After spending this weekend fighting with my new Macbook (contrary to what the commercials say, it doesn’t “just work.” But I’ll save my tales of Apple woe until later in the week. I decided to download and watch Warner Home Video’s latest direct to video animated fair Justice League: New Frontier. I downloaded it on my X-Box 360. The download took less than an 1/2 hour so I had instant gratification. When the movie first started, it was weird. The animation was literally just some weird drawings, then the camera pulls back and you see it’s an children’s book author telling a story about the end of the world. But what’s more shocking is, the guy puts a gun in his mouth and blows his brains out. So three minutes into this you know this film isn’t for kids.
But in case you missed the point, a few minutes later Air Force pilot Hal Jordan (voiced by David Boreanaz) is shot down over Russia at the end of the war. He puts a gun to some kid’s face and pulls the trigger. We get to see it in it’s gory detail. I would say this definitely isn’t your father’s Superhero film, but it actually is. The conceit of this piece is that everything takes place in the fifties. At the height of the cold war, McCarthyism, the red scare and more. And our Superheroes are stuck in the middle trying to stick to their convictions when the world around them has turned to chaos and against them. Watching all of this as an outsider, trying to do good in his small way is a Martian – J’onn J’onzz / Martian Manhunter (voiced by Miguel Ferrer).The movie packs a lot of oomph into it’s short 77 minute running time. We really get a sense of the time period and all of it’s turmoil.
Director Dave Bullock and the writers Stan Berkowitz and Darwyn Cooke don’t shy away from talking about some of the racial and political problems of the time period. Mentioning the KKK lynching a black hero, or Superman (Kyle MacLachlan) trying to lecture Diana (Lucy Lawless) about letting enslaved Chinese women murder their former captures after she freed them. The movie pretty relentlessly dark, but there was a great line from Batman (Jeremy Sisto) to the Manhunter “I have a $70,000 sliver of rock that will take care of the one in Metropolis, all I need for you is a Penny and a book of matches.”
The film falls apart at the end when the Heroes finally come together to stop the big bad. It’s some lame living Island thing. It felt a little anti-climatic. But this movie isn’t about big Super Hero battles, it truly is a character piece and manages to juggle it’s large cast really well.
I haven’t watched the DVD, but it looks like a packed affair. The animated adventure is presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen format. The picture quality is excellent. Its 5.1 Dolby Digital sound is clear with good surround effects. The DVD includes the revealing “Super Heroes United”, “The Legion of Doom” and “Comic Book Commentary” documentaries, two in-depth audio commentaries with filmmakers and comic book writer Darwyn Cooke, three bonus “Justice League Unlimited” episodes (The Dark Heart, Task Force X & To Another Shore), trailers and an exclusive sneak peek of the upcoming “Batman – Gotham Knight”.
Final Grade A
EM Review by
Michelle Alexandria
I loved watching these flicks growing up. Okay, cartoons, not flicks. This is what I want my twins to see. Forget Spongebob.
Good old fashion cartoons