Stan Lee Presents The Condor (Animated Feature)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B-     Extras: C-     Feature: C-

 

 

Is Stan Lee stretching himself too thin?  He has the name, but you can only create so much before you overdo it and his recent series of new animated characters has been just that.  Lightspeed, Mosaic and Stripperella were only so memorable, but The Condor just never gels.

 

A young man drops out of college (cost never an issue?) to become a skateboarder (why didn’t he say so in the first place?) and suddenly, his parents are killed and his legs crushed.  His father was a computer expert and new technology allows Tony (Wilmer Valderrama) to become a superhero and fight crime, but he is still very angry and has to learn to control his rage.

 

Guess Lee ran out of nuclear options for mutated superheroes, but this is sadly formulaic beyond belief and never takes off.  It has the usual appeals (illicit or not) to the needy, but Lee has been doing this since the 1960s and it just rings more hollow than it might have even ten years ago.  Fans will enjoy it, but only diehard comic fans should even begin to consider applying.

 

The 1.78 X 1 image is of the same semi-vibrant colors and almost overly-clean animation that does not make any of these shots very memorable.  Detail is purposely limited by its stylizing and that affects the image in other slight ways that bring it down in depth and overall presentation.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 and 20 mixes have good surrounds, but it is often much about nothing.  Extras include an on-camera introduction by Stan Lee, "Meeting of Two Giants: Stan Lee vs. Wilmer Valderrama – The Making of The Condor", Outskating DVD game and two galleries: one for characters and the other for stills.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo