By Will Barber – Taylor

The world is under attack by an alien armada led by the powerful Apokoliptian, Darkseid. A group of superheroes consisting of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Green Lantern, Cyborg and Captain Marvel must set aside their differences and gather together to defend Earth.

Justice League War is the first time DC media have done a film based on the New 52 reboot of the DC Comic Universe. Chronicling the story of how the Justice League was formed during a battle against Darkseid, the film is very true to the comics. It has a lot of over blown action, well placed humour and bizarre ideas that the New 52 comics contain.

The story begins with Green Lantern visiting Gotham after hearing reports about strange creatures kidnapping people. Finding one of the creatures, Green Lantern rescues a woman before coming into contact with the supposed urban myth, Batman.  The two join forces and go off to hunt for more of the creatures. As the film progresses we get introduced to the various superheroes that will set up the Justice League. All seem to be coming into contact with strange boxes that the mystery creatures are leaving behind. Half way through the film we are introduced to the villain, Darkseid (in the version played by Dr Claw from Inspector Gadget.

He wants to travel to Earth and take over. He seems particularly keen on acquiring the Man of Steel himself, Superman, so that he can turn him into a Super Hell Spawn meaning Darksied can take over other worlds easier. Why exactly Darksied has gone to all this trouble to just acquire Superman (whom he seems to know rather a lot about) is anyone’s guess. When Darksied finally arrives he easily captures Superman and sends him back to his home planet Apokolis. Instead of supervising his most vital acquisition, Darksied decides to spend time on Earth just blowing stuff up with his laser vision for no other obvious reason than he just enjoys it. This seems rather stupid as, due to this the Justice League is able to regroup, smuggle Batman onto Apokolis, free Superman and win the day. As you can tell, the plot isn’t watertight.

The acting in the film is generally good though the two stand out performances are Jason O’Mara as Batman and Justin Kirk as Green Lantern. Both actors make the character seem more rounded and likeable than the rest of the cast and manage to bounce off each other brilliantly. As evidence by the mid credits teaser scene for the next Justice League film (something to do with Aquaman’s nasty brother deciding we land lubbers should all die) we will be seeing more New 52 content. If so, then I hope the people behind it decided to let O’Mara and Kirk reprise their roles as they are the two best things about this movie.

The animation and drawing are pretty good, though Superman appears in some shots to be a rather fat boy sucking on a hard boiled sweet rather than a super powerful “supposedly” handsome alien. The animation is pretty good, particularly the drawings of Batman and Wonder Woman which seem to fairly match their comic counterparts (with the exception of Wonder Woman’s costume redesign).

All in all, Justice League: War is a pretty nice like animated picture. Nothing spectacular but nothing awful, it is a satisfying story with some nice gags, lots of action and a tone of adventure.