DC/Warner Bro’s may get some hate for their live-action movies they release but whenever they release an animated movie, it’s always beyond good and this time is no different.
Story
The story is set around the Justice League and mainly Superman wanting to and take the war to Darkseid on Apokolips, Superman is really pushing to do this whether people in the league like it or not. This is a bad idea since Darkseid has planned on this and has made counters… Half Parademons infused with Superman’s DNA which created something called Paradooms.
Time jump 2 years in the future back on Earth we see the world in pure chaos, Parademons are everywhere and Darkseid is essentially stripping the world of its magma. We then get to see just what happened 2 years ago, we saw many of the league members like Mera, Aquaman, Shazam, Hal Jordan and many more get LITERALLY ripped apart. We saw Shazam get his leg ripped off, Wonder Woman’s arm, Mera’s face and we saw Darkseid just lay waste to the league.
As we progress through the movie, we see that Darkseid tortured Superman, implanting liquid Kryptonite into his skin essentially making him only Clark Kent. We see Darkseid use Cyborg and Batman as servants and more league members as soldiers with mind controls. Darkseid is wanting to take over the universe, we see him head to Oa where he murders everyone including Guy Gardner, killowog, and John Stewart.
The remaining heroes recruit the Suicide squad for essentially a “last mission”. Two teams go to each machine Darkseid has planted on Earth, Shazam, Superboy, and a few others go to one and the Bat-family goes to the other, Constantine manipulates Swamp thing to attack the 3rd machine when he does the Paradoom’s come to Earth and attack the teams. This is where we get more deaths in Batgirl, Superboy, and a few others.
Back on Apokolips, we see the all-out brawl between Darkseid and the team. It’s pretty one-sided until Trigon takes over Clark. Clark manages to regain control after he hears Lois’s final message to him before Lex’s building blows up with Lois, Lex, and the Suicide Squad perishing.
A little bit more to the end of the movie we see Cyborg sacrifice himself to transport Darkseid and Trigon to somewhere else and exploding Apokolips. Constantine tells Barry he needs to do another Flashpoint, Barry sprints off to change reality.
This is probably the best-animated movie in all of the DC Animated Universe. I was so blown away by this story and the way it unfolded throughout.
Favorite Moment
We get many fights throughout the movie, Trigon vs Darkseid, Superman going full out against Darkseid but my favorite moment was Damian Wayne vs a brain-washed Batman who held nothing back against Damian. He quickly gets the best of Damian and when he held a sword to his neck, he got a flashback of when the killer of his parents held a gun towards him. This breaks the Darkseid programming in Batman who then throws the sword into Darkseid’s eye.
Standout Character
Again, throughout the movie, we got a hand full of standout characters but I’ve got to give this one to John Constantine. Throughout the movie, he dealt with his fears, his love, his loss, and his regain. In the end, he stood out quite more than other characters.
The Verdict
An absolutely incredible movie and an insanely satisfying end to movies in the DCAU. This movie has a great story, decent pacing, incredible action and it showcased the brutality of Darkseid as well as the dark side of DC. This is definitely the top 3 DC animated movies.
Rating: 10/10
