Stan Lee Presents - The Condor (2007)

Tony Valdez (voiced by Wilmer Valderrama) is a college dropout who turned his back on his family’s robotics corporation to become a champion skateboarder. But when his parents are murdered and Tony’s legs are destroyed in a brutal beating, he uses his father’s experimental NanoBot technology to walk again. Now as the superhuman skater known as the Condor, Tony must reconcile a crime fighting conscience with his rage for vengeance. What is the missing component to his parent’s DNA regeneration formula? Why is their sinister ValTech partner creating a race of adrenaline-crazed killers? And who is the depraved super-villain sworn to destroy Condor? Maria Conchita Alonso co-stars as the voice of Mrs. Valdez in this all-new superhero sensation written by Marv Wolfman (co-creator of TEEN TITANS and BLADE) from an explosive story by Executive Producer and comic book legend Stan Lee!

Features: Widescreen Presentation enhanced for 16x9 TVs Still Gallery Also on DVD Character Gallery Introduction by The Condor Creator Stan lee Meeting Of Two Giants: Stan Lee vs. Wilma Valderemma: The Making Of The Condor Motion Menus Outskating DVD Game

That 70's Guy

Hilarious movie, all my kids love it. That 70's show guy is in it and it has a great story about courage. A must buy imho June 26, 2008

condescending

Marvel comics shows a historic failing to write good Mestizo and African characters. These movies continue that tradition almost as if it were on purpose. The story is condescending. The story has too much use for street gangs the exploration of which never gets past a sound byte from an infotainment show. The moral at the end of the story is, "you can't save everybody" when of course the only people the mestizo hero tries and fails to save are mestizos. Here I read, if you want to be a mainstream success, distance yourself from your non-European origins. Marvel has been working this angle for decades. Black Falcon, Power Man, and shamefully even Warm Machine who was not originally written this way, were all eventually 1970s blacksploitation style caricatures. Wong could serve no role in the US of Marvel except "faithful man servant". Storm of the luxurious long white hair would go to bed with anybody (Arkon, Forge etc.)even a risen corpse (Dracula), as long as he was not of her own ethnic stock. They even have people approach her and they always look like pimps as if there was no other kind.
Aside from this editorial method the story telling in Condor, while not good, was equal to most of the anime I have seen. The characters were simplistic but anime provides nothing but simplistic characters. The art work could have been better, but it was good enough.
March 19, 2008

great , it's what I expected from Stan Lee.

I'm very happy with the purchase of the CONDOR brought to you by Stan Lee. Having a young latino hero is great idea. Espcially one who is so physical. May 13, 2007

A great character and story!

Regardless what I have read from previous reviews, "The Condor" is a cool movie. Stan Lee is far from burnt out,and gives us a different spin on a comic book character. Normally, I would give you a synopsis of the movie but in this case it's not necessary. Watch it and judge it for what it is people "an animated movie". As a minority,I'm happy to see some diversity in a superhero movie. Thanks Stan or should I say Excelcior! March 25, 2007

I've watched it and it's not good

Stan Lee's The Condor is a valiant effort, but poor story-telling, poor voice directing, and cultural omissions, ruin it.

Valderrama may or may not be miscast. As the voice behind the hero of the movie, his performance greatly influences our perception and eventual acceptance of the character. Unfortunately, he gives Tony a slight drawl, which may or may not be a by-product of trying to sound soft-spoken. Tony ends up sounding like a sleepy or drugged out individual throughout the picture, especially during scenes requiring complex emotions such as his parents' death. Combined with the mexican, or perhaps Latin accent, it's almost offensive to Latin Americans in a stereo-typing way.

The accents highlight a problem with the characters. It is never explained of what nationality Tony's family is. Are they Mexican? Cuban? Columbian? It makes a difference because a pivotal plot device recognizes a uniqueness to a culture, but there is no indication what culture that is. While it's great to see some diversity in comic book heroes, ignoring the cultural influences to a character makes the effort pointless. Tony might as well be chinese and speaking with a Mexican accent.

Story-telling is incomplete. A certain amount of "suspension of disbelief" is required, but a few important plot holes exist and parts requiring reality, steer to the impossible. For example, when Tony's parents die, the police don't investigate and stay at the scene of the accident? Tony arrives and all the police are gone? Tony is also vehement his parents are excellent drivers and are the most stand-up citizens, yet so easily believe they could be doing something illegal.

Ultimately, we never identify with Tony. He's uninteresting and stupid when he shouldn't be. The background of skateboarding is supposed to appeal to kids, but he's an obnoxious, stupid adult who has sex with strange women. I'm not sure what kind of role-model he's supposed to be and the age of viewers he appeals to. He's certainly a terrible role model for Spanish-speaking Americans, embodying a number of bad stereotypes. His special abilities are also limited and uninteresting (he can skateboard really fast!). There's potential, but send this back to the drawing board. March 21, 2007

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