Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to "Tales of the Longbox" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm guys, I'm gonna be covering an animated film from 2021. That movie is "Injustice".
Now, I did play the video game that this movie is adapting from, which was actually called "Injustice: Gods Among Us". I didn't play it when it first came out, I actually played it quite a few years after it came out. Which is kind of a mistake on my part because when I attempted to find players I could play against online on my Wii U, I got no response from anyone online. And I know someone's probably gonna say that no one plays the Wii U anymore because the Switch is their holy messiah of Nintendo. But again, I also have to stress that I played it years after the game was originally released. And I am also aware that they released a sequel afterwards, which more people probably played and everyone stopped playing the first game shortly afterwards.
But yeah, regardless of my inexperience with trying to play the game online, I did kinda enjoy it and the story was really good, too. And then I learned that Warner Bros released an animated adaptation of the popular video game. Which leads me all the more curious as to how they handle it here. Now the only things I remember about the story of "Injustice: Gods Among Us" was that Joker killed Lois Lane, and Superman when all apeshit and destroyed the world and everyone in it. I'm not too familiar with the rest of the story beyond that since, again, it's been quite a while since I last experienced the story when I last played the game.
So now, I get to see how they handle the story here through animation and see if it's any good. I'm not totally sure if it is or not, but that's what I'm here to find our. And the only I'm gonna find out is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Injustice".
2 minutes later
Wait, so Clark believes that Lois is pregnant since he heard a heartbeat coming from her. Um...how does he know that? He never used his X-Ray vision to check and see if there was an embryo inside Lois's stomach. So how the hell does he know that Lois is pregnant? I'm not saying that he's wrong here, I'd just like to see some actual proof is all.
8 minutes later
O...K...so, you guys remembered when I kept mentioning that it had been quite a while since I last played the story of "Injustice: Gods Among Us"? Well, I was totally wrong about Superman being the one who killed everyone after Lois was killed. That was *all* Joker. Holy shit...
6 minutes later
OK, I have a question here and I know it's very trivial in the long run, but I gotta ask. When did Superman develop a five o' clock shadow? I'm assuming some time has passed already since the events of that horrific tragedy, even though we're not told how exactly much time has passed. I'm gonna assume it's been, like, a couple of weeks or so, so I guess it might've been enough time for him to grow a slight beard. I don't even remember if he even had that in the game or not, but still, seeing him get a five o' clock shadow looks a little off to me, you know what I mean?
4 minutes later
All right, guys, two things. One, I got it wrong in thinking that Superman had a five o' clock shadow. That was just odd shading on his face. And two, this little speech that he's making here is reminding me of that speech he made in "Superman IV: The Quest For Peace". You know, the one where he tried to get leaders all over the world to give up nuclear weapons for the sake of peace? This is reminding me of that, only this time, a child didn't ask him to do it for stupid reasons. Just thought I'd mention that.
17 minutes later
OK, now that's *two* kills for Superman, as he just killed Solomon Grundy. And you know what the strange thing is? I can't exactly blame Superman for that one, I blame that more on Harley Quinn because she's the one who caused all the cells at Arkham Asylum to open in the first place. Granted, it was sorta good intentions on her part, but still, she's also responsible for letting one of them die at the hands of Superman. So...good on you, Harley, for being fucking stupid as hell.
2 minutes later
Wait, so in this movie, Selina Kyle knows who Dick Grayson is and knows about Bruce Wayne being Batman. The latter I can believe, because I know in the comics, Bruce revealed his identity to her and the two of them ended up falling in love shortly after that, but I find it a little odd that she knows about who Robin is and also about Dick Grayson. But that's just me, personally.
8 minutes later
Hold up! Wait a fucking second here! So Superman just admitted that he's not a god, even though he, Wonder Woman, and a few others of the Justice League have been going around the world stopping missiles from killing people, blowing up other countries, and forcing world leaders to sign peace treaties. Oh sure, dude, you are *totally* not abusing your authority over other people in their countries and how they run. No dude, you are *truly* using your powers for good and that you're not gonna incite any people to fear you or raise up their pitchforks whatsoever! You are *truly* the hero that everybody looks up to! ...I'm sorry, guys, but there's a limit to how much Superman can overstep his bounds on how stupid he's being and acting right now. That was just a really stupid thing he just said there.
2 minutes later
So hold on a fucking second here! So, the Atom is inside Superman's mind right now with a shard of kryptonite that's making Superman stop in his tracks. Are you telling me that they could've done this at *anytime* during the entirety of the movie, yet, they let Superman dictate on how he should be running the world and also let one of their best friends and ally die in the process. I'm sorry, but this is fucking stupid beyond levels! I'm actually kinda pissed because this is something that they should've fucking thought about *long* time ago and would've prevented a lot more damage than what was already caused by Superman. Fuck this movie, man...
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Injustice". Let me go ahead and shut the movie off here...OK. God, where do I even start with this thing...? I'm a little torn, guys. Because, even though this movie was way more stupid than I thought it could be, I will say the final fight between the two Supermans, which was also a thing in the ending of the game, was actually really good. And what came after was also really touching, too. Granted, it's also something resembling a plothole, which I'll talk about in a moment. But despite that, even though I'm gonna be ranting against this movie for all of it's flaws, I will say that there is still some good stuff here. So I'm not gonna say that it completely sucks or anything, it's just way too fucking flawed for it's own good.
So with that, let's talk about the biggest flaw this movie suffers from the most, which is it's writing. The writing in this movie is just filled to the brim with so many plotholes and dumb moments that I could be here for hours discussing what went wrong with every scene in this movie. Now before I go any further on it, I am going to say that I'm not gonna be doing any comparisons with how the game's story played out. Because, one, as I've mentioned a couple of times already, it's been a long time since I last played out the game's story, so I'm not gonna be comparing what the game did better over this movie and vice versa. And secondly, this movie goes in a more different direction with it's story anyways, because this movie has certain elements that were not present in the game, which is what I expect from an adaptation. Adaptations of whatever you're adapting from should stand or fall on it's own. And this movie, unfortunately, really kinda stumbles in this area.
To begin with, let's start with the biggest plothole that sticks out at me. And it's the fact that the Atom can go into the mind of Superman with a small shard of kryptonite and basically mess with the Man of Steel. That part, I can kinda buy, because the Atom is capable of shrinking himself to really small levels. However, what I can't buy is the fact that nobody thought of this until they got to the Fortress of Solitude to enact this plan of theirs. Well...to be fair, their real plan was to get some kind of cannon from the Fortress of Solitude that would be able to stop Superman in his tracks. But still, the idea that they could get the Atom to shrink to small size while he holds a small shard of kryptonite to mess with Superman's mind is something that they should've done a *long* time ago.
Same thing with goes with the ending. As much as I did really enjoy the ending, it also makes you question why the hell they didn't think of doing this before Superman overreached his authority over the world is something that is incredibly baffling. The only thing I could think of as to why they let this happen is because maybe they didn't think that Superman, at the beginning, *would* be able to take it this far with how he's trying to police the world by stopping all wars from happening. But still, you could also argue that this is something that Batman, the World's Greatest Detective, should've thought about to begin with. I mean, the guy was able to defeat the entirety of the Justice League by himself in "Justice League: Doom" by learning all of the League's weaknesses and outsmarting them. How the fuck did Batman not use his brain here to outsmart Superman like that is something that really makes me question if, in this universe, he's just a half decent detective rather than being the smartest?
But that's just Batman. Let's talk about Superman in this movie. Now, in fairness, I can give his character some leeway here. Obviously, what he's doing is done with good intentions. He wants people to stop killing each other over war so that another tragedy like Metropolis won't happen again. That stuff is all well and good. However, he's obviously not thinking clearly with a lot of his actions. Like when he kills a lot of people at this dance club because most of them were dressed up similarly to the Joker. That is when even Wonder Woman, who's acts really stupid and is by Superman's side for most of this movie, realizes that something is wrong with him and eventually turns on him near the end of the film. So, as much as I can criticize Superman and his actions in this movie, I feel like a lot of that was done intentionally. I mean, I could go more into the stupid shit where he said that he's not a god, yet he's basically overstepping his bounds like forcing world leaders to sign peace treaties to end their wars. However, like I said, I believe this was done intentionally to show his flaws as a character. So I'm gonna give Superman a bit of a pass in this story.
However, I can't do the same with a certain other character: Damien Wayne, AKA Robin. Ever since I watched certain other DC animated films such as "Son of Batman" and "Justice League vs. Teen Titans", I've always had a certain amount of dislike for the character and they kinda ramp it up here where he's being an immature idiot. And the crowning achievement of him being an idiot comes when he accidentally kills Nightwing during the fight at Arkham Asylum. Which, when I originally saw that scene, I thought he just knocked him out cold. I didn't think him throwing his weapon at the side of Nightwing's head like that would actually kill him. But it somehow did, and it builds more of a distrust between him and Batman, even though that issue was already kinda resolved in "Son of Batman". But no, they undo it here by having Damien kill Nightwing and it just makes me dislike both him and Batman for this movie for undoing shit that didn't need to be undone.
So you're probably wondering if there are *any* likable characters in this movie? Well, yes, there are. I can name 3 of them. Catwoman, Mr. Terrific, and Plastic Man. The latter in which he has the most personality of the group. Catwoman is somewhat more level-headed when she goes into the batcave to calm Bruce down and just let his emotions out not as Batman, but as himself. That moment was really good. And then you have Mr. Terrific. Admittedly, I'm not too familiar with him other than he's suppose to be the third smartest guy in the DC universe. One scene in particular that I can remember with him is when Superman asks him to help get rid of guns. And Mr. Terrific counters him by saying that, well, are you gonna stop people from smoking, which causes cancer and kills people faster? Are you gonna stop people from speeding in their cars? He admits that he could help Superman get rid of most guns, but there would still be a way for people, good and bad, to get guns. So he declines to help him. I was gonna question why, later in the film, he had these special cameras with his insignia that is policing people all over the world, but then I realized that Superman probably forced him to make those him, and it was revealed that he was set up in a prison that is underwater. So I can forgive that sort of issue.
Guys, there is so much more that I could mention involving the writing, however, I would be here for an entire day talking about more flaws that this movie has. So I'm just gonna sum up to you guys by saying that the writing here is incredibly flawed. There is so much stupidity and plotholes that you could pile into a crock pot and still wouldn't be able to fill it all the way with. That said, I will say that the acting here is certainly really decent. It's not the best I've heard, in terms of acting from previous DC animated films that I've seen, but it is certainly not horrible either. Everyone turned in a fairly decent showing for what they had to work with here. So I can at least say that the acting here is fairly competent.
Animation here is mostly really good, though there are a couple of moments where the frames look a little bit wonky. One example I can think of at the top of my mind is when Nightwing is facing off against one of the inmates at Arkham Asylum. I don't remember which one, but it doesn't really matter. But yeah, there's a frame during the fight where it looked a little wonky and it sorta looked like an in-between frame rather than a finished one. But it's honestly a minor flaw as long as you're not looking for it like I did. The rest of the animation is really good. Sure, it's not on par with some other films I've seen in the DC animated lineup, though it's honestly just a personal thing, because I really enjoy a lot of these animated films from DC and there's a few that stand out to me that look really good. But it's nothing to take away from the animation here, as it most of it flows really well.
I want to touch upon the art-style, though, for just a moment. Because there's two characters, whose designs in particular struck out at me in a somewhat bizarre way. Both of which are Superman and Wonder Woman. With Superman, you can actually see the bone structure in his abs through his costume and it sticks out like an eyesore. It either means Superman's been hitting the gym or he hasn't been really eating enough to let his body be like that. Which, considering all the shit that he had to go through in this movie, I can kinda buy the fact that he hasn't really eaten much. Snarking aside, it's a rather odd design choice to give him, but I did sorta get use to it eventually as the movie went on.
However, that doesn't compare to Wonder Woman. Her arms look ridiculously muscular in this film! And they stick out way more than Superman's abs because every time that she shows up on camera, her arm structure looks so off-putting that it makes you wonder why the artists for this movie went with this sort of design choice? OK yes, I understand that this is a superhero movie. And it's common practice for a lot of superheroes to look buff and strong. However, with Wonder Woman, in every carnation that I've seen her in, whether it's the comics, the TV show from the late 70's to early 80's, or even the Justice League animated series, I've *never* seen her develop muscles of any kind. But this is the first time I've ever seen her with muscles, and it just doesn't look right on the character at all. She's strong even without muscles! So why give her this off-putting choice really doesn't make much of any sense. At least, to me, it doesn't.
So yeah, setting aside the odd choice of muscle structure for those certain characters, the rest of the characters look really good. And the color palettes are utilized really well, too. So, I can say, for the most part, the animation and it's art-style is mostly good. Sound-mixing here is good, too, as is the score. Neither is anything special, but at least it's competent.
Ultimately, guys, when everything is and done, can I recommend "Injustice"? It's a really tough call. I would maybe say that if you can overlook all of the plotholes that this movie has, you might be able to enjoy it for what it is. That said, I rather recommend you play the game that it's based on rather than this. At least the game is fun, even if the story there is sorta flawed, too. This movie, though, I just can't quite find it in myself to fully recommend as a purchase. I would say that if you can find it as a rental or on some streaming service, maybe sure. But that's the extent to where I can recommend it. I bought a physical copy of this movie, and I'm really disappointed in it. I wanted to like this. I really did. I thought it was going to be just as awesome as many of the other animated films from DC that I have seen. But sadly, that's just not quite the case here. Again, it's not the worst one out there, personally speaking. That honor, to me, goes to "Teen Titans: The Judas Contract". I doubt any DC animated film will reach the awfulness of that movie. But still, this movie isn't really good enough to hold onto for my DVD collection. Speaking of which, I do have plenty of other animated films from DC that I can watch and enjoy. And you know what? I mentioned "Justice League: Doom" earlier, so I'm gonna go and watch that next so that I can be a little bit more happier after having to watch this thing.
And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
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