice acting which I had same opinion. The animation was quite good with some similarities to their original voice actors & actresses plus some wonderfully drawn facial expressions and actions. James Gunn did great in creating & writing the series with Dean Lorey (creator of Big Shot, writer of Animal Crackers etc) serving as the showrunner. The opening credits got a nice song which at first I thought was based on Indonesian song titled "Kopi Dangdut". But I got curious and tried to find more info on the song, and apparently it was actually adapted from famous Venezuelan song titled Moliendo Cafe originally composed by Jose Manzo Perroni.
Overall this was a pretty fun but very dark and violent superhero team movie based on characters from DC comics. It served as the opening of DCU Chapter One: Gods and Monsters. Thing is, such animated series might be an acquired taste and probably a bit challenging for general audience. I like the story and the characters, even if it needs a bit of getting used to in the beginning. Before I forgot, I kept on saying first season and so on, it's because the series has been renewed for second season. And who knows, maybe their characters would later appear in the future DCU movies. So if you are OK with this kind of series and also major fan of DC comics in general & Creature Commandos in particular, then I believe you would enjoy this. For the more casual viewers, probably need to be more open minded to enjoy it like I did.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment