Justice League – Cosmic Clash Movie Review]

I tend to browse the movie section of stores fairly frequently. I am always on the lookout for cheap movies that I can’t get on Canadian Netflix. On a recent trip to Walmart, I found the LEGO direct to DVD/Blu-ray release, Justice League: Cosmic Clash for $7.00. It comes with an exclusive Cosmic Boy Minifigure. If you follow my blog, then you probably already know that I am sucker for freebies. So, the movie made its way into my shopping cart.

This movie was released in early 2016, and judging from the sets seen in the movie, it coincided roughly with the wave of DC Super Heroes sets that included Gorilla Grodd Goes Bananas, Brainiac Attack, Green Lantern VS Sinestro, and Darkseid Invasion. As with all of the LEGO movies, there is a lot of product placement in the film. But, I did not find it quite so blatant, or forced, as in other films, and the sets were incorporated well into the story.

The premise of the movie is that Brainiac attacks Earth, attempting to shrink it for his collection of worlds. In the process, he creates a temporal anomaly and sends Superman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern to other points in Earth’s timeline. This allowed for some cross-theme references that I quite enjoyed. There were some alternate color variations of the Jurassic World dinosaurs (a theme that was also out around the time this movie was released), and even some pirates. The exclusive Pirate Batman Minifigure from DK’s DC Comics Character Encyclopedia (click here for my review of that book) made an appearance in the latter. A funny point was the LEGO explanation of how Themyscira and the Amazons came to be (but, I won’t spoil it for you here).

All in all, I did not enjoy this movie as much as other LEGO movies. It felt like an animated short that never ended. Don’t get me wrong, the movie had funny points, and small kids will probably love it. But, if you are adult watching it for yourself, or with your kids, don’t get your hopes too high. It is 78 minutes of child-oriented slapstick, and lacks the subtle adult humour that is often intertwined in the LEGO theatrical releases.

The exclusive Minifigure that comes with this release is Cosmic Boy from the Legion of Super Heroes. Batman encounters the Legion in the movie when he travels to a future Metropolis to save Superman. In the movie, you can also see Saturn Girl and Lightning Lad. Lightning Lad was released in Minifigure form as a Target exclusive in the United States, but Saturn Girl never got the official Minifig treatment. Cosmic boy is actually a really nice Minifigure. He comes with a double-sided face, front and back torso printing, and front printing on his legs. In addition, he has three printed dish pieces that are meant to represent his magnetic fields. Rating Cosmic Boy as part of a LEGO set would earn him a design score of 100%.

So, was this purchase worth $7.00? Sure. The movie was mildly entertaining, though very kid oriented (which I suppose it is meant to be). You also get a nice Minifigure, so you can’t go wrong there. What did you think of Justice League: Cosmic Clash? Feel free to leave a comment in the space below.

Until next time,

-Tom