Justice League: The New Frontier

Justice League: The New Frontier (2008) is a movie in my DVD collection that I recently rewatched on HBOMAX. The storyline follows an initial concern that a secret invasion from Mars has taken place and been kept under wraps by the government. The actions and experiments by the government lead to a new menace that will take super heroes and the armed forces to work together to save the Earth.

This movie is directed by Dave Bullock (Star Wars: The Clone Wars) and contains the voices of David Boreanaz (Valentine), Neil Patrick Harris (Gone Girls), Brooke Shields (The Blue Lagoon), John Heard (Home Alone), Lucy Lawless (Xena), Keith David (requiem for a Dream) and Jeremy Sisto (Wrong Turn).

The animation wasn't outstanding but was entertaining. There are some great sequences like the air dogfight scene, the random splashes of villains and the depiction of the characters and Martian Manhunter was great. The depiction of the era was also good. The injection of American pride was a bit too much but the ending was still good and worthwhile.

This is far from DC's best animated or Justice League film but it is still entertaining and worth a viewing for fans of the DC Universe. I would score this a 7/10 and recommend seeing it once.

This reimagining of the Justice League sees the eponymous superheroes inserted into a cold-war ready 1950s America and puts much more emphasis on its lesser known members, to the point that the 'big three' are actually pretty sidelined. 'Justice League: The New Frontier (2008)' spends a lot of time setting up its characters to make them feel believable in its world, with some given lengthy origin stories and others shown as being well established already. The issue is that this set-up both runs too long, eating too much run-time without being focused enough to feel properly 'worth it', and essentially leads straight into a disappointing finale - all but missing out the second act. This final movement sees an ominously foreshadowed but ultimately bizarre and unthreatening 'villain' face our protagonists in a battle that should be much more entertaining, and less silly, than it is. 6/10

Superman gets his butt kicked.

That's almost good enough for at least five of the six points I gave this one. It seems like they were just ramping up and then they had to rush the ending. They're trying very hard to tell a compelling story but they smashed like six movies into one.

Props for a small appearance of Green Arrow. Check it out if you're a Lantern, Flash, or Martian Manhunter fan. All else can skip this one and watch Superman 2: The Richard Donner Cut or The Dark Knight. Good for a kids cartoon, though. Splices of John Kennedy giving Barry Allen a medal was a pretty awesome touch, too.

I'm always checking out these animated superhero movies, and most of the time they're very disappointing. For example all of the ultimate avenger movies, superman: doomsday etc.

But this one did not disappoint,they did a great job with it, and it's one of the best animated movies I've seen in a longgggg time.

As a fan of the justice league series, I had big expectations for this movie, and it may not have been as good as the series but it was still very enjoyable to watch.

I advise any superhero fans to watch this. I hope they continue to make more animated movies like this one.

The original comic New Frontier was a lavish, loving tribute to both the heroes of DC comics and the spirit of 1950s America, and this movie captured both almost as well. Many of the comments here that are critical of this film apparently are not at all familiar with comics of that era, and don't realize what this story tries to evoke. Some of the incongruities (Batman and Superman's costumes, the white Green Lantern) are NOT errors or sloppiness. These were depictions of the characters as they were nearly a half century ago. Remember, there were visions and versions of these heroes that existed prior to the Cartoon Network, and this is their story.

I love the Justice League cartoon, and this movies stands shoulder to shoulder with the best of that show.