Movie Review: Justice League Dark

Justice League Dark

So, despite superheroes being their flagship genre, DC comics has a sizable amount of horror and mystical stories under its belt. Hellblazer, Sandman, Swamp Thing and Lucifer are all titles from DC's more adult-oriented imprint, and while I honestly think that these stories all would work better in their own universe and not set in a world where Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman and Plastic Man run rampant, it's still a very important corner of DC lore.

The thing is, the mystic parts of DC are generally divided into two distinct categories. There are mystical-based superheroes like Zatanna, Dr. Fate, Etrigan and the Spectre, who use magic and maybe deal with demons as adversaries, but are a lot more "MAGIC BLAST!" than actually dealing with the psychotic darkness and mental turmoil that we find in the likes of Hellblazer. 

Still, this movie does manage to find a decent balance between the far more mature parts of its source material and the more fantastical superhero-y parts. It's not a movie that I knew existed before I saw its DVD on sale last week, and it's definitely an enjoyable watch. Set in the same New-52-inspired universe that's common in the DCEAU movies since Justice League War, and featuring the debuts of some very welcome characters (John Stewart's Green Lantern, Hawkman, and Martian Manhunter) in the League, the movie doesn't focus on them.

Instead, it introduces us to a slew of DC's most iconic mystically-inclined characters and have them fight a threat that's far beyond them. Batman tags along with this Justice League Dark, formed out of a group of unlikely allies -- Zatanna, Deadman, Jason Blood and the demon bound to him... oh, and John Constantine (voiced by Matt Ryan, who played him in the short-lived Constantine series and is basically perfect for the role). It's an interesting mix of characters, that's for sure, and the movie does a pretty good job dividing the roles between the four main characters. Sure, Batman tags along, and both Black Orchid and Swamp Thing show up to help at various parts, but these four are unmistakably the main characters.

It's a weird bunch, that's for sure. Zatanna's the most heroic out of them, and someone Batman quickly recognizes as an ally. She's immensely powerful, and a good part of her character arc in this movie is that giving in to the full strength of her pure power is maddening, which is why she's spending time performing stage magic (with real magic mixed in) instead of going around being the Sorcerer Supreme or something like that. There's Deadman, who is a wise-ass trapeze artist who's died and became a ghost tasked by a goddess to bring balance to the world, with the powers to possess people. There's Jason Blood, an immortal knight from the Arthurian ages, forcibly bound to a psychotic raging demon, Etrigan, who really wants nothing to do with all this magical nonsense. There's John Constantine, a very smarmy British bastard, who shows himself to be absolutely unpleasant, as charismatic as his voice actor is. In his first appearance, he cons a bunch of demons and forcibly forces the demonic transformation on his comrade Jason Blood. Everyone from Zatanna to the Demons Three to Felix Faust to Swamp Thing to Ritchie to those creepy hell-wraiths all note what a huge, huge asshole John Constantine is, and he's unashamed of his more morally ambiguous actions.

Of course, the movie doesn't quite get as graphic or traumatizing as the comic book does, because it's still a cartoon aimed mostly towards kids, but it does show not only John Constantine's character, but the backstories of a good chunk of these characters as well. Constantine and Blood are the two that I thought were done the best, with absolutely excellent voice actors -- Etrigan's voice actor finally renders all his voice in rhyme, the lack of which was a huge misstep in the DCAU. It's a far more hammy and bombastic voice compared to Etrigan's voice in Justice League as well as Brave and the Bold, and might pretty much be my favourite animated incarnation of the character ever. 

Rounding up the group is Swamp Thing, a mound of sentient vegetation fighting for the Green and the well-being of all plants in the world, something that was once human, but now is Earth's plants made manifest, a powerful watcher in the sidelines that barely tolerates our heroes. There's also a brand-new take on Black Orchid, where in this particular universe she's the physical manifestation of the House of Secrets, kind of like EDI from Mass Effect. Neither of them really impressed me all that much, with Swamp Thing's first scene being great but his participation in the finale feeling kind of underwhelming, while Black Orchid just didn't quite work for me. The concept is cool, for sure, and the comics version of Black Orchid isn't super-essential that I'm pissed they changed her completely... but she just doesn't really get to do much.

The plot is pretty fast-paced, with this very powerful godlike entity, Destiny (not based after the Endless, but rather from Doctor Destiny, just with a wildly revised backstory), who's sealed in a magical artifact, and he's influencing the minds of the world, with a couple of very chilling scenes in the beginning with Wonder Woman, Superman and Batman forced to stop a bunch of people who go mad and see the world around them filled with demons. Superman having to calmly stop a man from gunning down his family (who he sees as a very unpleasant mass of organs and flesh) and finding out that the dude hanged his neighbours... yeah, it's pretty dark.

The rest of the movie never really reaches horror levels, though, just using parts of the occult theme in a loose sense. Yeah, we get to see demons in the Demons Three -- Rath, Ghast and Abnegazar -- but they're far more comedic dudes than anything. The fight and whole gambling scene between Constantine, Etrigan and the Demons Three is absolutely hilarious. The rest of the threats in the movie are, well, really not much different from Darkseid or Loki or any of the other 'powerful godlike being' supervillains, featuring Destiny as the endgame boss, and Felix Faust as this red herring that the good guys fight. Felix Faust (or, as Constantine calls him, "asshole extraordinaire") allows for a pretty insane battle that feels like it came out of an anime -- and that's a good thing. Despite the relative kiddification, the tone of the movie is still pretty well done, though, with both the general art direction and music deserving a lot of praise. 

The weird tornado monster doesn't impress me, though I actually liked the flesh-eating poop monster.

Matt Ryan is absolutely impressive all throughout, and he quickly steals the main hero spot from Batman. Sure, the Dark Knight sticks around until the end, and gets some pretty badass moments like scaring the beejezus out of a reaper wraith thing and having some cool bat-grapple moments during the Faust battle, but Constantine, Zatanna and Jason Blood definitely carry the movie on their backs, so despite the shoehorning of Batman into a Justice League Dark movie he doesn't really steal the spotlight.

Ritchie, played by the same actor that played him in the live-action Constantine series, makes a nice return and his presence shows another part of Constantine's assholishness, with the very unambiguous declarations that Constantine sacrificed Ritchie to die from a magical disease. Ultimately he's revealed to be the magician behind everything, desperate to revive Destiny in order to get a chance at immortal life and cheating death, and as he's dragged off to hell by the wraiths, it's a pretty dark way for this anti-villain to go out... though, y'know, having actually read Hellblazer this is very tame compared to the things that comics!Constantine actually did.

The movie also has a pretty high hero death toll, too. Ritchie betrays the good guys and gets possessed by Destiny before being dragged off to hell. Black Orchid, unable to disobey Ritchie, is forced to walk to a fireplace and burn to death (she got better, though). The Swamp Thing shows up for a 'call our allies' moment in the finale, but after a rather impressive showing, he gets Alec Holland's body ripped out of his body and this particular version of Swamp Thing apparently dies, with only his plant portions left intact... and surprisingly enough, Jason Blood, one of the main characters, die. It's a very graceful death, though, and even Etrigan's eulogy about how Jason Blood's the only human he will respect, even like a brother, is very, very heartwarming.

So yeah, definitely a movie I liked. Perhaps more kiddified than what fans of the horror genre want, but it's still definitely a very solid movie and one of the better efforts from DCEAU. (In other news, Justice League Unlimited reviews resume late next week.)