REVIEW: Justice League Dark Apokolips War

Here’s my review for the recently-released Justice League Dark Apokolips War animated film from Warner Bros and DC Entertainment! The film was directed by Matt Peters and Christina Sotta and featuring the voices of Matt Ryan, Jerry O’Connell, Taissa Farmiga, Stuart Allan, Tony Todd, Jason O’Mara, Rosario Dawson, Shemar Moore, Christopher Gorham, Rebecca Romijn and Rainn Wilson!

The so-called War-verse is coming to a close and they end it with big balls you have to do a slow clap. Check out the trailer below:

It’s right for fans to call this the Avengers Endgame of the DC Animated verse because it follows the patterns and the tropes but has its own unique spin on it.

Spoiler alert

There’s the mass gathering of heroes to fight Darkseid’s army in here. And like Infinity War, they too get decimated. There’s a time jump here too, but it’s just 2 years as opposed to Endgame’s five year time jump.

Our heroes are also fallen if they did survive. Like Wonder Woman has been turned into a cyborg assassin for Apokolips, to be specific a member of the Furies. Batman has been forced to become to new rider for the Mobius Chair. And Superman has been turned into a mortal, left to wander the world not being able to help.

But then there are a lot of things that make Apokolips War an interesting watch. It’s brave with the story telling and they went through with it, not minding any backlash that they may get. After all, the title may be “Apokolips War” but we all know that this was based of Geoff Johns’ Justice League: Darkseid War.

Being a Justice League Dark story the POV is all set around John Constantine. And as the ragtag gang of heroes create a plan to disrupt Darkseid’s plan, we see just how humbled they all have become. Sadly I don’t have a connection to the character. Yeah I felt sad for him for losing Zatanna but it’s never expressed why. The sadness in the script doesn’t do Justice especially when we find out that he bailed on her in Apokolips during the attack.

If you want to see a movie with ALL the characters from the 20 or so DC Animated movies crammed into it then this one is for you. That includes the Justice League, Suicide Squad, the Bat-Family, Shazam and even the Teen Titans.

The other character who really shined the most for me here is Raven. From her strong will to keep her father Trigon at Bay to her love for Damian Wayne aka Robin and her hope that everything could go well, we see how she truly is a hero.

Superman also goes through a rough patch in this and you can see that he’s still the hero we all know and love. Powerless, he continues to find a way to fight Darkseid in his own way showing that you can take the super out of the man but things will never change. I enjoyed Clark Kent’s journey here.

And because this DC offering is a little more mature, expect a lot of gore and violence and dirty language. It’s a dead giveaway too knowing that Constantine is in this. Speaking of Constantine, man this was totally his show; from surviving an attack from Wonder Woman to pressuring Trigon to cajoling Swamp Thing to do his bidding, this guy is an awesome character even in his sanitized form. And let’s not forget King Shark.

Lastly, I’m not going to write about the casting because we all know its good. Maybe I’m a little bummed out about the voice work for Etrigan. That could have been done even better even with such a small amount of lines.

And now for the bad part.

The ending was a cop out. It was lazily done and it felt like the writers suddenly realized that they ran out of time because of all the spectacle and death they did for the story. There was no real closure for any of them especially for the big Three even if they suffered the most from this war. This could have been given a more solid and impactful ending rather than resorting to The Flash.

Don’t get me wrong I loved how they tied it back to Flashpoint Paradox but it could have been executed… differently?

Leave a comment below and let’s discuss. Did you like Apokolips War or should we skip it entirely?

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