Neil Welch A power struggle and a couple of assassinations in Atlantis result in Arthur Curry, long lost heir to the throne, being called upon to take up his birthright. This does not go down well with his half-brother (and usurping assassin) Orm, who is looking to wage war on the surface dwellers. Fortunately, the Justice League decides to get involved.The comic on which this story was based was an OK story blessed with stellar art. Well, the visuals in this animated movie are OK. The story is fine, albeit the New 52 characterisation of various of the characters still jars. And it's this last point which takes the edge of what would otherwise be a really good movie. As it is, it's just OK.

zanedrx The story is better than the first one, interesting but still unable to compare with old DC animations.Batman is super cool, as in War; Superman and Green Lantern are still annoyingly arrogant; Wonder Woman is not as stupid as in War, but still dumb; Shazam and Flash are alright, but nothing better than expectation.Aquaman: with a not so good history, Aquaman's return in DC animation is stronger than ever. The final battle proved Aquaman's ability to go toe-to-toe with Superman, Wonder Woman, or just practically the whole Justice League.

Alex John I'm unsure what the audience is suppose to be considering one can see people getting killed, regardless the movie has a very stupid plot, very stupid action and very stupid ending. To sum it up, interracial(interspecies) superhero versus evil misogynistic racist nationalistic dictator. I'm not even making this up, it's the writer that actually made it this, but it's even worse than I'm writing it, since it actually has a "magic negro" (look it up on wikipedia) at one point (I'm not talking about Cyborg). As you might have guessed, this movie is full of bad stereotypes.A few sub-plots and anti-logic events: -Superman has the hots for Wonder Woman, kisses her then takes her on a date but as soon as Lois Lane appears he backpedals very fast; -Aquaman looks in his mid 20s-30s and acts like a shy 15 years old kid when it comes to romance (the same with Cyborg);-whales are summoned at the bottom of the ocean (in real life they would die from the pressure long before they reach that depth);-a Megalodon is summoned; -a giant tsunami is created bent on hitting the East Coast of the USA, but then is stopped on purpose by the same Atlantian invaders so they can just march in (what's wrong with letting the tsunami hit, drowning most of the surface dwellers and then killing off the survivors? my guess is the only explanation would be that they feared they would pollute the oceans); -without explanation the US army waits for them as the tsunami is about to hit, then the tsunami disappears (I have no idea how they knew it would do that, even if they were warned by Batman about the Atlantian invasion), then they order the king of Atlantis to surrender... and we're speaking about a military force (the Atlanis army) that in the lore has no problem in conquering the surface world and killing the superheroes;-the war ends by the stupidest deus ex machina plot I've seen: Cyborg records the king of Atlantis admitting that he killed their former queen; -Aquaman, a bum for 20-30 years, suddenly wants to become the king of a civilization he has nothing in common with, other than his blood; -Batman and most of the Justice League have no problem sitting at the bottom of the ocean wearing only breathing masks, etc. etc. etc. etc.The entire plot is filled with stupid action and plot holes that could only pass if a kid was watching this, and I wouldn't let a kid watch this as it has people killing other people (shown directly). Very, very, very disappointed by this, it's the worst animated movie I saw, even if I could forgive the plot and say "well, they're politically motivated to show things like black people at the bottom of the ocean, and it's just a cartoon about fictional characters (awaiting a black king Arthur for the lulz)", but I can't forgive absolutely 0 logic bs like whale and normal people (with no gear on) at the bottom of the ocean not imploding from the pressure (especially since even Cyborg admits at the start that he couldn't do it if he didn't remove his lungs, so wtf).

dramafreak42 DC's new animated continuity, based off the New 52, continues it's steady march into mediocrity. Not keeping up extensively with the current state of DC comics, I don't know if the problem is the source material or the adaptations. However given that none of the New 52 based films have managed to hit it out of the park like say "New Frontier" or "Crisis on Two Earths" did, I'm inclined to feel the source material is the core problem.In any case, this features the introduction of Aquaman into this new continuity. And to be fair, it starts out pretty strongly. Arthur Curry is a pretty well realized character, and his being pulled between two worlds is established well early on. The existing Justice League members are fairly solid, with Rosario Dawson taking over the voicing of Wonder Woman being a fairly substantial improvement over the grating portrayal from "Justice League: War." The strongest thing, as with "War" and even the atrocious "Son of Batman," is the action scenes. This appears to be what the film wants to be the focus. It wants to be an action film first, and a Justice League film second. The action may be solid, but it's not in service of much and the whole thing starts to unravel about halfway through.This is one of those cases where the 72 minute runtime really hampers the whole thing. Arthur Curry is a character going through a fairly complex personal journey and it's impossible to give that the time and weight it needs while also trying to service the entire Justice League at the time. The result is that once the main conflict kicks in and the struggle for the titular throne takes center stage, all nuance goes out the window.The biggest problem really is the villains. Orm should be a very conflicted character, feeling rightfully cheated out of his throne as well as concerned about what is best for his people. Instead he's shown as a one dimensional villain who is also possibly the dumbest villain in recent film history. He summons a massive tidal wave, and that wave closes in on the city of Metropolis it's said flatly by Batman that there's no way they can stop it. But then the wave doesn't hit. It just parts like a curtain to reveal Orm's army. Why would he not send in the tidal wave as his first strike??? Why offer what is basically a fair fight of army vs. army??? And the way he's defeated feels cheap. Black Manta doesn't fair much better. There are hints of the deeper villain under the surface, but ultimately he's just the standard secondary baddie.Even though the action scenes are good, the level of violence is unnecessary. The action really isn't that much worse than would be found on a children's TV cartoon, except that where a character would just be punched to the ground, here they are bloodily sliced in half. It makes sense for some characters, but when even the "heroes" are violently dispatching Atlanteans left and right something feels off. The film even tries to have it both ways, but having the Atlanteans remove their helmets when peace is declared showing unique character models for each one. It's a good humanizing moment, but it also makes you immediately think "how many good men who thought they were defending their kingdom did the heroes slaughter before we got to this point?" The answer is "way too many for this to feel OK." It is at least an improvement over "Son of Batman," in so far as none of the characters completely fail. Even Orm, as one dimensional as he is, is functional as a villain versus the insanely boring depiction of Deathstroke in that film. And there's nobody as grating as Damian was in that film either, thank goodness. It's about on par with "Justice League: War," with the same total number of strengths and weaknesses, just not the same ones. For instance Wonder Woman is better, but the film loses steam rather than builds to a thrilling climax. There's a stronger story to be told here, but the film is more concerned about the next action set piece than it is about a solid character payoff or emotional through-line in anything but a very ham-fisted fashion.