Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Film / JusticeLeagueOfAmerica

Go To

1[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/jl1997.jpg]]
2%%[[caption-width-right:300:some caption text]]
3
4''Justice League of America'' (though referred to on-screen as simply ''Justice'') was a 1997 [[MadeForTVMovie television movie]] made as a LiveActionAdaptation of the ComicBook/JusticeLeagueOfAmerica comic book.
5
6The Justice League is a superhero team composed of ComicBook/TheAtom (Creator/JohnKassir), Fire (Creator/MichelleHurd), ComicBook/TheFlash (Kenny Johnston) and Franchise/GreenLantern (Creator/MatthewSettle), all led by the ComicBook/MartianManhunter (Creator/DavidOgdenStiers). When Tori Olafsdotter (Kim Oja) acquires ice-related powers and finds her boss (Creator/MiguelFerrer) is using a weather machine against the city, she helps the team against him and ends joining them as Ice.
7
8The TV movie never aired in the United States, despite being commissioned and produced by Creator/{{CBS}} as a PilotMovie for an eventual television series. However, [[ShortRunInPeru it was shown in other countries]] (notably Channel 5 in the United Kingdom), which is why [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes bootlegs circulate at conventions]]. Many claim it's SoBadItsGood.
9
10See also ''Film/{{Justice League|2017}}'' and ''Film/ZackSnydersJusticeLeague'', the later big budget film versions (and the JL's big screen debut in the former's case).
11----
12!!The movie provides examples of:
13
14* AdaptationalWimp: The entire Justice League are significantly less powerful than their comic book incarnations. They're even less impressive when comparing their civilian personas as well.
15** The Flash/Barry Allen is constantly unemployed, and cites his only useful ability as being able to run really fast. Barry in the comics was a forensic scientist for his city's police department, and his SuperSpeed granted him a far greater range of abilities and applications.
16** Green Lantern/Guy Gardner is a smooth talking software salesman, with no hint of the troubled past the comic book Gardner endured. As Green Lantern, he is incapable of flying under his own willpower, requiring a ring construct (in the shape of a propeller) in order to levitate himself, and his other constructs are much less imaginative and weaker than what Green Lanterns are typically capable.
17** The Atom/Ray Palmer's shrinking abilities are played almost entirely for laughs, and he does not appear to retain his natural strength in the process. His appearance as Ray Palmer is also far more stereotypically nerdy and awkward looking, with glasses, goofy hair and overly neat bow tie clothing.
18** Fire/Beatriz (B.B. in the film) probably gets off the easiest for her superhero self. She can still fly and shoot heat from her hands, but in a much more mundane fashion and she doesn't turn into a being comprised of green flame like in the comics. For her civilian self, she's an actress with a less than promising career. Whereas her comic book counterpart ran her own successful business, had a noted modelling career and even operated as an effective government agent for a time.
19** Ice/Tora (Tori for the film) is depicted as a meek, clumsy meteorologist student, whose powers only manifest fully at the very end of the film, and she seems to need physical contact with an object in order to make them work. Her comic book self was the daughter of the king of Norwegian ice people who were able to bend the natural elements to their will, could project her powers from a distance and use them to create ice-based constructs and was also a capable hand-to-hand combatant.
20** The Martian Manhunter/J'onn J'onzz never assists the group in the field, only leaving their headquarters when he's needed to use his shapeshifting to impersonate someone else, and the film implies he can only do so for so long before the disguise fails and he reverts back. The vast majority of his other abilities are virtually entirely ignored.
21* AdaptationDistillation: Averted. The Justice League has been around for decades and featured numerous characters and storyarcs but this pilot focused on just one period. WordOfGod stated that the series was meant to reflect J.M. [=DeMatteis=] and Keith Giffen's ''Comicbook/JusticeLeagueInternational'' from the late 80s and early 90s due to its trademark comedy. This in evident in the fact that the series' tone and the team lineup is almost identical to the Giffen/[=DeMatteis=] era. While their run was very popular with fans, it was long gone by the time the pilot was filmed.[[invoked]]
22** Despite that, the film uses classic member the Atom instead of Blue Beetle and Booster Gold, who were icons of that incarnation. The Flash would also count as a classic addition if you take into account that he's Barry Allen, at least in name, instead of Wally West.
23* AdaptationDyeJob: Ice has light brown hair, while she has white hair in the comics. Fire is a brunette, but the example is arguable since in the comic book, it was dyed green over her natural brown hair.
24* AdaptedOut: Despite being one of the core members in the Giffen/[=DeMatteis=] run[[note]]in said run, Martian Manhunter was the only other member who was also a founding member; due to Creator/JohnByrne[='=]s [[ComicBook/TheManOfSteel reboot of Superman]], Mike Baron launching [[Franchise/TheFlash Wally West]] and Creator/GeorgePerez relaunching ComicBook/WonderWoman, the 3 were unavailable for the comic run; Aquaman wouldn't get a post-''[[ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths Crisis]]'' reboot until 2 years after the run's start[[/note]], Batman is nowhere to be found[[note]]Denny O'Neil had taken pity on the comic and allowed them to use Batman; presumably, his absence here is due to the "Bat Embargo" that Warner Bros had (which usually prevented him from being used in live-action TV series if there's a film starring him in the works), and this time, he was off limits due to, of all things, '''''Film/BatmanAndRobin'''''![[/note]].
25* BadBoss: [[spoiler: It turns out that Ice's boss is the Weather Man.]]
26* CanonForeigner: Aside from the love interests for the heroes, the BigBad of the pilot was called the Weather Man, who is not a known Creator/DCComics villain. However, this character might have been an {{Expy}} of the '''Weather Wizard''', a member of ComicBook/TheFlash's rogues gallery.
27* CompositeCharacter:
28** The movie's Franchise/GreenLantern has the name Guy Gardner, yet he's a close friend of Barry "ComicBook/TheFlash" Allen (like Hal Jordan) and his costume includes Kyle Rayner's GL insigna and mask (the rest of the costume is closer to Gardner's). His personality seemed very Hal-like in his hero guise but he still had the Guy Gardner edge as seen in the scene where he creates a chainsaw to threaten the villain. His civilian identity seems based on Kyle Rayner as well since it often involves him trying to juggle his superheroics with his lovelife; a trait more common with Rayner.
29** Barry Allen is a goofy, directionless character, more like the comicbook Wally West than the stolid police scientist.
30** Tori's FreakLabAccident is similar to the origin of Sigrid Nansen, the original Icemaiden in the comics.
31* CulturalTranslation: Both Fire and Ice become American (as opposed to Brazilian and Norwegian, respectively) and their names reflect this. ''Beatriz'' becomes ''B.B.'' and ''Tora'' becomes ''Tori''.
32* DaChief: Martian Manhunter
33* IdentityImpersonator: The Martian Manhunter does this for Fire.
34* NaiveNewcomer: Ice.
35* NewPowersAsThePlotDemands: J'onn, the ComicBook/MartianManhunter, only uses his powers a few times but each time, it's a completely different power that just so happens to help the plot along. This is not completely unlike his comic counterpart, however, who has many abilities.
36* MundaneUtility: The Flash makes breakfast at superspeed, the Green Lantern brings his power ring on a date, and the Martian Manhunter uses his powers to fix Fire's love life.
37* NoEndorHolocaust: There are ''no'' negative effects of the entire harbor, and later, most of the ocean being frozen solid.
38* RaceLift: Fire goes from a light skinned Brazilian to an African-American.
39* ResizedVocals: Ray Palmer/The Atom, refers to resized vocal chords as being one of the drawbacks of his superpower. He finds it especially bothersome in instances where he returns to normal size, but his vocal chords don't regrow at the same rate, causing him to still sound like a chipmunk when he tries to speak.
40* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Fire is initially the only female superhero in the Justice League, until the addition of Ice at the end of the story makes it TwoGirlsToATeam.
41* StrongAsTheyNeedToBe: The League seem to be as powerful as they need to be for any given situation. The BigBad was creating intense weather that was threatening to destroy the city. Each time, a single member would casually negate the storm effects despite the scope of the storms or the limits of their powers shown in previous scenes with NoOntologicalInertia. For instance, at the beginning, the Flash simply runs around a city-sized hurricane to reverse it. A blizzard and mud slide are quickly negated by Fire blasting them. At the end, Ice casually freezes an entire tidal wave despite gaining her powers a few days earlier and going through many HowDoIShotWeb moments.
42* SuperHeroOrigin: Ice gets hers in the movie. It's a FreakLabAccident rather than her origin as part of an [[AnIcePerson ice-people race]] as in the comics. The other members briefly gloss over their origins in one scene, with the Atom being the one who elaborates the most on his one. Chances are, if the series had been picked up, it would have elaborated on their backstories a lot more.
43* WeatherControlMachine: This is how the Weather Man controls the weather [[spoiler: and what eventually gives Ice her powers.]]
44* WeatherDissonance: See above.
45* {{Western Terrorist|s}}: The Weather Man looks and sounds like a generic terrorist. He threatens the city via video wearing a bandana and shades, often spouting vaguely anarchistic slogans such as [[AnarchyIsChaos "I will upset the status quo!"]].
46* WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway:
47** The Atom suffers from an inferiority complex since he can simply shrink while the other members have grander abilities. Case in point: at the beginning of the pilot, while the rest of the League are saving people from a hurricane, he simply shrinks down to save an old woman's cat.
48** The Flash has a similarly dim view of his own powers. According to him, he's only really good for running fast, and not any of the other hundred-or-so alternative uses for super-speed that he usually has in comics.
49* WorkingWithTheEx: The characters mention a few times that Guy and B.B. used to date.

Top