Just quickly, I tried to post this on the film page itself like an official review, but I kept getting a “404: Not Found” error page. Not sure if a mod or anyone can address this – but in the meantime I’ll post my review here if that’s ok with everyone…
Having read through the always well written and expressed review of @k4tzm4n found here, I found myself agree and disagreeing with some of the thoughts (or maybe more that I wanted to expand on what was said). Regardless, take my opinions with a grain of salt – I’m by no means an expert at this.
Synopsis
Ok so let’s get this out of the way first. For those who are unfamiliar, Justice League: War has been taken from the opening story of the N52 Justice League series written by Geoff Johns, and drawn by Jim Lee. The overall plot is identical. At the time, our heroes aren’t exactly considered heroes by the general public, media or government. There’s been some odd activity and Batman and Green Lantern are shown to initially team up (in this instance tracking and fighting a Parademon pretending to be Batman) and discover a motherbox.
The encounter Superman who then joins them, one thing leads to another and we have 7 heroes fighting an invading army from Apokolips, eventuating in a fight with Darkseid himself. Cyborg eventually is able to use the motherbox technology to finish everything off and the heroes are lauded for saving the world and everyone loves them. The End…
The Good
First off – the action. As pointed out in the review by @k4tzm4n, the action level in this is pretty high and it’s good to see this approach sometimes. These are superheros, and the source material was pretty full on with some awesome action sequences itself – so to see this wasn’t dropped for the animated adaptation was pleasant. The story was never an examination of the heroes, wasn’t intended to delve into psychology for the team or anything very deep beyond introducing us in an action packed way to the Justice League.
Another thing I really enjoyed was SOME characterisations. Barry and Hal interact very well, feeling natural and much like fans would expect. The bromance is strong between them as it should be, and was a welcome inclusion in both the original source and the animated adaptation for me. Billy Batson’s depiction was well done(more on this later though), with Shazam coming off like he is often shown, with a not quite innocent, yet child-like behaviour and attitude in this enormously powerful body and mature image. In his child form he is likeable, possibly more so than the comic counter-part.
Overall the animation is well done, with lots of detail that fits in well with the style. Darkseid looked really good (mostly – again, I’ll talk more on this in a moment) and I thought the parademons were well animated also. For the most part I was split down the middle on the core characters – Batman, Flash, Shazam and GL I thought were well animated and drawn – like the slight costume re-designs, faces etc… The action as well animated and suitably epic… Not much more to say really.
The bad
Ok here it goes – overall this stuff really let me down and when writing this it was hard to avoid it (albeit temporarily) and point out the things I did enjoy.
First off – Superman. He looked terrible. This big, bulky head and way to oversized muscularity compared to the majority of the animation. This theme was actually picked up in a couple of characters as well like Shazam (although for me his bulk was appropriate), Cyborg (more on him in a moment) and Captain Trevor (this sat weirdly with me as well). The end result on Supe’s was that it made the costume seem completely wrong thanks to the collar and styling of the newer designed “armour” suit he wears. In addition to that his behaviour and dialogue was very poorly written. In fact his entire characterisation was wrong. During the original encounter between Batman, Green Lantern and Superman, he attacks them as per the comic. The lead up is slightly different, but mostly the same end result. Throughout he is acting like a cocky kid, smiling most of the time and making these weird one-liner remarks. At one point Batman comments to GL (as per the comic) that he’s angry, however at no time during the encounter is that how he’s depicted.
As another example later on he meets Wonder Woman while rescuing the President – he’s carrying Air Force One dispatching parademons with either heat vision or fists when WW comes from the landing gear upside down and dispatches a couple herself. He looks at her with this googly eyed look and says ”You’re strong…” to which she smiles and says “Yeah…”… REALLY!?!?!?! Anyone who has complaints about the relationship in the comics needs to see this just so they can see how bad it COULD be done…
To be honest I could rant all day about my issues with Superman’s depiction but, I think you get the idea – he was treated mostly poorly in this animation IMO, so moving right along…
Cyborg – Ok – I don’t mind his inclusion in either the comic or animated form of this story – I quite like the character personally. And over-all he was OK in the animation. BUT 2 things. 1 – as @k4tzm4n pointed out his interactions with his father were a tad over-done, a bit brattish in fact, like a sulking child (which I guess he still kind of was) and it just didn't play well in the animated form. Then there was his over-all “origin”. SPOILER – He becomes Cyborg by nanites bonding with Parademon technology/processes, becoming not so much a traditional cyborg, but more of a bio-organic machine human hybrid…. Yeah – process that one…. SO it’s not his father’s technological genius, quick thinking and usage of advanced alien tech that he uses to actually save his son – instead his father accidentally kills him, but through a pure coincidence he’s resurrected as “Cyborg”… and then there’s the way he looks. I wasn’t a fan… At all…. First of fit was inconsistent, with the chamber he was in forming the basis of his “suit” or body (whatever you want to call it) looking a particular way, then later suddenly changing to a more normal look without any valid reasoning or explanation. Second – it just looked badly done… rushed even. Like they couldn’t think of a better way to do it. I have an idea for that next time – just do what the comic did and make it look like that. No need to change this at all.
The other character that stood out to me as poorly executed was Wonder Woman. Again, not a fan of the redesign in her case, and the characterisation was just all wrong. I get that she was supposed to be new to the broader world and things – but they make her talk like some idiot who doesn’t really know anything at all… She may as well have been grunting throughout the film her dialogue was so poorly done. It was like they took Hulk and Thor and mashed them together… That’s the closest analogy I can make.
I also wasn’t a fan of Batman’s voice… It just didn’t sound… “right” I guess.. Sometimes in certain tones and notes it was good and well executed. Other times it lacked the gravity and seriousness and tone that it needed. Jason O’Mara provided the vocal talents on this outing (and is doing the Son of Batman animated feature that’s next up from DC) and just didn’t quite get there IMO. I can’t quite put my finger on it – it isn’t a delivery or timing issue, so much as I think it’s a tone/sound that he gave the voice. I guess all I can say is it wasn’t my thing – as it sounded like he lacked the maturity, hardness and I guess “aggressiveness” I like to hear from Batman.
Another peeve was inconsistencies within the film itself. In some scenes, Superman has the red piping on his collar, in others, it’s not visible. I already mentioned Cyborg. Then there is Darkseid. Looking beyond the decision to have him depicted as an absolute giant in physical size, he is one moment tanking everything any of the soon-to-be Justice League is throwing at him, with an exception of some hits from Superman, then later every attack they launch has an effect. Be it GL with his energy blasts, Shazam and his lightning – hell even Batman’s batarangs seem like they’re painful. Not to mention some weird jet rocket launcher things Batman has built into his belt…. Ahhh… I just can’t process what I saw in that scene…. I mean I know he’s Batman but…. just….. what? And then there was the way all the heroes’ ended up being together – it made no sense. WW is in Washington and we’re expected to believe she just abandoned the White House that is under siege and the entire city to go to Metropolis…because… why… exactly? Also if she was supposed to be meeting with the President… why was he and his wife on Air Force One at the time? There was just some elements that made zero sense is all I’m saying.
My last complaint in this film was the lack of Aquaman. Now – I’m not a Shazam hater by any stretch and like his inclusion itself – I thought it was handled quite well for such a large undertaking. BUT I also loved Aquaman’s introduction in the comic and how he was utilised and am more than disappointed he wasn’t given his dues in the animated form as well.
The Verdict
So at the end of all that what we have is a film I’m really split by. On one hand some of the characterisation and dialogue was brilliant, along with the animation and action sequences. On the other hand some of the characterisation and dialogue was terrible, the animation quality control was obviously laxed and the action and storytelling was somewhat inconsistent.
I’m honestly not entirely sure how I feel about this film and what rating I think it deserves. At some points it totally deserves a good 4.5 stars – other points it’s maybe a 2 star affair. I think given my split down the middle feelings – I’ll go 3 stars as the midpoint. It probably seems like I found more negative than good - but it's just easier to explain the negative - really it's more evenly split than this review might otherwise suggest.
So what about you? Have you seen it yet? What did you think? Am I being picky or did you see the same faults I did? One thing I think that made it “worse” is that DC has been producing very high level and quality animated products for some time now and this just feels like it doesn’t match up – but maybe that’s just me.
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