Justice League Dark: Apokolips War Review

Justice League Dark: Apokolips War is a direct-to-video comic book movie, the 15th and final installment to the DC Animated Movie Universe, and the 38th film in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies line. The film is produced by Warner Bros. Animation and DC Entertainment and distributed by Warner Home Video. Justice League Dark: Apokolips War is written by Ernie Altbacker and Mairghread Scott and directed by Christina Sotta and Matt Peters.





The story is after a poorly executed attack on Darkseid by the League, Earth has been decimated by the forces of Apokolips. Now the remaining members of the Justice League, Justice League Dark, Teen Titans, and the Suicide Squad must regroup and plan another attack to take back their world and save the Earth in a war where only the victor can enjoy the spoils.

Initial Reaction


Since 2017, I have being reviewing a lot of the DC Animated Movie Universe films. From old movies such as Justice League: War, Justice League: Throne of Atlantis, Justice League vs. Teen Titans, and Justice League Dark, to the more recent movies those being Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay all the way to Wonder Woman: Bloodlines. So I have a long history with this franchise. Then the trailer was released I got even more hyped for this. Just watching that trailer, reading that synopsis, and then getting to write that synopsis down from my own review I just kept getting more excited for this movie.







Cons

The only true issue I have with the movie is the title. Because it's not just a Justice League Dark movie. Other than Constantine and two other JL Dark memebers being there, it's still more of a Justice League movie. If anything it really should have been called either Justice League: Apokolips War or just simply Apokolips War.

Middle Ground

A gray area with the movie is the characters. Well some get their moment to shine others are lost in the shuffle, in matter of fact some show up and well...does exactly end well for them. But in a way I can understand that, because when you have this many characters not all of them are going to line or stuff like that.

Pros

One great thing about Justice League Dark: Apokolips War is the very dark tone. And I'm just talking about the violence (which by the way if you though Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay or maybe even The Death of Superman were violent, strap in for this one because holy sh*t), I'm talking about the other stuff as well. The stakes are high, Darkseid and his army are truly being treated like they can't be stopped, and the fact that no character is safe. Another thing that I found enjoyable was the animation. Characters still look good, fight scenes are awesome but one thing I almost skip over was well they made the landscapes. Good detail work with the backgrounds and such, nicely done animators. For a large majority of the movie there are loose ends from previous movies that are tied up. The writers did do a good job with that, I was gonna complain about the post-credti scenes with something like say Justice League: Throne of Atlantis or Teen Titans: The Judas Contract but with the grand scheme of things with this movie they really don't matter that much so you can just brush them to the side. Now for the performances, I gotta say the actors did great. Matt Ryan once again kills it as John Constantine, and I never would have thought he would have such great chemistry with Jerry O'Connell (voice of Superman) and Taissa Farmiga (voice of Raven) but they make it work. The final thing I'll praise Apokolips War for is the ending. Now I did see some people take issue with it but here's my perspective, these characters went through hell. There's no other way to describe it, the DC heroes and villains went through hell. So while the ending may be bittersweet because you're saying goodbye to these characters you also see a real light at the end of the horizon, there's a new hope. And what also made it nice was the movie ended just the way the franchise began with a certain Justice League film that was released back in 2013.

While the weaknesses with Justice League Dark: Apokolips War are a questionable title and characters getting lost those weaknesses can be forgiven with the strenghts, what with the dark tone, the animation, loose ends getting tied up, the voice work, and a hopeful ending.

My final rating is Good

I definitely recommend you check this out if you haven't already. But like I said it's pretty gruesome so it you can't handle that I understand. But that's going to do it for me, do come back on Satuday, May 9th for my review of the final season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Until then enjoy the rest of your day.