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An alteration of the timeline for the superhero, The Flash, creates ripples that disastrously alters the Universe. The Flash must team with other heroes to restore the timeline while the Earth is ravaged by a war between Aquaman’s Atlantis and Wonder Woman’s Amazons
The DC animated film series has caught up with the changes for the “New 52” that happened in the comics
And strangely, the speedster is the reason for this HUGE change, unlike the usual suspects of Superman or Batman
The film starts with a young Barry Allen and his mum stuck on the side of the road, car broken down and instantly you see the bond this mother and son have (plus a very Spiderman-esque, “With great power, comes great resposibility” moment too). This quickly shifts to Barry coming home to find his mother dead from a home invasion on her b’day.
Now I’ll admit, I’ve always seen the Speedster as the joker of the Justice League, but Flashpoint Paradox shows him as a responsible and loving member of the team instead. Yes there are wise cracks, but this story shows even more so how Flash is the soul of this team. Now we’ve seen what happens when Lex Luthor killed Flash, the JLA become the Justice Lords and took over the world, but what about a world where Flash’s mother survived the home invasion, Bruce died in the alleyway instead of his mother and father, Superman was found by the government instead of the Kents, Aquaman and Wonder Woman formed an alliance, that led to war after they have an affair and Mara is killed by Wonder Woman and Aquaman looks for revenge… Well, the world is pretty fucked up to be fair and Barry Allen is the only man who can fix it (Well, Superman could if he wasn’t a reclusive frail man that has no clue)
I had to read up on this after watching it as I am MASSIVELY behind on DC comics of late (Sorry, but Marvel has held my attention far more in teh last few years)
Flashpoint was the end of the “52” years and the start of the “New 52” reboot and it makes complete sense. BUT, unless you know what changed, you just have to accept the changes and the WTF moment you get at the end of this animated film
Now I’ve said this before and I will say it again.
Marvel have won the live action films for their heroes and although I loved Man of Steel, I was NOT a fan of The Dark Knight Trilogy. I would be exceptionally happy if DC stuck to doing the animated films, while Marvel stick to doing the feature films.
Flashpoint Paradox is a perfect animated film from DC and leads us straight into Justice League: War, which is coming next year (there is even a little post credits scene that brings that into readiness)
The animation at the start was a little off and sometimes I’m not a fan of the animation style in this film, especially when it comes to some of the fight scenes where they are trying to show power in the characters (the elongated look of the character, almost Aeon Flux style), but I like the changes to the characters and the story is top notch aswell, so it is totally deserving a space in your DvD/BluRay shelves
While Gru, the ex-supervillain is adjusting to family life and an attempted honest living in the jam business, a secret Arctic laboratory is stolen. The Anti-Villain League decides it needs an insider’s help and recruits Gru in the investigation. Together with the eccentric AVL agent, Lucy Wilde, Gru concludes that his prime suspect is the presumed dead supervillain, El Macho, whose his teenage son is also making the moves on his eldest daughter, Margo. Seemingly blinded by his over-protectiveness of his children and his growing mutual attraction to Lucy, Gru seems on the wrong track even as his minions are being quietly kidnapped en masse for some malevolent purpose.
Straight off the bat, this film made me laugh so hard throughout that I was actually crying… So before I even talk about it, it’s a win!
Gru (Steve Carell), Dr. Nefario (Russell Brand), the minions and the girls are back and now Gru is a totally legit business owner making jams and assorted jellies (none of which are even remotely edible according to the Minions)
This is when we meet Lucy (Kristen Wiig), a super secret agent for an agency that ONLY deals with the super villain crazy plans (like Gru stealing the moon in the first film). Who then kidnaps Gru and a couple of the minions and takes them back to the super secret submarine base to meet Silas Ramsbottom (Steve Coogan) (heehee, Bottom!), to try and get Gru to help them catch the supervillain that stole a secret formulae that turns even the meakest and mildest creatures, into crazy, indestructible Frankenstein like monsters.
At the same point, Gru’s girls, Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Agnes (Elsie Fisher) and Edith (Dana Gaier) are trying to find Gru a girlfriend and a mother for themselves… As are his neighbours, with varying, crazy results (some of which are so similar to dates I’ve had in real life, I think I might be the films muse)
Ok, as I already stated at the begining, this film was HILARIOUSLY funny, so this review is gonna be short and sweet
The 3D was excellent. The laughs were many and varied and made for both kids AND adults.
