Rent Justice Society: World War II (2021)

Justice Society: World War II review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

Justice Society: World War II marks yet another DC Comics animated story involving time-travel, The Flash, and the connected universe. So here’s how bizarre this film appears if you haven’t been playing along at home. This picture exists within the new DC Comics animated movie universe but not the previous one. It’s complicated as the film Justice League Apokolips War wiped the slate clean for a new movie universe that has apparently started with Superman: Man of Tomorrow. None of this is all that important for figuring out this film but I just thought it was interesting that the animated movies are now as dense to explain as the comic books.

Anyway, this story revolves around The Flash accidentally traveling back in time and to another universe, Earth-2 to be precise. He ends up in the universe where the Justice Society was a thing during World War II. In this much different version of the 1940s, superheroes still exist under the radar but wage a war against the Nazis by siding with the Allies. This secretive Justice Society is composed of Steve Trevor, Black Canary, Hawkman, Hourman, Jay Garrick / Flash, and led by Wonder Woman, all of them working undercover by order of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Flash of Earth-1, real name Barry Allen, finds himself thrown into this conflict and aiding in the fight, despite the Society being unsure of this other Flash. I mean, he wears a skintight suit while their Flash wears a hat with wings!

It’s rather surprising how lukewarm such a picture appears. It feels as though there’s some promise in the setting the way the film begins with a newsreel, trying to capture that retro vibe. However, that style seems somewhat shattered by throwing Earth-1 into the mix. One would think that a film where a Flash of the modern age finds himself struggling to adjust to the culture shock of 1940s Germany. Unfortunately, most of his absurd interactions begin and end with his first encounter of zooming around a battlefield and happening upon the enemy (“Nazis!?”).

There are still a few unique twists with alternative discoveries of new heroes. Clark Kent keeps his Superman identity on the downlow by pretending to be a war correspondent by the name of Shakespeare. Aquaman also shows up for another feud with the surface world and plays a bigger role once the Nazis start taking a greater interest in ruling over the seas to take advantage of the land. There’s also some decent relationships brewed between the Justice Society but there isn’t much time to explore them deeper than a handful of brief and familiar tropes.

Everything else within the film is pretty par for the course. The animation style veers heavier into the retro but not very far as it feels like there’s a cohesive style for this new connected universe. The action is well-staged if never being all that clever or enticing than the other DC Comics animated movies. The character arcs also feel rather standard. With all things considered, this film feels like an extended episode of Justice League Unlimited. It’s just a shame it doesn’t feel like one of the better ones, existing more as a lukewarm plot to place the Justice Society in animated form.