New To Blu: Justice League - Throne of Atlantis

Throne of Atlantis is now available on blu-ray. 

"After this movie, I refuse
to talk to any more fish."

This is the most lame, completely uninspired, dry, and unflattering DC animated films I've seen in several years. Setting itself up as a sequel to Justice League: War, and the modernized introduction to Aquaman we needed, nearly every element of this complete drag of a film falls flat on its face. They even managed to make Nathan Fillion's perfect personality as Hal Jordan feel phoned in. Up until this point, he's been one of the better voice casting choices for these films and the lackluster script did zero justice to his or any character. His quips were poorly timed, shoddily written, and even Fillion couldn't inject any charisma in to the impenetrable wall of tedium before him.

Although the target viewership has clearly been the mature fan, absolutely nothing else has grown up along with the violence. The writing and animation is still stuck in weekday morning cartoon land. The contrast of mature levels of blood, decapitation, and torso splitting versus a tedious, corny storyline with hum-drum, outright lazy animation is insulting. Do they really think that gore is all it takes to please their demographic? Or maybe I have it all wrong? Perhaps they're targeting gullible prepubescents with no standards? Just chuck a bunch of popular DC characters into bowl, stir it around for an hour and ten minutes, chop off some heads and call it a day!

"Cyborg, set course for a better
Justice League movie...."

There was only one single moment in the entire film that was any good, and it also happened to be the one and only moment the insipid writing that put Aquaman's powers to good use. You'll recognize the scene as it involves Manta who, as far as voice acting goes, was pretty bad ass, actually. Beyond that, the animation is wooden with no energy. Instead of punches, characters stick out their arms and bad guys walk into them. Kicks look like high school cheerleading moves. Flash still looks as if he's jogging leisurely on a treadmill. Oh, but there are blurry lines, everybody! See? He's so fast! How about try putting some oomph in the animation? Some power!

Throne of Atlantis should really be Aquaman's story, but the writers didn't seem to care. This could have been Aquaman's moment to shine in the DC animated universe, but his powers weren't showcased as important or unique. True, each Justice League member had a go at Orm, the treacherous brother of Arthur Curry (Aquaman), yet met failure. Of course, this was the point in the script that Aquaman has to come in to save the day, but instead of showing us what he is made of, he just exchanges a couple of punches with Orm and that was it. So, what makes Arthur Curry special then? He can save the world by punching a dude? That he can talk to lobsters? I love Aquaman, and I don't need any more convincing, but after seeing this sorry excuse for an animated film, it's easy for the masses to continue thinking one of my favorite superheroes in DC sucks.


Sharing almost no positive qualities with the far superior graphic novel, Throne of Atlantis is shockingly dull. If they're basing this to any degree on one of the better runs in New 52, how did they screw up this bad? I realize that with the changes to Justice League: War—being based on Geoff Johns' Origin—they couldn't follow the Atlantis novel to a tee, and I'm totally fine with that, but how do people paid to do this ignore the qualities that have made the run so popular to begin with? Aquaman fans should be as disappointed and confused as this fan is.

-JG Barnes