2019 Rental Roundup 4: How to Train Your Dragon 3, Gemini Man, JL vs. The Fatal Five

Do you see now what I meant? Doesn’t this look absolutely ridiculous?

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How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

I was a little anxious about seeing this sequel. It looked fine, but I knew better than to rely on that alone. After all, the second movie kept up the quality of craftsmanship from the first, but the writing was a disappointment.

The plot was much more interesting this time, but I warn you: Having a more compelling story came at a cost. The creators deployed a “grow up and move on” plot in perhaps the hope that they won’t have to do a fourth movie (as also tried, and failed, in Toy Story 3).

The cast was a tad bit inflated at this point in the series, though, so it was difficult to give everybody something to do, let alone any development. With no new characters in need of much screen time (just the antagonists are new), it’s the Hiccup and Toothless show again.

But it’s still a beautiful show, and it allows the important characters to keep aging and develop in new directions instead of having them learn the same lessons over and over again as you’d see in the sequels of other franchises.

Verdict: Go for it.

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Gemini Man

No spoiler tags here, as the big twist of the movie is the very subject of the advertising campaign. Which is fair, the whole point of this movie was to see Smith-on-Smith action using state-of-the-art special effects.

Of course, the problem with deepfaking is that the tech is evolving so quickly that whatever got used when the movie was made was sure to be obsolete by the time the movie came out. In some scenes, it’s fantastic. In others, Young Will Smith looks like he’s wearing a rubber mask.

In all, the movie is fun and the gimmick is (for now) unique and interesting, even if imperfect. It’s clearly here just to show off the tech. Will Smith is clearly here because his looks at both ages are well-known …and because that casing meant they had a lot of footage from Fresh Prince of Bel Air with which to train the CG.

Verdict: Rental. If you want to watch a random Will Smith action movie, this has you covered. But beyond the gimmick, it’s nothing special.

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Justice League vs. the Fatal Five

This spot was originally going to Bumblebee but I quit that one after about 25 minutes. Make of that as you will.

After a long series of New 42-esque direct-to-video animated movies that did a better job at making a cinematic universe than Warner Bros. film studios could ever dream of, Justice League vs. the Fatal Five comes out of nowhere to be a continuation of Justice League Unlimited, which ended 14 years ago.

A frankly preposterous amount of the League appears to be busy elsewhere, so we keep a tight group of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, (all three with their JLU voice actors) Mr. Terrific and newcomers Miss Martian and Green Lantern Jessica Cruz. Sorry, no Question this time.

Today’s adventure? A supervillain team from the distant future comes back to the present to find something hidden away from them. And they need Cruz to get it for them. Of the heroes in pursuit, only Star Boy made it back with them, but the past presents an unusual danger to him.

While the movie is certainly about big heroes and big bads having big fights, it’s also about diving into the struggles of Cruz and Saturn Boy, two heroes who have to overcome themselves before they can get to work. Cruz is a seeming contradiction possessing both paralyzing PTSD and a superweapon that doesn’t work when the user is afraid. Star Boy (unique to this rendition) lost access to 31st-century medication that keeps his mind organized, leading to memory loss, difficulty expressing himself and other symptoms that lead present-day doctors to diagnose him with schizophrenia.

Living with trauma and mental illness is handled a lot better than I expected, especially with it being central to the story. Considering how easy it is to write something completely tone-deaf and outright insulting (see “Heroes in Crisis“), it was and (though poor Star Boy does get played for laughs a few times).

If you’re in to the League of Superheroes, they get a lot of comeo time throughout the movie. And if you’re in to Green Lantern, the movie confirms that Hal Jordan and Guy Gardiner do exist (and as Green Lanterns — it’s implied that Jon Stewart and Cruz are the only ones who are League members) in the prime reality of the DCAU, though they do not appear in person.

Verdict: Rental. DCAU fans should dive right in, as will those who have been enjoying DC animation in general. But there might be too much inside baseball going on for others.