Thursday, April 6, 2017

Road to Justice League- Justice League: Doom Review

Note: This review contains spoilers. You have been warned.

Jla doom 2012.jpg

We're back on the road to Justice League with Justice League: Doom a 2012 direct-to-video animated superhero film which is loosely based on the JLA: Tower of Babel storyline written by Mark Waid back in 2000 and it's also a sequel to Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths. The film is directed by Lauren Montgomery and written by Dwayne McDuffie(who sadly passed away on Feb 21,2011 shortly after writing this film). It's produced by Warner Premiere, DC Comics, and Warner Animation and distributed by Warner Home Video.


The story is someone has stolen confidential files from Batman which contains not only the identities of each Justice League member but their weaknesses. While our heroes are in danger & Batman tries to save them at the same time the Legion of Doom plot to start a new civilization.




  • Negatives
One of my biggest complaints is some of the death traps more specifically the ones to The Flash/Barry Allen(Michael Rosenbaum) & Green Lantern/Hal Jordan(Nathan Fillion) they have the worst of them. Flash's is a bomb is strapped to his wrist and if he removes it or decreases his speed it will explode killing everyone in a three-mile radius. This death trap doesn't work because we seen this happen to him like what a hundred times he doesn't need Batman's help to get rid of the thing. Also Green Lantern's isn't anything special either basically what happens to him is Star Sapphire/Carol Ferries(Olivia d'Abo) lures Hal into a mining cave she uses Scarecrow's fear gas the cave explodes & Hal thinks he failed and Star Sapphire convinces him he doesn't deserve the ring's power then he renounces his ring & his fate then Batman comes & says it was all a trap. I preferred the traps in the Tower of Babel storyline where Flash is hit with a "vibra-bullet" causing him to have seizures at light speed. Green Lantern's trap is he is rendered blind by his own ring from a post-hypnotic suggestion introduced during a REM phase(rapid eye movement sleep) and his unable to function without his vision to guide his ring's power. Those traps are far more superior to the ones in this film.



My other complaint is the ending. I don't really like it because Batman walks off triumphantly even though he almost got the Justice League killed. In the comic Batman leaves the Justice League in shame for what he's done again this is far more impactful then what the movie gives us.



  • Mix

I have nothing to say let's move on.





  • Positives
Now that I'm done being a negative Nancy it's time to talk about the all the good things in this film. One thing I love in this film is the voice work. Everyone does a great job voicing these characters especially Tim Daly as Superman/Clark Kent & Kevin Conroy as Batman/Bruce Wayne although if I'm being honest I didn't really expect anything less from them I mean Kevin is the voice of Batman and Tim is the voice of Superman after all.



Another positive I give the film is the good death traps. I was scared seeing Martian Manhunter/J'onn J'onzz(Carl Lumbly) bust into flames because all I wanted to do was see him get of that horrifying situation. Also while Superman's death trap isn't special it was hard for me to see him get shot by a kryptonite bullet and then fall from the roof of the Daily Bungle all the way down to the streets of Metropolis as a Superman fan that was brutal to see but it was satisfying to see both these men get out of this.




One other thing the movie does right is the writing Dwayne McDuffie shows that he his a good writer which just makes it even more sad that he passed away. One of my favorite lines is when Bane ambushes Bruce at his parent's graves he says "When we fought before, I broke the bat. Today, I break the man". That line was so awesome to hear.




My other nice thing to say about this movie is the animation once again DC does a good job with there direct-to-video animation I also liked the designs of the characters much like I did with Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths.




My final positive to give this movie is how intimidating they made the villains. Even though they are beaten at the end of the movie it was pretty badass to see what kind of depths they are willing to go to defeat their enemies.




Justice League: Doom while it has it's problems I still liked the movie you should check out. While I didn't like some of traps for some of the Leaguers & I don't like how Batman could walk off with his head held high I still liked the voice acting, the writing, the animation, and how much of a threat they made the bad guys.




My final rating for this movie is Okay.




I hoped you enjoyed this review because for my next post I'll be explaining some of the differences between this move and the Tower of Babel story arc. I'll also be having reviews for The Fate of the Furious & a look back at Guardians of the Galaxy what with the sequel coming out next month but like I said in Lost Films- Spider-Man 4 some of these plans could change because I'll be house sitting for my Grandpa so I'll be staying away from my laptop for quite some time.

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