Justice League: New Frontier

this sprawling story being compressed into a 75 minute movie (apparently 75 is the new 90 minutes, but that's another rant). I bet I'd like the book better, but characterizations were awfully rushed, and the climax was pretty much the definition of "ridiculous". Character-wise, my main complaint is with Hal Jordan, who is really not made to look heroic at all. I guess he's willing to send a payload of every weapon known to man crashing into earth to save his own bacon. Later he practically brags about this -- all that "I will kill to survive" stuff. Still, the movie expects us to believe that those are the experiences that made the previous Lantern choose him. All this with a phoned-in performance by David Boreanaz, who I normally think is great.

The buildup about the Center was great... I really liked where it was heading with all the creepy mind-control / cult / suicide stuff, and then it was revealed to be... um... a floaty island .... covered in dinosaurs and tentacles and filled with creamy 2001 acid-trip goodness. I really don't know what to say. T-rexes and pterodactyls started exploding out of the thing. At one point, seriously, a dead dinosaur exploded into dozens of smaller dinosaurs. I was embarrassed to be sitting there.

A lot of other gripes are certainly due to the runtime. Batman (who is awesome but hardly present) pulls a shrink ray subplot out of thin air to save the day. Aquaman shows up at the end for no good reason other than to toss Superman's soggy butt out of his ship. Oh yeah, the undeveloped, unnecessary "superman died" bit. Then there's green arrow, aka "sir not appearing in this film" in the background. The mccarthyism subplot, while interesting, is not developed either.

And I loved the intro art. it's beautiful, and I'd love to see a whole movie in that style (is the book like that)? After that I was pretty disappointed in the style, which contained a lot of awkward poses and animations that remind me of those surreal edits of GI Joe cartoons.

this sprawling story being compressed into a 75 minute movie (apparently 75 is the new 90 minutes, but that's another rant). I bet I'd like the book better, but characterizations were awfully rushed, and the climax was pretty much the definition of "ridiculous". Character-wise, my main complaint is with Hal Jordan, who is really not made to look heroic at all. I guess he's willing to send a payload of every weapon known to man crashing into earth to save his own bacon. Later he practically brags about this -- all that "I will kill to survive" stuff. Still, the movie expects us to believe that those are the experiences that made the previous Lantern choose him. All this with a phoned-in performance by David Boreanaz, who I normally think is great.

The buildup about the Center was great... I really liked where it was heading with all the creepy mind-control / cult / suicide stuff, and then it was revealed to be... um... a floaty island .... covered in dinosaurs and tentacles and filled with creamy 2001 acid-trip goodness. I really don't know what to say. T-rexes and pterodactyls started exploding out of the thing. At one point, seriously, a dead dinosaur exploded into dozens of smaller dinosaurs. I was embarrassed to be sitting there.

A lot of other gripes are certainly due to the runtime. Batman (who is awesome but hardly present) pulls a shrink ray subplot out of thin air to save the day. Aquaman shows up at the end for no good reason other than to toss Superman's soggy butt out of his ship. Oh yeah, the undeveloped, unnecessary "superman died" bit. Then there's green arrow, aka "sir not appearing in this film" in the background. The mccarthyism subplot, while interesting, is not developed either.

And I loved the intro art. it's beautiful, and I'd love to see a whole movie in that style (is the book like that)? After that I was pretty disappointed in the style, which contained a lot of awkward poses and animations that remind me of those surreal edits of GI Joe cartoons.

I am going to preface this with saying, I think this movie is made for the comic geek, as an apology for the Superman-Doomsday movie.

I think Hal was shown as more of a hero then you give him credit for. He does not belief in taking a life intentionally, until his life is directly threatened. That is why he breaks after the issue in Korea. As for landing the ship, he is a man of great willpower, and little fear. He truly believed he could land the ship intact. Rick Flagg's perspective is different, A) because he was part of the suicide squad in WW2 and B) his son was one of the people threatened so he is willing to sacrifice himself. It is a different in perspective, not in either's ability to act heroicly. Also, Hal has to justify why he is willing to kill the Center, to demonstrate that his respect for life and his desire to survive does not end with humans, but with any life form. The only time he is willing to kill, is when it is unavoidable.

As for the shrink ray subplot, it is hinted at, but you have to pay close attention. Ray Palmer is seen in the microfiche that Batman is looking at when Martian Manhunter visits him in the cave. Ray Palmer is the Atom who uses shrinking as his power and the article seems to be about how he is developing that technology (pre-costumed hero days).

The Superman dying part, that is important, because humanity and the superhero community have grown to rely on Superman. The movie demonstrates this with the loyalty oath, superman being called in to save the ship, and superman going off to discover the secret that we will use to defeat the Center. Once Superman is "killed', it is human beings (and Jonn who is very human like) left to defeat the center as a group. Rely on our own unique gifts, and not a walking tank that will always be there to save us.

As for the Green Arrow, Adam Strange, Challengers of the Unknown ( The four in the purple jumpsuits -- Hal Jordan's friend Ace is one of them), Wildcat (seen during the Flash/Las Vegas scene) The BlackHawks, Dr. Magnus and Aquaman. You get no background on them, they may as well be part of the scenery.

Also why did Hourman die, was his hour up? (pun intended) But this ties in with more of the McCarthyism subplot, which I agree I wanted more of.

I think it would have been nice (and I am hoping the bonus features) will answer some of these questions for people. I am assuming the three JLU episodes included on the 2 disk sets, are the BlackHawks episode, the Rick Flagg Episode, and the first JLU episode, but that is me guessing.