Despite the current Justice League animated film series being mediocre so far, I was actually hyped for Justice League Dark. The first reason is because Matt
Ryan, who was fantastic as a live-action John Constantine in the short-lived Constantine TV series, is reprising the
role, though through voice acting. Secondly, though Batman isn’t a
member of the actual Justice League Dark team in the comics, I thought that his
seemingly de facto addition (as implied by the trailer and promo art) to this animated
version of the team is brilliant. Yes,
DC tends to overexpose Batman, and he’s clearly only in this team so that the
audience could see a more traditional face in this movie made up of second-tier
DC characters. But think about it. He’s the Dark
Knight. He’s a grim, tortured
character. Though he’s not a
supernatural-type of character like the other members of the Justice League Dark, he definitely has the “dark” vibes.
He thematically fits in the Justice League Dark. As one joke from Justice League Action goes (in the episode, “Speed Demon”), Goblins tell each other Batman stories to scare each other. I love the idea of him on the team.
Unfortunately, beyond Matt Ryan’s
performance as Constantine and Batman’s presence, there’s nothing really much
to enjoy about this movie. It’s notable
to point out that this movie is pretty dark – at least, when compared to the prior installments of the New 52-ized Justice League franchise. Right off the bat, the opening scenes show a
woman running over pedestrians with her car, a man murdering his neighbors in
his shed and about to do the same with his family, and a young mother contemplating
of throwing her baby from a high height to the pavement below. Really dark stuff. But its storytelling never really did much
with such tone. The plot
is bland, and the pacing is a mess.
John Constantine, Etrigan, and
Swamp Thing are the characters I enjoyed watching the most in this movie. As expected, Matt Ryan has the most vivacious
performance in the cast – he was born to play Constantine. Etrigan is always a fun character, especially
with his Arthurian rhyming. And Swamp
Thing is a character that deserves his own solo movie (something based from
Alan Moore’s run), so it was a bit disappointing that he didn’t have as much
screen time as I wanted to.
The members of the main Justice
League – aside from Batman – only have cameo roles. But I think it would have been more fun if
they had more participation, especially in the climax. Also, though Batman teaming up with the
likes of Constantine, Zatanna, and Deadman is pretty cool, the movie didn’t
make something specially fun about the setup of a non-powered Batman being
surrounded by the supernatural (on the other hand, Justice League Action makes use of this setup wonderfully).
Overall, there are some nice
dialogue and entertaining sequences here and there, but Justice League Dark is not as complex and fascinating as it could
have been from such premise. Hopefully, the
attempt of a live-action movie, if that’s still a thing, will fare better.
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