Review of Justice League: Throne of Atlantis (2015) by Kyle M — 27 Jan 2015

When "War" was released, it'd turned out to be the best animated superhero film there is. But now its successor, "Throne of Atlantis," has taken that throne by not just being the best but the most entertaining in the general action genre - where the superhero genre has a connection to.

The film is an adapted continuation of "The New 52" line in the sequel's respective graphic novel of the same title. It takes place after the Justice League defeated Darkseid and were publicized as a team, gaining the nationwide trust. Although, things had went to a different turn: the seven heroes want the public to keep on believing that they're a team so they can be trusted, even though they want to go solo; and their victory of defeating Darkseid's invasion provoked an Atlantean to exact vengeance when his father the king of Atlantis and multiple sea creatures were indirectly killed by the invaders' attacks. Afterwards before he'd put his vengeance to an effect, we've seen Batman representing the heroes going solo when he his son Robin (the Damian Wayne version) was put under his care as protection in "Son of Batman" - the follow-up to "War.".

The follow-up of the team-up gave a 50/50 spotlight to the team and the newcomer Aquaman, who wants to know who he is while living among the humans. Aquaman's referred as Arthur Curry, grieving on his human father's death, while having no knowledge of his Atlantean heritage and hidden powers, but does have curiosity on his strength.

Meanwhile in Atlantis, his Atlantean brother Ocean Master, the aforementioned Atlantean, declares war on the surface dwellers for the safety of his people. But his mother, Queen Atlanna, knows better to not declare war to break the balanced (invisible) peace and expose their existence. Unbeknownst to him, she knows her half-human son can bring peace and balance, but wants to wait till he's ready to take that role. But unbeknownst to her, Ocean Master and his companion Black Manta, who knows who Arthur is, staged some attacks against a submarine and tries to finish off Arthur. The submarine attack attracted the Justice League to must re-assembled and investigate what threat is being formed, and it'll soon bring them to meet their new team member.

"Justice League: Throne of Atlantis" provides the same qualities - the performances on the animation and voice acting, the characterization, the humor and the blended-in coolness, while being a bit violent at a minimal amount that's satisfying to the taste - from the previous team-up, but it seems there were additional qualities to notice, as well some different amounts to the usage of the previous qualities. The action was given more package, which became makes this more cool while the comic beliefs are still at the same level at a minimal amount. The small added, simple qualities that were put in this film were to note that the score was well done at a better fit with the most amount of power at the level of a direct-to-video animated superhero film, next to being a little thrilling sometimes - probably another quality that this film attempted the first time of its kind. (Another quality that was first attempted was expressing the message of powerless heroes.).

Aquaman's introduction was done with style like how a character gets introduced in the respective reboot. With the course of living regularly while trying to figure out his identity shows a good style to be entertained in these kind of films nowadays. But that's not all; in a bar fight seen he'd gotten himself into when protecting a lobster from getting cooked was the first action piece of the film. It was well done by the sounds mixing on the punching and the throwing. You can probably say that Aquaman's lifestyle was similar to Superman's lifestyle seen in "Man of Steel," made with style of a dramatic, meaningful effect. This was common throughout: referencing the live action films in moments and spirit.

Throughout the animated film, there are some nice, recognizable moments that were seen in the live-action films. When Green Lantern went to fetch Batman for the team's re-assembling and helped him taking care of the situation consisting Scarecrow and his goons, he'd used his Lantern ring to make a Hot Wheels-like track to stop them - a similar move seen in the okay 2011 film. When Superman was in a diner on a date with Wonder Woman showing her what it like to blend in with the public on the ground, you can see that his Clark Kent persona matches the way how Christopher Reeve performed in the original films. It'd became more spot-on when Lois Lane came into the picture and their interactions were quite similar in those films as friends in the friend zone with great partnership. (This is the second time whereas Christopher Reeve was given a presence as the hero; the first time was in "Man of Steel"). Speaking of "Man of Steel" in this topic, the way Aquaman was titled was similar to how Superman was titled in the latter film.

It wasn't just the DC Comics film, there were some points that were similar to a Marvel film, "Thor." Aquaman is Thor, away and lost from his original heritage and is destined to bring balance between sides, and likes to fight. Ocean Master is Loki but is more desperate and thirstier for war against an entire race. Queen Atlanta is Odin and Frigga combined on the throne of a kingdom, awaiting for the rightful heir to the throne to return until he's ready to handle such responsibility. Also, it seems the post-credit scene look somewhat similar to the mid-credit scene in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier.".

I'm not saying that the film copied those moments and behavior, particularly the aforementioned Marvel movies. I'm saying it's something that's good to notice in a film that'd used it well. Hey, this is DC Comics and Marvel we're talking about here. Their heroes and plot points have lots of similarities. So in this case, the "copying" isn't an absolute problem nor a flaw. There's only one flaw and that's the usual quickening under a short time, but that's not a bother when the film passed the entertaining test. Although, it doesn't receive the title of being flawless.

Speaking of the usual flaw, the usual unappealing flavor when watching these kind of movies is the violent content. While it was really minimal in "War" and the bleeding was a little longer in "Son of Batman," the amount of blood spewing in this film was between those two films. The content may've done an effect to the film's grade when it was doing fine at an "A" rating until a kill took it down a bit. Flaws are usually the ones to bring the grade down, but when there's something in a movie that's not to the taste gets partnered up with the flaws as a team of inadvertently bringing the grade down.

"Justice League: Throne of Atlantis" may be a direct-to-video product, but it has enough power to start off the year in both the animated and superhero genres, separately. It's entertaining and action-packed with power to take its predecessor's throne. The animated shared universe DC Comics started is a strategic move to the film industry in the home video releases to become a treat to really enjoy and you'll be probably asking for more of the team-up to continuing adapting "The New 52" comics. Who knows, maybe one feature might make it to an "A." (A-).