DC Animated Superhero Retrospective Series - Justice League: Throne of Atlantis (2015)

Written In January 2015

 Let me save us all some time and cut this review short.

Are we done now?

Fuck you Louis CK! You don’t have to review movies that aren’t worth talking about!

Plot Summary Taken From Wikipedia:

After the events of Justice League: War, Ocean Master and Black Manta have declared a war against the surface in retaliation of the aftermath of Apokoliptian-tyrant Darkseid’s planetary invasion. Queen Atlanna seeks out her other son, Ocean Master’s half-brother Arthur Curry, a half-human with aquatic powers with no knowledge of his Atlantean heritage, to restore balance.

Living with powers he doesn’t understand and seeing the danger around him, Curry takes steps to embrace his destiny, joining the Justice League, and with his new teammates he battles to save Earth from total destruction.

Here is my open letter to DC’s animation department, you made this

This

This

And This

And then you just started making this crap?

I refuse to believe you are giving me anything close to your best, c’mon DC! You are better than this! You don’t owe me or anyone else anything, because at the end of the day, your live action films and your video games will easily make more money than these projects, but please, for the sake of making a product you can genuinely take pride in, step up your fucking game!

"PSST!"

What is it non existent voice that I’m making up to segway into a point?

"Look at this!"

Okay, let me read this. Let’s see, we’ve got:

Batman Vs. Robin: “A loose adaptation of Scott Snyder’s Court of Owls series with Jason O’Mara, Stuart Allan, Sean Maher, and David McCallum reprising their roles from Son of Batman.” That sounds good so far. I’ve read Court of Owls, that’s some pretty awesome material, what else have we got? “With Jeremy Sisto, Kevin Conroy, and Weird Al Yankovic as Talon, Thomas Wayne, and The Dollmaker respectively.” Alright, who’s behind the camera for this one?

*heavy sigh* Jay Olivia is directing, of course this was too good to be true. But who’s the irrelevant hack writing? *looks back* Oh, we’ve got J. M. DeMatteis, he wrote some of my favorite episodes Justice League Unlimited, take a look at this guy’s credits! Yeah that looks kinda cool, I mean, it’ll probably suck at worst and be okay at best, but at least I have something worth being disappointed about! Good God, these movies are making me so pessimistic. C’mon DC, give me something that’ll wash that away, give me something that-

What?

No, it can’t be!

Is it?

IT IS! YOU GUYS DON’T UNDERSTAND HOW GREAT THIS IS! Alan Burnett and Bruce Timm basically co-created the entire original DC animated universe with Paul Dini! And Sam Liu co-directed Crisis On Two Earths and Year One with Lauren Montgomery, and also just plain directed Hulk Vs. and Planet Hulk! THIS IS FANTASTIC NEWS! DON’T FUCK THIS UP DC!

Okay, enough of that optimism and hope for the future, let’s get into why the present is sort of eh.

PROS:

• Matt Lanter, best known as the voice of Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Clone Wars, does a pretty good job here as Arthur. He definitely makes him likable and gives him a certain charm, and he sells some of the more silly moments like when he’s drunkenly voicing his sorrows to a restaurant lobster that’s about to cooked and boiled.
• Sumalee Montano does an adequate job of voicing Mera, I don’t really know the character all that well so I can’t say if she should sound the way she does, but all I can say is she did a decent job. Nothing memorable, but that beats the hell out of being terrible. If you wanna hear something more memorable, listen to her portrayal of Katana on Beware The Batman.
• Jerry O’Connell takes over for Alan Tudyk here as Superman and I gotta say I think he sounds more like the classic Supes than Alan did, admittedly Alan wasn’t playing the classic Supes, but I like the classic Supes better. He seems like less of an arrogant douchenozzle than last Superman, so I like him more.
• This Wonder Woman has improved and THANK GOD FOR IT! She’s less obnoxious, she doesn’t spend her time pointing her sword randomly at people, or tossing her lasso of truth onto people who just say they don’t like her, it’s a RELIEF! And honestly, Rosario Dawson does a pretty good job of voicing her. Much improved over Michelle Monaghan, God love her.
• Nathan Fillion, Jason O’Mara, Shemar Moore, and Christopher Gorham are all pretty good as Hal, Bruce, Victor, and Barry respectively. They all do the same good work they did in their previous credits, let’s move on.
• The only time that this movie really impressed me was this dream sequence where a human Victor was out jogging with this beautiful woman, when suddenly he’s confronted by an empty version of his Cyborg armor, it tells him it’s time to go and Victor pleads with it to give him more time. This movie very briefly makes you think it’s about to do something interesting and then… it doesn’t. But it was nice to think so, even for a minute.
• I think we may gotten ourselves a cameo from Steel, isn’t that awesome?
• The Wonder Woman/Superman romance is done much much MUCH better this time! It still feels forced, but I think this time they’re playing it more like “these are two people who are afraid of being alone, so they pretend to be in love.” As opposed to “These people are totally in love!!!!” And honestly, I think if they played with that more than the movie’s 72 minute run time would allow it could be a lot more interesting, the idea that these two are brave enough to fight monsters and alien armies, but they haven’t the courage to admit to each other they aren’t in love and may have feelings for other people like say...
  
  
  
  
  I’m just saying.
• The Lex Luthor stinger at the end was pretty cool, I must admit.
• Harry Lennix does a good job as Black Manta, damn shame he was the bad guy they had to kill in the end.

CONS:

• Sam Witwer is a really great actor, in fact he does a wicked Emperor Palpatine! But his talent is wasted on this annoying character. Ocean Master is a terrible villain, I really wish it was Black Manta that got to be the villain at the end. But maybe he had to be killed instead because Orm is easier to manipulate than David.
• WHO THE FUCK DECIDED IT WAS A GOOD IDEA TO KEEP MAKING BILLY BATSON A FUCKING ANNOYING SHITHEAD?!?! HE’S A GOOD KID! QUIT MAKING HIM SO DAMN ANNOYING FOR FUCK’S SAKE! 
• Juliet Landau does not make for a very good Lois Lane.
• So much of the stuff in Atlantis is telegraphed, you know what’s gonna happen as soon as the characters are set up. Atlanna is going to insist on not going to war, while Orm and David continue to set up for one, at some point Atlanna is going to reveal that she knows what they’re doing and then before she can enact disciplinary action for their treasonous behavior one of them will murder her. And guess what happens? Exactly that! It’s really fucking stupid! And it’s really fucking bad writing! Work on that!

All in all, this movie is a decent way to waste time. If you’re a hardcore DC fan, give it a watch. If you’re a hardcore animation fan, give it a watch. If you’re a big Aquaman fan, give it a shot. Otherwise, I wouldn’t say this is something you need to see. I’m gonna give Justice League: Throne of Atlantis, a 6 out of 10.

DC Animated Superhero Retrospective Series - Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths (2010)

Plot Summary Taken From Wikipedia:

In an alternate universe, heroic analogues of Lex Luthor and the Joker (called the Jester) are attempting to steal a device from the headquarters of the Crime Syndicate. The pair trip an alarm but manage to secure the “Quantum Trigger”. The Jester sacrifices himself to allow Luthor to escape and kills J'edd J'arkus and Angelique (alternate versions of Martian Manhunter and Hawkgirl respectively) with a radioactive bomb. Luthor is confronted by the remaining Syndicate members - Ultraman, Superwoman, Power Ring, Johnny Quick and Owlman, but escapes to the Earth of the heroic Justice League by activating a dimensional travel device.

Luthor locates a police station and is mistaken for the evil Luthor where he ends up strip-searched. The Justice League are summoned andSuperman's x-ray vision confirms Luthor’s reversed organs indicate that he is from a parallel Earth and that the evil Luthor is still incarcerated atStryker’s Island. The Justice League take the alternate Lex Luthor to their Watchtower, where the heroes learn of the Syndicate threat. As the Justice League debate the matter, Luthor hides the Quantum Trigger on the satellite. With the exception of Batman, who decides to stay as he believes the League is too busy with their own issues, the group - Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash and Martian Manhunter - travel to Luthor’s Earth.

Arriving at the Justice League’s base on Luthor’s parallel Earth, the heroes encounter and defeat two of the Syndicate and their allies (also evil versions of heroes belonging to the League). After another battle in the skies above the base, the heroes regroup at the Jester’s headquarters and plan to attack Syndicate targets. After a successful series of raids and capturing Ultraman, the League confront United States President Slade Wilson. Wilson releases Ultraman and explains that acceding to the Syndicate’s demands saves millions of lives. His daughter, Rose, however, regards him as a coward. J'onn inadvertently reads her mind and explains that as a military man her father actually holds life more dear than others. J'onn foils an assassination attempt on Rose and the pair fall in love.

Owlman constructs a weapon, the Quantum Eigenstate Device or Q.E.D., which the Syndicate intend to use as the equalizer to the threat of a nuclear reprisal. When pressed by Superwoman, Owlman admits the weapon can destroy entire worlds. Believing there are many parallel Earths, and that each one develops from the choices that each person makes, Owlman becomes obsessed with the idea that nothing he does can possibly matter, as there will always be parallel worlds where he explored another option. Owlman begins fervently seeking Earth-Prime, the very first Earth from which all other universes originated. Owlman intends to use the weapon to destroy Earth-Prime, causing a chain reaction that would erase the entire multiverse, as it is the only action that would not result in the creation of another universe. He then sends Superwoman with three of her lieutenants to the League’s dimension, and on the Watchtower they battle Batman, Aquaman, Black Canary, Black Lightning, Firestorm and Red Tornado. Superwoman and one of her lieutenants escape with the Quantum Trigger, but are followed by Batman.

Batman tricks and defeats Superwoman, and summons the League. J'onn and Rose bond, and Rose decides to learn the location of the Syndicate base to allow the Justice League to confront them. The League arrive at the Crime Syndicate’s moonbase with captive Superwoman, and eventually battle the Syndicate. Owlman fights off Batman and takes the QED bomb to Earth-Prime, the original universe that contained the first alternate Earth. Earth-Prime turns out to be uninhabited and lifeless, having suffered a cataclysm that caused it to leave solar orbit. Luthor speculates that a speedster might be able to vibrate and match the temporal vibration of the teleported QED device and open a portal. Batman dissuades the Flash from attempting this and Johnny Quick volunteers and opens a portal.

Batman pursues Owlman to Earth-Prime, and although Owlman’s exoskeleton provides an edge he is ultimately tricked and teleported with the Q.E.D. device to another lifeless, uninhabited Earth with an orbital ring that either never coalesced into the Earth's Moon, or the shattered remnants of a Moon that passed too close to the Earth's Roche limit in that universe. Owlman decides not to abort the bomb’s countdown and states that “it doesn’t matter”. He is killed when the bomb detonates and destroys that alternate Earth but no others. Batman returns to discover that the strain of acting as a vibratory conduit has aged Johnny Quick to near death. Before dying, Johnny correctly deduces that Batman had anticipated this and prevented the Flash from trying to save him. J'onn returns, accompanied by President Wilson and the U.S. Marines, and together they arrest Ultraman, Superwoman, and Power Ring.

Wilson thanks the heroes, and although Rose asks J'onn to remain with her, the group return to their dimension. Wonder Woman retains the still-cloaked plane stolen from Owlman, and Batman and Superman discuss a membership drive, with the five heroes summoned previously greeting the League.

PROS:

• Really cool story, I love movies about heroes interacting with their mirror verse counterparts.
• This entire cast!
• Josh Keaton and Nolan North as The Flash and Green Lantern
• Mark Harmon as Superman, I really loved his voice, he kind of reminded me of George Newbern’s take on the Man of Steel from Justice League/Justice League Unlimited.
• James Woods as Owlman, I don’t need to explain. He’s James Woods, he kicks ass in everything.
• Gina Torres as Superwoman, I’m starting to suspect that Andrea and Bruce are Whedonites. More on that on a later date though.
• Great action.
• I loved the scene where Lex arrives at the police station in the Justice League’s universe and he sort of makes this half hearted threat “Let me talk to the Justice League or I’ll, uh… Blow up the world or something, I guess?” I laughed a lot at that. XD
• A delightful, albeit somewhat tragic, romance between J'onn and President Wilson’s daughter Rose. Wait a minute a delightful but tragic romance between an alien man, who is the last of his kind due to war, and a woman named Rose? Where have we seen this before… Oh wait! I remember!
  
  Doctor Who references FTW!
• I only know this William Baldwin fellow from voicing Johnny 13 in Danny Phantom, but I really liked his take on Batman, although his voice feels somewhat more Michael Keaton esque than Christian Bale perhaps.
• I loved Vanessa Marshall’s take on Wondy, she was just so SASSY! When J'onn and Rose are first about to part ways, she tells him don’t be stupid, if you love her so much, stay!
• I really liked this Lex Luthor, he comes off as recognizably Lex, but still clearly a good guy!
• The Jester! I know James Patrick Stuart went uncredited for this part, but God almighty he was the perfect hero version of the Joker! Still a sick bastard with a sinister sense of humor, but clearly a noble spirit who would gladly sacrifice himself for his best friend.
• This movie created this meme!
  
  And that’s awesome!

CONS:

• I would’ve liked to see more of the rest of the crime syndicate and to see how they similar and different from the Justice League.
• I don’t understand Owlman’s logic that just because every we time we make a choice, in an alternate universe, we’ve made the opposite, makes life meaningless and therefore the only meaningful action that could be taken is to end all universes there has been or will be. I mean, I’m not supposed to, I’m a reasonable human being who values the lives of good people, but I don’t get that from the standpoint of Devil’s Advocate I still don’t get his logic. Like when the Joker in The Dark Knight says that he essentially believes that morals and codes of anyone who claims to be a good person are bullshit because the moment push comes to shove they go back on them and do things they claim they don’t believe in. I understand that, because people are like that. I don’t understand this though, because an alternate version of you is not you. Owlman and Batman may be different versions of the same man, but they are ultimately not the same.

All in all, this was a enormous breath of fresh air after such a shitty movie that I never want to see again! This movie, I would watch again, in fact, I did watch it again… Twice! Justice League: Crisis On Two Earths shall receive 9.1 out of 10!