This is the best Superhero Animated Feature I have ever seen!

Director Jay Oliva is not only a world-class storyboard artist (Man of Steel, 300: Rise of an Empire), but his directorial skill with Superhero Animations are exemplary, with his previous outing, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns (a two parter), demonstrating why he’s such hot property. I thought the Frank Miller penned Batman: The Dark Knight Returns unbeatable but Mr Oliva has capped even that. He has a style quite recognisable to his many fans, and his sure guiding hand always in evidence. With an impressive cast, he has taken the powerful story from Flashpoint, a 2011 comic book by Geoff Johns and Andy Kubert, and adapted it for animation with a $3 million budget to play with.

Barry Allen/The Flash (Justin Chambers) has missed his mom ever since she was murdered on her birthday. Due to his extreme speeds, he can time travel, and seeks to right the fact that he wasn’t fast enough back then to save her. The event causes a temporal ripple, changing everything he once knew, into an almost unrecognisable hell hole, where everything is darker and gloomier, and everyone he loved, has changed, but not all for the better. Even his comrades are either different or gone.

Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox
Director
Jay Oliva
Cast
Justin Chambers, Ron Perlman and Michael B. Jordan
Release Date
30 July, 2013
Influx Grade: A

This is an alternate reality that has no Justice League, no Superman or Green Lantern. The entire world is about to be destroyed thanks to Wonder Woman’s Amazons and Aquaman’s Atlanteans fighting in a ruined London. Flash teams up with a booze swigging Batman and a Cyborg who works for the President (who bares an uncanny resemblance to Obama), to attempt to restore the continuity of The Flash’s original timeline.

The animation was of a standard we expect from Warner, and the story was where this animation really shone. Also the huge array of characters included were great, and witnessing them all do battle was amazing, as former friend fought friend, leaving no one safe. We see a decimated Kal-El (Sam Daly), barely able to stand he’s so skinny and weak. Hal Jordan (Nathan Fillion) is a brave test pilot, but nothing super hero, although he does get to briefly fly the Lantern craft. This all made Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox special, and to just for once, witness a world where the good do bad, made this animation the best of the genre I’ve seen to date.

If you enjoy your animations with interesting characters and excellent storylines, then this is not to be missed. It really is amazing watching the Caped Crusader deal with a criminal by tossing her from a high building, with not a care in the world. I can’t recommend this any higher. Buy it, rent it, but don’t miss it!

Grade: A

Nav Qateel

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