Movie Review: Justice League: Dark

Unfortunately, it gets dark in all of the wrong places.

For those that don’t know, Justice League: Dark is the more supernatural alternative to say the regular variety Justice League which features Superman, Batman, a bunch of Green Lanterns, and Wonder Woman. The team originally introduced in the comics features John Constantine, Swamp-Thing, Zatanna, Deadman, and a slew of others, most of which aren’t even in this movie.

And that’s where we fall apart quite frankly. For whatever reason, the producers of Justice League: Dark thought we couldn’t have a movie without SOMEONE from the Justice League, so we threw in some Batman for good measure. It’s not even the good Kevin Conroy take on “Batman”, rather it’s the Jason O’Mara who is, at best, the third or fourth ranked voice of the Dark Knight, narrowly beating out Diedrich Bader, but leagues behind Kevin Conroy and Roger Craig Smith both of whom are #1 and #2 respectively. As I watch the film, I couldn’t help but think that Batman’s input could’ve been wrapped in the first act after the Boston Brand hilariously invades Bruce Wayne’s bathroom private time. Actually, speaking of bathroom breaks, THE highlight of this movie (mouse-over for spoilers) is when Metropolis General Hospital spews out a monster made of poop to fight Batman…and then Batman responds by SHOCKING said poop with paddles. Dear Lord, I wish I were making that up, but it all happens!

We DO get a thrilling performance from Matt Ryan as “Constantine”, and when the TRUE elements of the Dark team are together, that’s when this thing really gets good. Watching Ryan’s “Constantine” and Swamp Thing mingle on the small screen for the first-time put a tear in my eye with hopes of a proper animated adaptation of the Swamp Thing comics, all the way through the Alan Moore era of the books. As we progress through the film, the action elements are definitely the meat and potatoes of the film. The fight scenes are epic…EPIC. Especially the one that involves Swamp Thing. Seriously, that fight alone might be worth you buying to watch this movie because you’ll wanna watch that battle a few times in awe.

In terms of the other voices, Nicholas Turturro as “Deadman”…nope….not worth revisiting. Everyone else with the exception of Nick and Jason does a fine job and certainly wouldn’t mind a more proper lineup of Justice League: Dark players. Maybe, instead of Batman, we throw in some Frankenstein or maybe more than just a couple of cameos for Swamp Thing. Black Orchid is another character heavily underutilized this film, but hopefully, we can flesh her out a bit more because he had some good solo stories from back in the day.

Overall, for those that were looking for a soup-to-nuts adaptation of Justice League: Dark, you’re gonna have a bad day. A majority of the characters that were from that universe aren’t even in this film, but we do have some glimmers of hope with John, Swamp Thing, and definitely Zatanna. This could be a franchise to build on, but the producers can’t be too chicken shit to omit unnecessary players from the mix. Batman sticks out like a sore thumb the entirety of this film and not in a good way and the other Justice League players make hilariously brief cameos with no resolutions to their contributions.