Justice League: New Frontier DVD Review- 99% Spoiler Free!

When it comes to film adaptations, live action or animated, there are two terms that are usually thrown into the marketing; based on and inspired by. These are two very distinct terms. If you see inspired by you can almost guarantee that what you are about to watch is going to be an adaptation in the loosest sense of the term. It may have the same basic story but other than that it might as well have been an original story. Based on, however, is different. If the words based on pop up, though, things are a little more certain. It might not be the most faithful adaptation but it will share enough that if you are a purist for the source material things are going to turn out just fine.

Superman: Doomsday, released back in September was inspired by the original death and return storyline that appeared in the comics. It was good and I enjoyed it but you can’t really call it faithful. What the original and the animated film had in common was that Superman was killed by Doomsday and then came back and that was pretty much it.

Justice League: New Frontier was different. This was a full on, four alarm “based on” movie and as much as I enjoyed Superman: Doomsday this really should have been DC’s initial animated offering.

I was and still am a huge fan of Darwyn Cooke’s DC: New Frontier. Despite being referred to as a graphic novel in the opening credits this series was originally published in seven parts over the course of 2004 and at the time I was kind of down on most of what I was reading comic book wise. DC: New Frontier was an exception. I absolutely loved this series from start to finish. It was a rare example of a book being introspective while still telling a larger overall story. On the surface it was the tale of how the Justice League of America formed. Underneath it was an examination of America during the late fifties and very early sixties and showed why these characters were heroes long before they banded together to be all chummy and hang out in a cave.

The animated film captured both of those feelings and did it well. As with any adaptations certain changes were made and on the whole I was pretty much with all of them because the emotional core of the story was still there. The writers, producers and director had a set amount of time to tell a story that originally spanned seven oversized issues. It’s not that they couldn’t have done a direct panel for panel adaptation and I have a feeling I would have enjoyed that but for a mass market release certain scenes were cut to get right into the heart of the plot. Because of this the film had a solid pace with all of the bases still being covered. Like the original series the story of the film was a mystery of what the Centre is and how these heroes managed to come together in a time when their predecessors had been driven into retirement, but underneath it all it was a story about standing up for what you believe in and realizing that mistakes were made and needed to be fixed. They even managed to include a lot of the imagery from the original comics and I especially liked how they worked the covers and even bits of story into the opening credits.

So while I would have liked to have seen certain sequences I didn’t have too much of a problem with what they cut out. The whole Dinosaur Island sequence would have been great to see animated but I think it might have slowed the pace of the film. The intro they went with worked out fine and served to show that while this might look a lot like the Bruce Timm animated efforts of the past it was a different ballgame. It was such a strong opening too. Another sequence that was taken out that I would have loved to see was the John Wilson sub-plot from the original series, but again while it was great for the comic the movie had a definite rhythm and showing those scenes as they happened would have slowed the movie down and I was more than satisfied with where they managed to fit that character into the film.

The changes they made to some of the sequences worked out as well. A scene between Superman and Wonder Woman, for example, was changed to have a similar conversation occur between Superman and Lois Lane. In the comic the scene worked because certain events (and an issue or two I believe) had played out to make the similar tone that the two conversations had work, but those events weren’t in the film, so if it had played out like it did in the comic it wouldn’t have made much sense and seemed repetitive. Plus, it strengthened Superman and Lois’ relationship and gave another scene towards the end of the film more emotional weight. They also changed something involving King Faraday and the Martian Manhunter during the third act of the movie and in this case I think the movie improved upon the original. There was only one scene, the one towards the end where Superman rallies the troops, that I thought was done better in the comics, but that had more to do with the way I had originally read that scene more than anything else.

The cast was perfect. There’s no other way to say it. All of the choices that Andrea Romano and the producers and director made were spot on. Kyle MacLachlan gave this Superman the conviction and experience the character needed. David Boreanaz had the right attitude for Hal Jordan. I think it goes without saying that Lucy Lawless was born to play Wonder Woman but I’ll do so anyway. Jeremy Sisto was extremely impressive as Batman, on par I would say with Kevin Conroy. Miguel Ferrrer was equally as excellent as the Martian Manhunter and I was very amused with the scenes between J’onn J’onnz and King Faraday since Faraday was voiced by the extremely talented Phil Morris, who plays the Martian Manhunter on Smallville. Neil Patrick Harris brought an exuberant quality to Barry Allen and the Flash that made the character extremely likable.

From beginning to end this film was everything I had wanted and more. It was exciting, had some fantastic action sequences and, more importantly, captured the heart of the original comic series that made me such a fan. If this was the last animated film that DC and Warner Brothers produced then they would definitely be going out on a high note. If you were a fan of the original comics then you owe it to yourself to pick this DVD up. Even if you haven’t read the original (and you should in my opinion) then I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable the movie is.

The DVD comes in two flavors; regular and two-disc special edition. If you just want the movie and are not all that interested in special features then the standard edition will be enough for you. It has a very well done Justice League featurette and two commentaries. The two-disc special edition has all of that on the first disc in addition to a second disc that has even more featurettes and several episodes of Justice League Unlimited as well that tie thematically to New Frontier. For the five extra bucks I think the two-disc set is definitely the one you should get, but that's just me.