DC SUPER HERO GIRLS: LEGENDS OF ATLANTIS (2018)

 

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, psychological*   

For the last of the DC SUPER HERO GIRLS movies, we're back to the adventure-mythos and the writers and director associated with the first two telefilms. Nevertheless, the last movie in the series shows marked improvement over the first two. Like the two LEGO comedies, there's just one main threat and the heroines aren't tripping over one another this time. Some LEGO influence might also be present in that the script allows for better humor, even though the story employs the old chestnut of heroes having their respective powers switched around just as the new threat presents itself.

In this case, two sisters from an other-dimensional water-world steal a magical book from the high school, planning to use it to invade Atlantis and take control of the underwater city by stealing the trident of Poseidon from the current king, a young-ified version of Aquaman. In the comic books, one of the two sisters is Mera, an iconic member of Aquaman's ensemble in that she eventually marries the Sea King-- but in this universe, she and Aquaman have never met before. Mera's sister Siren is the main villain, forcing Mera to commit crimes for their supposed mutual benefit, and she's a much later addition to the Aqua-verse, established as a villainous sibling to Mera around 2010. Once this version of Siren defeats Aquaman and acquires the magic trident, she launches war upon the surface world and tries to inundate Metropolis in seawater. 

In due time the superheroines (and a few male heroes like Flash and Beast Boy) make an ally of Mera, whom Siren imprisoned because she didn't like sharing power. Though we're back to having about a dozen heroes uniting to fight the menace, there's not as much of a sense of overcrowding. Some additional humor is provided by a version of the emotionally restricted Raven-- making her only appearance in any of the movies-- being forced to interact with the wacky Harley Quinn. I could have done without a subplot in which as a child Wonder Woman encountered some of Siren's horrific monster-pawns and thus became traumatized by the experience. But the action is also the best in all the "serious" movies in the series, so the series as a whole finishes on a relative high point. Mera also goes off to be admitted to Hero High, with only the slightest implications of a future encounter between her and Young Aquaman.