29/05/2013

Justice League: The New Frontier (2008)

Film: Justice League: The New Frontier
Release: 2008, Video
Starring: David Boreanaz, Neil Patrick Harris, Lucy Lawless
Directed by: Dave Bullock
IMDB PageLink opens in a new window
Description: A mysterious being threatens humanity, as Earth's mightiest must join forces with the new heroes in this retelling of the forming of the Justice League - set in the 1950's.

Hans' Thoughts:

The first thing you notice when you pop in this DVD is the artstyle, the artstyle looks and feels like an updated version of the 1950's comic books. And it's fitting, for unlike most other Superhero movies this one is a period piece. The only other period piece superhero movies I can think of on the top of my head is X-men: First Class and Captain America: The First Avenger. The latter forcibly so, as Captain America is a character thoroughly grounded in the mindset of the second world war. To me, period piece superhero movies is really an awesome concept. A lot of these characters has origin stories that really work best in the Atomic era and especially the two characters whose origin is explained in this one: Green Lantern (Hal Jordan version) and Martian Manhunter. Anyone who followed the Justice League TV-show already knows an origin story for Martian Manhunter, but this one offers one closer to the original concept. So this is one of the movies very strong points, being set in the 50's the movie can justify the personalities and issues a bit more as these were very relevant problems of this period, feminism versus patriarchy, racism and the space race. The cold war is also very prominent in the mindset of some of the characters. This movie is also the second in DC's Direct-To-Video lineup, an experiment starting with Superman: Doomsday that's still going strong today. The voice acting in the movie is pretty great, the new Batman may not be Kevin Conroy but he does a pretty good job and Lucy Lawless is just flawless as Wonder Woman (hm. Rhyme). This movie also has a lot of nods to the fans and silent cameos of popular characters (forexample Green Arrow.) I don't know how well this movie is adapted from the original comic book however, but seeing as the original creator is attached to the project I'm assuming it does it justice. If you want to get into the DC universe, try this one out for size.

No comments:

Project Wonderful 3