Video Reviews

Justice League of America

D: Lewis Teague (1997); with David Ogden Stiers, Jon Kassir, Ken Johnston, Matthew Settle, Michelle Hurd, Miguel Ferrer. On the other hand, if you want to see the supposedly mature, adult angle on dealing with the superhero genre, or are interested in finding out just how misguided Hollywood can possibly be, check out Justice League of America. In this debacle of an update (or adaptation, or something), the Flash, Atom, and Green Lantern (along with some chick who's sorta like Storm from the X-Men) are indeed the world's most powerful heroes -- only they also happen to be (get this!) a bunch of shiftless, semi-employed twentysomethings who live together in the same apartment! This JLA wants desperately to be Friends with superpowers. Instead, sadly, it comes off as Mystery Men without the jokes. If the action element was interesting, that might partially save the day, but Miguel Ferrer as "The Weatherman" (aren't there enough pre-existing DC baddies with weather-controlling powers to choose from?!) is sadly wasted as an unnotable, barely threatening scientist gone bad, and the heroes rarely do anything impressive. It's really difficult to adequately explain how godawful this mongrel of a mishmash of incompatible styles and genres is. Suffice it to say that the only time it's not laughable is when it tries to be funny. And as TV takes on comic book adventure go, this makes Misfits of Science look good.