Saturday, February 27, 2010

Justice League Crisis Crisis



The new "Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths" animated video is certainly a letdown. I give it a B- grade tops.
(In comparison, "Superman Doomsday" was an A- and "Superman Batman Public Enemies" a B+)
Superman was plain mishandled throughout the video and there simply was no majesty or magic to the overall story.
(Single disc suggested retail price is $19.98.)
The "Superman" of either Earth was characterized as a brash thug, who reacts before he thinks.
Even Batman was not up to par, or as slick as he is represented in all other DC animated productions.
There was a lot of mindless kind of fighting throughout, some by villains even I have no idea who they were supposed to be ...
I failed to understand why the nuclear weapon threat from the government was much of a threat in the story to the super-villains either.
I guess the voices were OK, but I don't think there was even one voice that had been used by DC to portray the same character before. I missed the regular Batman and Luthor voices in particular.
The one bright spot was Gina Torres as Superwoman. She was a a perfect fit and style.
It was also NOT true to its title and ended up being a "Crisis on Infinite Earths," not a "Two Earths" saga.
Spoiler: Owlman wanting to destroy all Earths just didn't make sense either.
Spoiler! They way the villains just surrendered at the end to the government was a further insult to a good story.
If DC would have just taken "JLA Earth 2" -- an existing graphic novel -- and just spruced that up, they would have had a much better story, instead of trying to invent a new one that ended up below average.
Listen up DC! You want some great story ideas for future animinated movies? I'll give you three from your own proven graphic novel collection that you'd have to work hard to mess up:
1. How about a spin of "Superman Red Son"?
2. A twist on "Speeding Bullets," with Superman as a Batman?
3. A Tweaking of "Superman: Secret Identity."
(Above images are courtesy of DC Comics.)

1 comment:

  1. Lynn, Thanks for posting this review..

    I've been trying to decide whether or not to buy this DVD. The premise is interesting, but I've been burned in the past with DC's animated videos.

    (I didn't like "Justice League:New Frontier" at all, or the Green Lantern video. So far the Superman Doomsday video has been the only animated feature I've gotten any enjoyment from.)

    I've read other reviews on the video, but have been waiting for your take on it before making a decision.

    Other reviewers have pretty much praised the animated DVD, but I think they're biased.

    One DID criticize the actors doing the voice overs for Superman and Batman..Regarding Superman, he more or less said the actor didn't put anything into it. He more or less said the same about the actor doing Batman, or more pointedly said the Batman voice sounded all wrong.

    I'm just not going to spend money on a DVD unless I know I'm going to be thoroughly entertained by the story, and it sounds to me in this case I won't.

    ReplyDelete