Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox.

Back to DC animated we go!
Flashpoint Paradox is once again an adaptation, this time of Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert's 'Flashpoint'. It is a story centred around Barry Allen, aka The Second Flash, who wakes up in a world just like his yet where nothing is the same. As it turns out, this world is all because of Barry, all because Barry wanted to save his Mum and rather than every change happening after that point, the changes to the timestream ripple out from that event changing things in past, present and future, creating a whole new world. Sadly this extremely interesting premise is almost completely lost, much like the Flash himself, in this horribly paced mess.

And honestly, the story isn't a whole lot of fun either. Although all the creative things it does are very imaginative and interesting, the Universe of DC reimagins here is a dark one, a grim, miserable, depressing, depraved one, a world of extreme violence with an almost nihilistic tone that the film near drowns you in the moment Barry wakes up in it. I'm obviously no prude but this film was just overkill. And I wont say it doesn't work, it works much better than the 90s comics it almost seems to be parodying but as I'm no longer a fourteen year old boy, I found this film overwhelming at the best of times.

Further reservations still, with stories like this is you have to have a certain amount of DC knowledge to be able to appreciate it. Otherwise the changes in reality won't mean anything to you because you won't know anything different and then half the "fun" is lost. I recommend picking up a few comics before attempting this, the story and characters really aren't well written or realised enough to carry the film without the fan nudges.  

Perhaps my biggest criticism with the film though, is pacing. With so many cool ideas being thrown at you it isn't until the film rushes to wrap everything up with basically five minutes to spare that you realise just how poorly realised all of this is. Paradox is an hour and twenty minutes of the most negative what if scenarios one can imagine followed by a quick wibbly wobbly timey wimey explanation then wrap. It's a concept, not a story, and I can only hope the comics go into way more depth than the film does.

Paradox has some of the worst character designs I've ever seen, muscles bulge at Rob Liefeld proportions, matching his inconsistencies as characters are reduced to hideously deformed masses with tiny, featureless heads. It is just completely hideous.

Balancing this, however, are the fight scenes and what the movie seems to have sacrificed on design it has put into the actual animation itself. Minus a few bafflingly poor and utterly pointless CGI moments, this has the look of a clean and expensive anime, with animation as fluid as water and it just makes the action sequences so ridiculously enjoyable to watch.

I can't quite tell if the action scenes are terrible or brilliant. Basically in the alternative timeline there is a war going on between Aquaman, Wonder Woman and the world. It is basically a device that gives them an excuse for lots of super powered beings all slugging it out at once in the same space. And although seeing tens of superhumans all using a wide variety of skills, powers and tech at once is extremely satisfying at first, it quickly becomes cluttered and you're almost left wishing you had some kind of camera change button as some of the most interesting battles throughout the film take place largely off screen, only weaving into focus seemingly because they realised that only focusing on a small handful of people fully, doesn't convince us a war is raging. Overall the film constantly borders between grandiose and chaotic, never quite falling into either category so only ever satisfying to a point.

A big disappointment with me, but maybe not an inherent criticism is the voice acting is kinda bad all things considered. You're gonna recognise a lot of names in that cast list but for all the talent involved in this, it's surprising just how poor the voice acting is most of the time. I guess we should leave the voice acting to the professionals, rather than the celebrities next time. Luckily there are some good bits of dialogue and some fun moments of character interaction but none of them are made memorable by the cast.

So do I recommend it? If you're a fan of Nolan's pessimistic approach to the superhero genre, you'll probably love the slit your wrist tone of this film and coupled with how great the action is, you'll probably be in for a real treat. Everyone else? The action scenes don't make the film worth it, I'm sorry, they just don't.

Think About It!

-Locke

What would you rate, 'Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox'?