The Valeyard

Just watched this. Really good! Definitely ranks up with the best (Wonder Woman and New Frontier IMO). With this and Planet Hulk (which I also really enjoyed), both DC & Marvel animation is raising the bar.

TheMovieman

^ Yeah, it was pretty good but I could not stand hearing William Baldwin's voice as Batman...

MisterHowie

Is the Aquaman pilot on the special features? Thanks.

TheMovieman

Yes it is.

whotony

Was it on disc 2, cause the one disc version I rented didn't have that.

TheMovieman

It's a Blu-ray exclusive, and the BD only has one disc (the digital copy is via download).

DthRdrX

Just watched it. IMO one of the best DC-WB releases yet.

Better yet: The next title is going to be a Batman: Red Hood movie that looks in line with the comics.

MisterHowie

Excellent (re: Aquaman pilot and other special features). Looking forward to this whenever I get around to buying it.

PhantomStranger

A pretty good story, here were my thoughts on the picture quality for the PQ Tier thread over at AVS.

recommendation: Tier 1.5

A new release from Warner Bros. that made its premiere today, the direct-to-video animated movie does not look substantially different from prior efforts in the DC series of cartoons. Encoded in VC-1 like every other Blu-ray from Warner, the 75-minute main feature is included on a BD-25. An estimated average for the video bitrate is around 15 to 18 Mbps. Stylistically the animation does not look that far removed from other animated DC movies like Green Lantern: First Flight, or Wonder Woman. Those discs did look slightly better with more polished animation, which drove me to give them recommendations as high as tier one. The line-art for Justice League: COTE looks a tad sketchier than on those Blu-rays. That is one of the main reasons why a lower ranking felt appropriate.

Given the blend of traditional animation and digital animation used to produce the movie, it is comparatively hard separating out compression problems from issues endemic to the source material. There are moderate amounts of banding, though compression noise and chroma artifacts are eliminated by the very modest bitrates afforded the encode. It is not a stellar job but could be accurately described as serviceable. Animation should be translated to Blu-ray very cleanly without the aforementioned banding. Still, most viewers are likely to gloss over this barely visible distraction.

Some new techniques in the animation appear to have been used which soften and blur the image for select scenes. Moments of diffused lighting through the magic of CGI take away just a fraction of the razor-sharpness most hand-drawn animation exhibits. The sporadic appearance of momentary blurring looks intentional, and possibly a side-effect of the animation process. Background animation looks completely rendered in the digital domain, as opposed to the moving objects which are still animated by hand. While the CGI-aided backgrounds look very good, the line-art for characters like Superman and Batman look rough in comparison. The quality of that animation was drawn at the standards of a television cartoon more than a theatrical feature. Minor but frequent aliasing accompanies the sharp, black outlines of each character.

Colors pop off the screen in true comic book-style. From the bright red hues of the Flash's suit to the deepest black of Batman's costume, all primary colors and shades are rendered brilliantly and explode on the screen in vivid quality. There are zero flaws or damage of any kind to the picture. As a Blu-ray sourced directly from the digital files made to create the movie's animation, the chance of post-processing like sharpening or filtering is eliminated and not a concern.

While not quite up to par with recent DC efforts on Blu-ray in terms of picture quality, Justice League: COTE still looks very good. The middle of tier one looks like a good fit as a recommendation. Anyone familiar with the direct-to-video animated features will know what to expect, as this movie continues that tradition quite well. Though a little more spent on the animation, than on stunt voice-casting like James Woods, would likely produce better-looking results. On a minor note, the lack of a lossless soundtrack is very disappointing for a new release.

Included on this BD is a short 11-minute cartoon featuring the Spectre in a self-contained story. For the purposes of this placement it did not impact my assessment, but on its own the short would rank somewhere in tier three. Horrible artifacting for a VC-1 encode that rarely goes above 10 Mbps. On top of the pathetic compression job, the entire short is given the appearance of simulated film damage as a homage to 1970s cop shows to establish tone.

Watching on a 60” Pioneer KURO plasma at 1080p/24, fed by a PS3 (firmware 3.15) from a viewing distance of six feet.

Adam Tyner

There's some really nasty macroblocking in the movie proper as well. Two shots in particular stand out...one is Batman leaping out of the shadows, and the other is in the spoiler box below. Admittedly, the JPEG compression in this screenshot exacerbates it, but I absolutely spotted this on my 60" Kuro as well:

Giantrobo

Keep up the good work DC. I haven't seen this yet but I'm looking forward too it. I didn't even know about this film until last week because I don't frequent this forum. When I get a BR player this will be one of the 1st discs I buy.

Iron_Giant

Loved it, Loved it, Loved it...

It really did feel like I was watching a JLA comic come to life.

Superman was very serious, Batman/Owlman kicked butt and I loved the 2nd tier of supers/bad guys they had in the show.

I really hope they do another JLA Blu-Ray, there are lots of storys they can pull from.

Not sure, but it did not seem like this was a JLU type show, it was JLA from the comics.

Chicken Warrior

Haven't seen this yet, but based on trailers and whatnot the animation has definitely improved. I wonder if DC will ever have the support necessary to make one of these things theatrical..

PhantomStranger

Good catch on the macroblocking artifacts in your review. Warner's approach to compression of extremely low bitrates strikes again. In my viewing almost any feature on Blu-ray that has an average video bitrate under 20 Mbps, using either AVC or VC-1, will produce artifacting in certain scenes upon close inspection. Blocking of that character should not be occurring on clean animation taken from a digital source. The animation also looked a little cheaper and rougher to my eyes than the last two titles in the DCU lineup.

Iron_Giant

Watch The Spector short, very dark and edgie.

So cool to have an added story in it, just like the "Showcase Comics" from the 70's that were large and only cost one dollar. You would have the main story, then one or two short storys.

The INTRO to The Spector was like walking memory lane, going through the comic shop and showing some old comic cover that I Read/Owned or still own.

Not sure what they did with Wonder Woman, it was shown in 16:9 and the framing looked great. They must of used film because some of the details were clear on the screen. As a kid I watched every show of WW, it was like re-living my childhood. Lots or fun!

Have not watched Aquaman or the other features yet, tonight or over the weekend.

Iron_Giant

Finished watching the 4 JLU shows on the BR, it is great that they add JLU shows on their BRs. I already have some of their shows on DVD, but as each BR comes out my need to go buy the whole set is dwindling.

Started watching the DC "Crisis" promotion, nice to see the face of some of the people at DC, but so far nothing really fantasic.

doctaheath78

I started collecting the Superheros Blu-Rays with Figures from BEST BUY.

(Only missing the 1st JL w/ Green Lantern, which I think is IMPOSSIBLE to find now).

I NOTICED SOMETHING and wanted to verify with other members of the board.

On the side of packaging of the NEW JL w/ OWLMAN it says DVD and FIGURE.

All of the others say Blu-ray and Figure.

Did they just get lazy and produce the same box for both, or are there 2 versiosn out there?


Any help would be GREATLY APPRECIATED.

Yavin

^ They probably did get lazy. I haven't seen the specific package you're referring to, but I do recall taking a good look at the DC Universe Blu-ray movie collection in stores a few weeks back. The packaging for that one definitely had the DVD video logo on the side, even though it was a Blu-ray release.

Travis McClain

I gather from the remarks about voice casting and Justice League animated series plot comparisons that many posters are unaware that these DTV DCU features are entirely unrelated to the rest of the animated DCU projects. Think of them as the movie equivalent of "Elseworlds," where each story is told by its own creators with no obligation to adhere to any established continuity.

Casting different voice actors each time out is actually a very clever way of emphasizing this. Imagine the confusion if each character was voiced by the same person from feature to feature. Fans would agonize over every little discontinuity: "Wonder Woman is revealed to be/do this in Movie A, but is/does that in Movie B. Can't they keep any of this straight? They only release a few movies a year!" Sorry, but I think re-casting each time out isn't just smart--it's mandatory for what they're doing.

Iron_Giant

The new voices did not take me away from enjoying the Movie. The movie was fun watching a comic come to life.

35 years ago I never would have thought I would be able to enjoy some of my fav comics on my home Entertainment Center (BR is just the icing on the cake). I am like a young teen all over again when I watch these movies, sometimes my wife and kids don't know what to do with me.

$19.99 for over 4 1/2 of a wonderful trip down memory lane, then I will take different voices for the actors. By the way, I loved James Woods voice and the Crime Lords Chicago voices, different and fun.

Breakfast with Girls

Except for a different Green Lantern (which has no bearing on the plot), Crisis on Two Earths is pretty obviously part of the DCAU continuity. Besides the fact that it was originally written to be part of the DCAU (bridging "Justice League" and "Justice League Unlimited"), it features JLU villains (Ultraman, Owlman, etc.), shows the origin Wonder Woman's invisible jet, and explains why they decided to expand their membership.

The rest of the films meet your definition, however.

Travis McClain

True enough on all cited points, but I still see Crisis on Two Earths as, ultimately, another standalone project. You have to know the evolution of the feature's story to even be aware of the fact that it was originally intended to bridge the two series. The above cited examples aren't continuity-specific; surely, Wonder Woman acquired her invisible jet in a number of ways in a number of continuities for example.

In any event, I finally got to watch this last night and felt it was entertaining enough, but fell a bit short for me. I appreciated the debates over whether or not the League was required to, or even allowed to, act on behalf of another world's population. This is, ultimately, the crux of all foreign policy and I liked that they touched on the pros and cons of intervening. Otherwise, most of the characters were rather ho-hum (with the notable exception of Superwoman). Maybe 75 minutes is just too short for a large-scale story to play out well. Maybe I'm just too critical in my old age.

I thought they did a pretty good job with the features, and I'm stoked about the forthcoming Batman: Under the Red Hood! Bruce Greenwood is an inspired casting choice for Bats, and I look forward to Neil Patrick Harris as Nightwing. Hell, they could cast those two in a live action movie in those roles and I'd go see it.

DthRdrX

Breakfast with Girls

All I'm saying is that this was originally intended to fit in the DCAU, and it easily fits into the DCAU.

Incidentally, I don't place much value in a quote from someone who can't even bother getting the original title correct.

Spottedfeather

Sorry to bump an old thread, but I was just reading about this movie. If it's a Justice League movie, why aren't the voices from the Justice League show in it ? I know that they usually only get Kevin Conroy and Tim Daly to do the voices when the movies have to do with the DC Animated Universe, but the style of the movie seems to be quite similar to the different animated series. Wonder Woman look almost identical. Tim and Kevin did the voices for public enemies and apocalypse, and they weren't part of the different animated series....were they ? I just hope that if they continue making movies of the Superman/Batman books, they continue to use Kevin and Tim.