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Lego DC Comics Super Heroes – Justice League: Cosmic Clash

Lego DC Comics Super Heroes – Justice League: Cosmic Clash
Studio: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment
Format: Available on Blu-ray, DVD and Digital HD
Home Video Release Date: Digital - February 9th, 2016; Home Video - March 1st, 2016

Synopsis: The brilliant, hyper-obsessive-compulsive, super-computer Brainiac is combing the universe for new additions to his collection of worlds when he stumbles upon a ripe planet for his taking – Earth. But Brainiac quickly discovers Earth has a “firewall” – the Justice League. When Brainiac cleverly displaces several members of the Justice League to other time periods in Earth’s history, Batman, Flash and Cyborg must build and use the Cosmic Treadmill to race across time to retrieve their comrades – while members of the Legion of Super Heroes attempt to hold off Brainiac’s assault. Only time will tell in this battle for the fate of the Earth and the Justice League!

The cast of Lego DC Comics Super Heroes – Justice League: Cosmic Clash features some of the top voiceover artists in the industry voicing the core Justice League heroes: Troy Baker (Batman), Nolan North (Superman), Grey Griffin (Wonder Woman), Josh Keaton (Green Lantern), Khary Payton (Cyborg) and James Arnold Taylor (The Flash). Phil LaMarr (Futurama, Static Shock, Pulp Fiction) joins the LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes realm as the voice of Brainiac. The Legion of Super-Heroes also assists the Justice League efforts, spotlighting the voices of Jessica DiCicco (Supergirl), Kari Walhgren (Saturn Girl), Yuri Lowenthal (Cosmic Boy) and Andy Milder (Lightning Lad). Also along for the fun is Phil Morris, reprising his Justice League role as Vandal Savage, and Jason Spisak as Captain Fear.

Lego DC Comics Super Heroes – Justice League: Cosmic Clash is directed by Rick Morales from a script by Jim Krieg. Sam Register, Jill Wilfert and Jason Cosler are executive producers. Benjamin Melniker & Michael Uslan are co-executive producers, and Brandon Vietti is supervising producer.

Bonus Content:
-"The Justice League: Caught On Camera" - They may be the world’s greatest crime fighters, but Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Flash, Cyborg and Supergirl test Batman’s patience by flubbing their lines, missing their cues and basically stinking up the screen literally!

Lego DC Comics Superheroes - Justice League: Cosmic Clash Review
By Ed Liu

In my review of the last LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes DTV movie, I wished for more LEGO-centric twists mixed in with the self-consciously silly humor and stock supervillain plotting. Without delving into spoilers, I will say that there is a moment in the climax of LEGO DC Comics Super Heroes – Justice League: Cosmic Clash which is absolutely, 110% exactly the kind of thing I was hoping for, in addition to being a riotously funny tribute to other cartoons common in the 1980’s. This one moment may be the emblematic reason why I so thoroughly enjoyed Cosmic Clash, but it is by far not the only one. While Attack of the Legion of Doom left me curiously underwhelmed, Cosmic Clash delivers just about everything I want out of these movies.

Cosmic Clash pits the forces of the Justice League against the wiles of the hyper-intelligent robot Brainiac, presented here as a hyper-meticulous collector seeking to use the Earth to fill a hole in his collection of shrunken-down planets. When the Justice League thwarts his initial assault, Brainiac develops a terrible counter-weapon that flings Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern to far-flung eras in the timestream. It will be up to Batman and the Flash to use a newly constructed Cosmic Treadmill to travel through time and rescue their lost team members, while Cyborg rallies League reservists to stall Brainiac.

Cosmic Clash is yet another variation on the theme of the Challenge of the Super Friends episode “Secret Origins of the Super Friends,” last recycled as the foundation for JLA Adventures: Trapped in Time. However, while Trapped in Time plays its scenario mostly straight, Cosmic Clash plays it for laughs. The results are surprisingly successful on both the comedy and action dimensions. The LEGO DC Comics movies have never had a problem with playing their characters for big, dumb laughs, but Cosmic Clash has numerous moments with surprising emotional potency. The denouement of Green Lantern’s rescue is a rousingly successful moment, but it is soon topped by the dystopian future that Batman must rescue Superman from. Batman’s actions are all perfectly in character but still pack genuine surprises, and the sacrifices demanded of him can make even the most jaded comic book fan wonder how he can possibly get out of the situation he’s in.

I must also single out the vocal performance of Troy Baker’s Batman, who carries much of the film, as well as that of Khary Payton as Cyborg, who repeats the same feat I noted in the Attack of the Legion of Doom review of keeping this version of Cyborg recognizable to all the other Cyborgs he’s voiced, while also giving him noticeable distinct mannerisms.

Cosmic Clash comes in a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack. On-disc bonus features are pretty slim, and are limited to a combination gag reel/behind-the-scenes look that splices vocal outtakes/alternate renderings with pre-production animatics or animated storyboards; and a brace of promotional trailers. Retail exclusives also pack in a very nice LEGO mini-figure of Cosmic Boy from the Legion of Super-Heroes, who makes an appearance in the last third of the movie. The mini-figure features two different faces on the head and little LEGO discs that render his magnetic powers.

While I’m disappointed that the JLA Adventures line was stillborn after one movie, the banner it dropped seems to have been picked up nicely by the LEGO DC Super Heroes movies. These movies nicely update the younger-audience sensibilities of Super Friends without being quite so campy or insulting to the intelligence of the viewer. Cosmic Clash is an excellent installment in the franchise: a real delight from start to finish.


Videos

Lego DC Comics Superheroes: DC Comics Super Heroes – Justice League: Cosmic Clash is now available to own on DVD, Blu-ray and for Digital Download from from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. Also be sure to check out the The World's Finest review of the Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham video game, available to own on all major video game consoles from Warner Bros. Interactive.

 

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