Saturday, June 19, 2021

My Review of Justice Society: World War II (2021)

 


Written by Jeremy Adams And Meghan Fitzmartin
Directed by Jeff Wamester

Wonder Woman: "War is a place for warriors, not a place for wishes."

Two things that have been getting a noticeable push DC wise in the last year have been both the Justice Society and the Multiverse and this animated movie decided to put both on the table with interesting results.

On one Earth, the Flash (Matt Bomer) finds himself in Metropolis on a date with Iris West (Ashleigh LaTrop), only to get caught up in a battle between Superman (Darren Criss) and Brainiac (Darin De Paul), only for things to get a lot more complicated for the speedster.

Yes, Barry winds up on a different Earth, in the middle of a battle in France, only to learn that he's landed during World War II and the Justice Society whom he's never heard of are trying to stop the Nazis from winning the war.

The group are lead by Wonder Woman (Stana Katic) and although she's initially mistrustful of Barry, it doesn't take too long for him to win her over and it probably helped that they had common ground, especially in terms of affairs of the heart.

With Diana Prince around, handsome Steve Trevor (Chris Diamantopolous) wasn't far behind and neither were his rather soppy proposal attempts either. I won't spoil things except to say what results in Barry and Iris's relationship taking the natural next step doesn't quite pan out for Diana and Steve.

As for the other Society members you've got Jay Garrick (Armen Taylor), Hourman (Matthew Mercer), Hawkman (Omid Abtahi) and Black Canary (Elysia Rotaru) and they're a solid group, though needless to say at least one of them doesn't make it out of the team and adventure alive but don't be surprised if they materialise in a follow up.

Also on the hero roster includes the mysterious 'Shakespeare' who's later revealed to this other Earth's Superman while Aquaman (Liam McIntyre) finds himself under the control of the main villain of the piece and eventually flees in disgrace, so he's a character in need of redemption in a follow up while a rather tortured Doctor Fate (Keith Ferguson) only appears to offer some cryptic clues and then disappear.

There are plenty of cool fight sequences, team dynamic moments (I especially loved the banter with Barry and Jay) and the mystery surrounding the Advisor (Geoffrey Arend) is interesting enough. I think he's possibly Vandal Savage but I could wrong. I assume follow ups will confirm his identity soon enough.

- This movie is clearly in the same universe started in Superman: Man Of Tomorrow and this ended with the Flash and Superman forming a certain league.
- Black Canary has a romance with a Detective Lance whom I'm sure we'll see in another movie.
- Nearly all the main cast in this movie have played other DC characters in other animated movies and live action shows.
- Chronology: World War II for most this movie, present day for the Metropolis scenes.

Justice Society: World War II is extremely enjoyable as a movie. While I'm sure another Justice group will materialise fairly soon in this new animated universe, I wouldn't mind another one for this crew before that happens.

Rating: 8 out of 10

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