Justice League Dark: Apokolips War Review by Jgames

JESUS CHRIST! Just damn, the title of the movie lived up to the title. I did not saw any of the trailers and forgot about this, decided to watch and just damn. They earn that R rating and manage to honestly have one of the better share universe movies in the modern era in the virtue of actually concluding to a finale instead of stopping halfway. Granted a bit unfair to say since these animated DC movies are cheaper to make than a big Hollywood movie, but manage to succeed in where the DCEU failed. Giving us one of the darkest DC movies that Zack Snyder wishes he would have had the chance to make (who knows with the Snyder cut).

When it comes to DC animated division, they have been known to release some great animated films, but when it comes to the New-52 Universe, they have been fairly entertaining but forgettable. I think part of it has to do with them just making Batman or Justice league movies, and they were a bit safe and inside the box just adapting the comics. Not to mention at the time, animated DC movies itself have given us some unfortunate stinkers during that time like “Batman and Harley Quinn”, “Batman Killing Joke” and “Batman: Gotham by Gaslight” which again is just shoving in Batman and ignoring that other characters exist. I think one of the more positive side effects of the DCEU is that the studio felt compelled to use their other superheroes which have translated to the animated movies. Finally getting a god damn Superman, Suicide Squad (without it being called a Batman movie), and Wonder Woman animated movie after so many years of just Batman. Not to mention, the DC animated movies have started pushing more boundaries of what they can do with their films and the use of mature elements. Embracing the comic books, mature elements, and using characters that were not just Batman and Justice League. It is because of this new direction that they were able to make this epic, dark and depressing climax to this animated universe and end in awe.

The story is about the Justice League, teaming up with some of the members of Justice League Dark and the Teen Titans to invade and fight Darkside. I won’t go further on the plot detail just in case you are like me and have not watched the trailer or anything and is going in completely blind. Just know that the main character is thankfully Constantine who is wonderfully performed by Matt Ryan. Granted Constantine is a bit of a deus ex machina character, as his magic basically can allow the team to get out of sticky situations, but it also leads to cool scenarios that I cannot complain about. Back to the movie itself, it was dark, apocalyptic, and epic. It is a life and death battle where death is plentiful and can happen to just about anybody. It also helps that the action is not bad either with them having full sets of characters with different and unique power set that they can take advantage of which lead to lots of fun action scene. Lots of the potential possibility that you might wish to see happen, most likely do happen. Love the fact that the minions are not just useless fodders but are legitimately threatening. There always a sense of dread whenever Darkside's army shows ups, since legitimately anybody can die, and the movie has no qualm in showing this.

So what about the characters and their arc in this movie, are they satisfying? Unfortunately, if I have to be critical of this movie, is that this could have been lots stronger if the other movies were stronger and more diverse. I think the movie does a brilliant job of choosing to focus on characters who had their own movies or had an actual arc in the team-up movies. Picking specific characters who can recall past events and have a full arc completed with, which is what a good universe movie should do. That being said, I felt like there was an opportunity for Constantine and Zatanna's relationship to be a bigger emotional core than it was. Not that it was weak, but compared to something like Flash and him wanting to save his mom, the emotional core was not as strong as it could have been. Part of that could have been helped if Constantine had an extra movie with Zatanna, or spend a bit more time with them in the beginning. While there was lots of adrenaline rush watching this movie, it could have had a much more emotional connection with the audience that just wasn’t there. I think the best emotionally satisfying arc in the movie was between Damian and Raven/Batman due to the past movies doing a good job of establishing and creating a relationship. Batman and Damian being a dysfunctional family, Damian and Raven potentially being more than just friends. Overall I think they did a good job of focusing on characters that had lots of opportunities to explore their relationship and give them a satisfying arc that does relate to their past movies. Is the emotional anchor and character journey as strong and resonating as some other DC animated movies; no, but still solid.

Overall I had a blast with this movie. If you enjoy the other DC-52 animated movie universe, you will absolutely love this movie as it is easily the best out of all of them. Giving the audience a dark and apocalyptic grand finale to the Universe. If you never care for the other movies, this movie probably won’t change your mind, but might be entertaining enough just due to how dark this movie can get. I am giving this movie a B+. Maybe a bit too high, but I don’t care this is my review, my opinion, I give it whatever rating I god damn pleased.