The animated movie division of DC Comics under Warner Brothers is back with another great outing in their Justice League series. In this film Aquaman is the center point of the story as we see this new take on Aquaman's rise and becoming a member of The Justice League. The film is fun and just as good as the recent Justice League animated films. After watching this film, I still say The Flashpoint Paradox is better overall, but this is a great addition to the series. This review will not only go over my thoughts on the film, but my breakdown of the special features on the Blu-Ray version of the film. The following is my review for Justice League: Throne of Atlantis.
This new DC animated film was directed by Ethan Spaulding who recently directed two DC animated films in 2014(Son of Batman and Batman: Assault on Arkham). The film was written by Heath Corson(Justice League: War and Batman: Assault on Arkham) and Geoff Johns(Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox and Justice League: War). So Corson and Spaulding have made a great film in the past and their experience together shows off in the final product. The story works amazingly and the rise of Aquaman is a nice story to see here. Since I'm not big into the comics side of things, I cannot comment of previous version of Aquaman's story. Though I really enjoyed what the creators did on this film. They take a great approach and the story should connect well with everyone. The directing is another great area, and an area Spaulding has shown great work in the past. There are several big actions scenes and the animation looks great. The animation is the same as the previous DC animated films, a look I really enjoy. With a great director and great writers this is one fine animated film and one most DC animated movie fans should enjoy.
The lead voice actors are Matt Lanter(Aquaman), Jerry O'Connell(Superman), Jason O'Mara(Batman), Christopher Gorham(The Flash), Shemar Moore(Cyborg), Rosario Dawson(Wonder Woman), Nathan Fillion(Green Lantern), and many other great voice actors like Harry Lennix for example. In my opinion Nathan Fillion steals the show with Green Lantern with some great lines and fun action in the film. Most of these actors have worked previously in a DC animated film, so don't expect any wild changes. Lanter does a great job playing the popular Aquaman and hopefully they bring him back for future Justice League films.
Frederik Wiedmann is the composer of the film and previously scored Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox and Son of Batman, as well as the animated TV show from 2013 called Beware the Batman. Wiedmann delivers a fabulous score on this film. These animated films tend to deliver a great score for most of the films, but after watching this film I really enjoyed it more than recent efforts. His score is deep and leaves a great impression of the viewers after viewing the film, so overall Wiedmann did a fabulous job composing this film.
Now onto the Blu-Ray special features. The Blu-Ray edition offers up four featurettes, one of them being a look at the next DC animated film. Villains of the Deep is the first featurette and runs just over 11 minutes. The second featurette is a behind the scenes look at the process of scoring the film, and it runs at 30 minutes long. The third featurette is the 2014 NY-Comic Con panel about this film, and it runs at just over 26 minutes. The final featurette is the sneak peak of the next DC animated film, Batman vs Robin, and this runs at 10 minutes. The other special features are a look at a bonus scene that was deleted, and this runs at 4 minutes. Finally there are some filler episode from DC animated shows, for example Justice League: Unlimited. These four episodes run at 84 minutes. So in total we are left with more than 4 hours of special features. Even with all that content I'm still disappointment because there was no audio commentary, which is my favorite feature. Even without it some of the featurettes are exciting to watch and gives a good background on the film and its process.
In closing, the film itself is very much a fun film that most DC animated fans should enjoy. The Blu-Ray special features aren't as good as they have been in the past, but it still delivers some interesting looks at the film process.
8/10
This new DC animated film was directed by Ethan Spaulding who recently directed two DC animated films in 2014(Son of Batman and Batman: Assault on Arkham). The film was written by Heath Corson(Justice League: War and Batman: Assault on Arkham) and Geoff Johns(Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox and Justice League: War). So Corson and Spaulding have made a great film in the past and their experience together shows off in the final product. The story works amazingly and the rise of Aquaman is a nice story to see here. Since I'm not big into the comics side of things, I cannot comment of previous version of Aquaman's story. Though I really enjoyed what the creators did on this film. They take a great approach and the story should connect well with everyone. The directing is another great area, and an area Spaulding has shown great work in the past. There are several big actions scenes and the animation looks great. The animation is the same as the previous DC animated films, a look I really enjoy. With a great director and great writers this is one fine animated film and one most DC animated movie fans should enjoy.
The lead voice actors are Matt Lanter(Aquaman), Jerry O'Connell(Superman), Jason O'Mara(Batman), Christopher Gorham(The Flash), Shemar Moore(Cyborg), Rosario Dawson(Wonder Woman), Nathan Fillion(Green Lantern), and many other great voice actors like Harry Lennix for example. In my opinion Nathan Fillion steals the show with Green Lantern with some great lines and fun action in the film. Most of these actors have worked previously in a DC animated film, so don't expect any wild changes. Lanter does a great job playing the popular Aquaman and hopefully they bring him back for future Justice League films.
Frederik Wiedmann is the composer of the film and previously scored Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox and Son of Batman, as well as the animated TV show from 2013 called Beware the Batman. Wiedmann delivers a fabulous score on this film. These animated films tend to deliver a great score for most of the films, but after watching this film I really enjoyed it more than recent efforts. His score is deep and leaves a great impression of the viewers after viewing the film, so overall Wiedmann did a fabulous job composing this film.
Now onto the Blu-Ray special features. The Blu-Ray edition offers up four featurettes, one of them being a look at the next DC animated film. Villains of the Deep is the first featurette and runs just over 11 minutes. The second featurette is a behind the scenes look at the process of scoring the film, and it runs at 30 minutes long. The third featurette is the 2014 NY-Comic Con panel about this film, and it runs at just over 26 minutes. The final featurette is the sneak peak of the next DC animated film, Batman vs Robin, and this runs at 10 minutes. The other special features are a look at a bonus scene that was deleted, and this runs at 4 minutes. Finally there are some filler episode from DC animated shows, for example Justice League: Unlimited. These four episodes run at 84 minutes. So in total we are left with more than 4 hours of special features. Even with all that content I'm still disappointment because there was no audio commentary, which is my favorite feature. Even without it some of the featurettes are exciting to watch and gives a good background on the film and its process.
In closing, the film itself is very much a fun film that most DC animated fans should enjoy. The Blu-Ray special features aren't as good as they have been in the past, but it still delivers some interesting looks at the film process.
8/10