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Announce Date: 4/30/08 | Subtitles: English Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 (4×3, VC-1 encoded 1080p) Sound Quality: Dolby Digital English 5.1 |
Episodes: Special Features – Interviews: – Storyboards: Storyboards: The Blueprint For Justice: The creative team of Justice League discuss storyboarding process. |
Official Synopsis: Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Flash, Review: Justice League‘s first season brought together the seven greatest heroes the world has ever known. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, The Even with the hard-to-stomach episodes, this season does provide its fair share of action. If you keep in mind that this was the Timm-verse teams first foray into such a large roster of superheroes, they can’t be expected to get it right the first go around. Indeed, the second season of Justice League was much improved over the first, with a few design tweaks (goodbye old Superman!) and with more fleshed out characters. Due to calibration issues between Warner Bros. Animation studios and the animation studios overseas that the episodes were animated in, this season came back looking a lot brighter in tone than originally planned (this was fixed for season two and subsequent seasons) and as such a lot of episodes just look too…alive. There’s too much being shown at times and while episodes like “In Blackest Night” and “Legends” are bright episodes to themselves, other efforts like “A Knight in Shadows” still look far too lit and that in itself is one of the biggest drawbacks of the season. Other rough patches include the voice actors getting into their characters (aside from Conroy who, as Batman, is nothing short of a pro at this point in time), especially with George Newbern (Superman) and Pretty much all of the episodes presented here are enjoyable to watch, even if episodes like “War World” are included. I really just dislike that story, more for just the lame story than anything. I actually dig “Metamorphosis”, despite it being rather hated by fans (or at least was when it originally aired—who knows what they think of it now), and I don’t have a problem with any of the other episodes on the set, to be honest. Back when they originally aired I no doubt dissected them till I was blue in the face, but now that I can just enjoy them, the flaws are less glaring to me, although I still do notice little quirks that the first season has in comparison to later seasons. Since I’ve lived and breathed this show since the day it hit airwaves, I could undoubtedly fill up the pages with comments about the individual episodes. But that’s not why you’re reading this review; this season has already been readily available to own on DVD for the past two years. The Blu-ray And so we move onto the Blu-ray portion of the set. One thing I had hoped for with this release was that we would see the 16×9 transfers for this season come to light. While the season was animated in 4×3, it was formatted for 16×9 so that any data that was cropped off the top and bottom was something easily sacrificed (i.e., Batman’s ears or So with its 1.33:1 transfer, how does the set look? Well, I’ll be honest…once I got over my dislike of the aspect ratio, the set really does look pretty damn nice. The horrendous transfer for “Paradise Lost” is finally gone and replaced with a crystal clear 1080p VC-1 encoded transfer. It all looks fantastic and to watch this series in such clarity is something I’d never thought was possible. Compression is non-existent and there were even chapters worked into the mix, so it’s much easier to skip about episodes now. The video is definitely a plus for the set, but the Blu-ray goodness doesn’t stop there. We’re also treated to a Dolby Digital 5.1 mix that is also quite respectable in its own right. While I doubt you’ll notice a whole lot of new audio popping up in surrounding channels that your A/V receiver didn’t already matrix out via Pro Logic IIx, the new mixes do have a bit of bass to them, which is a nice change up from the previous release. It isn’t anything that will rock the house, but it is a decent mix regardless and those hoping to experience the series in a more thrilling manner will no doubt be pleased. The only other Blu-ray elements to the disc to talk about is the menus, which…there really aren’t any. The pop-up menus are easy to navigate, but as for any real “home” menu, there isn’t much of one and the majority of your navigating will be done via the pop-up, as, like all First up are the three audio commentaries, which are all very informative, though one has to wonder why they didn’t choose to talk over the premiere episode of the series. The “Legends” commentary is a particular treat because I absolutely love that story. Fans will complain that they don’t talk over both parts of the episode, but as they’ve proven on STAS episodes, they can pretty much condense all their thoughts of an episode arc into one commentary. In addition, they often talk over their favored episodes in the multi-part arcs (hence why “Savage Time” part two has the commentary). Also of note is in “The “Inside Justice League” is a great featurette that features the producers of Justice League. Jason Hillhouse is back moderating and does a great job asking questions and setting everyone up for some informative talk from the creative team. A lot of the information most fans will know already from browsing the internet, but it’s nice to have it one, tight package. “Justice League: The First Mission” features an intro by Jason Looking at the rest of the special features, you can probably already deduce that they’re repeated special features from the single disc releases. While the Bruce Timm episode intros are not to be found on this release, “The Look of the League” and “Storyboards” are repeated special features from the single disc outings. This is nice for those who didn’t purchase the single disc releases, but disappointing for those who already saw them the first go-a-round. Also included here, although not in Easter Egg form this time around (as it was on the first season DVD release), is the “Blackhawk Theme Music Video.” It’s just out in broad daylight for the Blu-ray release, likely because there aren’t any menus here to hide anything in. Overall I’m mixed on this set. I want to recommend it because I want to see the rest of Justice League and Justice League I wish I could tell you this was a fantastic set, but fans shouldn’t be too surprised this is a rehash in the greatest sense. I suppose I expected too much, but I still had opens, even up to putting the disc inside the PS3, that Warner would have just misprinted and there would actually be widescreen transfers here. I know I’m picking on that one element a lot, but the Blu-ray format isn’t mainstream enough for buyers to put up with this type of mistreatment. The market for this set is incredibly slim and I’m not entirely sure that Warner did anyone any favors by releasing it. Still, I hope it sells well enough for future seasons to be released, as those will undoubtedly be worth the upgrade, new extras or not. As is, this one is only recommended if you are a serious die-hard and have the cash to spare. Previous Owners: Skip It. |
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