Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox (2013)
Dir. Jay Oliva
It's a gritty and violent adventure packed with DCU heroes and villains; some of whom have very little impact on the story, but it's fun to see them included.
A knowledge of the Justice League is required, however, in order to fully appreciate how different things are in the featured timeline - to understand the extent of the contrast, you'll need to have some knowledge of how things ought to be normally.
The primary protagonist is Flash, the Barry Allen version, as seen front and centre on the cover art.
A struggle in the present reminds Barry of a horrific event in his past. It's an incident that he feels could've been prevented, if only he'd had his speedster skills at the time. Wishing the past could be changed for the better is something that everyone has pondered at least once, which makes the crux of the story infinitely relatable.
When a major change occurs in his present life, he seeks help from the one man who he feels might really understand his plight. The man in question is a tortured soul who has just as much to gain as he has to lose from Flash's planned outcome, reinforcing the bitter-sweet theme.
The movie starts strong and gets better and better as it goes, with a pace befitting its main character. There's a fair amount of comic book / cartoon logic in play, but the ending doesn't take the easy way out, which is its best aspect and where the emotional punch hits the hardest.
There's a post-credit scene that teases the next film. If you don't plan to go further, simply don't watch it. Doing so won't affect your enjoyment of The Flashpoint Paradox in any way.
[1] As mentioned above, the official word from DC is that events in TFP set in motion a new continuity that they named the DC Animated Movie Universe (DCAMU for short), although the ending doesn't make the situation as clear as they suggest. Why they gave it such a stupid name is anyone's guess, especially when they already had the DC Animated Universe and the DC Universe Animated Original Movies line. It's almost like they were taking advice from Nintendo.
But then again, the New 52, which is the era of DC comics that the DCAMU takes most of its inspiration and ideas from, had a stupid name, too, so I suppose expecting anything better was an error on my part. Either way, the continuity continues through fifteen subsequent movies, all of which will have a post on the blog. See below for direct links to individual posts, or use the 'NEXT POST' link each time to advance through them in the order they were released:
00. Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox (2013)
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