Justice League: Star-Crossed

Received and watched “Star-Crossed” today, the three-ep (68 minute) second season finale for Justice League. Lots of publicity on this one, especially since it’s only the fifth DVD for the series, and it’s meant to drum up interest in the third season of the series, Justice League Unlimited.

So, how does it measure up? I’ve tried to avoid as many spoilers as I can below, for those who haven’t seen the episode arc yet …

The Good

• It’s all about the relationships, stupid. While watching the JL deck bad guys, what’s made the series interesting has been how the different characters — many of them orphans and outsiders — relate to each other. This ep marks profound changes in that arrangement (esp. since Season 3 will be single eps, and a much broader cast), but as such is only to be praised.
• Hawkgirl is one of the leads here (no matter what the DVD box looks like), and the arrival of a Thanagarian fleet on an “errand of mercy” suddenly puts her in a position of having to examine where her loyalties lie, especially as some secrets about her begin to come out. Decisions, regrets, and re-regrets abound. Plenty of opportunity here for great characterization and plotty goodness.
• Batman, as usual, steals the show, coming across as smarter, more resourceful, and more downright heroic than anyone else. The “big unmasking” scene in the department store is particularly amusing here.
• The Flash, though often his usual doltish self, actually picks up some good lines and actions nevertheless. His hug of HG at the end is particularly poignant.
• The Thanagarians have been portrayed about as many different ways as Hawkman has over DC’s history, and this particular iteration certainly isn’t too unusual. That their main galactic opponents are the Gordanians is some nice continuity-fodder, though..
• Alfred rocks, even if Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. seems to be losing his voice.
• Wayne Manor! The Dinosaur! The Giant Penny! Nifty!
• How does humanity respond to invaders and occupiers? Some nice bits here, especially with a bit of Bruce Wayne overriding the normal dour Batman mode.

The Bad

• If you’re going to have Thanagarians show up, and have their leader be HG’s long-lost boyfriend, having it not be Carter Hall/Katar Hol is a crying shame. I mean, sure, this is non-continuity we’re talking here, but all the more reason to let that happen.
• I haven’t seen much of Season Two of JL, but it disturbs me that there were such profound lies in HG’s past. Something like this you really want to have foreshadowed, at least enough to make people go, “Aha! That makes sense now!” Instead, too much stuff comes out of the blue (so to speak).
• For all that HG is one of the centerpieces here, she doesn’t really do all that much, at least not in the trademark bopping-heads-and-taking-names style that’s made her so loved. Indeed, she’s a lot more angsty-conflicted than usual, spends a lot of time tormented over torn loyalties, and her final decision doesn’t quite ring true.
• The bad guys are … well, bad guys. The lead bad guy, sure, he gets some good lines, some basic motivations (though it all sort comes off flat by the end), but his main henchfolk are just leering nasty sorts, sans nuance. That’s disappointing for a series that’s done some good villain motivations in the past.
• Green Lantern is the other principle player, as HG’s main (human) squeeze. Nonetheless, he spends a lot of time depowered, and relatively ineffectual — though I’m glad to see that, when actually using his Ring, the writers have started having him do some creative (fists, drills) stuff with it. In the end, his reactions to HG’s decision are more whimper than bang — like HG, we expect something more forceful from him.
• Jeez, pardon the political incorrectness, but is Wonder Woman suffering from PMS or what? I’d expect her to be a lot more compassionate than some of the others, and she’s anything but. She does end up (with GL de-ringed and Supes depowered) as the main muscle for the group more than once.
• Martian Manhunter does some nifty shapeshifting into nasties, and there’s an extended psionic probe scene that’s sort of interesting — but it feels too much like it was added in solely to give J’onn something to do. As the character whose loyalties have been most tested in the past (recall his betrayal of the League to Morgan LaFey in the first season), you’d expect him to be the most sympathetic to HG’s plight, and he is — but aside from some unusual scenes of him in his Martian form, there’s just not enough MM here to make it worthwhile.
• While character bits have been a JL strong point, the opposite — battle scenes — in this arc are particularly weak. With the exception of one down in the dark, it’s all pretty cookie cutter “The JL bashes them a lot until they haul out a big glowing staff/bazooka and hit them from behind” fighting of the sort that the series has too often been guilty of.
• What do Thanagarian pupils look like? With helmets on, they’re slitted pupils, like cats. When HG’s SO has his helmet off, it’s the same. When HG does, she has pretty green eyes with round pupils. Odd.

The Ugly

• JL has never handled either the military nor world governmental orgnaizations (the UN) very well. Looking back on both the first episode of the series and similar cases since, the “world leaders” are almost always flummoxed and ineffectual, and the military is almost always ranting and ineffectual. Ho-hum.
• The JL animation style has grown more dependent on computer graphics, and not only are they jarring against the more traditional animation, they’re just crudely done. Granted, there’s time and cost involved, but given the number of scenes with Lots of Thanagarian Ships or Lots of Thanagarians, making them all up by simply cutting and pasting a single ship/figure over and over and over again is … well, not terribly believable.
• By the way, simply masking off the top and the bottom of the screen is not letterboxing. Fortunately, that’s not what they’ve actually done, and the widescreen mode actually does show more picture, but if you look at the initial menu they show to choose between, them, it does look like the widescreen is just a black mask top and bottom. Get with it, folks.

So, in summary?

Well, any JL is better than no JL. There are some keen moments here, mostly having to do with character conflicts. There are some fairly lame moments, too, and HG — who’s trademark has been action and physical confrontation of the things that bother her — ends up doing a lot of standing around and being conflicted. For an arc that’s theoretically all about her, that’s almost unforgivable.

Like a starving man, I’d rather have Taco Bell than nothing, but when there’s a really nice steakhouse across the street, it makes Taco Bell somewhat less than satisfying. There are any number of better, stronger JL arcs (“Twilight,” the season two opener comes immediately to mind), and I’d much rather have had that episode set show up on disc than this.

But if “Star-Crossed” was what WB wanted to release, I’d rather buy my copy and so encourage them to produce more. And it’s not like I won’t be watching it a few times more in my life … 🙂