Board Thread:DC Universe Discussion/@comment-5624498-20140216234029

So I bought the DVD the other day. After watching it a couple of times, I have very mixed feelings about it.

While the movie has its merits, it is overall the weakest of the Justice League movies that DC Animated has put out, certainly paling in comparison to Flashpoint Paradox and New Fronteir (IMO, those are the two best JL moves DC Animated has released and both are strong overall).

So let me start with what I liked about the film.


 * This is by far the best portrayal of Cyborg yet. You really get the sense of how much he wants his father to be there as he follow his dreams, how he at first can't come to grips with how his life has changed, until he realizes what Darkseid is up to and determines he needs to do something about it, even as he remains a bit conflicted. And I liked Shemar Moore's voice work.


 * I know some people don't like that Shazam replaced Aquaman but I think it worked here. You have Billy Batson as the kid who looks up to Victor Stone and can relate to him in some ways, and then he's the one that gets Victor to realize he can still be somebody special. Sean Astin does go a bit over the top with the voicework but it works to a degree.


 * I think Jason O'Hara did well with Batman. Steering Batman away from being simply a brooding character and turning him into the hero who is calm and methodical in his approach was a good direction, IMO.


 * l liked the portrayal of Wonder Woman as taking a lot of pride in who she is. Her scenes did the best job of getting across the idea that many people are scared to death of metahumans.


 * I thought the animation was good and I liked the character designs.

What I didn't like about the film:


 * Superman just isn't very likeable. I know they wanted to get away from the "boy scout" image but now he's been turned into a guy who seems to live for beating up the bad guys. And while Alan Tudyk did some nice voiceover work in Young Justice, I'm not sure he really did justice to Superman.


 * I have mixed feelings on Green Lantern. On one hand, I know that Hal Jordan is supposed to be a bit cockier, but Justin Kirk amped it up too much, to the point I wondered if they just want Hal to be like Guy Gardner. Nathan Fillon did a better job with voiceover work for a cocky version of Hal Jordan in Doom and Flashpoint.


 * Darkseid... where to begin. They took a villian who is of the belief that the universe can only truly thrive if it falls under his twisted vision, and turned him into a "I'm here to take over the world just because" villian. It's not Steve Blum's portrayal that's the problem, as it is that we get next to no insight as to what makes Darkseid tick. So we get just a big, evil alien set on world domination.


 * The whole battle with Darkseid dragged too long. They could have cut it down a few minutes and still gotten across the idea that it's the heroes working together that allows them to overcome Darkseid.


 * Given that we had the post-credit teaser in Flashpoint to lead into War, I got the impression that this film was to follow up from it. I can understand that the Flashpoint events would have led to the Justice League not existing (even if the heroes do) but we did establish that Batman and Flash still knew each other. This film gives me the impression they're meeting for the first time. That may be a minor quibble, though.

War was decent but disappointing. I had hoped for better after they did some really good work with Flashpoint.

Hopefully the next JL animated flick turns out better. There is a post-credit scene that hints that another one will be on the way after the next two Batman films come out... and that the next JL film will get Aquaman introduced. 