Justice League: Doom

⭐⭐⭐½ based on 1 review.

tl;dr: A solid film with a couple of plot holes. If you're willing to wave these as standard comic book thinking then the remainder is highly enjoyable.

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Review

Spoilers Ahead: My reviews are not spoiler-free. You have been warned.

The world's greatest detective, Batman has devised methods to "deal with" any his fellow superheroes, should they become not so morally bright and shiny. A villain discovers these plans and utilises them to bring the Justice League to its knees. The plot of DOOM has been retold a number of times in the DC universe, but it remains a particularly strong one. Casting Vandal Savage as the villain is a good choice; he is both intelligent and shrewd enough to have uncovered the fail-safes whilst having the backing to enact them. The one issue with the plot involving Savage though is that the stakes need to be extremely high. Savage isn't a normal supervillain, content with bringing low the heroes of the world. He needs more reason and purpose than the likes of Lex Luthor or Captain Cold.

The result is a slightly ridiculous scheme to nuke the sun and cause a huge solar flare, rendering half of the planet uninhabitable. We'll just remove the gaping misuse of science here and explain it away as 'comic book logic' but even still it isn't the most convincing plan. Savage has built an empire on technology, so there doesn't seem to be much of a reason for him to want to revert humanity back to the pre-industrial era. Also, it leaves a couple of issues for one or two of his allies, who are a weirdly chosen bunch. Cheetah, Ma'alefa'ak and Star Sapphire have little to lose (though the latter doesn't normally go in for genocide) but Bane, Mirror Master and particularly Metallo rely on technology for their abilities and continued existence. Disabling it all with a great solar storm would render them pretty much useless, but none of them appear bothered by that trade-off.

On the other end of the scale, we have Savage's meticulous planning, which requires him to remove the Justice League but also to simply forget that there are other superheroes. The JLA at this point is just 6 individuals, whilst we see a couple of others running around and can presuppose that there are dozens more. They may be the best, but simply discounting the likes of Cyborg does feel a little elementary for the greatest conqueror that has ever lived.

Plot aside, however, the film is very well put together. The animation is slick and very well drawn, feeling like a seriously high-end job. Voice work is provided by some of the greats, including a welcome inclusion of Nathan Fillion as Hal Jordan. There is the occasional clunker within the script but largely the dialogue and humour flows well. In short, DOOM is entertaining and well presented, with solid pacing and a decent plot. It's not groundbreaking but definitely enjoyable and, if you're a fan of the Justice League, one of their better feature-length outings to date.

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