Thoughts on....Justice League Doom

Holy crap. If I were to have to have a final project released after my sudden death, I'd want it to be this. Dwayne Mcduffie, the penman behind this wonderful piece, died just over one year ago after writing the script. I only recently found out about Mcduffies other accomplishments, like his Justice League animated series work as well as being the creator of Static Shock, another show I loved as a kid. Mr Mcduffie did not disappoint with his last piece of art and I know personally I am saddened by the loss of such a creative mind.

 JL Doom was based off the JLA story The Tower of Babel where Batman's contingency plans for taking down each JLA member are stolen and used against the members of the Justice League. This movie is near perfect in pacing. It gives time to each character for the audience to get to know them and their personalities as well as the team dynamic. The opening scene is of a robbery by the Royal Flush gang and its an extremely fun action packed romp. The tech the gang uses for their robberies is a multidimensional projector that allows them to walk through walls. Its far beyond their capabilities of creating so they call in the leading expert, Cyborg, everyone's favorite walking computer. I loved his entrance into the movie, clothes-lining one of the gang members....like a boss! It shows the difference between him and the other heroes. He's young and sure of himself and his portrayal I feel is right out of the Teen Titans show, fun loving but kick ass. I am glad to see DC using Cyborg because because a lot of college age students know him from the show. To a lot of 20-somethings he's almost as well known as Batman or Superman, making him a great tool to draw in interest for that age group who may have fallen out of DC media. On a side note what I loved about the casting was that each of the voice actors from the 90s Justice League cartoon returned to do an amazing job once again. Don't fix what isn't broken is all I can say.

Well with the characters covered lets move on to the action. One of the reasons I think that animation should be utilized more is because it is limitless as the human imagination. You can do any camera angle, any character design, any special effect you want and in the right animators hands it will look fantastic and real. This is what happened in JL Doom. The fight scenes were well animated and well choreographed. When Superman throws a punch you can feel the power behind it, when Flash runs the speed is incredible, Green Lanterns ring constructs have a great flowing feel to them. You can tell a lot of work was put into the animation.

Now there are a few problems with the movie. For one thing I don't think that the reprecutions of Batmans scheming are fully explored. He claims that his plans were altered from non-lethal but I can't see how. The Martian Manhunter's trap was a poison to make him secrete a flammable chemical. How could that be none lethal? The entire idea is to set him on FIRE. Martian or not fire tends to make people dead. While the plot hole of not being able to see Batman's original plans is annoying, everything else from the dialogue, voice acting, and action sequences outshines that plot hole and makes for a gosh darn enjoyable movie. 8.5/10