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Review of Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox

DC Universe Animated Original Movie:

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Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox

 The latest DCU Animated Original movie has Barry Allen The Flash at the center of the story. Adapting one of the best known comics’ story arcs, the DCUAOM team brings Flashpoint to the catalog of films they’ve created! This will be somewhat of a SPOILER FREE Review. 

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Let me start this review by saying I’ve only heard about the Flashpoint event from DC Comics. I have yet to read it. However the producers behind this ongoing film adaptation series make it feel as if you don’t HAVE to read the comics to know where stuff starts and ends. At first I was really confused watching the film, because the way that the story is told it’s almost events out of time. The story centers around Barry Allen, how he always wants to run fast as a kid. The whole film is woven around the fact that Barry lost his mom when he was a kid.

I’m not to keene on the facial stylings for the characters. This might sound like a huge gripe to most, but it really isn’t. The reason why I hate the facial animation, specifically to Bruce Wayne/Batman is that the animation style doesn’t match the awesomeness of Kevin Conroy’s voicing Batman. This has happened in several other of the DCU Animated films. So I’m over it by now, but I had to point it out. The animation overall is damn good, I love how they distinguish the characters between the timelines, by having either different costumes, or totally different versions of them.

What makes the voice cast so great is that it combines classic DC voices with new ones for characters that aren’t usually in the spotlight. I understand that the majority of the film takes place in the alternate timeline, but I think Conroy’s Batman got shafted on lines. Kevin McKidd from the Percy Jackson films is the voice of Thomas Wayne/Batman, and he does a damn good job voicing the character. Sam Daly, Tim Daly’s son keeps the Superman voice acting in the family. At first I thought it was Tim Daly, but it’s not. I like the fact that they went in this direction. Lois Lane Resistance Fighter, is voiced once again by the lovely Dana Delaney!!! I’ve always been a Wally West Flash Fan, but Justin Chambers does an awesome job as Barry Allen, rounding out the cast are a plethora of extinguished actors. Steve Blum is Lex Luthor, Cary Elwes, Michael B. Jordan, Vanessa Marshall, ron Pearlman, Nathan Fillion, Grey DeLisle Griffin, and Jennifer Hale are all amongst this star studded cast.

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It’s really hard for me to tell you about the plot of the film without spoiling every detail. Let us just say that I found it very interesting and a completely different storyline that the Hero might turn out to be the Villain. I love how in the alternate reality WWIII would be started by the Atlantians vs the Amazons….. That speed force the Flash gets his powers from is one very unique thing. There are several things that I didn’t care for while watching this. First off I never knew that they turned Martha Wayne into The joker. That’s just strange to me, then again has Martha ever really had her story told in the comics?? I mean outside the fact she is Bruce’s mother and she got shot? I understand that the Thomas and Bruce Wayne Batmen are two totally different characters, but yikes I hated seeing Batman kill, and use a gun.

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I DON’T CARE WHAT DIFFERENT VERSION OR UNIVERSE THE CHARACTER OF BATMAN IS IN… HE DOES NOT KILL GODDAMNIT!!!

Overall I enjoyed watching The Flashpoint Paradox, but it’s not a DCUAOM film I’ll go back and watch multiple times. Maybe once every few years if that. The story was damn good, the characters were awesome, the conflict was built up well. The voice acting was top notch, for characters that aren’t normally highlighted in these films. Nathan Fillion has become the quintessential Hal Jordan/Green Lantern for this film series, and I don’t mind that at all. Every time a scene changed I thought the film was over, JL The Flashpoint Paradox just felt like a long film for me. Not long in the meaning of holy crap when is this over, but long in the fact that yikes how much story is there to this film? I get that they had a lot to adapt from, but by the time you get an hour into the film I was like… ok this is the end… no this is… wait what? How long is this film? For the record the running time is 75 minutes, and it felt wayyyyy longer than that. In closing I’m gonna give this film a three and a half outta five stars. I Liked It.

Final Rating: 

RATINGS - 3.5 STAR

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TFG1Mike

TFG1Mike is a geek with many interests. He has been podcasting for over a decade, and sees no stopping point in sight. From Transformers, He-Man, Batman, Comics, movies, video games, cartoons, and so much more, Mike has a zeal for the things he loves, and he will bring the hammer down on the things that he has a disdain for. He's generally a postive person, but negativity can creep in there. Mike is all about the innuendos and innuendon'ts too. You'll hear him on many of The GCRN podcasts!

6 Comments

  1. I liked this a lot more than you, but I am a sucker for
    alternative universe storylines. I do the agree some of the facial designs are
    off putting at times, but once I got use to it I didn’t have a problem. Also
    isn’t the point of doing an alternate storyline to play with the perceived tropes
    of characters. So taking a character like Batman and adjusting his origin and
    his methodology provides more weight to your concept. Giving him guns and
    making him into a Batman/Punisher mashup worked for me, especially when you
    consider it is not the same person. Plus if Batman killing is an issue you may
    not like Dark Knight Returns. :)

    1. I liked TDK Returns Part 1… Rubber Bullets. The thing with this film here is that even though it’s an alternate timeline, they do not directly say that it isn’t Bruce Wayne… hence why my initial reaction to it about Batman killing. I do like alternate timeline stories, but because this centers around Flash… the Barry Allen version… it’s not tops on my list. MY Flash is Wally West.

      All that being said I enjoyed this film for how different it was. But it’s not in my Top 10 of the DC U films… maybe the Top 20.

      1. When you say it wasn’t explicit it wasn’t Bruce do you mean in the trailer or the actual movie? I do agree Flash isn’t the most complex character in the world, but Wally West to me is only good in small doses. Never felt he was ever worthy of his own film. Barry Allen was probably the least interesting aspect of the film. He kind of feels like a more generic Superman with less powers. I’d rather just see a movie that takes place in this world, and get rid of his story line completely.

        1. I mean while watching the film… when the change between worlds happened… they showed a more violnt killer batman… it was not stated that it wasn’t Bruce until later when Barry said ohhh you’re Thomas Wayne…. So looking at it just as hey that’s Batman…. wait Batman doesn’t kill… what the hell is going on here?

          That’s what I meant.

  2. I’m not a big comic book reader, but I liked this a lot. Went out and bought the Flashpoint Comics on Comixology because of it.

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