The following review contains some spoilers. If you haven't seen the film already and don't want to be spoiled, then skip to the final paragraph.
Justice League: Doom (2012)
RATING:
STARRING:
Kevin Conroy
Tim Daley
Susan Eisenberg
Nathan Fillion
Michael Rosenbaum
Carl Lumbly
Phil Morris
RUNNING TIME:
1 hr. 17 min.
PLOT SYNOPSIS:
The Justice League consists of Earth's finest super heroes and protectors of humanity. But in the mind of The Dark Knight, it contains potentially the most dangerous people on the planet. Batman has compiled top-secret contingency plans should any of them go rogue. When these files are stolen by the Legion of Doom, a rising group of super villains, the Justice League embark on a collision course that will test the very fabric of its alliance.
DC Animation almost always delivers with their projects. Their last effort, released in October, was an adaptation of Frank Miller’s
Batman: Year One. While not perfect, the film set a new high for the studio, increasing the anticipation for their future productions. Releasing this month is their latest movie,
Justice League: Doom, loosely based on Mark Waid’s
The Tower Of Babel. The story, which revolved around Batman’s plans to immobilize any Justice League members should they go rogue, was an intriguing one which had me very interested. The voice cast (which reunites Tim Daly, Kevin Conroy, Susan Eisenberg and others) also increased my excitement greatly. Add in a great Legion Of Doom lineup (including one of my favorite villains of all time, Bane) and my expectations were through the roof. But how well does the movie deliver?
I haven’t read
Tower Of Babel, so I can’t really compare that and
Doom in terms of how accurate the film is to the source material. But the story, as presented in the movie, is very good. The setting up of the villainous Vandal Savage was done excellently, as well as how he brought together a group of villains to take out the Justice League in his quest to wipe out most of the world’s population (which sounds typical/predictable, but it doesn’t detract from the final product). The inclusion of several supporting characters - such as Lois Lane, Alfred and even a Robin reference - was a real nice touch. The animation was good too; you can easily tell that the character designs were done by Phil Bourassa (lead designer for
Young Justice), but otherwise I really liked it.
The casting, as I expected, was spot on. It’s always awesome hearing Kevin Conroy as Batman; to me, he’ll always be the best Batman depicted in any media (even the live action renditions of the character). It’s also always a pleasure to hear Tim Daley, Susan Eisenberg and Michael Rosenbaum voicing Superman, Wonder Woman and Flash, respectively. Nathan Fillion (who previously voiced the character in last year’s
Green Lantern: Emerald Knights) reprises the role of Hal Jordan, delivering a solid performance. (In fact, I’d love to see Fillion play the character in live action form some day, if he’s up to it.) All the other performances - from Carl Lumbly’s Martian Manhunter to Phil Morris’ Vandal Savage - are very good. The dialogue is alright. While none of it is horrible, some lines felt a bit predictable (such as “Right, as soon as I kill Batman”). Again, it didn’t really affect the story in a negative way very much, but I would’ve preferred if the dialogue was a little more creative.
As I said before, I really liked how the villains were handled in
Justice League: Doom. Each villain was one who held something personal against a certain JLA member, and seeing them take on the League one-on-one in the last 20 minutes of the film was just awesome. But my favorite villainous portrayal in the film was that of Bane, voiced by Carlos Alazraqui. Bane has always been my favorite Batman villain, and seeing him take on the Dark Knight physically and mentally is something that I always love seeing. I also enjoyed the portrayals of Star Sapphire, Metallo, and Cheetah; they got me more interested in the characters.
To me, there were only a handful of flaws with this film. The inclusion of Cyborg in the JL lineup was something that has been criticized since it was originally announced, and personally I agree with the masses. The character works well into the story, etc, but at the same time it’s hard for me to see him alongside Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Green Lantern as a real Justice League member. Which reminds me, the ending was a bit of a letdown (
spoilers in the following). In the last five minutes, Batman decided to resign from the League after the other members criticized him for organizing a list of their weaknesses, assuming that he would betray them. It definitely wasn’t an ending that I expected, and I would’ve preferred something else to end the film (like Batman reconciling with the other League members other than Superman). The rest of the flaws, IMO, were mostly nitpicks (such as Superman’s costume looking a bit too old school).
Other than the aforementioned flaws,
Justice League: Doom is an excellent addition to DC Animation’s impressive catalog, and is easily one of the studio’s best films so far. Featuring solid voice acting, excellent animation and a great story, this is a must see for any Justice League fan (especially for fans of Batman). I really can’t wait to see the direction(s) DC goes next with their future projects.