Justice League vs. the Fatal Five

Being DC the creator of animated masterpieces like Mask of the Phantasm, Under the Red Hood, Gods and Monsters, the Dark Knight Returns, Crisis on Infinite Earths and a long etc, I was letdown by this. Sure, it had a lot going on, specially the classic animation of the Justice League, the greatest superhero cartoon show only second to the original Batman the animated series. But this was this film's only redeeming quality. I enjoy marvel films on the big screen, and without being a hardcore DC fanboy, I know DC has the best story telling in the supehero genre. Too bad DC hasn't been able to bring that success to the big screen (with a few exceptions like the first classic Superman film and Nolan's Batman trilogy). But animated films were Dc's strongest point. Except this time with this bland film. Not the worst, but very bad in comparison to most of it's predecessors. I don't hate it, but it sure was a letdown not even worth discussing.

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.

Personally i feel, they should have stick to this type of animation from the start instead of what i saw in batman ninja, and other new justice league animated movies. They just made those characters look bad in the name of improvement.

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.

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