The Justice League has fallen, the Earth has been conquered by Darkseid, Superman is powerless, Batman is evil, and much of the Earth’s heroes are dead. Now, a desperate and depowered Superman partners up with Raven, who is on the verge of losing control of her demon father trapped in her forehead, to find John Constantine for one last attack on the Mad God.
What can I say about a movie that has almost the entire DC Universe slaughtered in the first thirty minutes in the most gory and gratuitous manner? A movie that has Wonder Woman, Shazam, Aquaman, and a dozen other heroes dismembered and murdered one after the other. I say… daaaaaaang.
I also say… wow, this makes me angry. Over the course of 14 movies, the animated DC movies put together a cinematic universe that the live action movies didn’t even come close to assembling thanks to… you know… competency?
Basically, the DC Universe had the parts to make a cinematic universe… they just gave it to a truckload of monkeys who tried to shove a bunch of square pegs into round holes.
But, that’s all done now. Let’s talk about Justice League Dark: Apokolips War. As I said, this is the last movie in the DC Animated Movie Universe series that started way back with Justice League: Flashpoint. This movie is dark, dour, and only gets more dire with ever passing moment. Basically, this is DC’s version of Endgame without the hopeful ending.
I loved it.
This movie is, quite frankly, amazing. It’s extremely well-written, you never really know where it’s going, and the various characters who show up actually show up organically… even Harley Quinn who gets shoehorned into everything these days actually feels like she fits into the plot because of the story and not in spite of it.
More than anything, the threat in this movie feels real and never lets up. Darkseid is portrayed as a formidable and unstoppable foe who can stand up to Superman even on Superman’s best of days and, to top that off, is also equipped with a army that makes this movie truly apocalyptic.
I enjoyed the heck out of this movie. While the DC Animated Movie Universe hasn’t always pumped out the best films, this grand finale never feels like anything less than an ending… a desperate ending where sunshine, rainbows, and puppies do not exist. The result is a movie that is dark and incredibly engrossing, something to truly get emotionally invested in.
While, yes, sometimes the movie does wimp out and reverse some of the death every now and then, Apokolips War is a movie with loss and consequences and a more than worthy ending to the DC Animated Movie Universe.
Jason Gaston 