The 49ers Hit the Coast

Justice League: The New Frontier (2008)
directed by Dave Bullock
rating: 2 out of 5 cravats
on DVD from Netflix

A superhero movie about American ideals that cuts its final montage whole cloth from a speech by JFK asking for the help of the "young at heart" is nicely specific as a contrast to the same film's anonymous, meddling government space agencies. But as a comic book reader, I have no particular desire to see my fictional favorites situated in a real history, anymore than I've ever wanted Gotham to be synonymous with New York City. Let it be a fantasy, so inherently well-suited to flights of invention, because a Justice League movie should be more than an origin story where each member is allotted a moment of bravery, a moment of honesty, a moment of comedy, and a moment of violence. Batman gets a great line - Batman always fares best in these Warner cartoons - and because it's the sort of line that can justify a whole evening in front of the TV, it's easy to miss that recaps and great voicework aren't enough on their own.