If you've been following these direct-to-video DC Animated movies, you'll be happy to hear that Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox may be the best yet.

Based on the comic book series of the same name, it begins when Barry Allen a.k.a. The Flash (voiced by Justin Chambers) wakes up in a radically different version of reality. His powers are gone, his mother is alive, the superheroes he called friends don't know him, have changed dramatically, don't exist, or have turned evil. The world is on the brink of disaster. Aquaman (Cary Elwes) leads Atlantis in a war against Wonder Woman (Vanessa Marshall) and her Amazons. All of Europe has already been destroyed. Though without his speed, the Flash must find a way to unite the few heroes remaining and find a way to repair whatever change in the past altered this world in such a dramatic way.

You won’t believe this movie only lasts 81 minutes. It's packed with everything you want from a superhero story. It’s complex emotional moments, exciting action, clever uses of superpowers, a whole new world to discover, cameos from fan-favorite characters around each corner, and more. The story is extremely efficient in its character development and wastes no time. When the story moves, it really moves. Even if you're intimate with the DC Universe, you'll have to watch this film at least 2 or 3 times to catch all the story's details. If you’re not, don’t worry about it! As long as you have a basic understanding of the Justice League, you will be fine. You don't need to know who's who to appreciate the emotional depth of the Flash's situation or to understand the severity of this situation.

As cool as it is to see live-action interpretations of comic book characters, nothing beats seeing them brought to life via hand-drawn animation. The squash and stretch as characters run at light-speed. The insane visuals of a physics-defying weapon. You want to pause the movie and closely examine everything that it's doing, the way it's juggling all of these characters but you can't wait to see what's coming next. Even if you've read the original comic book event, this interpretation's been cleaned up, smoothed out, and streamlined. I know some will criticize the amount of violence but it fits the story. This isn’t your run-of-the-mill adventure. The world's going to end unless something drastic is done. It doesn’t matter if every superhero and supervillain bites the dust or how. What matters is for the Flash to find a way to travel back in time and fix this timeline. People are going to die, and it’s going to be pretty rough. If this gambit succeeds, all the sacrifices will have been worth it.

The Flashpoint Paradox is comic-bookiness at its best. Its climax is intense, the action is nearly wall-to-wall but the script counterbalances the bloodshed and combat with real emotions. It showcases what only animation can do when it's at its best by constantly showing people doing things they would never be able to do without special effects... but because the whole movie's a special effect, your brain is never distracted from the story. If you love superhero movies, science fiction, or you just want a lot of bang for your buck and you like using your time efficiently, you'll love Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox as much as I did. (On Blu-ray, March 3, 2015)