New Frontier now playing
Filed under Reviews on April 15, 2008
Keywords: Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, Justice League, Martian Manhunter, movies, Netflix, superheroes, Superman, Wonder Woman
I’m impressed with Netflix’s Watch Instantly feature. I’ve only watched two movies this way so far, but both times I never experienced the skipping that frequently happens when I view episodes of Lost online (via ABC’s website). Netflix’s displays the movies at near full screen. If I tried the same with Lost, the picture quality degrades drastically.
I had Justice League: The New Frontier in my queue and it was nearing the top. I hadn’t read the graphic novel, but heard good things about the movie. When I checked the queue over the weekend, I noticed JLNF now had the blue “Play” button next to it, signifying it was available to Watch Instantly. Knowing that my wife wouldn’t be interested, I decided to pull it out of the queue and watch it online last night.
JLNF is set during the 1950s, in post-Korean War America. Heroes are viewed with suspicion by the public, and forced to work as government operatives or be branded criminals. The Justice Society of America has disbanded, Superman and Wonder Woman have signed agreements (though Wonder Woman plays loose with the execution of some orders), and Batman is a wanted fugitive. Flash is a new hero on the scene, Martian Manhunter is newly arrived and keeping a low profile, and Hal Jordan doesn’t become Green Lantern until the climatic battle against the Centre.
The JLA was never of much interest to me as a comic book reader. I didn’t start reading comic books until the early 80s, hitting my stride as a collector in 1986, and Superman was the only DC character I followed until Batman’s Knightfall event. I say this to explain my lack of knowledge concerning the events around the forming of the original JLA. Thus, I came to New Frontier with out any continuity/historical baggage. I found the plot solid, with hints at the impending danger of the Centre placed naturally amongst the well-paced tales of the individual heroes and how they dealt with the heavy-handed tactics of the government during the McCarthy era.
While the primary heroes of the JLA (Superman, Wonderwoman, Batman, Flash, Martian Manhunter, and Green Lantern) got fairly equal screen time, the story followed MM and GL as the principal viewpoints. Again, we don’t actually get to see Hal in his GL uniform until the final battle against the Centre.
The character designs reflect the Timm-style that has become synonymous with DC animation (Timm served as executive producer for the film), and the heroes’ costumes hearken back to their 1950s incarnations. I especially liked seeing Batman update his costume partway through the movie.
Like most of the direct-to-DVD animated superhero movies of late, JLNF is not for younger audiences. The opening scene depicts a suicide by gunshot with blood splatter. The actually shot happens off screen, but we are watching from the viewpoint of the character committing suicide, so we see his hand holding the gun and raising it toward what would be his mouth. Another intense scene has Hal fighting with a Korean soldier hand-to-hand. Hal is forced to shoot the soldier in the face to save his own life, and while the actually shooting is done in silhouette, it leaves nothing to the imagination.
Justice League: The New Frontier restored my faith in DC’s animated movies after my disappointment in Superman: Doomsday. I gave JLNF 4 out of 5 stars on Netflix, and would definitely watch it online again.
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