Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox is an interesting paradox of its own. For those unaware, this is DC’s animated version of the massive event series in 2011 that altered the DC Universe forever. The entirety of the “New 52” was based on the Flashpoint event book, and now we get the movie version. Centering around the Flash, Flashpoint shows what happens when Barry Allen can’t let go of the past, and the detrimental effect one brief moment in time can have.
Barry Allen, superhero, Justice League member, and all around great guy, can’t shake the demons of his mother’s murder. Through a complex series of events, Barry attempts to change the past, and wakes up in a horrible future. Aquaman and Wonder Woman are at war, with humanity paying the price. Superman is nowhere to be found. There are no super teams, and Batman is a whole other degree of twisted. Even Barry is different, as his Flash powers are gone. As the war between Aquaman and Wonder Woman reaches critical mass, Allen attempts to discover a way to regain his powers, find out how he changed the past, and correct his mistake.
So, back to my paradox. The first side, is that Flashpoint Paradox excels as a story and a script. The second side? It utterly fails in the animation department. Outside of Justice League New Frontier, Flashpoint Paradox could be the best Justice League movie that DC Animated has produced. Writer Jim Krieg is not interested in making a kids cartoon. Flashpoint is dark, violent, and sometimes bloody. At no point does the script allow for Aquaman or Wonder Woman to be anything but egotistical and awful. You don’t like them, which I found helped the gravitas of the story.
The Batman of Flashpoint Paradox is another dark story. Driven to be a vigilante by the death of his son Bruce by a mugger in Crime Alley, Wayne’s biggest nemesis is his wife Martha Wayne, who snapped after her son’s death and became the Joker. As dark as these stories are, Krieg streamlines them in a way the actual comic series could have used. Implying the fallout of Bruce’s death works a lot more than a three issue series showing them. Granted, I loved the series, but it’s more powerful left to the imagination.
Krieg does a bang up job of streamlining all the bloated bulk of the comic series into a wonderful script. If Flashpoint had been more like this in the comics, it might not have been met with such bitterness. Krieg manages to include Lois Lane, the resistance, Lex Luthor, Deathstroke, Superman, and all the key elements of the series, but without allowing them to take away from the main storyline. There are a few wrinkles, like the unnecessary time spent with Hal Jordan. As much as I enjoy Nathan Fillion from Castle and Firefly, the whole Jordan angle was a waste of time.
Outside of Fillion, everybody does well with their voices. Justin Chambers is a decent Flash, as his voice is nondescript and sounds like an every-man. Kevin McKidd is awesome as Flashpoint Batman, as is C. Thomas Howell as Reverse Flash. Cary Elwes gives a nice sense of royal craziness to Aquaman, and Vanessa Marshall makes a cold, bitchy Wonder Woman. There are a surprising amount of names in this movie, given how few lines they have. Ron Pearlman as Deathstroke, Dana Delany as Lois Lane, Danny Huston as General Lane. Even Kevin Conroy and Sam Daly reprise their respective Batman and Superman roles, though for only a few minutes of airtime.
Okay, the flipside of the paradox. As wonderful a film as Flashpoint Paradox is, the animation is dreadful. Everybody in this story has a giant body and a tiny head. It’s like a Rob Liefeld wet dream. Flash has no description to him, he’s flat. Flashpoint Batman looks okay, outside of his giant body, and the fact that his face always looks dirty. I get that it’s supposed to be five o’clock shadow, but it looks more like he needs to wash. Aquaman is one of the worst. His head literally looks like a big mountain. At times, he resembles a roided-out version of Brock Samson from The Venture Brothers.
The action is decent and brutal. DC’s animators left in the blood, pain and decimation that war can bring. One particularly effective scene is when Wonder Woman kills Steve Trevor. It’s unnerving. However, any kudos handed out for the action are surpassed by how goofy the characters look. I’ve never been a fan of the anime-meets-American-computer-animation that DC uses in every movie, but this is worse.
If you can overlook the overblown animation, Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox is one of the best films DC Animated has produced so far. I liked it more than I did the comic book series.
(5 Story, 2.5 Animation)
(For the first opinion on Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, read Blair Marnell’s review here)
