A Review for: Justice League - Throne of Atlantis
- Feb 28, 2015
- 3 min read
For a long time, I was really excited for the sequel to last years’ ‘Justice League: War’, which despite the fact that I thought it had some issues, I really enjoyed it. That being said, I was extremely disappointed with ‘Justice League: Throne of Atlantis’. Almost everything in the movie was predictable. From the relationship between Arthur’s (Aquaman) half brother, Orm and mother, Queen Atlanna to (SPOILER ALERT) the inevitable death of his mother at the hands of Orm to the arbitrary cliff hanger at the end of movie which left me very underwhelmed. Furthermore, the villain was very one-dimensional with, may I say it, ‘basic’ villain roles such as the age-old desire for world domination. However despite the predictability of the movie and boring villain, nothing frustrated me more about the movie than two things in particular. One is the fact that they underutilized Black Manta, who is in my opinion one of his most formidable and interesting villains. The movie reduced him to a boring henchman who could have really elevated the movie. Second is the fact that Aquaman was portrayed as the biggest badass of the Justice League. Ok, I get it, the setting is Atlantis and he is technically the protagonist, but in no form whatsoever is Aquaman ever stronger than Superman. In an attempt to make Aquaman a serious, formidable character to oppose his pre-Crisis ridiculed persona, they portrayed his strength at the level of superman which I really hope won’t be translated to the big screen with his first appearance in ‘Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice’. Most importantly, one of his coolest powers, speaking to aquatic life, wasn’t fleshed out enough. We had an idea of it in the beginning with the lobster, but all of a sudden he has mastered it to its fullest extent, and even controls kraken. C’mon!
In general, this movie confirmed my worst fear: that a shared universe (or an attempt at a standard continuity in the animated movies) does not translate nearly as well as on the big screen.
But instead of focusing on that: where is my animated version of New World Order, The Tornado’s Crash or Final Crisis storylines? These iconic storylines are what will elevate DC Comics’ animated sector to greater heights than it already has instead of focusing on continuity.
For a long time, I was really excited for the sequel to last years’ ‘Justice League: War’, which despite the fact that I thought it had some issues, I really enjoyed it. That being said, I was extremely disappointed with ‘Justice League: Throne of Atlantis’. Almost everything in the movie was predictable. From the relationship between Arthur’s (Aquaman) half brother, Orm and mother, Queen Atlanna to (SPOILER ALERT) the inevitable death of his mother at the hands of his brother, to the arbitrary cliff hanger at the end of movie (which left me very underwhelmed). Furthermore, the villain was very one-dimensional with, may I say it, ‘basic’ villain tropes such as the age-old desire for world domination. However despite the predictability of the movie and boring villain, nothing frustrated me more about the movie than two things in particular. One is the fact that they underutilized Black Manta, who is in my opinion one of his most formidable and interesting villains. The movie reduced him to a boring henchman who could have really elevated the movie. Second is the fact that Aquaman was portrayed as the biggest badass of the Justice League. Ok, I get it, the setting is Atlantis and he is technically the protagonist, but in no form whatsoever is Aquaman ever stronger than Superman. In an attempt to make Aquaman a serious, formidable character to oppose his pre-Crisis ridiculed persona, they portrayed his strength at the level of superman which I really hope won’t be translated to the big screen with his first appearance in ‘Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice’. Most importantly, one of his coolest powers, speaking to aquatic life, wasn’t fleshed out enough. We had an idea of it in the beginning with the lobster, but all of a sudden he has mastered it to its fullest extent, and even controls kraken. C’mon!
In general, this movie confirmed my worst fear: that a shared universe (or an attempt at a standard continuity in the animated movies) does not translate nearly as well as on the big screen.
But instead of focusing on that: where is my animated version of New World Order, The Tornado’s Crash or Final Crisis storylines? These iconic storylines are what will elevate DC Comics’ animated sector to greater heights than it already has instead of focusing on continuity.
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