a5c7b9f00b Adapting the award-winning DC Comics miniseries DC: THE NEW FRONTIER by Darwyn Cooke, Justice League: The New Frontier spins a tale of the DC Universe in the 1950s, focusing on test pilot Hal Jordan (Green Lantern) and the Martian Manhunter. The story also features other DC characters, including Barry Allen (the Flash), Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman, and many more. In the 1950s, a new generation of superheroes must join forces with the community's active veterans and a hostile US government to fight a menace to Earth. After enjoying years of Batman: TAS, the Superman series, and then the stellar JLA and JLU shows, I had high hopes for this video. Alas, the animation and character styling was crude, and the HORRIBLE VOICE ACTING killed it.<br/><br/>The hoopla surrounding the PG-13 rating has to do with the bloodshed and downright gross, disgusting display of savagery, plus some severely stiff delivery of swearing peppered throughout. The famous actors they got for the parts didn't telephone their performances in, they text-messaged them.<br/><br/>No, I did not like this video. And honestly, I can't understand why New Frontier turned out so bad -- the same winning team on Superman: Doomsday were at the helm.<br/><br/>What went wrong? Boy, I sure hope Target will exchange this turkey... Do you want to see backstory and irrelevant side-story for the majority of the movie that fails to bring any of that together by the end? JL: New Frontier is for you! (I'll try to keep spoilers separate, and at the end.)<br/><br/>The movie brings us back to an age of post Vietnam war in the 1950's. The Justice League isn't a thing yet, but all of our heroes are there. Well almost. The movie follows all the characters independently, giving them full stories, and backgrounds. The camera focuses an unusual amount of time on Hal Jordan, which isn't the Green Lantern (yet) as he's recruited to be in some top secret testing program. We skip around between him, and the Martian (John) a fair bit more than anyone else. Superman, Batman, the Flash, Wonder Woman- they all get minimal screen time compared to Hal and John.<br/><br/>Early on we're given a creepy introduction on what to expect; The "Center" is coming to wipe out all of Humanity. Some of our heroes are investigating its coming as cults devoted to this dark god begin to spring up all over the world. <br/><br/>Ultimately JL: New Frontier tries to jam in to much content to quickly, and resolves the end plot with the finesse of a young teenage boy. Many of our heroes do come through the plot with a kill-count, and there's far more blood than expected. The final climax of the movie expects the viewer to be totally on board with its plot, but the rest of the movie fails to do anything to get you the viewer there. <br/><br/>The themes are also something that never hold up. There's some theme of the coming end, but then it's a theme on putting aside differences to stand together, then there's a theme of a better tomorrow. It's a jumbled mess by the end. By the end, there's characters and faces that never had screen time prior, and someone not familiar with the comics in general would have no idea what to make of.<br/><br/>The one enjoyable aspect is the focus on John the Martian as he investigates the cult of the Center as a detective. The movie could have just been that, and had been totally watchable.<br/><br/>I would just avoid this movie. It's to childish for adults, and it's to adult for children. It tries to cram to much into a tiny package, and just fails to deliver. There's to little of its redeeming qualities to make it worth anything of anyones time.<br/><br/>*** SPOILER SECTION *** *** SPOILER SECTION *** <br/><br/>(This starts with weak spoilers and builds to the big spoilers. No accidental ruining for people!)<br/><br/>Here's some things that come up and make me immediately face palm.<br/><br/>Hal Jordan is apparently a pacifist, but we don't learn about that until the beginning of the final climax. Was I supposed to know that before hand? The assumption is of course that I'm familiar with the comic books.<br/><br/>Hal is suffering from some form of PTSD for having killed someone in the War. That is preventing him from advancing to realize his dream of becoming an astronaut. Except Secret-Government-Organization totally wants him, and he's amazing, and totally not suffering from PTSD.<br/><br/>Secret-Government-Organization starts off as very gun-ho with plans to attack Mars with the very greatest of America's weapons. They're painted as almost bad guys, but suddenly become man-kinds best hope by the end. And it is sudden.<br/><br/>The Center... throughout the movie is portrayed as some kind of god that can take over peoples thoughts and actions. It is interesting at first, especially as it randomly speaks to some of the Heroes at times. But by the end, the Center is nothing more than a flying island with tentacles, and "energy blasts." It's world ending payload? Dinosaurs. By the end of the movie, mankind has to fight off... Dinosaurs. <br/><br/>And the Heroes of the movie do JUST that! The kill the ever-loving daylights out of these creatures! But it would seem that death is just the beginning of the end, as smaller, other dinosaurs spring to life from the carcass of the fallen dinos!<br/><br/>And the best of the worst was the death of the man that ran Secret-Government-Organization, as he's accidentally elbowed in the face by John, torn away from Dinosaur tentacles, and self destructs with a pair of grenades inside the maw of a T-Rex, blowing its head to smithereens.<br/><br/>*** END SPOILERS *** JUSTICE LEAGUE: THE NEW FRONTIER DVD EXTRAS:<br/><br/>* Super Heroes United!: The Complete Justice League History: The documentary is a comprehensive 47-year Justice League chronology from the inception in the comics to vivid animated renditions. The story is told with a myriad of interviews tracing back the early days of DC Super Hero team ups during the Golden Age, to the Silver Age rendition where the established heroes emerged and beyond. Interviews include Paul Levitz, Dan DiDio, Gregory Noveck, Mark Waid, Mike Friedrich, Denny O'Neil, Mike Carlin,<br/><br/>* Sneak Peak: Batman: Gotham Knight: One part anime, one part Caped Crusader, the result is a glimpse at the world of Eastern anime sensibilities combined with a Western tradition of Batman. A detailed look at the world of Warner Bros Animation, and how they joined forces with the renowned Japanese animators to create the highly anticipated anime film of 2008.<br/><br/>* Audio Commentary I: Featuring the filmmakers of New Frontier.<br/><br/>* Audio Commentary II: Featuring Darwyn Cooke.<br/><br/>* Widescreen (1.78:1)<br/><br/>*5.1 Dolby Digital<br/><br/>The 2 disc Special Edition DVD will feature more extras including:<br/><br/>* The Legion of Doom: The Pathology of the Super Villain: This documentary will examine the early mythological archetypes of nemesis characters from a historical perspective, and see how the tenants of this rich history were adapted and woven into the Justice League stories. The bonus feature includes many of the talent included in Super Heroes United! As well as Jim Kreuger (writer of Justice).<br/><br/>* Comic Book Commentary: Homage to the New Frontier: This documentary is a nod to the fans of the New Frontier comic book. This featurette further expands the themes contained in the source material, and how these elements were truncated or evolved for the inclusion in the film. Featuring vivid imagery culled from the pages of the New Frontier comic, mixed with the commentary of writer and artist Darwyn Cooke, this featurette is a treat for both fans and scholars of the medium.<br/><br/>* Justice League Unlimited Bonus Episodes: Bruce Timm selects three of his favorite episodes from the Justice League Unlimited animated series:<br/><br/>1. "Dark Heart" -- Alien invaders attempt to thwart the Justice League. The fate of the world rests on the shoulders of Ray Palmer, AKA The Atom.<br/><br/>2. "To Another Shore" - Wonder Woman learns of a plot to steal the powers of the 3,000 year-old corpse of The Viking Prince. It is up to the Justice League to make things right.<br/><br/>3. "Task Force X" - Four incarcerated villains are released from prison by Cadmus to undertake an impossible mission: steal a powerful mystic artifact from the JLU Watchtower under the noses of the League.
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