MOVIE REVIEW: Justice League: The new frontier

Justice League: The new frontier is the second in DC's new line original animated movies. I received this as a birthday present in March, and it was one of the first Blu-rays I owned.

Based on Darwyn Cooke's 6 part mini series, TNF, explores the formation of the justice league in the cold war paranoia of the 1950s. It does a great job of evoking the period with the retro character designs and setting. The pacing is fast and the movie is entertaining from beginning to end.

The artwork is clean and simple, but well done. The color work is fantastic and looks amazing on Blu-ray. The actual animation is a mixed bag. The characters look great in motion, but some of the 3d work while cel shaded seamlessly, is animated a little stiff. Explosions and other effects all look great as I have come to expect from DC TV shows in the past.

The story itself is pretty mature, with references to suicide, murder, rape, and a fairly graphic depiction of Hal Jordan killing a man in self defense during the Korean war. I really like the tone of the movie it is adult, but subtle enough that I would let my (mature for his age) 9 year old watch it.

The voice cast is all new which means no Kevin Connroy as Batman. Despite that sad fact, Jeremy Sisto does an admirable job of making the Dark Knight suitably mysterious, cold and calculating. I particularly like the way he delivered this line to the martian manhunter: "I have a $70, 000 sliver of radioactive meteor to stop the one from Metropolis. With you, all I need is a penny for a book of matches."

I am no fan of casting famous actors in animated films, simply because they are famous, but the casting in this movie is pretty brilliant. Neil Patrick Harris as the flash? Lucy Lawless as Wonder Woman? It doesn't get too much better in terms of casting. I was surprised to discover that Kyle Mcglaughlin played superman. He did a really great job of capturing the character as well. The only real weak point was the guy they got to play Hal Jordan. In my opinion he sounded too young.

I consider Justice League: the new frontier to be a must buy for fans of super hero comics, or super hero movies.

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