Movie Review - Justice League: Doom

  Justice League: Doom (2012)

Director: Phillip Noyce

Starring: Kevin Conroy, Tim Daly, Susan Eisenberg

The DC Animated Universe has been one of the most consistent sources of entertainment for me since childhood.  As a kid, I always rushed home after school to watch Batman: The Animated Series.  It was because of Batman: TAS that I first fell in love with the character of Batman.  As the years progressed, that show gave rise to other brilliant series like Batman Beyond and Justice League.  All of these shows were excellent, and to me remain the quintessential non-comic book depiction of the DC Universe superheroes (yes, even over the Christopher Nolan movies.  The Dark Knight series is incredible, but Christian Bale's Batman never intrigued me the way Kevin Conroy's does).

At first, the movies of the DCAU lived up to the indelible legacy of the television series' which inspired them. At the time of its release (1993), Batman: Mask of the Phantasm was considered by many to be greatest Batman film ever made, and that case can be made even today.  The more recent Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker was another superior effort by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm, the men largely responsible for the DCAU.  Movies set in the DCAU used to be few and far between, but that hasn't been the case since 2007.  That year, the DC Universe Animated Original Movies initiative was established, and three to four movies set in the DCAU have come out each year since.

The results have been somewhat mixed, and perhaps that was unavoidable.  When the movies were coming out only every few years, there was no doubt more attention and care given to each project.  That approach has given way to a deluge of straight-to-video DVDs released with factory-like efficiency.  The fact that Timm and Dini are less directly involved with the process these days could have something to do with the decline in quality as well.  Whatever the reason, the results have been largely underwhelming.  Occasionally, a great movie like Batman: Under the Red Hood will slip through the cracks, but most of the DCAU films to come out since '07 have been forgettable ones like Green Lantern: Emerald Knights.  Unfortunately, Justice League: Doom falls into that latter category.

Doom comes across mostly as a wasted opportunity.  The comic storyline it draws inspiration from, JLA: Tower of Babel, is one of the most beloved of all-time.  And the concept is an instantly attention-grabbing one:  In case any member of the Justice League goes rogue, Batman has created a highly specific contingency plan to take them down.  Of course, those plans are stolen by villains and mayhem ensues.  In the comic, Tower of Babel is a richly layered story with excellent characterization and tons of unforgettable moments.  In Doom, it feels like a mediocre episode of the early-2000s Justice League animated series.  As always with the DCAU productions, the animation and voice acting are solid.  But the story is simply too diluted to truly entertain. There is no sense of real danger for the JLA at any point, and the tension between the members isn't sold effectively.

I understand that Justice League: Doom is a direct-to-video movie intended for a younger audience, but that isn't any excuse for the creators to cut corners as they have here.  The previously mentioned Batman: Under the Red Hood operated under constraints, but still managed to be a great movie.  I couldn't help but think what may have been had the makers of Doom not viewed it as simply an opportunity to cash in on the consumer recognition of the Tower of Babel story arc from the comics.  If they had taken time to establish the characters and their relationships, and to really put them in peril.  And tried to demonstrate some growth for those characters and relationships throughout the story as well.  If they had, the film may have even clocked in a bit longer than the embarrassingly short seventy-seven minute running time it currently sports. As it is, the film is simply mediocre.  Easy to look at, but ultimately vacant.  And I hope not at all a sign of things to come for the DCAU.

Verdict: 4/10