Review By Mike DeVivo
Score : 7.5/10
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Justice League DOOM is an interesting film to review. As its own film its definitely a fun and enjoyable action movie with a few twists that offer up some exciting interactions between the League and their respective villains. However this is an adaptation of Mark Waid’s Justice League story Tower of Babel. When that’s taken into consideration I have a few issues with the movie.
First lets get into the things I do like about the film. The animation is great and the voice acting is top notch . DC chose to bring in its most recognizable voice talent for each character of the Justice League and it pays off. Batman and Superman are played by Kevin Conroy and Tim Daily respectively . The animation itself resembles something updated from the cartoons, but much smoother and kinetic.There are huge action scenes and each member of the League has their moment to shine. There seems to be a lot of emphasis on character interactions which I appreciate , and the direction of the movie does maintain the serious tone of the book . When its revealed who is responsible for the attack on the Justice League the film picks up a lot of steam and the fallout at the end is done with a bit more care than in the Graphic Novel its inspired by.
Now things that I felt could have been better. This was the late Dwayne McDuffie’s final completed script before he passed away last year so I understand why DC went forward with this film as their next DC animated title. McDuffie’s script is great but several liberties are taken to change the story . In Tower of Babel Ras Al Ghul is the main Antagonist of the film while in DOOM Vandal Savage and The Legion Of Doom end up being the main Villains with the Royal Flush Gang in a support role. While I like seeing Bane , Cheetah , Mirror Master , Metallo, and Star Sapphire there wasn’t enough time given in the movie to establish a more solid motivation than “The bad guys want to beat the Good Guys” . Also taking Ras out of the equation made the story a little less personal for Batman.
Inserting Cyborg into the film also makes sense since DC is trying to make him a central part of the Justice League in their current series but he just feels kind of tacked on into the story. People who aren’t familiar with the character should have been able to get into his back story a bit. One thing that would have helped all of this would have been to make the movie maybe 20 minutes longer. DC animated films tend to be on the shorter side and this film was hurt a bit by its shorter running time.
I know it sounds like I’m picking on the film a bit and I am but that doesn’t take away from the fact that as its own film its fun and an engaging action move starring the Justice League . When the plot twist happens the film still works and takes off into a very fast paced and enjoyable film. I would have just liked a little more time spent on fleshing out the characters and story. Definitely check this out if your a fan of any of the characters just be prepared to see some thing that doesn’t follow its source material completely.
Mike DeVivo
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