I was sick yesterday, so I had some time to kill and was looking for something to entertain me while I rode the sickness out. I happened to be browsing through the Xbox Live movie selections, and lo and behold Warner Bros. Animation and DC Entertainment's "Justice League: Throne of Atlantis" was available to stream and/or buy. As far as I knew, the DVD/Blu-ray wasn't coming out until the 27th of this month. I had to no idea it was available early on the consoles (it's on the PlayStation Network as well)...but there it was, waiting for me, in all its animated glory.
"Throne of Atlantis" is the DC's "New 52" repurposing of Aquaman's origin in an attempt to make him less of a joke; a stigma that has harangued the character since the late 70s/early 80s "Super Friends" cartoons where he was portrayed as pretty useless overall.
"ToA" picks up right after "Justice League: War," and the world is at peace...or so it seems. There is unrest in Atlantis as Prince Orm/Ocean Master (Sam Witwer) has designs on attacking and subjugating the surface world. But Queen Atlanna (Sirena Irwin) has different plans...plans for goodwill and harmony, but to bring these plans to fruition she needs the assistance of the Justice League to find her lost son, Arthur Curry (Matt Lanter) who can bring about the peace she desires because he is of both worlds...both human and Atlanean. While the Justice League searches for Curry, Atlantean troops, lead by Ocean Master, unleash an all-out assault on Metropolis.
All in all, this film was rather disappointing. It didn't really take the necessary time to develop Aquaman/Arthur as a character. He goes from depressed drunk to king material as quick as you can bat an eyelash. The guy is going through a serious rough patch (it seems his father died recently). How is this "once and future king" coping with it? Don't know...beyond crawling into a bottle, which is a bit of cop out. What we need here is some character background, development and growth. What we get is very thin...in that there's hardly any of it, which along with the action makes the whole of the film seem rather hollow and empty. There's just not enough in the way of substance or decent writing in "ToA." I don't empathize with Aquaman/Curry because the phoned in script doesn't give me any reason to care. One would think, Aquaman would be mourning the loss of his loved ones, but he's too busy hitting on some underwater tart to care it seems. There are also two pointless love sub-plots here (Superman/Wonder Woman and Cyborg/Female Scientist) that just seem to be thrown in for good measure and go nowhere fast. Weird. Let me say this as well, I have no idea why DC/Warner Bros. seems to be insistent on shoehorning Cyborg into the Justice League. I was never a fan of the character in the "Teen Titans," but that's where he belongs, if anywhere. There are so many more interesting characters than Cyborg in the DCU to choose from...why him? Bring Hawkgirl or Martian Manhunter back, please.
On the technical side of things, the animation is wooden and lacks polish overall. The voices were sometimes out of sync with character's mouths/lips, giving it a very "Speed Racer"-ish feel at times. The voice acting is good though, with Rosario Dawson as Wonder Woman, Harry Lennix as Black Manta and Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern stand out here. I was also rather pleased that they worked in a reference to the "Brave and the Bold" version of Aquaman (for my money, the best version of the character) by having him utter the "Outrageous!" tag line at one point.
At the end of the day, The King of the Seven Seas deserved a nobler fate here. 73 minutes is just not enough time to tell the tale of Arthur's origin. The crew here should have been given a bit more room to move and fleshed things out to a full 90 minutes or so. But to be quite honest, there are 22 minute episodes of the classic "Justice League Unlimited" cartoon that ran on Cartoon Network about ten years ago that are much better than "Throne of Atlantis." Watch one of those instead...or any of the other DCU animated films, which have been quite good on the whole...and you'll save yourself $20 in the process.
"Aquaman: Throne of Atlantis" is available now to download/stream on Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network for $19.99. It comes out on Blu-ray and DVD January 27 at the same price...but you get the extras (making of, interviews, etc.) if you are into that sort of thing.
