Justice League: Doom rests on one of the oldest tropes of comic book heroes, supervillains teaming up to destroy their rivals. The interesting twist on Doom is that the plans to defeat the heroes come from within their own ranks. Batman has devised a doomsday scenario for every member of the Justice League, preying on both their physical and mental vulnerabilities.
The cleverness of the idea is offset by its execution several times, though. The Wonder Woman and Green Lantern scenarios hinge entirely on the two of them being incapable of simple deduction, with Lantern’s resting mostly on making him feel bad. The Flash’s scenario seems both generic and easily solvable, and is once Batman points out the obvious answer to him. Seeing as Superman has only one weakness, his is easy enough to deduce, but the solution is clever, and Martian Manhunter’s takedown is the easily the best. That was a horrible thing to do to a friend, and more should have been made of that idea.
Batman gets a pretty easy time of it, considering that his uncharacteristically lax security is to blame for Vandal Savage forming the Legion of Doom to enact his sanctions against the League. They brush over the topic with cursory anger and disbelief, but the outcome is never placed in doubt. Batman’s nonchalance about the whole thing is the only good part of his being tried.
Savage gets the barest bones of a backstory, which is an interesting one when given time, but the two-minute telling does little to make him credible. It’s a matter of time available, though, and was probably best left unsaid at all if that was what he was going to get. A mystery unsolved is better than an unsatisfactory answer. The Legion is generally the most obvious of villains—Kryptonite powered Metallo; the Cheetah, Wonder Woman’s most workable villain in a short story; the Mirror Master for Flash, who gets an interesting treatment and actually seems like a threat for once; Bane’s plan deserved its own animated film and time to show its psychological toll on Batman; Star Sapphire, still working the Hal-Jordan-broke-my-heart angle, offers no higher agenda than being a scorned woman; and Ma’alefa’ak, twin brother of J’onn J’onnz, previously the last of the Martians, who seems like an interesting villain but gets too little chance to prove it.
The problem with the final battle, once all the players are revealed and the combatants are in place, is that the League never uses any strategy to battle the Legion. Superman goes straight for Metallo, the cyborg housing literally the only substance deadly to him, while Green Lantern or Wonder Woman could have fought him without ill effects, and Superman could have handled the rest of the Legion almost singlehandedly. It would have been much more interesting for Batman to direct traffic, applying his planning ability to point each Leaguer to his or her best matched opponent, especially seeing as that same skill nearly got the League killed moments before this battle. Seeing him outsmart Mirror Master, for example, while Flash unhooked Bane from his Venom supply is what these big team battles are designed to showcase. It was a letdown to see them all just go head to head with their regular foes, especially since the clash was so brief and anticlimactic anyway.
The big draw of Doom is the reuniting of the Justice League: the Animated Series cast. I don’t believe these two are supposed to take place in the same reality, given that the Flash was Barry Allen rather than Wally West, but it was still a treat to hear all of the familiar voices again. I don’t know why DC Animated films ever stray from Kevin Conroy as Batman, but they do seem determined to allow someone else to inhabit the role in at least every other film, always with the effect of wishing for Conroy. It’s almost an event every time they bring him back. I would have been fine with someone else voicing the Flash once I realized it was a different character, but Michael Rosenbaum did his usual great job. He’s just a little too jocular for the more serious Barry Allen. I think Nathan Fillion stands a chance to turn around the Hal Jordan Green Lantern by his casting alone, which is more fan service than staying true to the character. I almost think Hal could be retconned into having some humility if Fillion picks up a stronger presence and identification with the character, instead of being the self-serving blowhard he’s been recognized as in recent years. Despite any criticisms, though, the casting and voice work are well above par, as usual.
Doom is a fine standalone work, bringing a new spin on an old standard, though it could have benefited from straying less from that story’s usual rules. Still, the idea is always fun, the film has the big event feel to it, and the animation and acting deliver. 3 ½ stars
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For whatever reason this is a story that has been revisited a number of times in the past ten years, a suspiciously high number of times. It has been seen in Justice League Unlimited in the form of the Justice Lords storyline, Mark Millar’s comic series Wanted (from which this movie borrows liberally), and last year in Batman: the Brave and the Bold, featuring some of the same characters. Basically it’s a mirror universe story where evil has triumphed over good. In Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths the filmmakers return to an old DC Comics story featuring the Crime Syndicate (a name unfortunately kept for the movie) from an alternate Earth. From what I remember this amounted to the world being terrorized by evil doppelgangers of the Justice League. For the most part it wasn’t really all that imaginative, best exampled by Evil Green Lantern, Power Ring. Yeah, why not call Evil Batman “Utility Belt” or Evil Wonder Woman “Magic Lasso” while you’re throwing out generic names.
I was pleasantly surprised at how detailed and character driven much of the film turned out to be, though. Though many of the Crime Syndicate characters get very little time to be fleshed out, the ones that do are interesting. Owlman is, I believe for the first time, more than simply Evil Batman. He has a completely different personality and outlook and this drives most of the drama in the final act. He is much more philosophical and introspective than Batman, while being wholly amoral as well. The movie actually looks at the moniker “Owlman” and dissects what it would mean to someone who chose it. Picking up a Justice League Unlimited storyline, Wonder Woman stand-in Superwoman is Owlman’s lover. She also gets a well done and more mature treatment as a sexually charged hedonist, easily bored by Owlman’s planning and only looking for a thrill. Superman double Ultraman has a sort of stereotypical Italian mobster appearance and attitude, with his square-headed coif and permanent sneer. There are many others but for the most part it’s these three that get actual character treatment. Flash ringer Johnny Quick’s character difference amounts to being British.
If you are a comics fan you will probably have a blast picking out the doppelgangers throughout the battles on Crime Syndicate Earth. The scene featuring a group of alternate Outsiders and Detroit-era Justice Leaguers is particularly fun. Random appearances of henchman like Lobo as possibly a Blue Oyster Bar biker don’t hurt either. My personal favorites were the black-clad “Supers,” a Marvel family stand-in. Best appearance in the whole film: Uncle Super. I would love to have seen more of the Justice League of that world. Alternate Lex Luthor (oddly the same, not even so much as having hair) is the last man standing, his final partner, The Jester, falling in the opener. Slade “Deathstroke” Wilson is the President, and his daughter Rose works by his side. They fill in a sort of national level Commissioner and Barbara Gordon role. All of this was cool but a few shots of the demise of good versions of the Legion of Doom would have been welcome.
Some of the voice casting I found problematic. Chris Noth makes a great Luthor, and Gina Torres’ Superwoman is perfect, but Mark Harmon’s gruff, authoritative Superman lacks the humble farm boy charm of Tim Daly’s work, and there is no improving on Kevin Conroy’s Batman. James Woods makes a perfectly detached Owlman, though. The rest of the cast is good, too, and even features a couple of appearances by Reno 911’s Officer Jones, Cedric Yarborough.
I was skeptical in the opening of JL: CoTE but it won me over shortly, largely through the portrayals of Owlman and Superwoman, and the dynamic of their relationship. This was one of the more enjoyable DC Animations released in the last few years. Recommended for Justice League fans mostly, maybe not such a great kids movie, though. 4 stars
Harry Badface At the Movies 