Review: Justice League: Gods and Monsters

Some Spoilers Below

Justice League: Gods and Monsters is proof that no matter how much you change something, tired tropes can weigh you down.

In the latest DC Comics animated film, JL:GaM features an alternate universe where the Justice League is a crazy trio that uses ultra-violent methods to quell evil. Superman is Hernan Guerra, son of Zod, and raised by Mexican immigrants. Wonder Woman is Bekka, and she somehow gets hitched to the son of Apokolips…don’t ask me why. Last, but not least, Batman is really a vampire that sucks the blood of bad guys after he kicks the shit out of them.

As ridiculous as that sounds, the main premise of the film is tired and has been done before. Basically, all three are framed for the murders of scientists and as such the government is going after the Justice League. Sound familiar? Yea, Batman’s been chased down by cops a hundred times for crimes he hasn’t committed, and the premise of Man of Steel is more or less the same. The main antagonist isn’t revealed until about three quarters of the way through, and don’t worry, I won’t ruin it. However, the antagonist’s cronies aka The Metal Men are rather uninspiring and bland, and actually remind me of the Sentinels of the future in X-Men: Days of Future Past, same powers and all for the most part.

Speaking of uninspiring and bland, the character designs for I would say 75 to 80 percent of the roster look like rejected designs from Batman Beyond. Everyone’s wearing just rather plain outfits with maybe the exception of our heroes, but if you pulled my arm I would tell you that I’m not completely sold on Batman’s look, neither.

All told, the fights were the best part of the entire 72 minutes with Superman’s killing of the Metal Men being funnier than it should have been, and Wonder Woman sending Batman’s ex flame aka the T-X from Terminator 3, into space. The voice acting was pretty good for the most part, too with the exception of Tamara Taylor as Wonder Woman of whom sounded like she was reading off the page for the first-time and the director just taking the first-take because he wanted to get out of there.

Again, the premise was just plain Jane. Hell, Superman and Batman try to stop a bomb only for Superman to fly it into space and just let it go. How many bombs has Superman sent into space? Like a million?? I think the concept for the feature-length is really solid, but everything else is stuff you’ve seen a 100 times before.