Dusting Off The Shelf: Letter J

7 Mar

Going with something different for this installment… in my collection of DVDs, I have several of the really bad superhero movies/TV shows. So today I pulled out the 1997 TV movie, aka pilot episode, of Justice League of America.

Synopsis: The Justice League fight to protect New Metro, while trying to have personal lives.

The Flash, Fire, ATOM, Green Lantern and Martian Manhunter work together as heroes. The Weatherman is threatening New Metro with massive and dangerous storms. A poor girl gets caught up in a lab accident and becomes Ice and BOOM! she has to join the JLA and help save the city.

Why I chose this film: I said it above, I have a strange collection of these things… I have a weird love for them. This one follows on the heels of Lois & Clark and The Flash, both aired earlier in the 90s, but sadly, lacks both series charm.

The thing is- this has a bunch of good actors in it (Miguel Ferrer, David Ogden Steirs, David Krumholtz, Elisa Donovan…) and the potential exists for something but… This is too soft, it doesn’t allow for the grit of even those previous series- which weren’t very gritty! It was so bad that CBS never even aired the movie in the US.

Will I watch it again: Yeah, no. I would rather watch the the Roger Corman’s Fantastic Four, and I’m sure y’all know how god awful that is!

It does have a couple laugh out loud worthy bits of dialogue… but sadly, that’s not enough to bring me back again.

Why you should watch it too (or run far away!): Nope. Turn around and walk away. I have high hopes that even Zack Snyder can’t screw up the upcoming film as bad as this was. There’s a reason it didn’t get a series order.