A Review of “The Justice League: A New Frontier” DVD by AFHUB’s Rengie “RG” Galvez.

So I saw New Frontier last night. Okay, I couldn’t wait. I had been pretty excited about it since I started seeing the teasers over the net and I’m willing to bet any and all fanboys felt the same. The late February release date couldn’t come soon enough.here’s my take on it. A warning though…

SPOILER ALERT!

I think that if I hadn’t read the novel prior to watching this film, I would have said it was a good movie about the league and how it started. However, having indeed read it, I couldn’t help but feel that everything seemed rushed(and I can see why: The New frontier is quite a long novel with just so many subplots and side stories within), and that too much of what was happening on the side was omitted. Having said that, The New Frontier by Darwyn Cooke in essence, is the story of America’s heroes and how they deal (or aren’t able to) with the changes in the world they are living in which a current crisis eventually leads to a sort of “passing of the torch”. Granted, it would have probably taken a mini series treatment to actually cover every segment of this story. I also understand that such a comic written for a much older age group would have definitely not translated well into a PG-13 film if taken “as is”. The panels in the graphic novel where Diana receives a congressional medal of honor but is rudely interrupted when her speech borders on the “subversive”, and her subsequent forced retirement by (was it?) Eisenhower would have been a mind blower of a scene had it been included but would have been a little difficult to explain to younger viewers, I guess. Furthermore, I just couldn’t help but miss omitted scenes like the dinner hosted by the Phantom Stranger where the mystic mages of the DC world discuss the pros and cons of getting involved in the crisis at hand. This scene was significant especially in terms of explaining why the JSA did not get involved and why another group of people must take the cudgels from them to lead America into the so-called “New Frontier”. It would have been such a thrill to have seen all those other DC characters like the Losers, Easy Co. too.

Without giving away much, let me just say that I appreciate the efforts of the people behind this production for actually coming up with an abridged version that still manages to entertain, stick as close to the original story, and yet remain within the limits of what I term “acceptable television violence” (although there were quite a few scenes that still managed to make me question whether or not I should let my kids watch it) and/or inappropriate content, so much so that I actually decided to enjoy the film together with my kids…it was either this or “Eight Below”. I just have to say that despite the omissions and changes to the original story, and although I felt like I was watching an extremely rushed version of Cooke’s awesome tale, it still managed to draw a “wow” from me after the movie was done.

Again, before I end this, let me give the obligatory SPOILER WARNING! Two scenes in the film that really got me thrilled were:

1) The heroes and their non-meta counterparts walking side by side before going to war against the center, and

2) the montage of heroes taken directly from the last few pages of the Graphic novel in sequence with the great words of the late John F. Kennedy.

These two scenes just kind of still did it for me as far as this movie is concerned. As I have said, if I hadn’t read the novel, I would have definitely liked it for what it is: A film about the Justice League. Although I can’t undo what has happened (wouldn’t it be wonderful to actually do what Booster Gold does now?). I have to say that I still enjoyed it some.

And if you find yourself doubting this movie, and/or failing to make some sense of it because you can’t help but compare it to the awesome read that is Darwyn Cooke’s New Frontier, just remember what the film is called: JUSTICE LEAGUE: NEW FRONTIER.

Rengie “RG” Galvez is a regular member of and contributor to the AFHUB community and is a huge fan of the DC Animated Universe. He is an avid collector of the JLU figures and even customizes his own:
https://www.afhub.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=630

The Justice League: A New Frontier DVD is available for (pre)order at Amazon.com.

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