Justice League: The New Frontier
Next up on DC Original Animated Movie reviews is Justice League: The New Frontier.
The second entry into the Original Movie library is a interesting one to say the list.
Though the packaging would lead you to believe this is a Justice League movie, its more of an origin story for mainly 2 of the superheroes.
The Story revolves around a celestial entity that calls itself the Center and has the shape of a floating island-like construct. Its powers are all over the place really. It can possess human's and make them do its bidding as well as talk through them. It can manifest monsters of different types and produce energy blasts amongst other things.
The Center has decided that the human race is a danger to the universe now that they have harnessed "the most destructive force" and as such the earth must be "cleansed" of them.
The Movie spans the course of a few years. In which several heroes encounter cults to the Center, and during which time the origins of the Martian Manhunter and The Green Lantern are revealed.
The story forgets a bit about the Center in the middle, while developing a conflict between the Government and the super powered beings. The attempt to capture the Flash which causes him to retire for a while and the branding of Batman as an fugitive vigilante add to the conflict.
Batman investigates the Center for years until the Center deems its time to cleanse the planet, and shows itself. Superman and the other heroes fly speedily towards the entity to find a way to defeat them. Meanwhile Batman having talked with with Ray Palmer a.k.a the Atom comes up with the plan. Since Ray Palmer's shrinking ray de-stabilizes anything it shrinks they plan on using it on the Center to shrink it and cause it to explode.
However they need to expose every part of the massive floating entity to the ray so it can properly shrink and explode.
Meanwhile Superman goes out to the massive entity in a reconnaissance flight, but is quickly and easily defeated by the island and sinks into the ocean.
Superman's demise brings the military and the Superheroes together to face a common threat.
However without Superman to fly around the island to to expose it to Palmer's ray they need to find another way. They outfit recently un-retired Flash with the ray and prepare to have him run around the island exposing it to the ray.
The other heroes meanwhile are setting up an attack to distract the Center so Flash has enough time to to his thing.
Hal Jordan and Ace Morgan use their jets to fly into the creature and deliver a payload of bombs and missiles. The creature defends itself and attacks the planes by secreting a red goop that clogs intakes, engines and missile pods.
Hal's Green Lantern ring which he had acquired from Abin Sur previously beings to glow and transforms him into the Green Lantern. He flies to the aid for Ace who is about to detonate his payload while still in his plane.
Flash runs clear across the water as Jordan and Ace escape the entity in a green energy bubble, and he circles the island several times enveloping it in Palmer's device's energy. Once fully engulfed it begins to shrink, and eventually explodes.
After the government/military and the heroes have defeated the entity they all join together and celebrate its destruction. The celebration is cut short as something begins to emerge from the see. A large see monster, swims to the coast and opens his mouth as he approaches revealing an injured superman in the arms of Arthur of the underwater kingdom (Aquaman).
The world celebrate the destruction of the Center and and now come to accept the heroes as such.
The animation style is decidedly retro in that it attempts to look like comics and cartoons form the 1950's. Even the superheroes costume designs are based on their costumes of that era.
The movie starts out quite dark, and gritty with bloody murders, and creepy twists.
Its grows lighter as it progresses though it continues to make use of its PG-13 rating by cursing and showing quite a lot of blood.
In the voice department the movie has quite a few a-listers providing very good acting and good matching voices to their characters. Its interesting to note that Xena the Warrior Princes herself gets to voice another Warrior Princess: WonderWoman. Lucy Lawless makes for a great Wonder Woman character, one that not only deplores mens ways, but is designed to be taller and more imposing than Superman. The voice acting is one of the best things in this movie.
The movie offers plenty to like for older audiences, and has enough nods, and cameos to many obscure heroes and DC characters to keep the comic book fans interested to the end.
My only real gripe with this one is the time lapses. They aren't very well defined and you don't really get the feel that much time has passed even with the references they make.
All in all a great movie to watch if you like animated features.
My version is the one Disc DVD version and it has some interesting extras. A Commentary with a bunch of people involved in production including the main man Bruce Timm. And a comprehensive look at the Justice League History.
4.5 out 5 reels.
Cast
- David Boreanaz---- Hal Jordan / Green Lantern
- Miguel Ferrer ---- J'onn J'onzz / Martian Manhunter / Detective John Jones
- Neil Patrick Harris ---- Barry Allen/The Flash
- Jeremy Sisto ---- Batman / Bruce Wayne
- Kyle MacLachlan ---- Superman / Clark Kent
- Lucy Lawless ---- WonderWoman / Diana Prince
The second entry into the Original Movie library is a interesting one to say the list.
Though the packaging would lead you to believe this is a Justice League movie, its more of an origin story for mainly 2 of the superheroes.
The Story revolves around a celestial entity that calls itself the Center and has the shape of a floating island-like construct. Its powers are all over the place really. It can possess human's and make them do its bidding as well as talk through them. It can manifest monsters of different types and produce energy blasts amongst other things.
The Center has decided that the human race is a danger to the universe now that they have harnessed "the most destructive force" and as such the earth must be "cleansed" of them.
The Movie spans the course of a few years. In which several heroes encounter cults to the Center, and during which time the origins of the Martian Manhunter and The Green Lantern are revealed.
The story forgets a bit about the Center in the middle, while developing a conflict between the Government and the super powered beings. The attempt to capture the Flash which causes him to retire for a while and the branding of Batman as an fugitive vigilante add to the conflict.
Batman investigates the Center for years until the Center deems its time to cleanse the planet, and shows itself. Superman and the other heroes fly speedily towards the entity to find a way to defeat them. Meanwhile Batman having talked with with Ray Palmer a.k.a the Atom comes up with the plan. Since Ray Palmer's shrinking ray de-stabilizes anything it shrinks they plan on using it on the Center to shrink it and cause it to explode.
However they need to expose every part of the massive floating entity to the ray so it can properly shrink and explode.
Meanwhile Superman goes out to the massive entity in a reconnaissance flight, but is quickly and easily defeated by the island and sinks into the ocean.
Superman's demise brings the military and the Superheroes together to face a common threat.
However without Superman to fly around the island to to expose it to Palmer's ray they need to find another way. They outfit recently un-retired Flash with the ray and prepare to have him run around the island exposing it to the ray.
The other heroes meanwhile are setting up an attack to distract the Center so Flash has enough time to to his thing.
Hal Jordan and Ace Morgan use their jets to fly into the creature and deliver a payload of bombs and missiles. The creature defends itself and attacks the planes by secreting a red goop that clogs intakes, engines and missile pods.
Hal's Green Lantern ring which he had acquired from Abin Sur previously beings to glow and transforms him into the Green Lantern. He flies to the aid for Ace who is about to detonate his payload while still in his plane.
Flash runs clear across the water as Jordan and Ace escape the entity in a green energy bubble, and he circles the island several times enveloping it in Palmer's device's energy. Once fully engulfed it begins to shrink, and eventually explodes.
After the government/military and the heroes have defeated the entity they all join together and celebrate its destruction. The celebration is cut short as something begins to emerge from the see. A large see monster, swims to the coast and opens his mouth as he approaches revealing an injured superman in the arms of Arthur of the underwater kingdom (Aquaman).
The world celebrate the destruction of the Center and and now come to accept the heroes as such.
The animation style is decidedly retro in that it attempts to look like comics and cartoons form the 1950's. Even the superheroes costume designs are based on their costumes of that era.
The movie starts out quite dark, and gritty with bloody murders, and creepy twists.
Its grows lighter as it progresses though it continues to make use of its PG-13 rating by cursing and showing quite a lot of blood.
In the voice department the movie has quite a few a-listers providing very good acting and good matching voices to their characters. Its interesting to note that Xena the Warrior Princes herself gets to voice another Warrior Princess: WonderWoman. Lucy Lawless makes for a great Wonder Woman character, one that not only deplores mens ways, but is designed to be taller and more imposing than Superman. The voice acting is one of the best things in this movie.
The movie offers plenty to like for older audiences, and has enough nods, and cameos to many obscure heroes and DC characters to keep the comic book fans interested to the end.
My only real gripe with this one is the time lapses. They aren't very well defined and you don't really get the feel that much time has passed even with the references they make.
All in all a great movie to watch if you like animated features.
My version is the one Disc DVD version and it has some interesting extras. A Commentary with a bunch of people involved in production including the main man Bruce Timm. And a comprehensive look at the Justice League History.
4.5 out 5 reels.
Comments
Post a Comment