Injustice
WB Animation
What happens when Superman has a bad day? That’s what Injustice tries to answer. WB brings the story to their animated movie catalog based on the hit video game and comic series. The one consistent theme from each version is violence and blood.
Directed by Matt Peters
Written by Ernie Altbacker
Starring: Justin Hartley, Anson Mount, Janet Varney, Kevin Pollak, Anika Noni Rose
The movie starts the premise of the faithful day where the Joker tricks Superman into killing Lois and their unborn child resulting in an atomic blast vaporizing all of Metropolis. After finding Joker’s location, Superman rushes in and kills the Joker in front of Batman. It’s at that point the story blossoms into violence and bloodbath,
From the Joker’s death, Superman slowly changes his views of the world. He gains the status of the righteous crusader of justice. This ego boost slowly drains out his need to grieve and release his anger properly as each of Superman’s escalation causes Batman to retaliate. In the end, the only meta that could defeat Superman is another Superman and Lois, who lost her Superman. Finally breaking the case hold his grief and remorse, Superman stops and asks for mercy to atone for his sins and crimes.
Take Away from the movie
Injustice plays out with a lack of time passing as each battle feels like the next day. Trying to jam the greatest hits from the comic series into 75 minutes destroys any semblance of cohesion. The most prominent example is when characters die and a lack of mourning from their peers or former compatriots. The lack of character empathy distorts you from connecting into the story and just tuning in for the fights.
A final flaw of Injustice was how it introduced characters and discarded them as if they were only tools. We see many of them disappear only to appear to be killed or take up a background spot. They cheaply throw away any investment we might have given to characters’ stories. The biggest disappointment was how Dead Wing was created. He is given a haphazard superpower origin and then helps Damian gain the confidence to replace Batman. No explanation of how his powers work or his purpose outside of helping stop Amazo.
The overall value of the voice acting in Injustice is strong. Not using some of the more marquee names allows this story to be separate from their other universe. As they were a strong cast, many didn’t fall flat or stand out. Some emotions and scenes did fall flat and felt like they came from a different part of the movie.
Final Thoughts on Injustice
With Injustice, we get a blood bath of characters and a shoe-string story. Going into it thinking they could squeeze 5 years of comics into 75 minutes is madness. Acknowledging that this movie is just a gruesome game of who will avoid being a part of the blood bath.
Expecting to strike lighting a third time in a film format with this universe was a fool’s dream. If they went with an animation series similar to Invincible, then it would work. The film was entertaining for what it was, but it could be one of the biggest shows on HBO Max if given a longer format.