Justice Society: World War II – Parallel Lives

In my opinion, for years, DC has the market cornered on their animated films (and until recently I think their live action TV shows were superior to Marvel’s, but WandaVision and Falcon and the Winter Soldier stole a lot of that thunder).  They get great vocal talents and tell engaging stories.  I so often wonder why some of these scripts aren’t the ones used for the live action movies.   Justice Society: World War II is no exception.

Story is simple.  President Franklin D. Roosevelt, in response to the rise of Nazi Germany, follows the advice of Major Steve Trevor and forms a group of superpowered warriors to battle the threat.  Led by Wonder Woman, the team consists of Trevor, Black Canary, Hawkman, Hourman, Jay Garrick’s Flash and a reporter they call Shakespeare whose job it is to spin the stories of their exploits, keeping the team a secret.  In present day (well a pre JLA present day), Barry Allen’s flash is assisting Superman in a battle with Brainiac, when he accidentally gets thrown back in time and teams up with the Justice Society.  It is soon revealed that Barry didn’t just travel through time, but to a different Earth all together.

The script dips into some of the moral dilemmas that plague many heroes.  There is a line that superpowered beings have that should not be crossed when it comes to fighting wars.  Wonder Woman questions where this line is and depends on Steve Trevor to keep reminding her not to cross it.  If you have powers, are you obligated to fight for others?  Time travel paradoxes, and the walls that masked vigilantes put up to not fall in love so that they do not endanger those around them.  All these themes are touched on, some are explored a bit, but most are never fully fleshed out.  The animation stays consistent with the other DC films and harkens back to the old hand drawn animated films, before computer animation was a thing.

The cast includes the vocal talents of Stana Katic as Wonder Woman, Matt Bomer as Barry Allen, Omid Abtahi as Hawkman, Darren Criss as Superman, Chris Diamantopoulos as Steve Trevor, Matthew Mercer as Hourman, Elysia Rotaru as Dinah Lance and Armen Taylor as Jay Garrick.  Aquaman (Liam McIntyre) and Doctor Fate (Keith Ferguson) also appear in the story and both play major roles in the plot.  The performances are all strong and we are able to empathize with them through out the film.  There could have been a bit more tenderness in Stana’s portrayal of Wonder Woman.  She was a bit too much Warrior Princess. A bit more love portrayed between her and Steve, could have added a bit more emotional heft to the film.  Matt Bomer was great, as Barry Allen, showing his humor and manic side of the Flash, where his mind is always racing and has trouble focusing.  Elysia’s Black Canary was also very well performed, her voice conveyed the conflict raging with in her.  Should she remain a hero and never have a normal life, or leave and find love and happiness.  Can she do both?  Hawkman, Jay Garrick and Hourman all feel believable in their perspective roles and lend heart and soul to the film, plus a few laughs.

The only real issue I have with the film is the storyline and continuity with the other DC animated feature films and series.  We are never told which “Earths” we are on.  We know the World War II sequences are not on “Earth 1”, as many character’s back stories do not align.  But back in the present day, the JLA has not been formed yet and it seems like Superman and Flash barely know each other.  Either this is Earth 1, but early on in the careers of both heroes (so not present day), or this is a different Earth all together, where our favorite heroes are just now forming alliances, or this movie is not suppose to take place in the same universe as many of the other DC films and should be looked at as a self-contained story.    Either way, it is a minor issue and really does not detract from an over all entertaining animated feature film.