The many reasons that fanboys have to rejoice regarding the highly anticipated Warner Brothers Home Entertainment January 27, 2015 DVD/Blu-ray (BD)/Ultraviolet release of the film "Justice League: Throne of Atlantis" include a highly publicized terrific revamping of Aquaman. Those who feel that this hero whose orange and green attire resembles a Howard Johnson's restaurant is the Jar Jar Binks of the League no longer have a reason to carp (of course pun intended.)
The fanboy joy, which the bright clear images and pristine audio in the BD version enhances, continues with having Christopher Gorham of the 2003-04 cult-classic sci-fi series "Jake 2.0" wonderfully voice The Flash and Jerry O'Connell of "Sliders" do just as well with Superman.
As an aside, "Throne" is based on the graphic novel of the same name.
The following clip, courtesy of YouTube, of a proverbial early scene from "Throne" nicely combines elements of both the nature of the League at that point in time and the mission that they will soon undertake.
A bizarre deep ocean attack against an American submarine in the opening minutes of "Throne" sets the stage for the newly formed (but incomplete) League to simultaneously attempt to prevent a faction from the titular underwater kingdom from attacking us "surface dwellers" and to bring future Aquaman Arthur Curry into the fold. Curry knowing that his bond with sea creatures, having extraordinary strength, and possessing skin that knives cannot penetrate means that he is not like other boys. The problem is that he does not know why he has those characteristics.
The primary story to which these developments relate awesomely brings in elements of sci-fi franchises that have the same high quality as the D.C. Universe (DCU) world of which the League and "Atlantis" are a part.
The most obvious parallel relates to the similarities between half-human/half-Atlantian Curry and his evil step-brother Orm and Thor and Loki of the Marvel franchise. Both sets of rivals must contend with both whom Mom (or Dad) likes best and disagreements regarding the proper policy toward humans.
The questionable at best effort of Orm to convince his people that surface dwellers are evil and threaten the Atlantian way of life further evokes thoughts of the Xindi plot in the series "Star Trek: Enterprise." Like the Atlantians, a portion of the Xindi positively respond to manipulation that is intended to create intense ill will regarding humans. Both story lines further have parallel developments regarding reveals that greatly impact developments.
The Xindi and Marvel themes continue through to the final epic confrontation between our heroes and Orm and his followers.
The background developments regarding the League members include a romance that involves a wonderful PG-13 meta-human "embrace" and having the League itself being at a maturity level that places it squarely in the middle of the more established League that fanboys know and love and the Young Justice team of the Unreal TV reviewed series of that name. The hilarious phrase "Yaa, we're forming a book club" provides a good sense of that developmental stage.
All of this amounts to a fun movie that has a couple of "bad" words and other mildly edgy elements to entertain the kids while maintaining enough of a classic element to appeal to their older siblings from the era of the "Justice League" series and even their parents who watched "Super Friends" on Saturday mornings in the '70s.
The abundance of extras include 25 minutes of the 2014 New York Comic-Con Panel (which includes Aquaman voice actor Matt Lanter ) discussing things such as the reason for excluding Aquaman from "Justice League:War," the tailor-made "Robin and Nightwing" sequence that "Throne" producer James Tucker explains fills out another sequence, and four apt animated shorts that include "Aquaman's Outarageous Adventure" from the Unreal TV reviewed second season of the uber-awesome "Batman: The Brave and the Bold."
Anyone with questions or comments regarding "Throne" is strongly encouraged to either email me or connect on Twitter via @tvdvdguy.
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