Justice League: Doom 2012

[7.6/10] Justice League: Doom is a sequel to Justice League: Crisis on Two Earths, or at least set in the same continuity. But like it’s predecessor, it’s a quasi-entry into the famed DC Animated Universe, which started in 1992 with Batman: The Animated Series and ended, more or less, in 2006 with Justice League Unlimited.

With that pedigree, it brings in much of the cast, crew, and vibe of those prior DCAU works. Most of the voice cast for the Justice League is back (with Nathan Fillion as Hal Jordan subbing in for Phil LaMarr as John Stewart, as he did in Crisis). Dwayne McDuffie, who penned much of Justice League Unlimited at its height, wrote the script. And plenty of other vets of the franchise are back, from producers Bruce Timm and Alan Burnett, to voice actors like Bumper Robinson and Alexis Denisof to legendary casting and voice director Andrea Romano.

All of that gives Justice League: Doom a certain homey feel to it. Fans would have to really squint to try to fit this film in the canon of those other works, but the voices sound the same, the conflicts feel of a piece with past challenges, and with McDuffie (in whose memory the film is dedicated) at the pen, the tone feels right.

That’s not to say there aren’t meaningful, oft-perturbing differences. Doom carries over the ugly, overly-angular art style from Crisis. Superman in particular looks like a buffed up boy band refugee with a head constructed in Minecraft. Character designs look gawky and frequently downright unpleasant to look at. There’s a garbled anime influence at play visually that does the film no favors, limiting the expressions of the characters and rendering the imagery and action set pieces less engrossing as a consequence.

The film also assumes viewers are not only preexistingly familiar with Hal Jordan as Green Lantern, but also with his relationship to Star Sapphire, which the movie barely bothers to explain despite its importance to the plot. It subs in Barry Allen for Wally West as Flash, despite retaining the same voice actor who played the latter in Justice League Unlimited. And, not for nothing, it decides that the titular Legion of Doom should, save for Vandal Savage, all look like they just finished a performance at the strip club for some reason. (That said, it’s a design approach which cuts across gender lines which is...progress? I guess?)

But those beefs aside, Doom feels very much of a piece with McDuffie’s work on the film’s spiritual predecessors. If anything, it plays more like an extended episode of Justice League Unlimited than as a movie, both in terms of pacing and focus, but that’s a good thing. There’s clarity and momentum to its plot, its obstacles, and its solutions, which elevates it above plenty of other DC Animated films.

The villain of the piece is Vandal Savage, who basically has a “neanderthal’s revenge” plot. He deems humanity to be excessively prideful and belligerent, and aims to wipe enough of the species out that he can subjugate what’s left. He’s motivated by a sense that his people should have won the evolutionary race 25,000 years ago and constructs a missile that, properly fired into the sun, will attract a solar flare to the face of the earth, killing billions. All he needs is a crew of well-funded lackeys to prevent the Justice League from getting in the way.
That’s a good scheme for an antagonist. He has an appropriately comic book-y idea toward world destruction, but it’s rooted in a societal critique. His ultimate play differs just enough from the usual “stop the giant bomb” routine to be interesting and provides fodder from some creative sequences. And more than that, it provides a good reason for the main Justice League vs. Legion of Doom conflict that commands the bulk of the film beyond simple revenge on the good guys.

But it’s that large middle portion of the film -- which features each member of the Justice League squaring off against one of their classic antagonists -- that ultimately gins up the most interest, because of its key wrinkle. Savage didn’t just send the likes of Metallo and Cheetah out to be thwomped by the Leaguers once more -- he sent them out with pilfered/altered versions of Batman’s contingency plans in case any member of the League went rogue.

That provides an excuse for the traps and ambushes to be more clever and personal than usual. The one for Flash features a Speed-style bomb that tests his endurance. The one for Wonder Woman uses her unwillingness to back down from a fight to push her body to its limit. The one for Martian Manhunter capitalizes on his species’ unique physiology. The one for Superman plays not only on his susceptibility to kryptonite, but on his unwavering desire to help those in need. Green Lantern’s digs into his anxieties about not being worthy to wield such power. And even Batman’s, the only one that The Dark Knight didn’t come up with himself, has extra oomph from being founded on Bruce Wayne’s connection to his lost parents.

Each plan reflects not only an understanding of the Leaguers’ physical weaknesses, but their psychological ones as well, making them not only reflective of the World’s Greatest Detective, but more compelling for the audience as well. Our heroes find clever solutions to the physical problems, whether it’s running through an iceberg or brandishing a kryptonite-powered surgical laser, but also to the psychological issues, with Hal harnessing his ring-powering will over his Scarecrow toxin-addled fears.

Granted, the Legion of Doom (outside of Vandal Savage) seem pretty dumb once they’ve put these methods into play. Not a one of them sticks around to make sure that their targets are truly dead, and while that’s probably necessary for the plot to work, it’s always a weakness if your story requires the bad guys to act like blasé Bond Villains in order for everything to go off the way it should.

Still, what follows is roundly exciting, with the six Justice League heroes, plus soon-to-be-inducted Cyborg fighting off Savage’s crew and working together to stop his solar flare from reaching Earth. The solution requires turning the whole planet intangible, working nicely with the setup and payoff from the Royal Flush Gang using similar technology on a smaller scale in the opening action sequence.

More to the point, both before and after the day is saved, the team grapples with how to deal with the fact that Batman had planned out methods to neutralize all of them, something they view as a breach of trust. Batman offers no apologies, acknowledging that his colleagues have powers that require a safety net should things go wrong, and that he views the League as a backstop in case he himself loses his center. At times, that thematic heft feels a little tacked on, but it’s part and parcel with McDuffie’s exploration of power and interpersonal trust in Justice League Unlimited.

Justice League: Doom doesn’t fit neatly with those sterling past efforts. Differences in line-ups and art style are too stark, and the character histories and relationships don’t fully line up. Nonetheless, more than its predecessor, this movie works as a worthy spiritual cousin to one of the best and most ambitious projects in all of animation. With McDuffie, the returning voice cast, and other behind-the-scenes creatives on board, the film plays almost like a lost, funhouse mirror episode of the series from which it takes its cues. That’s not a bad thing and, in fact, makes Doom one of DC’s better DTV animated features.

With 2015 targeted as the release year for DC's theatrical film version of the Justice League, there is plenty of time between then and now to drum up support for the film and raise consumer awareness of exactly what and who constitutes the Justice League. The 2012 release of the animated film Justice League: Doomsday is a step in the right direction. While definitely not the right film to show someone who is not already familiar with the main characters, e.g., Batman, Superman, Green lantern, this is an excellent introduction for those only familiar with the characters from their respective films and/or individual cartoon shows. It is not an origin, meaning there is in fact rather little exposition set-up at the beginning, but instead an example of the type of solid story which can be told involving all of these characters. It involves a mysterious wealthy man gathering together the super-villains specific to each member of the Justice League, and then providing them with a divide and conquer scheme in which each hero is taken out in an incredibly well-planned way. This is because the plans have been stolen from Batman, who had concocted emergency scenarios for how to neutralize each member of the justice League should they ever turn to evil. The manner in which the film depicts each hero encountering their own trap is masterfully done, with the cross-cutting from hero to one another emphasizing how all of this is supposed to be happening at roughly the same time. Unfortunately, after a nearly flawless first half the film does lose some of its momentum and the resolution it reaches with its primary antagonist, the mysterious Randall Savage, feels somewhat rushed. However, overall it is an incredibly enjoyable viewing experience, though, again, not likely so for those unfamiliar with the characters as the film makes no effort to explain the backstories of anyone other than the primary villain. The film is complimented by incredibly stellar voice over work, with so many voice over performers from prior DC Animated Universe television shows that this almost feels like it could fit in chronologically between the justice league and Justice League Unlimited TV shows. The main differences being Nathan Fill ion as the Hal Jordan Green Lantern and Tim Daly as Superman, although both have voiced the characters before just not on the justice league animated series. Deserving special mention is Kevin Conroy's work as Batman, which is good as always but especially so here given how much heavy lifting Batman has to do within the plot since the tools used to fight his friend were actually of his own creation. The final scene involving the Justice League features some especially stellar vocal work from Conroy. The DC Animated movies are very hit-and-miss and can thus be viewed collectively as a mixed bag. However, this one is a definite hit, and is among my favorites from the group. This film was recently added to Netflix Instant Streaming.