Review of Justice League: War (2014) by Westleigh Q — 10 Dec 2014

The newest thing coming out of the DC animated movie machine is JUSTICE LEAGUE: WAR, which turned out to be considerably better than what I expected (given this "machine's" history). As has been the case with the recent wave of these movies, JUSTICE LEAGUE: WAR still suffers from wanted to take itself super seriously (graphic violence, mature themes) and being able to market itself to a broad audience (including children).

There is a bit of a muddled tone that is split between grit and childishness. Fortunately, this particular DC animation does an especially excellent job with casting and with sound mixing and editing - it actually sounds as if the characters is responding to one another in dialogue instead of being static voices recorded out of context! Additionally, this pseudo-origin story - tracking the first meet up of the people who would eventually form the Justice League - although rushed, is very relationship centered and is interesting to follow.

The movie does not offer any lofty philosophical questions for the audience to grapple with and it doesn't have any super cathardic moments to provide emotional purging. It is just sheer, escapist action adventure.

.. and that's okay by me. The movie doesn't pretend to be something that it is not. JUSTICE LEAGUE: WAR still features a smarter-than-usual story compared to its historical counterparts and is amusing enough to warrant the time to watch it.