Justice League: Doom 2012

I figured it was time for me to take another trip into the animated DC Universe, this time it’s Justice League: Doom. It still surprises me how many of these things are out there and how many I still have yet to see. This movie is centered around a plot to destroy the entire Justice League using stolen plans initially created by Batman but altered by the Legion of Doom. Of course, this isn’t the LoD from the old Superfriends cartoon, though their base does emerge from a body of water during it’s initial reveal. The members of the LoD are very different, but I’ll get to that in a little bit. The action is up to the usual par, including the level of peril. The first thing I noticed with this movie was also that it included the voicework of Kevin Conroy as Batman and Tim Daly as Superman who really solidified their roles as those two during the 90’s animated series and various other works in the interim.

The essential plot of this movie is based around the newly created Legion of Doom trying to destroy the Justice League as well as half the planet. Each member of the JLA is handled separately after they’ve split up following a brief battle with the Ace gang. Each member of the LoD is chosen specifically as being a noted enemy of each JLA member. Martian Manhunter is paired up with some evil Martian who I’ve never heard of and have forgotten his name. The Flash has Mirror Master, Wonder Woman has Cheetah, Green Lantern has Star Sapphire, Superman has Metallo, and Batman has Bane. The one problem I had with this is during the final battle at the end, no one ever switches partners. Instead they stick with their own nemeses. One other slight problem I had was that because there are so many villains, the ones I wasn’t familiar with like Mirror Master, Star Sapphire, and the leader Vandal Savage were a little harder to get a feel for. Especially Vandal Savage who I had never heard of before and seemed like his only powers were intelligence and immortality, being mutated by a meteorite back when he was still a neanderthal, and amassing an immeasurable fortune over the passing centuries. It’s an origin that felt a little too far fetched for my tastes, and so did his plan of destroying half the world for some reason.

I will say that aside from the ending, I did enjoy watching the individual threats against the JLA play out seemingly successfully. I won’t go into full details into each one, but the way each of the traps were set up and sprung felt very ingenious. But my problem comes with when they were explained. As it played out in the beginning it worked for me, but when all the individual details were explained, several of them felt a little too meticulous and convoluted for their own good, especially Green Lantern’s trap which revolved around a very specific set of circumstances based around a psychological profile for him to react exactly the way that they needed him to. The ones that I thought worked the best were the more simple ones with a touch of cleverness in pulling them off like Superman’s and the Flash’s traps. I also thought it wrapped up a little too quickly and easily when it was revealed that all the plans were concocted by Batman as a failsafe.

The voicework as usual was excellent, it was a little bit of an adjustment for Bane’s voice which was a bit of a Luchador, but all the rest were handled very well and it was great hearing Conroy and Daly reprise their roles. I also thought it was great to hear Nathan Fillion reprise his role as the Green Lantern from the Emerald Knights movie. The animation was also up to the usual high standards of Warner Premier’s DC animation, especially during the many different fight scenes and action setpieces. Overall, it was another enjoyable movie, but I definitely had a handful of problems with some of the plot lines and villains. Until next time, this has been Bubbawheat for Flights, Tights, and Movie Nights.