Justice League: Gods and Monsters

• USA • 2015 • 76m •

• Directed by: Sam Liu. • Starring: Benjamin Bratt, Michael C. Hall, Tamara Taylor, Paget Brewster, C. Thomas Howell, Jason Isaacs, Dee Bradley Baker, Eric Bauza, Larry Cedar, Richard Chamberlain, Trevor Devall, Dan Gilvezan, Grey Griffin. • Music by: Frederik Wiedmann.

In an alternate universe, Superman is the son of Zod and was raised by a caring couple of Mexican immigrants living in harsh conditions, Batman is a young vampiric doctor, Kirk Langstrom, obsessed with an everlasting search for a cure for his disease and Wonder Woman is Bekka, the widowed queen of the world of Darkside. The three antiheroes unite and create the Justice League, despite wheelchair-bound Lex Luthor and others' protests. They operate often outside of the law and often kill the villains, but the US government tolerates them and works with them to an extent, since the three are willing to cooperate with the authorities and they never kill civilians. However, the all out paranoia and protests against their methods and untouchable position are growing. Things take a turn for the worse, when they are framed for a series of murders of famous scientists, who work for the government, and President Amanda Waller orders their arrest. They decide to violently resist arrest at all cost, until they can find the real culprits themselves.

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Review:

Image from: Justice League: Gods and Monsters (2015)

To say that I've become disenfranchised by the DC Animated films would be a bit of an understatement. Ever since Justice League: War, they've just been a mess. There was the one bright spot of Assault on Arkham but otherwise they've just been dull action movies that don't do the characters justice. Thank goodness WB brought back Bruce Timm, who was one of the primary creative forces behind the Batman and Justice League animated series that kicked off DC animated projects being good in the first place. The result is the best DC animated film since New Frontier.

Gods and Monsters can be said to be the first true Elseworlds story that's been done in animation. Sure there's been some parallel world stuff (Crisis on Two Earths) and plenty of out of continuity stand alones (like the aforementioned New Frontier) but they've still kept the characters pretty close to the standard versions we all know. None have really tried to craft a completely new vision of what these characters are, and that's what this story does. It makes the wise choice of having different characters taking on the mantles of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman rather than actually trying to muck about with Clark, Bruce or Diana. Instead Superman is the son of Zod, Batman is Kirk Langstrom (better known as the Man-Bat in the main DC universe) and Wonder Woman is one of the New Gods (such as High Father and Darkseid.) Their backstories are explored just enough to give a good picture of these versions without ever bogging down the narrative itself.

Like any good Elseworlds story, this is an "all bets are off" take where any prior knowledge of the main DC universe can add some weight when characters like Victor Fries or Dr. Sivanna get name dropped, but nobody is exactly the same as their standard representation. All of the voice work is solid, and each of the primary characters (and even some of the secondary ones) are given the chance to stretch a little and show some dimension.

The action is also a huge step up from what we've gotten lately. Most of the DCAU films based on the New 52 continuity have had well done yet rather mundane action sequences. The problem is that those films are trying for a more realistic version of fights, which isn't what animation is good for. Animation is good for over the top stuff that couldn't be replicated by just two actors and a fight choreographer, and that over the top stuff is what we get here.

I don't think I can recommend this highly enough for anybody who has found the recent output of DC animated films to be sorely lacking. This is a return to form, it's a top notch story, it's a fun and engrossing new take on characters and it's the kind of thing I hope we see more of in the future.

Review by dramafreak42 from the Internet Movie Database.