By
Scott (TOP 10 REVIEWER) (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE)
Justice League: Doom is a direct-to-video animated original movie by DC in collaboration with Warner Bros. Animation. They have been releasing these full-length films for the last several years and for the most part, they have been excellent. They are usually adapted from a popular storyline from the DC comics and feature high quality animation and a large talent of popular actors doing the voice work. Doom is a loose adaptation of the Mark Waid "Tower of Babel" s toryline from 2000 that appeared in JLA #43-46 and is available as a trade paperback as JLA (Book 7): Tower of Babel, combined with elements of Justice by Alex Ross. Doom keeps the basic storyline in tact, but is still a fairly radical departure from Waid's original story, and the two should be viewed independently of each other.The basic premise of Doom is that Batman, in his ever-increasing paranoia, has created files on members of the Justice League, detailing their strengths and weaknesses should any of them happen to go rogue. The files are stolen by the villain Vandal Savage, who plans to use this knowledge to keep the members of the JLA occupied while he can implement his ultimate plan.[The following paragraph may contain some spoilers but if so, they are very minor ones that shouldn't change the movie for you]CONS Compared to the previous DC animated films, Doom is largely a disappointment. I realize this is a "comic book movie," but you have to really suspend your d isbelief to get through it. I'm okay with a movie taking artistic license to make for a more interesting film, such as portraying sound and explosions in space, showing the sun as yellow even though it is white, and ridiculous tech that would make the writers on CSI blush (Batman's encrypted files apparently send a homing beacon to him whenever they are decrypted - what??). But after awhile, these start to add up. In one scene the writers correctly acknowledge that it takes light 8 minutes to travel from the sun to the Earth, yet right before that they show a rocket (which is traveling considerably slower than the 186,000 miles per second light travels) reach the sun in about 2 minutes. Superman ponders "moving the Earth" to avoid a impending catastrophe that is in itself ridiculous. The number of inconsistencies in the story and plot holes are pretty overwhelming. Do you know that feeling of outrage you get when the villain has all but defeated the hero, yet he leaves him d angling over a slowly lowering shark pit and then leaves to do something more important instead of making sure he's dead? Expect to see things that like that a lot. At one point, the JLA conveniently face off against the exact same members of the Legion of Doom who previously tried to kill them. Hey Superman, maybe you should pick anyone OTHER than the guy with kryptonite inside his chest? The final dénouement is anti-climatic and you never really get that real sense of danger. Character development is mostly lost in favor of action, which is a shame when you're dealing with a character like Batman who is crazy and has so much potential (as seen in Batman: Year One [Blu-ray]). Batman has some great dialog at the very end and I thought they were going to redeem themselves by giving the story a darker edge, but then they side step that in favor of a happy ending.PROS Like its predecessors in the DC animated universe, the voice acting in Doom is excellent. The familiar v oice of Kevin Conroy (from Batman: The Animated Series) returns, as well as Tim Daly as Superman and a standout performance by Nathan Fillion as Hal Jordan/Green Lantern, last seen in Green Lantern: Emerald Knights. Sometimes with this many big names in an animated work the actors tend to overshadow the film, and you can't get them out of your head, but here they all blend in seamlessly and there is no trouble focusing on the characters rather than the actors. Animation is top notch. Sometimes animated movies will seem more like extended episodes of TV shows, but it's clear that Doom was designed as a feature and a lot of work went into its production. The other strong point of this film is that you don't really need to be familiar with the DC universe at all to enjoy it. It is pretty much self-contained and easy to follow. I'm not a big DC guy and literally the only villain I had heard of was Bane, but this didn't give me any problems and there was no need to go into compli cated back stories.BLU-RAY BONUS MATERIAL The Blu-Ray is a combo Blu-Ray DVD. The Blu-Ray has several featurettes, and comes with a digital copy of the first issue (#43) of JLA from the original story arc. This is a bit of a tease and I really wish they would have included the entire 4-issue arc, but I guess they want you to buy the trade paperback as well. - Audio Commentary - Features Geoff Johns (writer and Chief Creative Officer for DC) and Mike Carlin (Creative Director of Animation for DC). I have a lot of admiration for these guys but they are not cut out for commentaries. I feel like studios feel pressure to include a commentary on every film release, rather than just when it can add to the film. In this case, there is little insight to be gained from the commentary. I knew I was in trouble when Mike described the "title sequence alone is awesome," even though it fairly boring. I think they really would have benefited from paying Nathan Fillion to sit in and add some humor. At one point, Mike says "you can always learn something from these commentaries," yet instead of providing insight, he and Geoff spend most of the commentary with comments like "this is a cool scene," and "that was awesome," as well as explaining scenes like I'm five and just narrating what I'm watching: "in this scene, everyone thinks Wonder Woman is the bad guy." - Featurette: "A League of One: The Dwayne McDuffie Story" (also on the DVD)- a great tribute on the DC writer who adapted the story for this film and unfortunately died last year before its release. - Two random episodes of Justice League ("Wild Cards, Part 1 and 2") - Seak peak at the next DC animated film - "Superman vs. the Elite"CONCLUSION There was a lot of potential here, but ultimately, Justice League: Doom falls flat. The high quality production values and outstanding voice talent can't save it from a weakly-developed storyline and poor direction. I don't really think McDuffie's script is to blame as much as whoever was in charge of executing it. If you're a DC/JLA fan and have seen all of the past animated films, it's not terrible and wouldn't hurt to check it out, but I would suggest renting it rather than buying. The bonus features don't add to the release. If you're planning to make Doom your first foray into the DC animated world, I'd advise skipping it for now and starting with Batman: Year One [Blu-ray] or Batman: Under the Red Hood [Blu-ray].
Like the title says. Amazon, you seriously need to delete these reviews that don't actually talk about the content of the film. I'm so SICK of people complaining about the UV digital copy. Its a BONUS feature for crying out loud. Its not like its going to impact anything about the movie itself. If I see one more post that gives what looks like an awesome movie one star simply because the poster hates UV, I think I'll explode!!!!!
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