Justice League Dark: Apokolips
review by Bobby Blakey
DC Entertainment continues to be on a major role with their animated features most notably their ongoing story arcs that kicked off the DC Animated Universe with Justice League War in 2014. Now the six year journey comes to a head with the latest in the series Justice League Dark: Apokolips War. Will this big battle be worth the build up from the previous entries in the DC Animated Universe or will it be a war not worth fighting?
Justice League Dark: Apokolips War follows Earth decimated after intergalactic tyrant Darkseid has devastated the Justice League in a poorly executed war by the DC Super Heroes. Now the remaining bastions of good – the Justice League, Teen Titans, Suicide Squad and assorted others – must regroup, strategize and take the war to Darkseid in order to save the planet and its surviving inhabitants. This is truly the war to end all wars, and only the victor will live to enjoy the spoils.
This latest entry features the largest Super Hero cast in the history of DC Universe Movies with dozens of actors/characters spotlighted in a grand ensemble of talent reprising their roles from this six-year story continuum. Matt Ryan, Jerry O’Connell and Taissa Farmiga anchor the cast as Constantine, Superman and Raven, respectively – the triumvirate determined to assemble the forces necessary to lead humanity’s final attack. Alongside that trio are the long-running core of Justice League voices -- Jason O’Mara, Rosario Dawson, Shemar Moore, and Christopher Gorham as well as JL-adjacents Rebecca Romijn, Rainn Wilson and Tony Todd as Darkseid.
This film wastes no time getting right to the action and lets you know pretty quick that they are not pulling any punches. There is way more blood here than I expected, but to be honest I don’t know another way that this film could have been done and still work. This is a grim story that has a lot of dark moments and loss with some pretty surprising. All these years
these films have been bringing a more adult nature to them as it built this entire universe. This one film destroys everything right off the bat before diving into the core of the story.
I loved the dark future element and use of all the remaining heroes and villains in ways to make them stand out while being those we know and love. They pull no punches with the action offering up one epic fight after the other almost nonstop. This might have been my favorite of the shared universe DC Animated films to date and while it seemingly wraps up the full story there is more that can be done with that ending.
In addition to the film this release offers up a super amount of bonus content including commentaries, featurettes, animated classics from the DC Vault, the DC Showcase short “Adam Strange” and a sneak peek at the next DC Animated feature Superman: Man of Tomorrow. Join the war and grab your copy of Justice League Dark: Apokolips War available now on digital, 4K Ultra, Blu-ray and DVD from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.