Justice League vs. the Fatal Five review: A dose of delight and nostalgia

The DCAU returns in a big way in the entertaining and somewhat nostalgic Justice League vs. the Fatal Five.

It has been almost two years since fans last visited the DC Animated Universe. That last outing was the Batman and Harley Quinn feature. Now, Bruce Timm and company have returned with Justice League vs. the Fatal Five.

Justice League vs. the Fatal Five brings fans back to Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman, with all their original voice actors from the Justice League series – George Newbern, Susan Eisenberg and Kevin Conroy, respectively. Batman is seen training Miss Martian (Daniela Bobadilla) for full membership into the league. In addition, Mr. Terrific plays a much larger role than he ever did in the Justice League Unlimited series. Finally, the film introduces Green Lantern Jessica Cruz (Diane Guerrero), who is a rather unwilling team member, at this point.

The plot begins in the 31st century, where the Legion of Super-Heroes are busy fighting members of the Fatal Five. Viewers are introduced to Star Boy (Elyes Gabel), with his peculiar flaw of needing regular injections of medicine to keep him calm. The Fatal Five soon travel back in time, and Star Boy follows them. Paths are crossed, as Star Boy befriends Jessica Cruz. They two heroes then team up with the Justice League to stop the Fatal Five from freeing their imprisoned cohorts.

The Pros

There’s no doubt that it’s great to see the DCAU back in action. The original trinity is present, and the classic Justice League theme even plays in the background at times. Luckily, the movie hardly feels like a nostalgic trip down memory lane. The trinity plays more of a supporting cast, with Batman playing the most dominant role of the trio. Instead, the main characters are Jessica Cruz, Star Boy and Miss Martian. This gives the movie a youthful vibe, making it feel more like one is watching Young Justice instead. And it works, for all the other characters have had plenty of screen time over the years, in and out of the DCAU.

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Having two of these new characters have emotional/mental problems certainly helps bring a lot of needed diversity to the continuity. Usually, it’s always the villains with the psychological problems. On top of this, the writers handle it well and even better from a clinical standpoint than most other movies in general.

The Fatal Five give fans the first truly threatening set of antagonists in a while. They manage to truly challenge the likes of Superman, the newbies are terrified of them, and they’re not above murder. A huge plus comes from the fact that this is a PG-13 movie, not a syndicated kids’ cartoon. Hence, Bruce Timm and company can get away with actual murder within the movie. You will see blood ladies and gentlemen.

The Cons

One problem arises given that Miss Martian’s character is given little to no context. She just appears as this new trainee. Meanwhile, it would be nice to dive more into Jessica Cruz’s background and her agoraphobia. Now this does not derail the film at all, but it certainly would have been a plus. One cannot help but wonder about her origin, given that in the comics it is tied to the “Darkseid War” series. Did this happen or not? Problem not too important, or you can ignore that facet.

The dubbing and animation also appears unnatural at times. The lip work just looks off and almost close to an English dub of an anime. The lips are moving, but reading their lips, there is no way they are saying those words. In addition, there are a few random cuts where it sometimes feels like a scene just jumped or changed from one spot to another.

One cannot deny the return of Kevin Conroy’s Batman. However, why does he have to be the go-to original, DCAU character? We have Wonder Woman here! Why can she not train Miss Martian? But don’t worry, as these are all small complaints and do not derail the film, at all.

Pick up Justice League vs the Fatal Five on Blu-ray, and you can get a sneak-peek at Batman: Hush. Other special features include commentary with Bruce Timm, along with the “Battling the Invisible Menace” and “Unity of Hero” featurettes. The latter two segments show Dr. Andrea Letamendi from the Arkham Sessions podcast discussing diversity and mental health problems of comic book characters. You can always pick it up digitally or get it for free if you are a subscriber to DC Universe. One way or another, go watch this film. The cast is great, the stakes are high, there’s plenty of action and suspense, and there’s more than enough overall character development.