This latest entry into the DC animated films deals with a mysterious villain with a goal of destroying the Justice League once and for all. The plan? Steal the very scenarios that Batman has planned out for disabling members of the league should they ever go rogue... Assembling a team of supervillians to enact the plans, the Justice League are up against their toughest foe yet- Batman.

The story is best thing here. The various methods to defeat each member of the League are both ingenious and, in some cases, highly brutal. Definitely not one for a younger audience- in particular the Martin Manhunter's fate. The plot is based on the JLA storyline "Tower of Babel", but there are numerous differences from it. Most of the changes are in place to lower the continuity needed to follow the plot (such as the method of disabling the Green Lantern and the identity of the villain), and also to take into account the smaller roster of Justice League members in the animated version.

Unlike some of the more recent instalments, this movie has several voice actors from the fan favourite animated series reprising their roles. Kevin Conroy as Batman is, as usual, fantastic. This being a Justice League movie however he doesn't get too much screen time. The same can be said for all the characters though- with so many battling for screen time it does feel like an abridged version, especially due to the fast pacing. Then again, the same can be said for several episodes of the Justice League series- when dealing with a large cast it can be hard to develop the characters enough without short-changing the others.

The animation quality unfortunately varies. The normal animation is fine, but there are some dodgy design decisions for the art style. For example, Superman looks like he's wearing eyeliner and makeup in several scenes and a lot of the CGI effects added onto the animation stand out for the wrong reasons. While not visually the best in the franchise, as a whole it still feels like it is part of the animated series that spawned it and that's a good thing.

The story is great, the voice acting is just right and there's enough action to keep the superhero fans happy. As for which version is the better one, I'll have to side with the original comic storyline- if only for it had more time to tell the story. At times this does come across as three episodes of the show edited together to make a movie instead of a fully fleshed out adaptation. However, the quality of the storytelling still shines through and it is another great addition to the ever growing animated DC universe. Check it out if (like me) you have fond memories of the original series.

V. Smyth