What The Hell Is Up With Justice League: War?

In one scene in Justice League: War, Wonder Woman, new to the ways of the world outside Themyscira, meets a young girl. The girl takes Wonder Woman to a man selling ice cream, and our super-powered heroine  gets herself a cone. She takes one taste and she is enthralled. She takes out her sword, raises it into the air, and exclaims: “Ice cream is WONDERFUL!”

That’s the sort of movie Justice League: War is.

Based on Geoff Johns’ and Jim Lee‘s Justice League: Origin, War tells the story of how the Justice League formed in the rebooted New 52 universe. Younger and cockier versions of our favorite superheroes bicker and argue with each other as monsters fall out of a sky – this feels like DC’s answer to The Avengers more than anything. You might be aware that I do not approve of DC’s New 52 initiative at all. I do not hate reboots  – Crisis on Infinite Earths was one of the greatest ideas ever – but the way our favorite comic book characters suddenly became cocky and at times not at all heroic and the massive focus on violence for the sake of it instead of developing characters and relationships has turned this loyal DC fanboy off since Flashpoint happened.

Okay, so I decided to approach Justice League: War in the same way I approach Michael Bay movies: turn off my brain and enjoy the action and adolescent jokes. I enjoyed the pacing, the action, and it’s quite funny. Especially the banter between Green Lantern and Batman. But at the back of my head, the thought nagging me is that after DC showed us what they can do with the Justice League animated series, Batman: Year One, The Dark Knight Returns two-parter, and Justice League: The New Frontier, this is the direction they are taking now that Bruce Timm left their animation department? We’ll get loud and dumb movies that do not in any way showcase the storytelling chops we know this studio is capable of?

I do not welcome this brave new world. In the comics, the New 52 has consistently put shock value and violence over storytelling (they have Duela Dent eating Joker’s face for crying out loud) and if this is what we are getting in the future, I’m probably calling it quits with DC.

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Thoughts:

• Superman is a tool.
• Wonder Woman’s voice acting is horrible
• Batman, Flash, and Green Lantern are the only characters who are actually pretty enjoyable.
• Cyborg’s origin: he grabs a dangerous component of alien origin off his dad’s machine and it explodes in his face. What. An. Idiot.
• I want to punch Shazam. Also, how the hell can he say his name without getting struck by lightning?

What are your thoughts on Justice League: War? Tell me about it in the comments!