Review of Justice League: Gods and Monsters (2015) by Vivin M — 12 Jul 2015

This movie is much better than I expected! The best thing about this film are the characters - they are actually deep and feel human, which isn't what you'd normally expect in a comic book animated film. I especially liked vampire Batman - wow! He had emotional depth and a touching backstory, and I loved his abilities and his nerdy quirks (he's no actual Batman, but I'm a fan of this vampire Batman nonetheless). Another thing that might take you aback is that this is definitely not a kids film. There are some things that happened that I was like "Woah, can't believe they went for that." There are a few moments here and there that feel a bit forced and over-the-top in terms of the film trying to prove itself as a "this is not a kids movie people!", but they are far and wide, and you probably won't have much of a problem with them. There are also some moments that have that bad-ass dialogue that superheroes have, as well as some really cool lines from certain characters (like Lex Luthor: "I've grown bored of this universe,") which is always really fun to see. All of this adds up to a compelling fun film.

I also liked the way the film progressed in terms of how the characters got into the situation and conflict the film has, and it didn't feel as forced as other comic book films do. The "villains" are kind of like the T-1000 from Terminator 2, or the sentinels from X-men Days of Future Past, which may seem unoriginal, but also makes them more formidable, which you kind of need with heroes like this, but maybe they could've also done an alternate version of an already known villain which would've been better, but I didn't mind.

The only thing though is it's not the kind of animation where you walk out of it with some lesson or some kind of feeling of self-betterment, and in that sense it makes the film less memorable in a way. I also am still trying to find an animated comic book film that has really great compelling dialogue between characters that takes the film to greatness, but that's alright. However, within the realm of comic book animated films, this is one of the good ones.