Justice League: Doom (Tower of Babel)

[Midnite]

Nathan Fillion, Tim Daly and Michael Rosenbaum Join an All-Star Cast for Justice League: Doom

[Tomato]

... Win much?

[Talavar]

The one thing about this I don't like is that the guy (George Newbaum?) who did the voice of Superman in Justice League gets hosed just because Tim Daly wants to come back?  Where were you for 5 seasons, Mr. Daly?  Daly was always good as Superman, but it rankles me a little bit that the rest of the Justice League cast (plus GL's voice actor, but at least it's a different character in that instance) are there except for him.

[President Raygun]

Is it me or does it look like GL just told Wonder Woman to "talk to the hand" ?

[Cyber Burn]

DC animated looks to be hitting the mark again.

Off-Topic, does anyone know when "All Star Batman" is coming out? Or if it already has?

[Midnite]

DC animated looks to be hitting the mark again.

Off-Topic, does anyone know when "All Star Batman" is coming out? Or if it already has?

Do you mean Batman: Year One? If so, its comes out Oct. 18th

[Cyber Burn]

DC animated looks to be hitting the mark again.

Off-Topic, does anyone know when "All Star Batman" is coming out? Or if it already has?

Do you mean Batman: Year One? If so, its comes out Oct. 18th

Yes. Thank you.

[Midnite]

[JeyNyce]

Saw it and it's not bad.  DC know how to make decent animated films.

[murs47]

Really well done. An excellent translation of the JLA story.

[Tomato]

DLed and watched it a few minutes ago (I got thrown off by some false release date of the 28th so I only just found out it was out, and I wasn't about to wait to watch it), plan on buying the blu ray tomorrow afternoon while I'm out (both to see the extras and because GDI, they deserve all mah money for this movie).

Tower of Babel (the story from which this originates) and it's subsequent fallout is my favorite segment of JLA history, even more-so then Morrison's Earth 2 graphic novel. It was an arc that touched on the very heart of the characters, and their relationships with one another. I don't think I commented about this at all, but I have been highly anticipating this film since I found out about it, and every piece of news (from the Cast to the inclusion of the LoD) has only increased my anticipation. And it was sooooo worth it.

Spoiler

If I were to have one complaint about the film, it would be that it somewhat glosses over the fallout from Batman's betrayal. The movie ends on a very lackluster note... Batman leaves with an arrogant "I'm obviously right and you're wrong and if you can't see that then obvsly I'm too cool for you" and Superman goes after him and trusts him with some kryptonite. While I don't disagree that the JLA is too powerful for someone like Batman to leave them wholly unchecked, in the original story the other members raised legitimate issues of trust, not the least of which being brought up by Superman himself. Batman wasn't wrong to have contingencies (as he points out, mind control isn't uncommon) but he doesn't tell his teammates, whose lives depend on him on a consistent basis, that he's got ways to stop them if things go wrong. It's not bad exactly, but it is one of the most interesting bits in the original story, and I feel like it was nearly completely ignored in favor of the softer ending.

That said, I need to buy this. NEED.

[Cyber Burn]

Sooo looking forward to getting this. 

[MJB]

My opinion my be an unpopular one but I found this flick lacking. The villains were "meh" the confrontations were also "meh".

I didn't have super high hopes for this flick but to me the subject matter deserved better.

Em gives this 3 out of 5 stars.

[JeyNyce]

It was more focus on what Batman did behind the Leagues back.  The villains were meh, but they were secondary in the movie.

[Tomato]

The one thing about this I don't like is that the guy (George Newbaum?) who did the voice of Superman in Justice League gets hosed just because Tim Daly wants to come back?  Where were you for 5 seasons, Mr. Daly?  Daly was always good as Superman, but it rankles me a little bit that the rest of the Justice League cast (plus GL's voice actor, but at least it's a different character in that instance) are there except for him.

Just wanted to touch on this because I just found out a bit of news on that... turns out Newbern wasn't a part of this because he's busy voicing Superman in the upcoming "Superman Vs. The Elite." Haven't seen much on it, but I did think it was worth pointing out (because I do sympathize with the idea that Newbern should have been Superman here, despite Daly being the original animated Superman.)

But on to the actual film, now that I have the blu-ray copy and not the crappy low res dl copy I rushed to watch. I'm not really a professional reviewer here, but I thought I'd give my thoughts, take it or leave it.

Spoiler

What I really want to go into first in this film is the voice acting. Even before I found out what the story was based on or who the villains were gonna be, the fact that most of the original VAs from JL/JLU were coming back really tickled my inner nerd. And despite there having been years since some of these guys have been voice acting, they nevertheless still owned their respective roles. In particular, I was really happy with Rosenbaum's Flash here... it's worth noting that, like with GL, the Flash portrayed here is clearly intended to be Barry, not Wally. As such, Rosenbaum has to walk a very narrow line with the character, making him serious and professional enough to credibly criticize Detective Bullock (I can't be the only one who made that comparison) in his civilian identity, but still able to be the wisecracking Flash we remember.

However, the addition of these great VAs presents a unique challenge, because now you've got to hire actors who can credibly match their counterparts... both the rival villains AND the two "new" league members. And despite the lack of any real character development here (which I will go into more in a bit) the cast for the villains really shines. Morris and d'Abo return to their roles from JL (Savage and Star Sapphire respectfull) and Carl Lumbly (MM's VA) doubles for Ma'alefa'ak, but I actually preferred some of the newer actors... Carlos Alazraqui and Paul Blackthorne give respectable performances as Bane and Metallo, but I really loved the portrayals of Mirror Master and Cheetah here. Now granted, I'm pretty much a fan of any voice work Claudia Black does(it just adds 200% more awesome to whatever project she's doing), but I was equally impressed with Alexis Denisof. His Mirror Master is this perfect evil mastermind and I pretty much loved any scene with him in it just to hear that creepy voice.

Finally, we have the two "new" protagonists for the film, Hal Jordan and Victor Stone. Cyborg's VA, Bumper Robinson, does a decent job here: he strikes a good balance between being a guy who can credibly fight both Wonder Woman and Vandal Savage, but who is also not really comfortable being thrust into the same league as the other heroes (pun not really intended, but it works nevertheless). Now, the inner nerd part of me still wishes Khary Payton reprised the role... but I'll let that one slide since he's kicking arse as Aqualad over on YJ.

Nathan Fillion has a much tougher job here... he's got to play a character who supposedly has been around as long as any of the others, despite the fact that all of the other VAs have been voicing their character much longer. And let's face it... he might be many fan's primary choice for Hal (for good reason, IMHO), but Fillion really doesn't have the same voice acting experience as some of the other actors here. Does he still pull it off? Mostly. He does a good job for most of the movie, even exchanging some good dialogue with Kevin Conroy, but... well, SPOILERS, but there's one scene in which Hal breaks down and starts crying... and I have to tell you, that voice acting is cringe worthy. It sounds like the kind of thing you'd hear in a bad fan film, not the work of a professional actor. Other then that one scene though, Fillion did a decent job... he doesn't stand out among the others, but he didn't fall flat on his face either. With a bit more experience, I fully expect him to be the fan's main choice for Hal Jordan in future projects.

As far as the art goes, there's nothing that really stands out here... the animation style is more or less the same as it was in both Crisis on Two Earths and Young Justice (which is a decent style, but I almost wish we'd seen something a hair different just because this is a wholly different cast) so aside from a somewhat interesting opening, it's all what we've come to expect.

And now... story. Unfortunately, this is the weakest point in the whole film. I won't go into the ending again because that bit's more my personal preference, but the writing overall is less then what this movie deserves. There are some cool moments, to be sure... I like how Batman's methods of taking down the JLA were adapted for the film, and how the random machine from the beginning tied back into the story at the end was a nice nugget also. However, the bad tended to outweigh the good sometimes. Some of the biggest flaws as far as writing goes was on the side of the villains. At several points in the film, the villains allude to their respective pasts with their counterparts, which is problematic since many of those backgrounds have never been adapted before and those who aren't die hard comic fans won't know what they're talking about. The most obnoxious though is Star Sapphire... she drops several hints to there being a history with Hal Jordan breaking her heart and "forcing" her to become SS that, as far as I know, doesn't exist in the comics at all. On top of that, Savages' final scheme is outright ridiculous... it's so over the top bad guy that I'd expect to see it back in an old superfriends episode, not in a 2012 animated movie.

Overall, I think it's a good film, and I'm proud to say that I went out and bought the bluray for it for the voice acting alone. But I won't deny that it's also very flawed. I give Justice League: Doom an 7/10

[Talavar]

Just a note - Alexis Denisof was also a JLU returning voice: he played Mirror Master on the show as well.

[Tomato]

Blah... I missed that when I was going through his film credits. Even so, I don't really remember Mirror Master in the original show, and he's portrayed well here.

[laughing paradox]

I watched it.. I liked it. Did anyone find Superman to be too.. I dunno.. pretty?

[Shogunn2517]

Just a note - Alexis Denisof was also a JLU returning voice: he played Mirror Master on the show as well.

Yeah, I noticed that too.  Not that I knew the actor by name, but I thought his voice sounded like the person who voiced him in JLU.

[Cyber Burn]

Watched and enjoyed it, liked the Royal Flush Gang as well.

[steamteck]

Just picked it up 2nd hand. It had all the problems of the original. I found the ending annoying . Superman is way too forgiving and trusting. My 16 year old son wanted Batman to be locked up and thought  the stuff about his versions being non lethal was BS. The changes would have to be too radical in his opinion

When the comic first came out I did a version of this with my heroes and Batman homage in my pen and paper champions game. My player still haven't forgiven the character.