Vixen (2017) Reviews

• Decent and entertaining origin story where familiar superheroes from Arrowverse make an appearance!

  chrichtonsworld2017-12-07

  Originally Vixen was an animated web series that spun off from Arrow. It consisted of two seasons. Warner Brothers decided to combine these two seasons and add an extra fifteen minutes of story resulting in Vixen: The Movie. Basically it's the origin story of Vixen set in Arrowverse. (So don't be surprised to see some familiar superheroes make their appearance.) It was stated that if the series was successful it could lead a new live action series. Vixen (voiced and played by Megalyn Echikunwoke) was also intended to be featured in the second season of Legends of Tomorrow but due to previous commitments this never happened. They opted for Maisie Richardson-Sellers as Amaya Jiwe. the grandmother of Mari McCabe (Megalyn Echikunwoke) who also is named Vixen. Seeing how Amaya's storyline is quite essential in the third season of Legends of Tomorrow this animated movie got my interest. So what do I think of it? I liked it. Sure it's a little rough around the edges and the animation might not always be top notch but the story came across just fine and in the end isn't that what it's about? This animated movie really felt like a special event in Arrowverse where a lot of familiar characters like The Flash and The Green Arrow have their parts to play. But what made this even more special was the fact that they were actually voiced by the actors of the live action shows. You can tell that for some actors this was something they had to get used to still the voice acting was adequate enough. As one would expect this animated DC movie set in Arrowverse like the shows is action packed. I am not entirely sure if they actually would have the budget to recreate all the powers displayed in a live action show but it was nice to see what Vixen is capable of. She is far more powerful than previously shown. More important Vixen does real superhero things like rescuing people from robbers and thieves. An element I find incredibly important. It makes her instantly likable and why you will root for her throughout her adventures. They probably could have gone a little deeper into her roots although I have the suspicion we will eventually in future episodes of Legends of Tomorrow. If it were up to me the live action Vixen would already be a reality. At this point I am fully embracing the expansion of the already quite huge Arrowverse. So bring it on!

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• Could have been so much better.

  agbeing2017-09-01

  I watched this because the premise looked interesting, for a superhero story. The premise WAS interesting to me, but the execution failed on a couple of levels. First and foremost, the lead character came off as wooden and emotionless. There's no way to make a movie enjoyable, with such a dull lead. Second, the "special effect" animation (showing her channeling various animal spirits) was lackluster. Add to that the costume, which looks like it was designed by a teenage boy (as her breasts seemed to double in size whenever she was wearing it) felt like sexist pandering. This was just disappointing.

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