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Justice League: Throne of Atlantis
Score: 85%
Rating: PG-13
Publisher: Warner Brothers Home
                  Entertainment

Region: A
Media: Blu-ray/2
Running Time: 72 Mins.
Genre: Animated/Adventure
Audio: DTS-HD MA: English 5.1, Dolby
           Digital: French 5.1 (both
           Castilian & Latin)

Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish

Features:
  • Scoring Atlantis: The Sound of the Deep Featurette
  • Robin and Nightwing Bonus Sequence
  • Throne of Atlantis: 2014 NY Comic-Con Panel
  • Batman vs. Robin Sneak Peek
  • Villains of the Deep Featurette
  • Four Bonus Cartoon Episodes

Justice League: Throne of Atlantis is the third and newest feature in the developing DC Animated Film Universe (DC's equivalent of the Marvel Cinematic Universe). In it, we get Aquaman's origin story and the Justice League's next big mission as an official group.

Following the events of Justice League: War and Son of Batman, the world seems to be accepting the seven superheroes fighting as a team, but the team itself isn't very cohesive as most of the members of the fledgling league are out fighting crime on their own.

The start of the film has three semi-disconnected plots that don't take too long to collide. In one, Cyborg (Shemar Moore, Criminal Minds) investigates a downed submarine, and when overwhelmed by assailants, calls upon the rest of the Justice League. With the help of The Flash (Christopher Gorham, Ugly Betty, Covert Affairs) and Shazam (Sean Astin, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy), the trio track down Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion, Castle, Firefly), Superman (Jerry O'Connell, Sliders), Batman (Jason O'Mara, Terra Nova, Life on Mars) and Wonder Woman (Rosario Dawson) who are off taking care of business in their own unique ways.

Meanwhile, Arthur Curry (Matt Lanter, Star Wars: The Clone Wars), appears to be a normal man. Well, except for the fact that our first scene with him has him having a drunken discussion with a lobster about the death of his father. Though, I guess, if we didn't know what he could do, this wouldn't really seem all that odd right? I mean, we aren't expecting the lobster to talk back. It's just a shame that someone happens to pick this particular lobster as their meal and Curry decides to fight the hungry biker and his gang. At this point, it becomes clear that Curry is more than your average man.

The other story takes place in Atlantis. With the death of their King, the Atlantean right of succession is of high priority. Orm (Sam Witwer, Smallville, Being Human), the child of both the dead king and Queen Atlantia (Sirena Irwin), believes he should be the one on the throne, but his mother doesn't like Orm's stance on dealing with the surface world and is searching for her estranged son that she had with a normal human. Meanwhile, Black Manta (Harry Lennix, Dollhouse, The Blacklist), an apparently loyal subject to the throne, is obviously manipulating Orm and pushing him behind the scenes.

When the Justice League's trail leads to the world's foremost researcher of the Lost City of Atlantis, they also find Curry since the researcher is trying to tell the man about a time when his father contacted him concerning Curry's mother.

Curry and the League members are soon attacked by Orm and Black Manta's goons and decide to join forces as they travel into the ocean to learn exactly what is going on in the undersea kingdom. Along the way, Curry will discover his true powers, fight for his rightful place on the throne of Atlantis and the rest of the Justice League will learn how to form a stronger team.

Justice League: Throne of Atlantis comes with a lot of special features. Not only are there featurettes on the score of the film and Aquaman's two main villains, but there is also the panel from the 2014 New York Comic-Con featuring Lanter, producer James Tucker, voice director Andrea Romano, writer Heath Corson and character designer Phil Bourassa. The release also contains a deleted sequence where the new Robin fights back-to-back with his predecessor, Nightwing. On a similar note, there is also a sneak peek at the next animated feature, Batman vs. Robin.

Rounding out the Throne of Atlantis special features are four Aquaman-centric episodes from past DC cartoon series, and an unusual option to turn off the dialogue of the film and listen to only the music and background sounds as the movie plays.

While I'm not typically a fan of Aquaman (he is the butt of many DC-related jokes after all), I like his portrayal in this film. Throne of Atlantis also acts as a good building block for the growing common universe that DC is building in their animated films. Don't worry though, even if you haven't seen Justice League: War or Son of Batman, you won't feel too far behind as anything you really need to know going in is covered early in the film.



-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications
AKA Chris Meyer
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