So JL:War has been leaked, I watched it at a friend's house and immediately wanted to review it for the eager fans waiting for it's official release. I won't be disclosing any significant plot points about this movie, just the overall story. Also keep in mind this is just my opinion, if you agree/disagree that's fine. Please purchase this to support it, I have already reserved my copy with Amazon to get a bluray.
First,
I am not going to disclose where he got this, clearly the film was leaked and we saw it. I will also not be posting video/images/gifs of anything of the movie at all. If you know where to look you can easily find JL:War, and that is not my problem. So with all that said let's get down to the review, I will be grading it based on Story, Animation, Action, and Sound.
Story:
War follows the first new-52 Justice league Arc of the league forming to fight the DC universes' cosmic big-bad Darkseid. Since this is a film adaptation, there is more emphasis on certain character relations to make for an entertaining watch. To be specific, the best dialogues happen to be between (you guessed it): Green Lantern and Batman. If you have read the first arc, then you will know what I am referring to, and for those that haven't, let's just say Green Lantern is a massive troll, and Bats usually has a way of counter-trolling him. The film's dialogue isn't all testosterone flare ups, there's interplay for those that crave more...sensitive things, and that very "thing" is the relationship between Victor Stone AKA Cyborg and his father. I would say that in the comics that relationship comes off as dry, but here in a film where it needs drama to balance out the action, DC nails their dynamic and backstory and actually makes you find interest in Cyborg as a whole. Let's not BS ourselves here, I'm sure no one out there really would ever see the day Cyborgwas the best written character in a JL animated film, and in my opinion he was.The story is fairly straightforward and is about what you expect from this action packed movie. The other characterizations of the league members are great, Wonder Woman actually is a gung-ho amazon warrior and she displays that, and Capt. Marvel is modern reflection of how today's teenagers act ( sprinkled in with some gamer humor). The person who seems to be the most boring is Superman, they just make him come off as a jock and not too interesting. Though I guess in this specific arc it's all punch things and character development later. Batman is also one of the top tier characterizations here, DC is trying to make him come off as the James Bond of superheroes, and he plays that role flawlessly.
P.S.-If you stay tuned after the credits, there's a nice Clip of what DC's next JL movie will be.
Score: 8/10
Animation:
War is pretty much styled like Young Justice, albeit with a bigger budget. Superman is drawn great and is built like a tank. The special effects are cool, and well animated, as well as the fights and display of technology used in the film. I personally thought it was great, and I'm sure it will look amazing on a Blu-ray, even if you have a standard def TV, the animation is one of the best I've seen for a DC movie, they put a lot of detail into this. My only complaint is at times, they made Flash look real dull compared to other heroes.
Score: 9/10
Action
This is the meat of War, and boy does it shine. Everyone is given their time to show off what they can do, and it looks great coupled with this films' animation. It does a great job of showing off how the Bricks of the team ( WW, Supes, Shazam) are damn near gods with what they are able to do. The action really flies off the screen when Darkseid's enters the fray and his ability to manhandle the team was jaw dropping. One of the biggest issues you will see with the action is how Batman is handled. If you thought his plot armor was strong before, then my god, it is in full force here. Batman is just a high-tier athlete physically yet he is able to pull off thing no human should be able to do against the scope of heroes/enemies in this movie. Case in point: Superman/Darkseid/WW punches concrete it breaks like glass, Superman/Darkseid/WW push/punch Batman he only flies away like 10 feet, some of the damage he takes would literally break multiple bones if not outright kill a regular human, yet DC's cash cow er, I mean Batman cannot be seen as useless amongst the pantheon of demi-gods that are the JL. So if you can ignore the PIS in the fights involving him, then you will be still be amazed at what he can pull off against these giants among men. Oh and btw, Cyborg again, is actually doing something.
Score: 10/10
Sound
Everyone's voices save for Batman & Supes, is well done. Supes voice actor sounds really dry and boring, almost as if your watching 30-minute block of Cleareyes ads with Ben Stein. Batman's voice actor just doesn't seem to fit, but then again, matching what Kevin Conroy has been able to do with him is going to be tough for anyone I'd say, so I cut that guy some slack. The best voices belong to Hal, Cyborg, and the guy who does Flash captures Barry's beta maleness does so with gusto. It's kind of funny that Cyborg sounds too old to be some HS kid though. Which leads me to Shazam...ahhh good ol' Billy. Shazam's hero voice perfectly matches up with the mind of Billy, and that is evident through his interaction with other League members. Wonder Woman is, well, Wonder Woman??? this gal who voiced her matches Diana's persona good too, but it's not something outstanding.
Now the sound effects are spectacular, remember how I mentioned the technology and special effects? Well DC gave them some uber-cool sound effects, from Cyborg's weaponry, to Apokoliptian tech, and Batman's gadgets, it's all well put together, almost on the level of Paramount's Transformers sound effects. The fact that an animated film can have unique sounds as A live-action movie, well hey that audio engineer/intern whoever they WB underpaid, deserves a raise for that.
Score: 8/10
TL;DR Score 8/10
I hope you enjoyed the review, Justice League: War comes out on Feb.4th! I'll be buying it, I hope you do to!
Log in to comment