Title: Justice League: Doom
Written By: Dwayne McDuffie
Directed By: Lauren Montgomery
Release Date: 02/28/2012

After the last episode of “Justice League Unlimited” aired back in 2006, fans of the series (myself included) have been hoping that Bruce Timm and Warner Bros. Animation would return to that universe with a brand new movie from their DC Universe animated features line. After being fortunate enough to attend the Los Angeles premiere of “Justice League: Doom” last night, I can safely say that “Justice League: Doom” is the movie fans of “Justice League Unlimited” have been waiting for! While technically not in the same universe as “Justice League Unlimited,” “Justice League Doom” features the return of most of the original voice cast from “Justice League Unlimited” (with the exceptions of HawkGirl, John Stewart, and George Newbern as Superman) which really made it feel like a continuation of the series, and is really what made this movie so enjoyable for me.

“Justice League: Doom” is loosely based of the Justice League comic story “Tower Of Babel” by Mark Waid, where Batman has contingency plans for the Justice League in case they go rouge, which get stolen, and are then used to take the team down. This is such a great concept for a Justice League story, and it plays out really well in the movie. While it makes perfect sense for Batman to have these plans, it also creates great drama amongst the other members of the League, as they now feel betrayed by Batman. But being a Batman fan first and foremost, I couldn’t help but side with Batman on this, as all his reasons for doing this made perfect sense, and I just love how he always has a plan for everything, even against himself if he ever goes bad, which he reveals in the movie. The story aspect of Batman’s contingency plans are really the only similarity the movie has with the comic, as there were a lot of things done differently in the movie, which I think for the most part, made the movie more enjoyable than comic for me.

The main changes made to the film have to do with how Batman’s contingency plans were used on each member of the Justice League, as well as what villains were used for the movie. Seeing Batman’s contingency plans being put into action by the Legion of Doom made for some great scenes, which included something that happens to Batman that I wont spoil, but was pretty twisted, and was something I never seen happen to Batman before. But probably my favorite sequence of the movie was when Batman realizes his plans were being used against the League, and goes out to help most of them get out of it. Seeing him help Green Lantern overcome his dire situation was a great moment. The other big change regarding the villains, was both a better change, and a weaker one. In the comic, the main villain was Ra’s Al Ghul, where in the movie, the main villain was Vandal Savage. While voice actor Phil Morris was great as Vandal Savage in the movie, Ra’s Al Ghul is just a better overall villain, and it made more sense for him to be the one to steal Batman’s plans, since he already knows who Batman is, and knows how to get into the Batcave. But I did like the fact that the Legion of Doom was formed in the movie, and that all the heroes got to face off against villains from their rouges gallery. It made the story more exiting, watching the Justice League do battle against a super villain team, instead of just having them face off against one main villain, and I definitely felt it was an improvement over the comic.

Now for the best part of the movie. The voice acting and dialogue. As I said previously, having most of the original voice actors from “Justice League Unlimited” return to their roles for “Justice League: Doom,” is what really got me excited for this movie when it was first announced, and they didn’t disappoint. It was like being reunited with some old friends, as all the actors have such great chemistry together, which was something that I felt was missing with the voice acting in the previous Justice League movie, “Crisis on Two Earths,” and they really made you care about the characters more. Of course having Kevin Conroy voice Batman again is always a good thing, but having Susan Eisenberg return as Wonder Woman, Carl Lumbly as Martian Manhunter, and especially Michael Rosenbaum as the Flash, was what really made this movie special for me. Also having Tim Daily voice Superman as part of the Justice League for the first time was great too. With no disrespect to George Newbern, who voiced Superman in the Justice League series and did a great job, but Tim Daily voice is just perfect for Superman. I also loved Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern in the movie. Hal Jordan has always been my favorite Green Lantern, so in way, this is how I wished the lineup for the T.V. series has always been. Sorry John Stewart fans. Having Cyborg part of the team worked well too, as it kind of felt like this was the Justice League from the new 52 comics, and he rounded out the team nicely.

But the voice actor’s performances wouldn’t be as memorable if they didn’t have a good script to work off of, but thankfully they did for this movie. Sadly, this was writer Dwayne McDuffie’s last script, as he passed away last year. But the dialogue he wrote for “Justice League Doom” was fantastic. Dwayne McDuffie was always great at writing Justice League scripts, as he had previously wrote some of the best episodes of the Justice League T.V. series. All the characters had great interactions and banter with each other, as well as some real funny lines. In particular a line Batman says to Superman, after Superman suggest he picks up the earth and moves it to another location. It was great, and got the biggest laugh in the theater. Speaking of Batman and Superman, one of my favorite moments of the movie came at the very end, when the League is deciding on what to do about Batman’s future with them, since he betrayed their trust, where Batman and Superman have a discussion in private. They both had some great dialogue as Batman explains why he did what he did, and it perfectly shows how even though they view and do things differently, they both have a great amount of respect and trust for one another, which is what I always loved about their friendship.

While I really enjoyed the movie, there were a few things that I wished were done a little bit better. First is the action sequences. While the opening fight against the Royal Flush Gang was really cool, where each member of the League was given a moment to shine, I just didn’t feel that the rest of the action sequences in the movie were as cool or exciting as they have been in past DC animated movies. Director Lauren Montgomery has directed some truly awesome fight sequences in the previous movies, and I just didn’t think that the ones in this movie were up to par with the ones she has directed in the past. The only other complaint I had, was with Vandal Savage’s master plan. It was really just your typical villain story of trying to conquer the world by destroying part of it, and it really wasn’t that interesting. I found myself not really caring about that aspect of the movie, and just wanted it to get back to how the League was going to deal with Batman and his contingency plans.

Overall, “Justice League: Doom” is a movie that I really enjoyed, and is definitely in my top 5 of the DC Universe Animated movies released so far. The voice acting alone makes the movie worth owning, but the story of Batman’s contingency plans for the Justice League getting stolen was well executed, and made for some really great memorable moments for some of the characters. Any Batman fan, or DC comics fans in general, will find a lot to like about “Justice League Doom,” but for fans of the old Justice League T.V. series, buying this movie when it’s released on February 28th should be a no-brainer. Definitely pick this one up!

Movie Score: 4/5

After the movie, a brief Q&A session was held with some of the cast and crew, which was pretty entertaining to be a part of. Nothing too earth-shattering was revealed during the Q&A, but one thing that director Lauren Montgomery said that I thought was kind of interesting, was that she said “Justice League: Doom,” and “Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths,” were both in the same continuity, which I found a bit surprising, given the way “Crisis on Two Earths” ended, and how none of the other DC animated movies have really shared any continuity. We also almost got the reveal of who would be playing Batman in the upcoming “Dark Knight Returns” animated movie, as someone in the audience asked who was going to play him. But when it looked liked voice director Andrea Romano was going to tell us, she asked someone who was there from Warner Bros. Home Video if she could reveal it, and he quickly told her no, which was disappointing. But she did say that she just saw some footage of it, and that it looks beautiful. Another cool moment was that current Nightwing writer Kyle Higgins was in the audience, and said how much “Batman The Animated Series” has influenced him as a writer, and asked what the process was like for casting the roles of Batman and Superman for the different movies. But it seemed like a lot of people in the theater didn’t know who he was, since he only got a small round of applause, but I thought it was cool that he attended the premiere, and said how much he appreciated Andrea Romano’s work over the years, and how the different DC animated series were what got him into writing comics.

Those were some of the highlights of the Q&A session, but attending the “Justice League: Doom” premiere was a blast! I got to meet a lot of people that I have admired for so many years, and got to see a really cool Justice League movie. Hopefully Warner Bros. will do this again for what is sure to be the next big epic DC animated movie, “The Dark Knight Returns.”