Review Of Justice League: Throne Of Atlantis

Justice League: Throne Of Atlantis is the latest animated feature from Warner Bros. Animation. Generally speaking, if you haven’t been watching The straight to video animated DC movies, you are missing out, because they are consistently high-quality products, so you should start doing that. The last few animated films were the start of a consistent movie universe loosely based on DC’s New 52 re-launch. You don’t need to know a lot about DC to just watch the movies though, so don’t worry about getting lost. Justice League: Throne Of Atlantis does pick up from where Justice League: War left off, but it really isn’t necessary that you’ve seen the previous movie.

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Firstly, I feel I should warn parents, this is not a movie for small children. There is some death, and plenty of blood, so don’t pick it up thinking it’s a fun family film. But that has been the trend for awhile now, with the last several DC animated films all being a little more adult themed.

Justice League: Throne of Atlantis introduces an all-new origin story for Aquaman. Now he is Arthur Curry, half-human half-atlantean, but he doesn’t know that, as he was raised by his father on the surface world with no knowledge of his origins. Other than claiming this makes him ideal as a “bridge” between the surface people & the Atlanteans, his being half-human doesn’t seem to change anything, so the whole re-made origin seems pointless and a little forced in one of the many attempts over the decades to make Aquaman “edgy”.

And while the title may be Justice League: Throne Of Atlantis, the focus understandably is very much on Aquaman. Which is fine, but the presence of the league seems very unnecessary to the overall story, they don’t add a whole lot being there other than being able to go-Hey all these cool heroes are in this movie! Because their contributions are fairly minimal. You could remove the Justice League entirely and the film wouldn’t have suffered much and in fact probably be more focused not having to split time between 8 primary characters.

And maybe that would’ve been for the best, because while I like the overall portrayal of Aquaman in Justice League: Throne Of Atlantis, Arthur Curry just isn’t given enough time & character development to become a convincing hero. One minute he’s a drunk loser dealing with the death of his father, and the next he’s ready to be King of Atlantis with only about a minute of the usual “I’m not ready for this” bit. It just feels rushed and therefore we don’t really get behind his story, so it’s not horribly compelling.

Justice League: Throne of Atlantis is a perfectly ok film. The animation is great, the performances are solid all around and it has some good set pieces. But, especially considering the usually excellent pedigree of DC animated movies, it’s lacking in a compelling story and just feels rushed and probably would’ve worked better as a solo (or at least mostly solo) origin film where Arthur Curry really earns being Aquaman rather than just suddenly deciding on it in the space of a couple minutes.

I rented the DVD version of Justice League: Throne of Atlantis, and the features are pretty threadbare on this version. Just some trailers and a featurette on their next film, Batman vs. Robin (which does look pretty good). I’d say if you are like me and watch & buy many of the DC Universe animated films, Justice League: Throne Of Atlantis is worth a rent, but if you haven’t kept up, there are many far superior offerings available, so you might want to check those out instead (like the criminally under-watched Wonder Woman movie, for example).

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