Movie Blog Review Justice League Crisis on Two Earths

Posted to movie blog on 9/13/2011, somehow I forgot to cross-post it.  Sorry about that folks.  Remember, new movie reviews are always posted to my movie review blog on Blogger first.

• Title:  Justice League Crisis on Two Earths
• Directors:  Sam Lui, Lauren Montgomery
• Date:  2010
• Studio:  Warner Brothers Animation
• Genre:  Action, Fantasy, Animation
• Cast:  William Baldwin, Mark Harmon, Chris Noth, Gina Torres, James Woods
• Format:  Color, Widescreen
• DVD Format:  R1, NTSC

"I can't believe we're having this discussion.  Of course we're going to help."  -- Wonder Woman
"She's right, that's what we do." -- Superman

"Might doesn't make right.  It might seem that way sometimes, but in the long run it's the other way around.  We're always stronger when we're doing the right thing."  -- Rose Wilson (the alt-Earth president's daughter)

The movie opens with Lex Luther in the midst of a robbery and about to get caught.  His partner, a guy in a jester's outfit gives his life, so Lex can escape.  We soon discover this is an alternative Earth, and this Lex is a good guy -- the "Justice League", on this particular Earth, are known as the "Crime Syndicate" and are the bad guys.  Lex dimension jumps to the Justice League Earth to ask for help.

After a short discussion, six of the seven Justice Leaguers go with Lex to his Earth -- Batman stays behind to oversee the construction of  the Watchtower.  On the other Earth, the Justice League discovers things are as Lex said -- the crime syndicate uses bribes and muscle to prevent police, attorneyes general, governments, etc from stopping them and the populace lives in limited terror (their day-to-day lives are "free" but if  they don't toe-the-line in bowing down to the crime syndicate, they are subject to possibly even lethal rebuke),  One person standing up to the crime syndicate is Rose, the president's daughter, much to her father's chagrin, as he made a deal with the crime syndicate years ago.

Unbeknownst to the president, things are about to go from bad to worse -- the crime syndicate now has a device that can destroy the whole planet.  And Owlman (the evil Batman) wants to do even worse than that and destroy all the alternate Earths by unleashing the device that will destroy all realities on Earth Prime.

Meanwhile, Owlman sends Superwoman to the JL's reality to steal the trigger for the device.  She fights Batman and gets the device, but Batman follows her when she escapes, by flinging himself  into her transport beam.  This costs him, as Superwoman beats him up again in another fight.

There is a fantastic fight sequence with each of  the Justice Leaguers fighting their opposite numbers on the crime syndicate's home base on the moon.  However, Owlman is able to locate Earth Prime and take the device there.  Batman theorizes the only way to get to Owlman now is to have someone vibrate quick enough to open a portal.  Convincing the crime syndicate they have to work together or all realities will disappear, Batman gets Johnny Quick to open the portal.  Batman leaps through, he and Owlman have a philosophical discussion, then fight, then Batman sends him to an abandoned Earth.  Owlman could escape, but he's so insane he decides not to, and is destroyed.

The movie is quite, quite good.  The fight scenes are extremely well-realized, especially the climatic fight between the Justice League and their opposite numbers.  James Woods is chilling as Owlman, reminding me a bit of characters from the film, Watchmen, though not his namesake (who was sort of a good guy).  However, he's completely insane, having decided that because every choice results in a new reality -- nothing has any meaning, leading to his idea to destroy all reality (Hum, sound like Davros and his reality b*m b from DW?).  There's a couple of other references to DW as well -- Owlman's plane has a Chameleon circuit, though I think it was Flash who asks 'What does that do?" before nearly getting run over by the invisible plane.  The device itself, abbreviated, Q.E.D., , which was not working, is said to work when the Blinovitch Limitation Effect is eliminated.

Owlman's speech on Earth Prime is chilling -- but his decision to not save himself when Batman sends him to an abandoned world is even more so.  Superwoman is also a complete psychopath, who enjoys hurting, maiming, and playing with people -- she and Owlman have a very twisted relationship.  In one of  her fights with Batman, she says to him, "That's going to cost you a rib," then takes her thumb and presses his side hard enough to break a rib.  Batman is left gasping in pain.

Overall, definitely one of  the better WB Animated DCAU movies, and I recommend it.

Recommendation:  See it!
Rating: 4 out of 5 Stars
Next Film:  L.A. Confidential

Movie Project Review: L.A. Confidential

• Title:  L.A. Confidential
• Director:  Curtis Hanson
• Date:  1997
• Studio:  Warner Brothers, Regency Entertainment
• Genre:  Drama, Mystery, Film Noir
• Cast:  Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito, David Straithairn, Simon Baker (Credited as Simon Baker Denny)

"Come to Los Angeles... there are jobs a plenty and land is cheap..."  -- Sid Hudgens (Danny DeVito)

"I admire you as a policeman, particularly your adherance to violence as an adjunct to the job." -- Police Captain Dudley Smith to Lt. Bud White

"How's it going to look in your report?" -- Det. Lt. Exley
"It'll look like justice.  That's what the man got, justice." -- Lt. Bud White

LA Confidential is a brilliant modern film noir.  The film weaves deep layered characters into a complex plot of police corruption, graft, drugs, and murder.  All the actors give brilliant performances.  Russell Crowe, in an very early role, is Lt. Bud White, police captain Smith's "enforcer" with a soft spot for abused women.  Watching his journey from tough guy and bruiser to someone who actually starts to figure out what's going on and who stops just following orders and starts to think -- even when solving the case leads right back to the police department -- is a joy in this film.  Guy Pearce is the college-educated "new cop" who isn't afraid to testify against other dirty cops, as long as it allows him to get ahead.  But he too has to make decisions -- does he "do what he's told, and reap his reward" or does he follow a more difficult path and expose the corruption he and Bud have uncovered?  And brilliant as always Kevin Spacey as "Hollywood Jack" Vincennes, who's a technical advisor on the TV cop drama "Badge of Honor" (think "Dragnet") and partners with tabloid reporter Sid Hudgens (Danny Devito) accepting payments to pass along info about upcoming busts so the reporter can photograph them.  Sid, a pioneer in bottom-feeding tabloid journalism, and publisher of the tabloid "Hush-Hush" regularly gives Vincennes gifts and bribes, as well as passing along information.

The film weaves a complicated plot, starting with the beating, in the LA lock-up of several Mexican-Americans, resulting in the expulsion of several bad cops and meeting our characters and seeing how they react.  Vincennes is  transferred between departments and temporarily taken off  "Badge of Honor" as Technical Advisor.  White refuses to roll on his partner, or become a snitch.  Exley not only offers up info as a snitch, but gives advice on how to get to other cops, though this gets him a promotion - it doesn't endear him to the other cops.  After "Bloody Christmas" but before the trial even starts, there's a mass shooting at the Nite Owl coffee shop, one of the victims is White's disgraced partner.  The hunt for the killers leads to three young black men, who are brought in, questioned, escape, and then are caught again and killed.

However,  all three of our main characters soon realize that the three men, though guilty of kidnapping and raping a young Mexican girl, aren't guilty of the Nite Owl killings.  And, again, the investigation, though it also involves a millionaire who's running a high-class call girl outfit of girls "cut to look like movie stars" and heroin, ultimately leads right back to the police department.  I don't want to spoil the ending for those of you reading this who haven't seen this brilliant Noir film.

This film starts with a sarcastic voice-over, by Danny Devito, describing the bright, sunny, perfect California that's being sold as an image -- only to expose a dark, dirty, and very corrupt underbelly.  Irony underlies a lot of the picture (such as showing the ground-breaking ceremony for the Santa Monica freeway "LA to the beach in 20 minutes").  But the characters also present an opening image that changes throughout the film -- Bud White starts as a tough, an enforcer, a brutal cop, albeit with a soft spot for battered women and kids, but he develops, putting together a lot of the clues leading to an explanation of  what really is going on.  Exley seems like the college-educated "new cop" who won't be able to hack it in the field - yet, he also manages to prove his smarts and his investigative chops, as well as his ability to handle violence when needed.  Vincennes, "Hollywood Jack" has somehow lost his way.  Asked, "Why'd you become a cop?" He answers, "I can't remember".  Jack is like the tough, hard-boiled, cynical protagonists of a lot of Classic Noir.  Yet, like those protagonists, his journey in the film is to discover that he can't turn a blind eye to the corruption around him any more, especially when he inadvertently causes a young male actor/hooker to get murdered.  There's more to Jack than the smoothness one first sees.

The film is set in the 1950s, but the historical detail, though there, is not at the forefront of the film.  The score is fantastic from Jerry Goldsmith's original instrument themes, to the use of period music by Johnny Mercer and Dean Martin.  The film also gets physically darker, as the characters discover the true darkness around them.

I highly, highly recommend this film.  It has brilliant acting, brilliant writing, a dense, complex plot, and the feel of a true Noir film, but made in a modern style.  The film is very intelligent -- both the writing and dialogue and the plot.  And, though violent and bloody at times, it's still quite, quite worth seeing.

Recommendation:  See it!
Rating:  5 of 5 Stars
Next Film:  League of Extra-Ordinary Gentlemen