Justice League vs. the Fatal Five

I make no secret of my love for the Timmverse when it comes to the DC animated features. The TImmverse, for those not in the know, is the name given to the series started by Bruce Timm namely "Batman: The Animated Series" back in the 90's. It's where we got Kevin Conroy's iconic Batman. From there they did a Superman series, a Justice League series and several others including movies and even video games. Some were better than others but on the whole, I really liked them.

So when I hear of this I needed to see it. It takes some of the core members of the Justice League cartoons, adds in a couple lesser known heroes and brings in my favorite villains from the future namely the Fatal Five. If you watched the Legion of Superheroes cartoon back in the day, or followed the comics, they should be familiar to you. If not they're a group of five villains from the future with various powers and abilities. They've come to the past to rescue the two most powerful members of their cabal and this is where the movie takes off.

The animation is great, the voices of Batman and Superman are again voiced by Kevin Conroy and George Newbern making it feel nostalgic and the story is... okay. It focuses a little more on some of the new characters like the new Green Lantern Jessica Cruz a.k.a. Limelight and as well as the Legionnaire from the future Star Boy. But that's to be expected. After all, it's their movie as well and the rest of the Justice League are there more for backup, exposition and nostalgia.

It could have been better but I'm satisfied with what they did.

The animation style is the same as it was the JLU TV series and sadly in order to really enjoy and understand this new movie from DC animation, you would have had to be atlest a little familiar with the show and would also help if you had watched or remembered the episodes that this movie draws from.

As a stand alone film the story starts out good but then rushes to the finish. The 2 main characters arcs are cut short and left with a feeling that you missed a chuck of the movie. Ms Cruz and Star Boy both had a lot of potential and were very relatable but I guess time got in the way and the growth of those 2 was cut short. A real shame, otherwise this should have been a mini series or something.

In short, a swing and a miss.

Justice League Vs The Fatal Five is a great DC animated movie with good voice acting, animation, action and humour. Great to see the Justice League unlimited animation style back. Only negative is that Wonder Woman is sidelined (rest of the Justice League have a good amount of screen time).

Known settings and characters meet some of the newer qualities found in characters that were expressed in the more recent DC Universe movies.

Though, overall way less graphic and violent than the things of recent times. It is enjoyable to see a new green lantern getting some screen time as well, the character is quite likeable.

The villains are a tad bit one-dimensional (aren't they always?) but the writing is good and the overall vibe one is left with after watching it is a positive one, so this movie earned its 8 stars from me.

I like the DC animation/cartoon movies. This one was good. I wish the movies were as good as the these.