Justice Society: World War II (2021)

Justice Society: World War II (2021)

Dir. Jeff Wamester

An animated tale that's set mostly during WW II, unsurprisingly. In addition to forcibly occupying as much of Europe as they can, Hitler's Nazi forces also hunt for magical items that could sway the tide of war in their favour; e.g., things like the Lance of Longinus, or the Ark of the Covenant, etc. But America send a group of skilled and/or superpowered US citizens under the radar to prevent that from happening.

[If they thought they could feasibly get away with it, I sincerely believe that the US military would want the rest of the world to think that they won that war all by themselves.]

Like the superior JL: The Flashpoint Paradox (2013) movie, the events in JS:WWII occur because of Barry Allen / Flash's unique abilities.

But unlike TFP the actual animation isn't good. Sometimes it's passable, but more often than not it's like a bad YouTube flash animation. I can tolerate that kind of thing in short bursts, but it doesn't hold up when expanded to feature length. It's hard to feel invested emotionally when the characters doing the talking resemble cardboard cut-outs placed in front of a digitally painted background. [1]

Among the superpowered allies are Wonder Woman (Stana Katic); Hawkman (Omid Abtahi); the first Flash, Jay Garrick (Armen Taylor); Black Canary (Elysia Rotaru); and Hourman (Matthew Mercer). Some of them serve a purpose, while others are largely superfluous or seem like they're there just to make up the numbers, even if they do fit into the 'Golden Age' era.

The story is objectively no worse than any of the other mid-tier DC animations, and the voice work is variable. The most successful actor is Matt Bomer as Flash, which is fitting because the speedster is also the story's best character. In contrast, the worst of them, by far, is Wonder Woman, although I fully admit to knowing nothing of value about Aegean linguistics, so maybe her delivery was accurate. To me, subjectively, it seemed an odd and distracting creative choice.

There's some enjoyable one-on-one talks when the allies are split up into pairs, and the period costumes are fun to see, but there's nothing notable beyond that. JS:WWII is a forgettable, occasionally tedious outing in which only Barry Allen shines. It's not even pleasing to look at.

[1] Justice Society: World War II is the second entry in DC's Tomorrowverse series of movies. The previous film looked just as shit. I now suspect the rest will, too.

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