Executive Producers:
Stephen Brown, Morris Berger, John W. Hyde, Stan Lee and Gill Champion
Director:
Steven E. Gordon
Writer:
Marv Wolfman based on a story by Stan Lee
Voice Cast:
Wilmer Valderrama ………. Tony Valdez
Maria Conchita Alonso ………. Mrs. Valdez
Kathleen Barr ………. Sammi
Michael Dobson ………. Nigel Harrington
Matt Hill ………. Skragg
Alessandro Juliani ………. Chato
Cusse Mankuma ………. Z-Man
Mary Elizabeth McGlynn ………. Valeria
Scott McNeil ………. Dogg
John Novak ………. George Valdez
Sam Vincent ………. Reuben
The Movie:
Stan Lee is a name that most people outside the world of comics will recognize. He’s co-created some of the most memorable characters around – Spider-Man, The Fantastic Four and the X-Men to name a few – characters that have become quite the attraction the past few summers. But he’s also created some stinkers; most people don’t remember or would rather forget Ravage 2099, his reimagining of the DC Universe and Stripperella. And that’s not even mentioning the “stellar” Mosaic (reviewed here by Rob Sutton), which presumably is set in the same universe.
So how does this rate? The good news is that this movie is not as bad as Rob says Mosaic was. The bad news is that the movie is fairly by-the-book, and not even veteran comic book and animation writer Marv Wolfman can make this worth watching.
The story focuses on Antonio “Tony” Valdez, a talented but self-absorbed skateboarder whose parents own a large company specializing in nanobots technology. And naturally, someone EVIL is using this not-fully-tested technology on humans, creating what amounts to human zombies. Tony’s parents find out and are killed. When Tony goes to the site of the murder, the human zombies beat him up and break his legs, making him a cripple. This is of course a convenient excuse for Tony to use the nanotechnology to help him walk and use a powered skateboard to gain revenge on his parents’ killer.
Let me say that again – he uses a powered skateboard to gain revenge on his parents’ killer. He’s Rocket Racer with Batman’s wealth (there’s even a homage to Batman’s origin). Or maybe he’s more like Night Thrasher crossed with Tony Hawk (hey that “Condor” name can’t be a coincidence, can it?). And this isn’t even taking into account his choice of costume – a weird cross between Gatchaman and Ghost Rider with a helmet seemingly stolen from Spaceballs.
Back to the story. As I said, it’s fairly by-the-book, and it does what I suppose it was intended to do – introduce the character, his main antagonist (whose identity is pretty easy to figure out), the supporting characters and the reason he does what he does. It’s meant to be a starting point that would carry over into future movies. However, if you’re expecting a sequel to this movie… well, don’t hold your breath. I can’t imagine there being one.
The DVD:
Video:
(Presented in 1.78:1 Widescreen Format)
As befitting an animated movie, the colours are crisp and clear. The animation itself looks great in some parts, but looks fuzzy in others, but that really has nothing to do with the video itself. It’s bright, it’s clear, and it’s expected with today’s OAVs.
Audio:
(Dolby Digital English 5.1, 2.0 and Spanish 2.0)
The audio is nice and clear, with a nice balance between the soundtrack and action. But despite the use of surround, your rear speakers aren’t going to get much of a workout. Interesting note though – when I tried the disc in my laptop, the sound quality was really shite, ranging from normal for background and minor characters to very quiet for the main characters.
Special Features:
Introduction By The Condor creator Stan Lee
This is the same introduction that you get at the start of the movie.
Meeting of the Giants: Stan Lee vs. Wilmer Valderrama
This would be the EPK. Stan talks about his inspiration for The Condor, which was apparently to create a Latino superhero with a power that hadn’t been done before – a powered skateboard. Anyways, this segues to Stan talking about Wilmer and shots of Wilmer doing voice-over work for Tony, and his fondness for attractive girls.
Outskating! The Condor DVD Game
Character Gallery – This is actually an interesting take on your standard character gallery. You get an introduction from Stan Lee, a narrated character biography, and a quick clip of Stan talking about a character (which sometimes duplicates what is said in the biography).
Sneak Peeks
You get quick looks at Stan Lee Presents: Mosaic, Hellboy Animated: Sword of Storms, Hellboy Animated: Blood and Iron and Kappa Mikey. These run when you first load the disc, so if you watched it then, you don’t need to watch it again. If you skipped it… well, you didn’t miss much.
Comic
A 12 page mini-comic featuring Mosaic is included which will allow you to not sit through the DVD of the same name.
