Liga de la Justicia Oscura

Justice League Dark didn't disappoint any of my expectations, being another good entry for the DC animated universe.

It was entertaining to watch and it had a nice animation and designs. It was also nice to see some often overlooked characters from DC comics (Such as Deadman) getting some spotlight, and honestly more of these lesser know characters deserve their own opportunity to shine.

And honestly I don't know why this got an "R", taking into consideration how The Flashpoint Paradox got only a PG-13 rating despite being far more violent than this movie.

You have probably wandered into this review expecting some kind words about a "good effort" from Warner Animation but, of course, compared to the concurrent zillion-dollar Dr. Strange epic from Marvel, "no cigar." Well, you would be wrong.

For two reasons.

First, in spite of the big budget, and the big Benedict, Dr. Strange suffers from all kinds of narrative problems, and gaps in continuity. Mainly, I think, the result of trying to cram too much into a film -- trying to give a typical Marvel backstory while at the same time trying to present an exciting self-contained thriller.

(Dr. Strange also suffers from following too closely the original arcs of the original comics. And, before you start pounding on the NOT USEFUL key, you should know that this reviewer not only read all the originals in the series but actually SUBSCRIBED to Dr. Strange back in the day, which meant that the nice Marvel people actually mailed me each issue as it came out. In an envelope. The original story arcs were far from Marvel's best, compared to its better-known heroes, featuring the same two villains over and over, Nightmare and Dormammu, each taking turns boring the reader to death.)

Which brings us to this ambitious JLA entry, an attempt to show that the mighty DC library can possibly take on the mighty Marvel library, sort of a David Goliath thing....? Frankly, they nail it.

Part of the fun is the script. Man, is it tight. One of the best I have ever encountered in a "superhero" animation. Early in the story, a hot babe who is actually the essence of Constantine's magic house does a 30 second analysis of Batman and concludes he is mainly pain and darkness.

"How do you manage?," she asks sincerely.

"I HAVE A BUTLER" Batman responds deadpan.

That is one of the best lines of dialog I have ever encountered from DC. You could even hear the guys over at Pixar getting nervous. And, even better, the quality of the writing holds up for the entire film. Wow.

To sum up, the high score is because DC/Warner attempted the impossible, taking on a Marvel live action film with their own animated product at a fraction of the cost, and more or less pulled it off. And because the boyz at DC/Warner understood that sometimes less is more, and wisely kept the other (over-exposed) members of the JLA in the background. And, most of all, because this is an entertaining and engaging film.

I put up this disclaimer before reviewing anything related to comic books and that is, I am not a very avid comic book reader because of it's unavailability here. I keep myself at pace via websites and I am certainly up to date regarding the DC animated movies. Believe it or not, but I've watched all of them.

SCREENPLAY - The story and the dialogues are very 50/50 but thank you DC, for making it R-rated. The banter is pretty good. Especially Deadman and Batman. They have the best punch-lines and Batman's "hmmm" always cracked me up. Without going too much into detail, a part of the movie felt a tad bit like Kingsman. If it's a reference to the comics, which the readers can point out, then it's cool but to me, it felt a bit clichéd. The expository stuff was surprisingly kept at a minimum. There was some of it of course but, I've seen in the other animated movies where everything just comes to a halt and some character is just hurling exposition. The callbacks between Zatana and Constantine sometimes felt over-used. I have watched the T.V. Show of Constantine, so I know what happened in Newcastle but they were ranting about things that happened all over the world. I mean, maybe it's entertaining for the comic-book readers but from a writer's point of view, using the same trope too many times reduces it's effect.

ART-DIRECTION - Let me get rid of the gripes I had about the animation. First of all at around 17 minutes into the movie, Deadman is opaque and transparent even when he hasn't been made visible by Constantine. Second, sometimes the expressions of the characters didn't change with the dialogue. I know it is nitpicking but you'll begin to notice after some time. If that would happen to a live actor, I would call it a wooden performance. Now, the pros. The action sequences were amazing. Especially the second last fight. That really got me pumped up. Earlier there used to be a lot of cut- away's during a fight sequence. The difference here was that each individual fight was done for a longer time before interjecting it with a scene. That increased the intensity of the fights by a notch.

VOICE-ACTING - There were a lot of known actors and actresses doing the voices like, Rosario Dawson as Wonder Woman, Alfred Molina as Destiny and of course Matt Ryan as Constantine. It's so sad that his show got cancelled. It was the only DC character I was invested in, especially due to his performance. Nicholas Torturro was amazing as Boston Brand. I know people will be hypothetically punching me for saying this, but he felt like the Deadpool of the lot. All the others were great as well, no complaints in the voice-acting department.

FINAL VERDICT - At one point I was thinking that what is Batman doing in the middle of all this magic and hocus-pocus. Just then all these magical elements started to deconstruct his character and I was like,"Oh! That's why he is there". It is quite rightfully rated R because there is a lot of violence, but personally, I wanted a little bit more. Maybe I am sadistic but if you agree then give me some assurance that I am not as sadistic as I think I am. Do give this one a watch. I am sure DC fans will, but if you're a fan of animated movies, I am sure this one won't disappoint.

Justice League Dark is another incredible DC animated movie that successfully explores the more magical side of the DC universe. Jason O'Mara is reliably great as Batman and Matt Ryan is perfect as Constantine. Camilla Luddington is really good. The animation is also really good as well as Jay Oliva's direction. It's extremely well paced and the music by Robert J. Kral is great. However, it's brought down slightly by a weak villain.

The beginning before credits is simply great, quite frigthening and well done (I did not like the portrayal of Wonder Woman and even more of Superman, but it is a minor issue). However, after that, all the occultist stuff is too rushed and underdevelopped... Animation is well done, but there lies the feeling that the opportunity to make an unforgettable animated movie has been waisted.