Justice League: War

Plot synopsis:
A series of strange abductions have occurred in Gotham City, Central City, Coast City and Metropolis among others. Video footage suggests that Batman, a wanted, costumed vigilante, is behind the incidents. When a mysterious, burly, cloaked kidnapper abducts a woman, Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) arrives to confront the kidnapper and saves the woman when she is dropped from above. Green Lantern then attacks the kidnapper, revealing it to be a monstrous Parademon. The creature defeats Green Lantern soundly, and as he is about to be killed, Batman appears and attacks the Parademon, trying to interrogate it. The Parademon then attacks both heroes. They escape from the city's police and chase the creature into the sewers, where it charges a Mother Box and explodes. Batman and Green Lantern examine the box, deduce that it is of extraterrestrial origin, and decide to ask Superman for an answer. Another Mother Box, supplied by The Flash (Barry Allen) is being studied at S.T.A.R. Labs. Doctor Silas Stone, father of Vic Stone, deliberately misses his son's football game so he can study the box. Arriving in Metropolis, Batman and Green Lantern fight Supermanwho has fought a Parademon previously and believes the heroes are working with it. The battle spreads over a portion of the city; it finally stops when Batman calls Superman "Clark". Superman uses his x-ray vision and recognizes Batman as billionaire Bruce Wayne. The three heroes then begin to collaborate. On planet Apokolips, Darkseid orders Desaad to begin an invasion of Earth in response to the superheroes' discovery of his plans.Vic arrives at S.T.A.R. Labs and argues with his father Silas, who believes that football has no importance in a world that is changing with the appearance of metahumans, and states that he will never come to one of his son's football games due to his devotion his own work. At the Daily Planet, Superman, Batman, and Green Lantern realize the invasion has begun when the box activates and several Boom Tubes appear throughout the world, including S.T.A.R. Labs. While Vic is holding the Box being study by his father during their argument, it activates and explodes, creating a Boom Tube. The explosion fuses the technology inside the Box to Vic's fatally wounded and mutilated body. With several Parademons attacking, Silas is forced to take Vic to an emergency room to save him. Silas loads Vic into a technologically advanced medical bed and uses experimental nano mechanical and tissue grafting technologies on Vic in desperation, though this seems to fail when his heartbeat flatlines. Countless Parademons appear around the world, attacking everyone on sight. The box's technology spliced with Vic's body fuses itself with the various technologies, as well as computers, around the room, transforming Vic into Cyborg, with a body now made from technology capable of transforming and adapting itself and obtaining new features, such as weapons. Just as the Flash arrives to save the scientists, Cyborg's systems reveal details of Apokolips, Darkseid, and the invasion plan. He sees that the Parademons are actually the inhabitance countless worlds conquered by Darkseid. The inhabitance are captures and spliced with Darkseids technology, allowing it to control and repurpose their genetics and physical makeup, transforming them into mind controlled monsters and together serve as highly expendable army for conquering other planets. Vic's was affected by the same technology but it had not been programmed to create a Parademon and fused with other materials and instead. At his foster home, teenager Billy Batson sees a Parademon outside and mystically turns into the superhero Shazam. Air Force One is attacked in the air, but is saved by the Amazon princess Wonder Woman (Diana Prince) and Superman. After the heroes gather, Cyborg reveals that the invasion is a prelude to the terraforming of Earth. Darkseid arrives and proves to be a powerful opponent who defeats each hero effortlessly.Darkseid uses his Omega Beams while fighting Flash and Superman, with the latter being unable to outmaneuver the beam and is hit, incapacitated and captured by a Parademon. Batman stops Green Lantern from going after them on his own, as his ego has caused him to charge at Darkseid without thinking and be quickly defeated and injured to the point where his arm breaks. Batman then persuades him to think about the many lives at stake rather than his own image as a hero and to help the heroes work together after he unmasks himself and reveals that his parents's murders were what motivated him to fight evil. Wayne deliberately allows himself to be captured to save Superman. Green Lantern, acting as a leader, assembles everyone and decides that to defeat Darkseid they must destroy his eyes first, stripping him of his power to use his Omega Beams. He is taken through a portal and arrives on Apokolips, proceeding to escape the Parademon and stop Desaad from turning Superman into a Parademon. Because of a brainwashing process being done on him using Darkseids technology, Superman becomes unstable and highly aggressive, resulting in him crushing Desaad to death and attacking anything insight, including other Parademons and Batman. Batman reasons with Superman, helping him reassert his own personality. On Earth, after Darkseid's eyes are disabled, Cyborg connects with the Mother Box to reopen the Boom Tubes and send the tyrant and his army back to their home world. Though the Parademons are gone, Darkseid remains. Superman and Batman arrive and together they force the tyrant into the portal. With the world saved, the once-maligned superheroes gain the public's trust and are honored at the White House. The President of the United States asks whether they have a name. Shazam abruptly announces the name "Super Seven", to which the others object. After a short debate the team of superheroes agree to take the name of The Justice League.In a post-credits scene, an Atlantean ship emerges from the ocean and Ocean Master appears carrying the dead body of his king, possibly killed when the Parademons assembled in the sea during Darkseids arrival on Earth. He believes that the surface dwellers on Earth are responsible for his death, calling it an act of war from the surface, for which he vows retribution.

Tags: good versus evil

Review:
Good stuff.I'm no reader of comic books, and I haven't watched that many of these animated superhero movies yes, but so far this is one of my favorites..
in addition to being at the premier, to which I was able to interview some of the incredible talent behind this latest endeavor...including the incredible Andrea Romano.Justice League: WAR is based on DC Comics' "New 52", which means brand new origin stories and character depictions...if you're up on the current issues, well then only you can be the judge on the quality of these new story lines.
I really do like the original design, the ones in the movie are too bulky and appear to be more machine than living entity.What's right with the film?The Green Lantern, voiced brilliantly by Justin Kirk, has the right amount of bravado and ego and his relationship with The Batman and The Flash helps to give the movie more power and a sense of humour.Christopher Gorham does a great job of voicing The Flash and adds the joy and wonder that the character exudes in the comic.Wonder Woman, though you don't know her origin story for the New 52 in the movie this could make her strong character feel a little strange, to begin with as she's like a child in a toy shop...
if you knew that she's new to the real world after leaving Themiscyra would've helped there - however it's this scene which gives the character heart but as soon as the Parademons attack, her sword starts swinging and the no-nonsense female warrior we know and love come to the fore, and Michelle Monaghan who does a great job at voicing all aspects of the character.Though the thing that really makes this film work is the story and the action, for which Director Jay Oliva does a great job.These elements nullify the bad ones make the film enjoyable and watchable, though it isn't the best of the Justice League films.
Adapting the first volume of Geoff John's and Jim Lee's graphic novel "Justice League: Origins", WAR is a brisk animated superhero blockbuster, heavy on action and snappy dialogue.
Compared to the bleak and morally ambiguous FLASHPOINT PARADOX, WAR returns an element of fun to DC's superheroes by crafting a tradition, clear cut "Good versus evil" tale.Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, The Flash, and more.
Little sub-plots lend meat to the story such as Cyborg and Shazam's issue with trust, Green Lantern learning some humility, and a budding romance between Superman and Wonder Woman.
Featuring a soundtrack that combines orchestral fanfare with some sinister sounding synths, essentially makes JUSTICE LEAGUE WAR sound more like the sci/fi invasion flick that it is than a traditional superhero movie.
Director Jay Olivia, who also directed the superman slugfest SUPERMAN DOOMSDAY shows off some beautiful combat scenes, including a cool first-person sequence from the point of view of Wonder Woman slicing her way through a horde.Unfortunately, the slower scenes in the movie show off some areas where the animation is lacking.
But perhaps with the critical acclaim that the graphic novel got, it should not have been too much to expect more advanced animation techniques and better character designs that were closer to the comic art.DC now has it's New animated movie universe up and running.
And second, there are a couple of new heroes such as Shazam who replaces Aqua Man. The film is extremely intense for a DC Comic animation.
Probably the worst part is Wonder Woman who is now basically Marvel's Thor.On the bright side, the animation and voice acting are both great and Batman (the obvious main character) are perfectly portrayed.
Justice League War is entertaining and relevant for kids, just for the old comic book geeks like me, may be a little disappointing..
I think it would have been better to first produce two or three films dedicated to individual heroes (or at least by couples), where the necessary time could have been employed for us to get familiarized with their differences and attributes in this new universe, instead of agglutinating them in a collective movie where they can barely dedicate five minutes or less to every one of them.
They're clever and they know they're clever- the only problem is that they are uttering banalities.One such banality is "we've got this!" The League of Jerks new battle cry, an embarrassing attempt to imitate "Avengers assemble!" The only real change from the Johns original is the substitution of Captain Marvel (here called Shazam) for Aquaman.
Unlike previous DCA movies, which are mostly based on already established stories, this one tries to tell a new origin story, but at the same time expects you to be aware of the new 52 comics, something that I didn't felt was needed in any of the previous ones I've watched.It has a familiar feel to it, almost like a retelling of the great Justice League TV series, just not as good; with less character background, a bare-bone plot and changes only in minor and irrelevant parts.
-- Right away, you'll realize just how mediocre the animation is in this, because not only is the ten year old CGI of Oban better, but so is the hand-drawn material of a quarter-century ago.And that's the high point of this review; because up next is the dreadful script, which, besides needlessly attempting to reboot "introductions" of a half-dozen meal-ticket characters simultaneously, has nearly the entire cast bickering like smart-mouth ten year olds dropping "douchebags" and "sonofabitches" among other PG-unfunny rated language which somebody at the producer level presumably thought was necessary for reasons I can't fathom.
The animation briefly dips in quality and it relies on you already knowing the backstory of the majority of the Justice League members but it's still got good action and the voice actors do a great job with their characters..
Darkseid was pretty intimidating, but aside from that he was disappoitingly one-dimensional and didn't have that much of screen time before the great takedown which by the way was awesome.Yes, "Justice League: War" was kind of a middle of the road effort and lacking in characterizations and dialogue, but had great animation and action scenes..
Animated movie based off of the "New 52" Justice League's first comics storyline.
...it still isn't the best of DCU.When I first saw this movie, I loved it (I was 13 or 14 at that time), but when I saw it again yesterday, I didn't knew what was going on, because I saw it completely different than how I saw it for the first time, like most of the jokes that made me laugh once, now I found them a little dumb.I also noticed what most of the reviewers complained about this movie, which is that almost the entire movie was destruction, battles and action, lacking information about the background of the characters, and you know?
There were important details about the past of the members of the Justice League that were missing, particularly of Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Flash (we never get to know how Wonder Woman arrived to the place were we first see her in the movie).The most interesting thing for me about this movie was to know the origin of Cyborg, because is very well executed and described, except for the fact that he apparently dominates his abilities even tough it's his first day as Cyborg.The film is rated PG-13 as most of the DCU animated movies, but I think it wasn't for that much, only for the language.I must say that I'm a huge fan of DC Comics, especially of the animated movies.
I have not had the time to follow New 52 and this movie really brings justice to me for forsaking the dream.It is amazing in just over one hour it can tell the origin of the League and some of its characters.
A lot of people seem to be displeased with the personality changes of some of the heroes like Superman and Wonder Woman but they don't realize that this movie is based off of the New 52 universe, not the Justice League/Unlimited universe.
The animation and character design was great, especially Wonder Woman's new outfit.
The action is nicely animated and has a good amount of thrills.The voice acting is variable, but Shemar Moore's Cyborg and Christopher Gorham's Flash are spot on, while Sean Astin has a chirpy enthusiasm and Jason O'Mara is a credible replacement for Kevin Conroy (big Batman shoes to fill and he does credibly, but he will always suffer in comparison).
Steve Blum actually does a great job as Darkseid as far as voice acting quality goes, but it was like the film intended Darkseid to be different to how he was here and then changed their minds after the voice acting was done, because Blum is too sinister and dangerous for a character that is neither.Writing is far too crude and childish (especially Wonder Woman, even a troubled teenager would find her dialogue embarrassing), a writing style that feels out of place and distorts and dumbs down the characters.
There are also a few unresolved plot points that kind of frustrated me, as I was wondering how they were going to explain that but instead the credits roll.The only thing that I can say is really good about the movie is the banter between Hal and Bruce as they probably had the best scenes.
If you really want to see Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, Cyborg and Captain Marvel - Shazam fighting Darkseid, fighting these robotic types called Parademons and you want to see them fight, you will see it in here, we have a lot's of action, it is not boring, it is Pg-13, you still do see blood, Darkside is stabbed in the eye by Wonder Woman sword and he pulls it out and blood is coming down the eye, it is spectacular!Real quick run through the cast: we have Alan Tudyk as Superman which was interesting choice, he's Superman was okay and it was alright.
This is the first time people were not afraid of Justice League ever.Justice League: War is more of a prequel nobody of our heroes known each other before, we get to see each and every single one of them with their stories, and some people, who are already superheroes like Batman, Green Lantern, Superman and Wonder Woman.
The best part of the movie is the final battle when all hell breaks loose when Darkseid comes to earth and you know he tries to destroy it and rule the world but a bunch of cool superheroes are in there and they kick his butt.10 out of 10 is my favorite DC animated flick alongside with The New Frontier and Flashpoint Paradox I love it to death!
Animation Warner Premiere DC Comics Starring: Alan Tudyk, Christopher Gorham, Justin Kirk, Shemar Moore, Jason O'Mara, Michelle Monaghan, Sean Astin, Steven Blum Director: Jay Oliva Producer: James Tucker Screenplay: Heath Corson Based on "Justice League: Origin" by Geoff Johns, Jim Lee Rated: PG-13 Running Time: 1 Hr. 19 Mins.
I'm unsure of whether to lay the blame at the film or whether the true fault lies in DC's reimagining of the heroes for this new 52-verse.Batman is his usual aloof self, Superman comes off as a cold arrogant a$$, Captain Marvel is more of a dunderhead than usual, Hal is a schoolboy in a mans body and wonder woman comes off as a real Bee-you-know-what.Only Barry and Vic get to resemble something of themselves.One to miss I'm afraid..
The biggest problem is DC's decision to move away from making fun, intelligent, thrilling JL movies, and just making 1 and a half hour blockbuster animations, filled with gritty "bad ass" dialogue and stupid pop-culture references.The movie's biggest problem however, is the total mis-characterisation of it's iconic characters, heroes who have been done so much justice in DC's previous efforts (JL cartoons, previous DC Animated features) that it is heartbreaking to watch them here.SUPERMAN in this movie, is a muscle-head, a total grunt whose only role is to punch this and that, and hit on WW.
The first in what is apparently meant to be an over-reaching continuity of DC animated films based on the New 52 gets off to a bad start with what is honestly one of the worst stories from the New 52 right out the gate, JUSTICE LEAGUE: ORIGIN by Geoff Johns, re-subtitled WAR here presumably because it sounds cooler.
I've enjoyed his work on Green Lantern, and he did a very good job on the opening arcs of New 52 Aquaman - who sadly was taken out of this feature and replaced with Shazam, the hero formerly known as the original Captain Marvel - but his New 52 Justice League: Origin was a terrible story, full of bad dialogue and unlikable over the top characterizations for half the characters assembled, wasting the beautiful artwork of Jim Lee on an invasion plot thinner than paper.
Alan Tudyk's voice is too small and too soft for the Superman design, Michelle Monaghan sounds too contemporary and "American" to be convincing as a Wonder Woman who has just arrived to our world and sounds like she would have been better suited to voicing Lois Lane, while Justin Kirk's nasally frat boy voice is a painfully poor fit for Green Lantern.It's rather telling that the more lighthearted, kid friendly "Justice League Adventures: Trapped In Time" released around the same at select Target only featured far more likable characterizations of the heroes than this overblown "popcorn film" which lacks the heart, soul, and genuinely likable characterizations of the truly great popcorn films.
I enjoyed the Nolan Batman series and I liked Man of Steel as well but the DC animated movie line just got it right every time.Then, I watched Justice League: War...What the Hell Happened?!?!?!?!The voice acting was terrible (with the exception of Shemar Moore/Cyborg and Chris Gorham/Flash).
OK, while I respect the direction they've taken with the new origin of this character in the comics I did not like his addition to this story nor his characterization.
I hope that they don't feel that the continuation of their animated films has to stay along this line because there are many great stories from before the New 52 that could still be adapted to the small screen.
Batman is still Batman even if he's way smoother with his hands than he should be, the Flash is okay despite having a fangasm when he meets Batman, Cyborg is more or less the same, Wonder Woman is a fish out of water that behaves more like a child than a dignified warrior princess of the Amazons (imagine Starfire from Glen Murakami's Teen Titans if you took away all the funny), Hal Jordan is a unlikable self-obsessed egomaniac who cares more about his image than doing his job as a Green Lantern, Billy Batson a.k.a. Captain Marvel (I refuse to call him Shazam; that's the wizard's name) is a pessimistic CRIMINAL who steals football jerseys and constantly makes me question if the wizard who gave him those powers was really desperate or really drunk, and Superman has a major ego that blinds him to the fact that THERE'S F**KING ALIENS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD.And then there are the pop cultural references.
Since when has DC EVER needed pop cultural references to make good movies?If you want a solid story in which all the characters are portrayed accurately and timelessly, go watch Bruce Timm's Justice League cartoon.
Setting: This movie takes place in a world where superheroes like Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, etc.
First taking place in Gotham then to Metropolis with a few looks at Washington, DC.Characters: The heroes in this one is Supes, Batman, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, Flash, GL Hal Jordan, and Shazam.
It's 2014 and the time has come for the New 52 world to bleed over into the DC animated cosmos with "Justice League: War."When agents of a devastating intergalactic power named Darkseid start planting doorways to another world, a team of super heroes must reluctantly join forces.
Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, the Flash, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, and Shazam come together to keep the armies of the evil Lord of Apokolips from entering our cosmos.
Parents need to remember that just because it's a cartoon doesn't mean it's appropriate for everyone.Although it's voice cast will likely take a bit of getting used to for people accustomed to the past DC television shows and movies, "Justice League: War" will entertain with non-stop action and quick pacing.
I have seen both Batman/Superman apocalypse And that was trash but this was awesome but they made green lantern a bit bad but overall good stuff from special effects to CGI to the people making it it was awesome from the action scenes to how they met and the beginning of the justice league.
I can see that this is really a re-imagining of these characters into a world where they first met for the first time and it was obvious that they were setting up the scene for the next movie in a likely series of ones to follow and there is no telling is how this is going to play when Warner Brothers brings Justice League to the big screen with live actors.
While some may judge 'War' on the basis of its straight to video release, the story stands up pretty darn well despite its budgetary constraints.The film centers around the major players like Batman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Flash, and Superman, but it also incorporates two lesser known characters with Cyborg and Shazam in the battle against Darkseid; however, by the end the whole group feels like a cohesive team.
Where Aquaman was very deliberately placed to do specific things in the original story, Shazam feels like a placeholder character, a shame since his origin is ripe for a DC Animated film all its own.