Animation Review - Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox

Alternate take on the DC universe.

Directed by: Jay Oliva
Starring: Justin Chambers, C. Thomas Howell, Michael B. Jordan, Dana Delany, Cary Elwes, Nathan Fillion, Danny Huston, Sam Daly, Kevin Conroy, Kevin McKidd, Vanessa Marshall

'The Flashpoint Paradox' begins with a young, pre-Flash, Barry Allen, enduring his life’s greatest tragedy, the loss of his mother. She had been murdered in their home minutes before Barry arrived and ever since he blamed himself for her death. He has truly believed that if he was just a little faster, if he had gotten there minutes earlier, he could have saved her. 

Years later, after confronting Professor Zoom (Howell), a man from the future with the same powers as himself, The Flash (Chambers) decides to use his power of super speed to travel back in time to save his mother. Instantly, because of his “Time Boom”, the reality of earth is altered in ways that Barry could not have possibly imagined. While he has his mother again, he finds he never met his wife, never got his powers, and because of that, never met any of the other super heroes whose individual fates have also been altered.

 Hal Jordan (Fillion) never received his ring and thus never became a Green Lantern. Superman (Daly) landed in Metropolis and was discovered by the government who then ran tests on him for years without him ever seeing the sun. Instead of Bruce Wayne (Conroy) surviving the mugging that killed his parents, he is shot and killed and his father, Thomas (McKidd), becomes a drunken, trigger happy version of Batman. Needless to say, a powerless Flash is more than guilt-ridden when he finds that his actions have altered things so much that the world is on the brink of destruction with Aquaman (Elwes) leading his army of Atlanteans, in a war against Wonder Woman (Marshall) and her Amazons. In the final battle for earth, Flash and Batman are the only two that can save the world by bringing the former reality back. 

Don’t let the fact that it’s an animated film lull you into falsely thinking this is a nice, campy, or even appropriate story for small children. It earns its PG-13 rating with bone-jarring fights where heroes bleed, die, kill, and even kill children. This is a hard-hitting dark story of a hero who just wanted to save his mother but learns he cannot change the past without changing everything that follows. 

The animation is on par with what you would expect. There is a surprise or two with voice casting, and when I recognized the voices, it was a pleasant treat to my ears. The action is above my own expectations and definitely helped elevate the story that brings a wide array of characters into a different world where you really don’t know who is good or bad anymore. Being a bigger fan of Marvel than DC, I went out on a limb for this one, and boy, did it really pay off big! Anyone who likes animated features or DC characters at all will love this. Absolutely everything is put on the table and no one is safe.

8/10

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Andy Comer