Justice League: Doom review

Note: This film is a direct-to-DVD and Blu-Ray release which I watched through a video on demand service.

Now that we got that out of the way, on with the review.

Justice League: Doom is an animated film that you may have never even heard of. That is because of the note above. A common misconception is that animation is a children's medium, and that all animation is cartoons. This is completely incorrect. The movie in question is definitely not a kid's film. While not necessarily dark, it contains strong language and themes that children might not understand.(Although, to give them credit, they very well might.) The film's strong points are a strong cast and a great story, which is loosely adapted from the comic, "Justice League: Tower of Babel". The plot is involving and fast paced, keeping you interested at all times, and it is where the movie truly succeeds. In addition to that, the animation moves fluidly and usually seems fairly natural. At the same time, features are occasionally oversimplified and character designs can seem a bit messy. This isn't enough to take away from the film.

The main aspect of Justice League: Doom that might cause problems is that it acts very much like a comic book. A good comic book, but still a comic book nonetheless. In order to understand it, you need prior knowledge of the characters, their powers, and their personalities. They aren't given much explanation in the film itself. If anything, that is what holds the movie back from universal appeal. If you are a fan of the characters of DC Comics, and you can find it on your video on demand service, then you may want to check it out.

The Dictator review

This is the first movie that I watched this year that I can definitely describe as "love it or hate it". Personally, I loved it. I loved how the humor is blatantly offensive to anyone with common decency. I love how it's about as mature as a flash animation on Newgrounds. I love how so much effort went into this movie despite absolutely no part of it being deserving. But most of all, I love just how much fun the cast and crew had with it.

The movie stars Sacha Baron Cohen doing what he does best-playing an offensive middle eastern stereotype. In this case, he plays Admiral General Aladeen of the African nation of Wadiya. The movie begins with news clips being taken out of context to refer to Wadiya, and gives us an early taste of just how ridiculous this movie will be. Of note is that Wadiya just happens to be located in the exact same place as Eritrea-a dictatorship. That's right-they replaced a real life country with their silly fictional one. And people hate this movie!

Okay, maybe that wasn't fair. While most of the jokes hit, there are some that just go way to far and wind up being disgusting instead of funny. However, my biggest issue with this film is the love interest, Zoey. Zoey is a completely flat character. Her shtick-that she's some sort of feminist-environmentalist-left wing extremist simply isn't funny. It's annoying, and it's her only character trait. Funny that she's supposed to be a feminist, because she pretty much comes down do an exaggerated stereotype.

While Zoey made me like this film a lot less than I would have, I still must give credit where it's due. Baron Cohen makes things funny that seriously shouldn't be. The film does not take itself seriously. It doesn't even claim to be anything other than an outlet for the cast and crew to just shove immature joke after immature joke. And that's why I love it.

For this movie, I give a 7/10. I would recommend it, but be warned, it's not for everyone's tastes.