DC has had a pretty good track record for dvd films. Crisis on Two Earths, Apocalypse, Public Enemies, and Doomsday were excellent! Wonder Woman, JL Doom, Batman Under The Red Hood and the two GL movies were pretty solid as well. Some films may have been a little weak (Year 1, Gotham Knights, Dark Knight Returns…basically the Batman films) but even the weak ones were still decent. This is a Justice League film so the expectations are pretty high…right?

This movie is based off of the Flashpoint event that happened in DC a while ago. Unfortunately, I’d say that it was easily the worst big DC event of all time. So, I actually didn’t go into the film with high hopes and it looks like I made the right move. One happy thing for fans is that Barry finally got his own film…only it doesn’t feel like a Flash film. It’s still Justice League in the end.

The film starts out with the Flash remembering his childhood. Unfortunately, he came home one day to find out that his mother had been attacked by some villains. Unfortunately, no heroes had been around and the villains got away. Barry realized that if he had just been a little faster, he could have saved her. The we cut to the present, where The Flash is attacked by many of his old foes. Mirror Master, Captain Cold, the whole gang is here! Even the Reverse Flash/Zoom. Flash quickly calls the Justice League and things come to an end very quickly. If the rest of the film had stuck to this format, it would have been the usual solid JLA film. Unfortunately, this is where the film goes downhill.

Reality has changed when Flash wakes up. Things have drastically changed, so something major must have happened. Metropolis was hit with a large explosion and Thomas Wayne was slightly quicker than his real version counterpart. Going into a new reality is always an interesting concept, but it isn’t handled very well. The Flash loses his powers, so he can’t use them to their fullest. Someone must have messed with time itself!

In this gritty world, the heroes are mostly not heroes anymore. (How they survived the Doomsday encounter we’ll never know! Maybe he just didn’t show up) Hal never got the GL Power Ring and Captain Atom vanished. Batman is pretty different and he doesn’t mind using guns in this version. Wonder Woman and Aquaman are also having a quarrel, which involved the fate of Earth. The government gets Slade and Luthor to help gather intel, while the remaining heroes have formed a resistance. They want to defeat both Wonder Woman and Aquaman.

Well, the animation is pretty solid. It does feel more like an anime which is definitely a plus. The night scenes have the most impact, but particularly the early ones. Cyborg’s usual blue blast is now a neon pink and it definitely seems to be more intense. Unfortunately, it does little to no damage, making Cyborg a pretty big non factor. (Like usual) Of course, he did figure out that Batman is the best tactician on the planet…somehow. (Beating up those crooks does earn you a good rep)

Unfortunately, the character designs are pretty awful. Everyone looks pretty off model in the Flashpoint world and even a couple of them in the real world. (Yes, they’re the same world, but they’re so different, that I may as well switch that) Superman is just….weird. His head is so small compared to his huge body. You would almost think that it was a parody. Batman (Pre Flashpoint), Green Lantern, and Wonder Woman seem to be accurate for the most part.

The fight scenes are an interesting thing. The first fight scene between Post Flashpoint Batman and the new Harley Quinn is pretty good. I’d say that it was probably the best fight scene in the film…which is part of the problem. When it all comes down to it, where were the fight scenes? Flash has a brief fight at the end, but it’s not much of a fight, since they barely exchange blows. Wonder Woman and Aquaman have a brief skirmish, but it is very brief. Some fighters attack both of them, but we don’t get to see the fights for long and they just weren’t handled in a very epic way.

I noticed that many people were talking about the controversial Wonder Woman vs Captain Thunder climax. It isn’t very violent, but I suppose the concept is a touchy subject for many. If you are of the opinion that children shouldn’t be used in fights (Like how I think animals shouldn’t get involved) you may want to skip the scene towards the end. You’ll know that it’s coming when WW’s battle against Captain Thunder is concluding.

The film is about average length for the DC films. (Little over an hour) There’s not a large amount of time to show things off, but it never got to be very rushed. The cast isn’t very likable, but it happens. I liked the real JLA and the new Batman was pretty good. Deathstroke was a pretty interesting character as well. The rest of the characters were either all right, or just pretty uninteresting. While this film definitely didn’t satisfy the JLA in me, but it is still a good film. The moral is also very off putting. By the end, we’re told that you shouldn’t mess with time, because things just happen. I definitely didn’t agree with that one. Someone messes with time, but it’s for the right reasons (Unlike AoU) and the time traveler is pressured into restoring time to how it was. The Flashpoint Universe is messed up, but time travel could fix that as well. Hopefully the time traveller will make the right move!

I’d recommend watching the film, but beware that things do get a little intense. This is based off of the gritty comic after all, but if you could endure Dark Knight Returns Part 2, then you should be okay. I came down pretty hard on this film, but that’s because JLA always has pretty high standards. Just wait until I review the upcoming live action film! I do recommend this film to comic book fans. After all, they would appreciate the cameos a lot more. Plenty of heroes get to appear for a brief amount of time, but they are nice easter eggs for the fans. If you are new to the world of heroes, check out Crisis on Two Earths!

Overall 6/10