Creature Commandos

"Creature Commandos" (2024, 7.7/10) opens a new chapter in the DC cinematic universe under James Gunn's direction, introducing viewers to an animated series where humor and action blend with a dark yet vibrant world of superheroes and monsters. The plot follows a team of unusual creatures assembled by Amanda Waller to carry out secret missions, placing them in dangerous situations and moral dilemmas.

One of the series' main strengths lies in its visuals. The animation, created by the French studio Bobbypills, is impressive in quality: dynamic action scenes, expressive character design, and stylish visualization make each episode a spectacle. The soundtrack, featuring energetic tracks like those from Gogol Bordello, perfectly complements the atmosphere, adding drive and emotional tension.

The voice cast and dialogues emphasize James Gunn's signature style, familiar from his work on Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad. While the story remains engaging despite some overloaded subplots, it occasionally feels shallow in developing individual characters. This is particularly evident when the focus shifts to secondary storylines that don't directly impact the main conflict.

Verdict: Creature Commandos is a stylish and entertaining start for the renewed DC universe, combining high-quality animation, humor, and thrilling action. Despite a few shortcomings, the series is a worthy representative of its genre and is sure to appeal to both comic book fans and enthusiasts of dynamic and vivid animated projects.

I really liked this at the start. Funny, violent and exciting, with an entertaining collection of misfits.

But as it went forward, I began to have my doubts. The first issue is the basic structure, with each episode alternating between the story arc and the individual tragic backstories of the creatures. There was a sameness to it. It's not that the structure is inherently bad (Lost did a great job with it), it's just that these stories were both predictable and depressing. It's like Suicide Squad except half of them aren't even criminals, just victims stuck in a nightmare.

The series keeps getting darker, both in its horrific body count of innocent bystanders and well-meaning soldiers and in its stories, with the final one being just tragedy upon tragedy.

While Creature Commandos seemed like a lot of fun in the beginning, by the end most of the fun had been drowned in darkness.

I'm so bummed out after watching the final episode of season 1 that I'm hesitant to recommend this, but I guess I did enjoy it overall. Still, it's a disappointment from the generally on-point James Gunn.

I've watched all of James Gunn's superhero movies and shows, and for better or for worse, Creature Commandos is his weakest. But it's James Gunn...so it's still LEAGUES better (pun intended) than almost any other creator's rough project!

Creature Commandos season 1 is more Suicide Squad, and if that is your cup of tea you are probably going to love it! James Gunn's Suicide Squad movie is my favorite superhero movie of all time, so this show is right up my alley. That said, with only about 25 minutes per episode, and only 7 episodes altogether, it feels like the story is a bit threadbare and could use some space to breathe. I feel like Creature Commandos would have been an easy 9 out of 10 for me if each episode had been an hour with more time to develop the characters.

The Bride, Nina, Weasel, and GI Robot are definitely the stand out characters here! And the four of them have more memorable moments and cooler story beats than the other Commandos. Eric Frankenstein feels like an unnecessary addition and doesn't really do anything for me being in the show.

Overall solid solid first season!! Season finale is definitely the best episode and very emotional! Great reveal at the end and good set up for future stories. Hopefully the second season gets more episodes.

I've always loved the DC universe and while I think the DCEU was overhated, I was very disappointed with several of the DCEU projects. This series has fantastic characters and is extremely creative. I think when James Gunn says that superhero movies and tv have become too generic, that's the key right their. Their have been so many superhero movies in the last decade that when people see a new one has come out they don't go to theaters because they think "another superhero movie geez their have been way too many" as their all the same, just a generic action movie (Especially sequals) I think James gunn is really going to turn things around and I cannot wait for it. I also think that because marvel has been much more popular, DC has a lot of great characters who have been overlooked (by fans) and I think if everything in DC works out in it's next couple of years then lesser known characters will be able to do well at the box office as long as they can grasp people's attention and really have a special feel to them. But yeah this was a great start and I only see it getting better from here.

Creature Commandos doesn't break any new grounds, and it doesn't intend to. This is classic James Gunn as we've come to expect with a few twists and changes, if you like his style of storytelling, you're gonna get a lot out of this show. If you don't, you may find it a bit lackluster and underwhelming. Some jokes get used too much and much of this story is spent in flashbacks which while are interesting and serve to flesh out these characters in a really great way just kind of show that not much is really happening a lot of the time for the characters in the present. The plot is a little dull in some episodes, and is carried heavily by comedy, which might not land for everyone.

The main strengths of this show are in comedy carried by the strong cast of voices and the incredibly kinetic and violent action sequences which are animated spectacularly. By the time two certain characters meet up, this show becomes absolutely hilarious and the plot is heavily carried by their dynamic. Thanks to the amazing voice actors, I was never quite bored by the plot because the characters were so much fun to see.

Although this show suffered from not having enough time to properly flesh out its plot, it's still a damn fun watch that I'd reccomend to anyone looking for a bite sized and fun story to sink your teeth into while you wait for DC to release other stuff.