There are a lot of things I love about the DC Animated Universe. For one thing, as far as pure quality goes, I think most of their offerings trump anything the live-action films have offered. If given the choice, I’d take The
Dark Knight Returns over
The Dark Knight Rises. Emerald Knights over 2011’s
Green Lantern. And that’s not just regulated to DC. Quite a few of these straight-to-video releases are better than most of Marvel’s movies as well.
Iron Man 3 or
Under the Red Hood? Hmmm.
So it stands to reason, that I was pretty excited about the latest from the DCAU. Especially after their last movie,
Flashpoint knocked it out of the park.
War was supposed to be the first in the Premiere series to directly follow continuity, and spring-boarding from
Flashpoint was a great way to start. So what happened?
SOME LIGHT SPOILERS TO FOLLOW
I think it best to start with the New 52 from which this story is based. This is a revisionist take on the Justice League, so many new elements are at play, from how they meet, to personalities, to who is even on the team. As an adaptation,
War is actually pretty faithful, so if I have problems with the story, I probably have the source material to blame. And boy, do I have problems with the story. The basic plot is your usual ‘earth invasion’ scenario, which normally brings these powerful heroes together. But the issue is, there’s nothing more to it than that. As Batman and Green Lantern investigate the mysterious Parademon- that will eventually be the harbinger of Darkseid and his army, we meet up with Wonder Woman, The Flash, Cyborg and (replacing Aquaman) Captain Marvel, now retcon-ed as Shazam. The main theme here is the members learning to trust each other, but outside of one standout fight with Superman, this is completely brushed over, and everyone works together rather quickly. Needless to say, the plot is paper-thin, but the relative ease with which this inaugural team up happens gives the League no development, and when held up against any of the other Justice League stories, from
New Frontier to even the pilot episode of the JLA cartoon show,
War lacks the most important ingredient of a team story: character.
That’s not to say the movie is completely devoid of character development. It’s absolute best arc is Vic Stone’s origin as Cyborg. This is fantastically told, and I only wish the rest of the members got this kind of attention. But as can be an issue with some of these DC videos, action takes precedence, and so often characterization is thinly drawn. No, not everyone needs an origin, but even if they already know each other, there needs to be more to these heroes than just what they bring to the fight.
Superman is played as a jerk and a brute, relegated to serving one purpose on the team: muscle. Shazam is a thieving punk kid, who shows no heroism, and whose purpose on the team is to be the fanboy. Wonder Woman? Her arc involves little more than
discovering ice cream. Literally, that is it. There was something interesting involving a public protest of her character, but that goes nowhere. And that’s what we’re dealing with- Rhyme without reason. Even though The Flash has some of the coolest action scenes (and further proof we need more solo movies from him), Barry still has virtually nothing to do in this movie. His one scene where he buys breakfast for his police precinct was about as interesting as he gets.
Turn that f**king light off, you dumbass!
And that brings me to Green Lantern. I have to say without a doubt, this is the worst portrayal of the character I’ve ever seen. The brash, cocky, never shuts up, smart-ass, is so immature, he makes you wonder why he was ever chosen to bare the ring in the first place. The story insists he is ‘new’ and inexperienced- which explains why he is foolhardy about rushing into battles without thinking, but that doesn’t explain why he is so dense that he doesn’t learn his lessons after getting his ass handed to him (which happens regularly) and keeps making the same mistakes over and over. Poor Batman- the only JL member taking this Parademon case seriously- is stuck with Hal Jordan, as he is called a douche, and berated with taunts about True Blood. It’s basically a buddy-cop nightmare.
What I’m saying is the problems with
Justice League War go beyond the surface criticisms of just animation (which is great) or voice acting (not so great). There is a fundamental storytelling issue here.
Justice League Crisis on Two Earths shows us another equally powerful team from another universe that is completely corrupted by evil, therefore holding a mirror up to our heroes.
Justice League Doom explores the groups’ weaknesses, telling us a lot about the characters, but none more so than Batman’s trust and paranoia issues.
Justice League War has nothing really to say about the league and so it stands as pretty disposable and meaningless.
The Good: Cyborg’s origin, the animation and action.
The Bad: Green Lantern, Superman, Wonder Woman, Shazam, Darksied’s boring plot, the voice acting, yikes- so just about everything else.
The Grade: C-