Justice League: The New Frontier is the story of the formation of the Justice League of America, as the movie's official website says. It is the story of the DC superheroes on the Earth of the 1950s. Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, and Batman are all established and known superheroes, but they all work alone. This movie shows the origins of Martian Manhunter and Green Lantern, and most of the movie focuses on those two. The origin of Green Lantern matches the story from the 1950s "Silver Age" comic books (dying alien Abin Sur passes his power ring to test pilot Hal Jordan, who becomes the Green Lantern of sector 2814). As a big Lantern fan, I was absolutely thrilled to see his story treated with such care. Hal Jordan is portrayed as the role model for what every man should aspire to be. He is completely fearless and he knows the difference between right and wrong. He carries a little bit of guilt about an event that happened in his past, but that only makes him more determined to be a good man in the future. And when he finally changes into the Green Lantern and battles against the villain, it is exciting and hilarious and makes me want to stand up and cheer. The Green Lantern power ring is indeed the most powerful weapon in the universe. And from what I can tell, the Martian Manhunter origin story is equally accurate. The movie is based on a 2004 DC Comics miniseries entitled "DC: The New Frontier." In addition to the characters mentioned above, the movie also includes:
Adam Strange
"Ace" Morgan
The Blackhawk Squadron
Captain Cold
Rick Flag
I won't say anything about the movie's villain, because...I'm not really sure who or what it is other than its name. The very beginning of the movie explains its origin, and its actions are shown (and discussed when not shown) during the movie, but I don't recall actually seeing the villain "in person." Maybe that's not a problem, since the villain's actions were enough to challenge all the superheroes and military folks, but we're usually accustomed to seeing the bad guy during the fight, so this seemed strange. The website mentions that the two disk set shows more about the bad guy, so that will be interesting. From some comments I'm seeing, apparently we do see the villain but it's not explained that that's who it is.
It took a while to figure out why this animation style was so much more appealing than recent TV offerings. I watched an old episode of Justice League on the Boomerang network right afterward and figured it out. The Justice League TV superheroes are stylized Japanese-inspired representations of humans, with skinny little necks, impossibly long legs, and tiny little mouths. The characters in this movie look like real people. And what it looks like more than anything is a comic book brought to life through animation. How refreshing! It takes a little getting used to at first, but I want to see more like this.
The plot of the movie was refreshing as well. In the Justice League and JLU TV episodes, it seemed that there would always be one or two segments where one superhero would ask a stupid question and another one would give a snotty answer. Or a few of them would be having a discussion and one would suddenly say something in an angry voice. These little moments of drama didn't advance the plot at all - they just seemed to be thrown in to provide some emotion that really wasn't needed. The characters in this movie act like real people (with one exception which is glaringly obvious, and luckily only lasts for a few seconds). At one point, Superman gives a pretty good rah-rah motivational speech that's right out of the 1950s, but that was full of things that needed to be said during that specific situation, so it made sense. I don't recall seeing any character have a sudden unexplained flash of anger that instantly subsided for no known reason.
Since there is some graphic violence in the movie, it deserves its PG-13 rating. It's not a "gross-out" type of movie but it doesn't go out of its way to make sure every pilot of every downed aircraft is shown parachuting to safety.
The studio sent out a preview of this movie for reviews, and someone put it on the Internet. I downloaded it and watched it, and with a little searching you can download it too (if you want to wait for a 650 megabyte download). The downloaded movie turns to black and white every ten minutes for two minutes just to show that it's the unofficial version. It may be that some changes will be made between now and the time when the movie comes out. Or maybe it's too late to make changes, I don't know. Anyway, I received the link with a note that it was a "pre-release" version, so I downloaded it before checking. Apparently it's actually pirated and not intended for public viewing, so I should have done some research before downloading. But no harm done, because I do plan to own the legitimate version.
Buy this movie when it comes out on February 28th. If you like any of the DC superheroes, I guarantee you won't be disappointed.
I know in my heart that man is good.
That what is right will always eventually triumph.
And there's purpose and worth to each and every life.
- Ronald Reagan
Adam Strange
"Ace" Morgan
The Blackhawk Squadron
Captain Cold
Rick Flag
I won't say anything about the movie's villain, because...I'm not really sure who or what it is other than its name. The very beginning of the movie explains its origin, and its actions are shown (and discussed when not shown) during the movie, but I don't recall actually seeing the villain "in person." Maybe that's not a problem, since the villain's actions were enough to challenge all the superheroes and military folks, but we're usually accustomed to seeing the bad guy during the fight, so this seemed strange. The website mentions that the two disk set shows more about the bad guy, so that will be interesting. From some comments I'm seeing, apparently we do see the villain but it's not explained that that's who it is.
It took a while to figure out why this animation style was so much more appealing than recent TV offerings. I watched an old episode of Justice League on the Boomerang network right afterward and figured it out. The Justice League TV superheroes are stylized Japanese-inspired representations of humans, with skinny little necks, impossibly long legs, and tiny little mouths. The characters in this movie look like real people. And what it looks like more than anything is a comic book brought to life through animation. How refreshing! It takes a little getting used to at first, but I want to see more like this.
The plot of the movie was refreshing as well. In the Justice League and JLU TV episodes, it seemed that there would always be one or two segments where one superhero would ask a stupid question and another one would give a snotty answer. Or a few of them would be having a discussion and one would suddenly say something in an angry voice. These little moments of drama didn't advance the plot at all - they just seemed to be thrown in to provide some emotion that really wasn't needed. The characters in this movie act like real people (with one exception which is glaringly obvious, and luckily only lasts for a few seconds). At one point, Superman gives a pretty good rah-rah motivational speech that's right out of the 1950s, but that was full of things that needed to be said during that specific situation, so it made sense. I don't recall seeing any character have a sudden unexplained flash of anger that instantly subsided for no known reason.
Since there is some graphic violence in the movie, it deserves its PG-13 rating. It's not a "gross-out" type of movie but it doesn't go out of its way to make sure every pilot of every downed aircraft is shown parachuting to safety.
The studio sent out a preview of this movie for reviews, and someone put it on the Internet. I downloaded it and watched it, and with a little searching you can download it too (if you want to wait for a 650 megabyte download). The downloaded movie turns to black and white every ten minutes for two minutes just to show that it's the unofficial version. It may be that some changes will be made between now and the time when the movie comes out. Or maybe it's too late to make changes, I don't know. Anyway, I received the link with a note that it was a "pre-release" version, so I downloaded it before checking. Apparently it's actually pirated and not intended for public viewing, so I should have done some research before downloading. But no harm done, because I do plan to own the legitimate version.
Buy this movie when it comes out on February 28th. If you like any of the DC superheroes, I guarantee you won't be disappointed.
I know in my heart that man is good.
That what is right will always eventually triumph.
And there's purpose and worth to each and every life.
- Ronald Reagan
