Injustice – DC Animated Movie Review – A Fun, Action-packed Adaption

Injustice, everyone’s favorite video game series as well as many avid comic book readers’ favorite stories from DC Comics. The story has made the jump from comics to video games, and now animated movies. DC has done it again with the quality animation from their animated universe for DC comics.

Sit back and relax while I give you my review of the latest and arguably one of the best DC animated movies that have been released in recent years.

Please note, there are spoilers below.

Story

This was a slightly altered version of the Injustice we all know and love, with some characters who had a huge role in the comics and games, essentially being killed off in this universe, such characters such as Cyborg and The Flash. Was the story perfect? No, definitely not.

With the story not being true to the games or comics, this makes for a unique universe in the animated movies, especially if they continue this story going forward, maybe in a trilogy.

It did feel as though the story was a prequel to the actual video games universe even despite it being an alternative timeline. We see what happens prior to when the first Injustice game began, and what actually happened that made Superman turn “bad” effectively.

Overall, the story was an interesting take and I can’t say that I never enjoyed it because I absolutely did. It added an element of enjoyment knowing this story is taken from one of the most popular storylines within DC. They nailed it, and it’s another DC animated movie that can be added to the absolute watch list.

Injustice is all about team Batman and team Superman after the death of Lois, at least that’s the general idea from the comics and the games. Of course, it’s more complex than that but the story flowed very well throughout the movie. Was it perfect? No. Was it actually good? Absolutely. I wouldn’t knock the movie because it had a couple of flaws as it was incredibly entertaining.

Characters

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved each and every single one of the characters in this movie, I thought they were all voiced really well, each character had a role that they needed and they executed it very well. However, I do believe they should have kept some characters alive.

Firstly, The Flash. He was done so incredibly wrong in this movie. The fastest man alive, gets killed by a saw blade? Really? Such a huge letdown. I literally went into this movie thinking “oh, I’ll see this version of Barry go down a dark path, eventually see the light, and turn good” but no. LESS than a minute in the movie.

Cyborg. While Cyborg had a decent run in the movie, and that the reveal that Batman had implanted a virus in him, but he was killed, easily as well. While I get that Cyborg isn’t everyone’s favorite character, but he still had some huge stories to tell, especially in the Injustice universe.

Hype

Even though the only hype I saw for this movie was when it was first announced when the cast was revealed, and when the trailers came out is the only time I saw people talk about it. Since then, this movie has faded, while I get animated movies are not everyone’s cup of tea, this movie deserves the hype.

Did it live up to the hype? For the small amount, yes it did. It absolutely did live up to the hype.

It is a shame that this movie wasn’t hyped up even more than it was but I felt like with the hype it got the movie did live up to it’s name considering this is an animated movie based off the Injustice story.

Favorite Moments

Superman killing the Joker. How could this scene not be a favorite moment? I’m a huge Joker fan so seeing him easily get a victory over Superman of all heroes was absolutely perfect. Seeing Superman put his fist through his chest and Joker saying “That’s a punchline” in his last breath was great.

Robin killing Nightwing. Guess I’m running with a killing theme in these first two moments but it’s worth it. We got to see this incredible moment play out in an animated form. While I would love to see this in live-action, I’ll take it in this form. It translated from page to animated really well.

Plasticman in the final battle. Seeing that everyone underestimates him was perfect because he literally shut up everyone. It was just great to see him wrap up Amazo and then go inside of him and explode him.

The Superman v Superman fight. While it wasn’t as long as I hoped, it was still great nonetheless. While the “good” Superman held back, even against an evil version of himself, was great but he should have gone all out like the Injustice Superman.

Dislikes

The Flash. No story, no arc, no meaningful scenes, nothing. Nada. Zilch. An absolute travesty.

No bringing in other heroes from different universes apart from Superman (who got his ass handed to him) and Lois? Really? All this potential and absolutely no pay-off? Disappointment.

Cyborgs death. I mentioned it above, this should have never happened. Still had a lot to tell with this version. Completely wasted.

Recommend?

Yes, I would recommend seeing this. If you are a fan of the comics or video games, this will give you one step in the right direction to seeing a full-blown Injustice movie.

The Verdict

Overall, a really solid story slightly adapted from the source material with some bad decisions but overall a decent, fun, and action-packed animated movie from DC Comics. They tend to do well with these types of movies and once again, they did really well.

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Rating: 8.7/10

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Plot (Major spoilers here, read on at your own risk)

This movie pretty much serves as a prequel to the video games series, where it’s set before the events of the first video game. We begin the movie witnessing Clark hearing the sounds and civilians of Metropolis and ending up hearing the baby’s heartbeat in Lois’s stomach. He’s on top of the world.

Clark hears trouble so he shoots off, he finds Batman in Metropolis searching and finding out why the Joker is here, Clark goes to tell him the news, but of course, Batman being Batman, already knows that Lois is pregnant. Lois and Jimmy are on the docks investigating when the Joker appears and shoots Jimmy, killing him, and then kidnapping Lois.

While Batman is rounding up all members of the League, Superman and The Flash search the city, Flash goes underground and into a trap which the Joker has set, The Flash gets killed while Superman finds Joker and Harley on a Submarine, he then gets infected with fear toxin which causes him to see Lois as Doomsday, he flies her into space, when her last breath hits, a nuke in Metropolis goes off. Killing millions.

Green Lantern tries to stop an enraged Superman on his way to Gotham City but Superman not playing around quickly and very easily removes Hal’s ring causing him to fall to the ground only to be saved mere seconds from death. Superman explodes into the interrogation room and without hesitation puts his fist through Joker’s chest, instantly killing him.

The middle half of the movie was simply just Superman forcing Governments to cease their wars, Wonder Woman and a small band of heroes helping Superman destroy armies, end wars, and save mass casualties. We then get to see Mirror Master come into play by the US Government kidnapping Jonathan Kent (Superman’s adopted father) and holding him hostage so Superman will stand down.

We then get the insane scene where Robin (Damian Wayne) is slowly taking Superman’s side, he even goes with Superman, Wonder Woman, and Cyborg to Arkham Asylum to transport forcefully the inmates to a more secure location, a riot breaks out with everyone fighting. In the middle of the fight, Damian gets angry at Dick and throws hit baton off of Dick’s temple, instantly killing him. Superman also kills Solomon Grundy.

Batman, while carrying the body of the fallen Nightwing, disowns Damian. We then get a cool scene where Dick’s soul is taken and transformed from Nightwing to Deadwing. Batman’s next move is to break into the Fortress of Solitude and steal a red sun weapon to stop Superman.

Superman arrives and tries to “arrest” Team Bat, but a fight ensues with Superman being taken down to his knee’s by The Atom inside of his brain holding a tiny piece of Kryptonite, Ra’s Al Ghul arrives and tells Superman to inhale a toxin which literally melts The Atom.

Green Arrow tries to stop Superman with a Kryptonite arrow but Superman deflects the arrow which hits and kills Jonathan Kent. In a fight of rage Superman puts a hole in Green Arrow’s head. Later on in the city, Batman and Catwoman are talking on a rooftop when they see Superman kill an entire warehouse of people who are supporting the Joker.

Fast forward to the final moments of the movie, Superman gets into a fight with Amazo, the android sent by Ra’s Al Ghul, Superman gets thrown around until back up arrives in the form of Wonder Woman, Cyborg, and Hawkman. Amazo easily decimates Hawkman, even going as far as stepping on his head, killing him.

Amazo then turns his attention to Cyborg, while Cyborg does put up somewhat of a fight, Amazo literally rips him to pieces and then kills him by pulling off his metal head plate. Batman, Catwoman, Plastic Man, and Mr. Terrific arrive to give back up as well as Mr. Terrific teleporting to different worlds.

After the heroes takedown Amazo, Superman attacks Wonder Woman when she says Batman and the rest helped them. Mr. Terrific reappears with a good Superman and the two Supermen get into a fight which actually is pretty even but ultimately the Injustice Superman gets the win since he doesn’t hold back.

Mr. Terrific even has a backup bringing a pregnant Lois to this Earth to speak and try to make this Superman stand down, to which he does.