1 post from 2008

In recent years, I've grown increasingly tired of anime-style cartoon, and I blame the likes of "Pokemon" and other of the ilk.  I miss the good-ole days of superhero cartoons, like "Batman: The Animated Series."  You know - stuff from my childhood.  
This is why Justice League: The New Frontier piqued my interest.  It seemed like a throwback to traditionally-drawn characters without big, exaggerated hair and eyes.  I'm just glad that it was a good movie.

For as short a feature as this was (just under an hour and twenty minutes), it packed in a lot more story than most non-animated, longer movies I've seen lately.  

The story takes place just after the end of the Korean War (or conflict, whatever).  The government is cracking down on superheroes to ditch the costumes, so there's a rift between the public and the heroes (and even between the heroes themselves).  Meanwhile, a fighter pilot named Hal Jordan who saw no action in the war, aside from getting shot down in the final minutes of the war, gets hired by a private company to pilot a spacecraft after being released from a military psych ward.  

Then there's a growing danger called "The Center," a large creature threatening an attack on the planet.  All the side stories of the superheroes mend together, and they have to team up in order to save the planet from complete destruction.

One thing I noticed about the movie is that it is darker than I thought it would be.  It seems the filmmakers took advantage of the direct-to-video format and added a few bloodspatters and whatnot - it wasn't distracting, but it did add some gravity to the story.  

All-in-all, it was a very good movie - I do wish it was longer, because you don't often get something this entertaining from a cartoon.  I definitely recommend it.