Dc comics have been hitting the mark pretty consistently with their original animated features. No more so than with the recent entries such as “Under The Red Hood” and “Batman: Year One”, hell even the Wonder Woman movie wasn’t allbad. But it brings me nicely to something i had been looking forward to for quite a while now. The 13th installment into the Dc Original Animated Movies franchise: Justice League: Doom.
Loosely, (I say loosely…but you could probably swing off this movie into a swimmin’ hole its that loose!) based upon the Mark Waid story “JLA: Tower of Babel” which as well know is the infamous moment where we find out about one of the many secrets hidden behind Batman’s brooding exterior. The Bat, one of the longest running members of the JLA. Has developed contingency plans and strategies for each member of the League. That in the event, however unlikely or not, that a member of the JLA should use their powers for uses for other than the common good, they can be easily neutralised.
Now we have the premise for the movie, i can tell you that all that remains from Waid’s work is the general idea. Which to me, is a wrong move by the writer and director, the late Dwayne McDuffie. But i think that it can only be judged properly once the movie has aged a few months after release and a lot more of the viewing public has seen it. Im still not sold on the idea of this movie myself, yes the premise is fantastic. But removing Ra’s Al Ghul as the villain seemed just, stupid to me. Yes i understand that it would create opportunity to have an extended cast to voice the legion of doom, but i feel that’s exactly what was wrong with the movie. There were, dare i say it…TOO MANY characters to deal with. We have 7 JLA members and 7 members of the legion of doom. That’s 14 personalities we have to deral with right there and thats the core cast! Lets not forget the card guys, alfred, jimmy olsen, loise lane etc I think its a case of “too many cooks”. Tower Of Babel, to me, was one of those events where people started believing in three dimensional characters again. But we cant have that in a movie which is just under an 80 mins in length. There just isnt enough time to dedicate to specific points of interest from the original story.
Having said that, if you haven’t read Tower Of Babel. Or if you are somehow able to distance yourself from the continuity and see this movie as a stand alone effort, it does become enjoyable.
A personal plus for me was hearing THE BEST Batman of ALL time, the always brilliant Kevin Conroy return as everyone’s favorite brooding dark knight. As a big fan of the 1990’s animated series, its always great to hear him behind that cowl and grimace. One thing i did like about JLA: Doom was how little this movie was about the DC Trinity. (Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman) i like that focus was pulled from the “big 3” somewhat. We got to see what the other members of the JLA got upto in their individual efforts against their respective foes. And we even had the introduction of a new JLA member (in this continuity anyway) in the shape of half man/half machine, Cyborg.
Overall, an enjoyable outing for JLA:Doom. One i wont revisit as often as “Under The Red Hood” or “Year: One”. I think it will stand up there as a decent adaption of a great story, but I think i may stick to re-reading “Tower of Babel” though!
A respectable 3 out of 5 from me!
