Justice League: Gods and Monsters (2015)

A movie that looks at a world where the Justice League is comprised of murderers and potential villains. But a world where they still are perceived as heroes despite this. The movie opens up with a quick origin for the new Superman Hernan Guerra who is the son of Zod instead of Jor-El. We are then treated to a scene where the 3 members kill 50 or so terrorist without a second though, and get to see vampire batman drain somebody. I wouldn't say it was jarring as much as being almost comical to see these 3 killing people like it was nothing. It is not what you expect from the Justice League, and even though they showed much worse in the various shorts they used as advertising, I was still a little surprised at the whole thing.

The story for the movie revolves around the idea that the league could take over the world if they wanted. They know it, the people know it, everybody knows it. A group decides to start killing off scientist using super powered beings with abilities similar to the league in order to frame them and turn the world against them. As the league isn't exactly filled with boy-scouts in this world, that is not all that difficult. We are then presented with a world that hates and fears them, but now has the power to stand against them. Will the league become the villains or the heroes of the story?

The league consists of 3 members, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. Purists might be put off by these variations of the characters, but DC did a good job of addressing this. They changed the identities of all the characters so that it would not tarnish the classics. Batman is not Bruce Wayne but Kirk Langstrom who you may remember as Manbat from the main continuity. Wonder Woman is Bekka wife of Orion from Apokolips who is also another established character. I was not familiar with Superman's new persona, so maybe Hernan Guerra was a new character. Each is given a brief origin story in the movie to time them all together, and each fits into the over all story as well. It was kind of neat to see the new team and I enjoyed the different take we were presented with.

This is a straight to DVD animated movie, so the animation will not be on par with things you would see in the theater. It is still good though and reminded me more of the classic batman animated stuff then the newer justice league movies. The style was charming, but not overly realistic. As far as parental advisory goes, I believe it was pg-13. There was some very minor nudity, a decent amount of blood, and a older kid being burned alive at one point. I think the pg-13 is fair, but it should be established it is not a movie geared towards children. So the younger crowd may need to skip this one depending on your own personal views.

There really is not a lot more to say about this one. The concept was a darker Justice League and that is what you get. It served as a starting point and there will be a digital comic series launching alongside the movie on the 28th that furthers the story. I do think they built it up a little to much, and that it failed to deliver on the Evil has a new Playground tag line they went with. The 3 animated shorts we were given as adverts actually had a much darker moment in them then anything the final product did. Seeing Superman forced to kill a toddler version of Brainiac was a horrible moment the film never came close to touching. It also did a much better job of showcasing the evil vs good argument for those characters as well. The film felt like a missed opportunity after that, almost like they were afraid to pull the trigger on these new versions. While it was still overall enjoyable, it never became that great classic it wanted to be.