Thursday, December 05, 2024

My Review of Creature Commandos: "The Collywobbles"

 


Written by James Gunn
Directed by Matt Peters

Amanda: "This is your new task force, Flag. Let's call it Project M. M for monster, also known as -"

It's been a year since the DC Extended Universe ended on an underwhelming note with Aquaman And The Lost Kingdom. Now its the DC Universe and we're off to something of an animated start with Creature Commandos

Depending on how you feel about The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker, your mileage may vary with this show. It's very much within James Gunn's wheelhouse, for better and for worse. Also, it heavily references his works in the former DC continuity.

No longer able to use humans for her dangerous missions, Amanda Waller (Viola Davis) has enlisted Rick Flag Sr (Frank Grillo) to work with a monster squad. The squad being The Bride (Indira Varma), Weasel/G.I. Robot (Sean Gunn), Dr Phosphorus (Alan Tudyk) and Nina Mazursky (Zoe Chao). Yup, it's very much within the Gunn wheelhouse so far.

Their mission involved the fictional European country of Pokolistan where the Princess Ilana Rostovic (Maria Bakalova) needed protection from Circe (Anya Chalotra) and her insufferable Sons of Themyscira. Yay for one half of that villain team up. The quicker the second half become a livestock, the better.

While Circe's role wasn't as large in this one as hoped, we did have some moments with Flag Sr and the group in Pokolistan. There's some cringey flirting between Rick Sr and the Princess but a fight scene between the former and Phosphorus was actually a delight to watch.

Also a delight was G.I. Robot. His desire to kill Nazis to one side, there's a rather sweet potential romance with him and Nina bubbling under the surface. There was also The Bride heading back to the place she was born and with that, a rather creepy ending involving Eric Frankenstein (David Harbour).

- Weasel has killed 27 children but was largely treated like the group dog. G.I. Robot did think he was a Nazi at one point.
- Flag Sr became a father to the deceased Jr at 18 and gew to resent his ex-wife. 
- The title sequence, while not as good as Peacemaker did actually feature James Gunn in it.
- Chronology: Two years since the events of Project Starfish.

The Collywobbles does a decent job establishing the main characters, giving hints at each of their backstories. The weakest part was the Flag Sr/Princess subplot but other than that, a good start.

Rating: 7 out of 10

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