Review: Justice League - War

I have never reviewed an animated movie, much less one like this. I decided to give it a shot since I have always heard such good things about the animated DC movies. I've heard that they are better then their live action counterparts but, let's be honest, that doesn't say much at all. The Justice League film before this one, Flashpoint, was received well so there were moderate expectations for this new entry, War. However, it had some different voice actors that seemed to have rubbed fans the wrong way. It also seems to have rubbed them the wrong way that these characters have taken on their personalities from the New 52 universe running through DC, so these big larger then life iconic characters are now a shadow of their past selves. Does this film at least muster up a decent enough story to bring in new fans as well as old? We shall see.

The interesting aspect of the film is that it is indeed an origin story of the coming together of all of these gigantic characters a midst a horrible tragedy that places the world in great peril. The film starts off with a bang as we see Green Lantern and Batman hunting down a mysterious alien who has been planting what seems to be bombs all around Gotham City. Green Lantern argues that it is his duty to take care of this villain, yet Batman explains that Gotham is his ground and that he is it's protector. The two, out of instinct, begin to work together to take it down but quickly realize that this is something bigger and much more powerful then the two of them. Which leads them to talk to the big guy in Metropolis, here they find Superman fighting a similar alien being to what they encountered in Gotham. Batman deducts that a full scaled invasion is coming, but in order to defeat whatever is coming, all of them will have to work together.

Other heroes have their own plights in the first half of the film. Wonder Woman is marching on DC trying to extend a bridge of her people to humanity. Victor Stone is just a human to start as he is a high school football star vying for his father's attention. Billy Batson is a thief who looks up to Victor Stone. The Flash also works closely with STAR Labs and Victor's father on the bombs that the aliens have left behind. The villain leading the invasion on Earth turns out to be none other then Darkseid. He and his disciple, Desaad, had a plan to harvest humans on Earth into their army of Parademons. All of this leads up to a fight for Earth as all these heroes try to have their own shining moment instead of working together. The ultimate question becomes, can they put aside their egos and work together to defeat this evil that has come to Earth? Eventually they do of course. They all began to work together and learn to trust each other helping form the greatest collection of heroes to protect Earth.

The animation was solid, but the biggest issue I had with the film was the changes to the iconic characters. I understand that it is following the New 52 universe, but when you have a Superman who curses and swoons so easily over Wonder Woman, well then it just doesn't feel right. A good majority of the character just don't feel right, whether it is because of the voice actors or different characteristics. It did however have humor dispersed throughout and it did manage to keep my attention, so that has to count for something. I would only recommend this to people that truly love these characters, or the New 52 universe or both for that matter. The collection of characters were nice to see, but it was interesting that Aquaman was absent in favor of Shazam.