Movie Info
Movie Name: Justice League vs. the Fatal Five
Studio: Warner Bros. Animation
Genre(s): Comic Book/Animated/Action/Adventure/Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Release Date(s): March 29, 2019 (WonderCon)/March 30, 2019 (Digital)
MPAA Rating: PG-13
Here come the Five!
The Legion of Super-Heroes greatest enemies have a plan. With Tharok, Persuader, and Mano travelling into the past, Star Boy finds himself in pursuit at great personal cost. Jessica Cruz tries to adjust to life as a Green Lantern and learns that the Fatal Five’s goal could include her. With the past and future in crisis, it is up to the Justice League to stop the Fatal Five when they rejoin with Emerald Empress and Validus…reality could hang in the balance!
Directed by Sam Liu, Justice League vs. the Fatal Five is a DC Universe Animated Original Movie. Following Reign of the Superman (also released in 2019), the film premiered at WonderCon and was released on digital the next day.
Batman and Ms. Martian are just along for the ride…
DC does a great job with their animated universe. The stories they pick are generally strong, the animation is either experimental or consistent with other animated features (like this one) and this helps build a real network of characters and storylines. Justice League vs. the Fatal Five is a great set-up with fun characters.
The story is largely about Star Boy and Jessica Cruz. Both characters are broken and both characters find that being broken isn’t always bad. I always found the story of Star Boy rather tragic and it plays out similar to the character’s fate involving his mental state in the comics. Jessica Cruz is one of recent years more interesting characters. She really finds her feet in this storyline (which is good, but also a bit too perfect for a character suffering from agoraphobia), and she is a fun creation.
Eye see you!
The only problem with the Justice League vs. the Fatal Five is that the Justice League really takes a backseat in the plot. They are there, and they do things, but it seems like they are more incidental to the plot. The film tries to develop a Miss Martian storyline in addition to the primary Jessica and Star Boy stories through trips into the subconscious of Star Boy, but the character’s arc doesn’t really develop in comparison to the other two.
The movie looks good, and that is one of the great aspects of DC Animated movies. You could pair the movie next to most of their entries and it would look like they are part of the same “world”. The movie continues to employ solid voice actors and the whole package is stronger as a result.
Justice League vs. the Fatal Five is consistent with other DC Universe Animated features. Personally, I love the Legion, and it is always good to get a nice Legion storyline (I wish that DC would revamp the Legion cartoon with art that fits with the Batman: The Animated Series and the Superman: The Animated Series cartoons). DC follows Justice League vs. the Fatal Five with Batman: Hush which was also released in 2019.
