The beginning before credits is simply great, quite frigthening and well done (I did not like the portrayal of Wonder Woman and even more of Superman, but it is a minor issue). However, after that, all the occultist stuff is too rushed and underdevelopped... Animation is well done, but there lies the feeling that the opportunity to make an unforgettable animated movie has been waisted.
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guisreis29 April 2020
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TurtlesFever30 January 2017"Beings with supernatural powers join together to fight against supernatural villains. This team of supernatural beings include John Constantine, Zatanna and Jason Blood also known as the demon Etrigran."
Directed by Jay Oliva, Justice League Dark brings a new story with different characters. It started off well, intriguing and different, but ended being a cliché movie. Still entertaining and fun to watch, but a bit disappointed at the end.
The actors were all great. Got to love Matt Ryan as Constantine, he's perfect, and he has a really good chemistry with Camilla Luddington who portrays Zatanna.
I feel like Batman was not needed and put in the movie for the sake of it, but I understand why DC wanted him in there, so that people have more interess in this film.
The film is rated R, but it could have been even darker... Anyone 13+ will have no problem with it, I don't see it as a 18 years old type of movie. But it's still more mature than other DC Animated movie.
Overall it's pretty enjoyable. I would recommend to take a look at it if you are interested in new characters and a different vibe. Worth a watch ! -
This movie is an interesting take on the JLD run. I do not agree with everything it does, but I do believe it holds it's own. One complaint people new to the magics of the DCU may have is that Zatana and Constantine seem to have limitless power. Trust me there are lomits, it's just this is a short animated piece, that really doesn't have time to go into that.
If you can overlook that, then this movie will entertain you, but it will fall short if they never do anything with JLD again. Over all the animation is toght, the plot is dense with out seeming to rushed, and they got personalities right. -
Rectangular_businessman11 October 2018Justice League Dark didn't disappoint any of my expectations, being another good entry for the DC animated universe.
It was entertaining to watch and it had a nice animation and designs. It was also nice to see some often overlooked characters from DC comics (Such as Deadman) getting some spotlight, and honestly more of these lesser know characters deserve their own opportunity to shine.
And honestly I don't know why this got an "R", taking into consideration how The Flashpoint Paradox got only a PG-13 rating despite being far more violent than this movie. -
TheLittleSongbird9 December 2017There are some good to excellent animated superhero/comic book films out there. 'Justice League Dark' is not one of the best of them, but it is nonetheless a worthy effort. People will either love it, be disappointed in it or find a lot to like while finding things that didn't work, there's a bit of all three going on here.
'Justice League Dark' is somewhat too short, 75 minutes doesn't seem anywhere long enough for a film with so many characters, rich themes and a very densely structured story. As a consequence, some of it is a little rushed and there are instances of parts in need of more exploration or characters having nowhere near the amount of screen time they deserved (Swamp Thing is one of the biggest wastes).
Most of the voice acting is fine, others not so much. There could have been more variety in some of the female voices and while good as Brand Nicholas Turturro's voice doesn't fit Deadman's personality or look. Oh and the villain Destiny is underwhelming, too underwritten, weak motivations and defeated too easily.
However, to me, the animation was not a problem. The atmospheric colours and fluidity are simply remarkable. The music is haunting and beautiful at the same time, giving intensity to the action scenes and giving weight to the more emotional and dramatic scenes.
Dialogue is smart and intelligently written and while the story isn't perfect it's absorbing and thematically interesting, with intriguing use of mythology and mystery and celebrating in a fun way the supernatural elements. Constantine and Zatanna, and their chemistry, are particularly well done.
Not all the voice acting works, but most of it does just fine. Matt Ryan and Jason O'Mara (filling in giant shoes with aplomb) are perfect as Constantine and Batman. Roger Cross, Enrico Colantoni and Rosario Dawson are also very good fits. Whatever reservations there are with Destiny, Alfred Molina's voice work is not among them.
In summary, falls short of being great but has a lot of impressive elements that make it worthy. 7/10 Bethany Cox -
In the wake of the inconsistency of the live-action, universe building marathon, it's refreshing to see a simpler, more straightforward, yet still effectively intriguing story-telling pace set by DC's animated feature titles. JLD continues the trend of it's predecessor, excelling at brief but complete introductions to some of DC's more obscure characters, bringing them out of the shadows. The use of the overly popular Batman is very fitting here and die-hard and new fans should find a bunch to like. Animation is solid, the voice-casting is even better. Admittedly, this kind of animation is not for everyone (it's not on the grand scale of say, Disney). In retrospect, the Suicide Squad film would've benefited from a similar screenplay/storytelling. Hey WB, can we get some of these writers on board with the live action stuff?
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A_Different_Drummer24 January 2017You have probably wandered into this review expecting some kind words about a "good effort" from Warner Animation but, of course, compared to the concurrent zillion-dollar Dr. Strange epic from Marvel, "no cigar." Well, you would be wrong.
For two reasons.
First, in spite of the big budget, and the big Benedict, Dr. Strange suffers from all kinds of narrative problems, and gaps in continuity. Mainly, I think, the result of trying to cram too much into a film -- trying to give a typical Marvel backstory while at the same time trying to present an exciting self-contained thriller.
(Dr. Strange also suffers from following too closely the original arcs of the original comics. And, before you start pounding on the NOT USEFUL key, you should know that this reviewer not only read all the originals in the series but actually SUBSCRIBED to Dr. Strange back in the day, which meant that the nice Marvel people actually mailed me each issue as it came out. In an envelope. The original story arcs were far from Marvel's best, compared to its better-known heroes, featuring the same two villains over and over, Nightmare and Dormammu, each taking turns boring the reader to death.)
Which brings us to this ambitious JLA entry, an attempt to show that the mighty DC library can possibly take on the mighty Marvel library, sort of a David Goliath thing....? Frankly, they nail it.
Part of the fun is the script. Man, is it tight. One of the best I have ever encountered in a "superhero" animation. Early in the story, a hot babe who is actually the essence of Constantine's magic house does a 30 second analysis of Batman and concludes he is mainly pain and darkness.
"How do you manage?," she asks sincerely.
"I HAVE A BUTLER" Batman responds deadpan.
That is one of the best lines of dialog I have ever encountered from DC. You could even hear the guys over at Pixar getting nervous. And, even better, the quality of the writing holds up for the entire film. Wow.
To sum up, the high score is because DC/Warner attempted the impossible, taking on a Marvel live action film with their own animated product at a fraction of the cost, and more or less pulled it off. And because the boyz at DC/Warner understood that sometimes less is more, and wisely kept the other (over-exposed) members of the JLA in the background. And, most of all, because this is an entertaining and engaging film. -
Pramitheus24 January 2017I put up this disclaimer before reviewing anything related to comic books and that is, I am not a very avid comic book reader because of it's unavailability here. I keep myself at pace via websites and I am certainly up to date regarding the DC animated movies. Believe it or not, but I've watched all of them.
SCREENPLAY - The story and the dialogues are very 50/50 but thank you DC, for making it R-rated. The banter is pretty good. Especially Deadman and Batman. They have the best punch-lines and Batman's "hmmm" always cracked me up. Without going too much into detail, a part of the movie felt a tad bit like Kingsman. If it's a reference to the comics, which the readers can point out, then it's cool but to me, it felt a bit clichéd. The expository stuff was surprisingly kept at a minimum. There was some of it of course but, I've seen in the other animated movies where everything just comes to a halt and some character is just hurling exposition. The callbacks between Zatana and Constantine sometimes felt over-used. I have watched the T.V. Show of Constantine, so I know what happened in Newcastle but they were ranting about things that happened all over the world. I mean, maybe it's entertaining for the comic-book readers but from a writer's point of view, using the same trope too many times reduces it's effect.
ART-DIRECTION - Let me get rid of the gripes I had about the animation. First of all at around 17 minutes into the movie, Deadman is opaque and transparent even when he hasn't been made visible by Constantine. Second, sometimes the expressions of the characters didn't change with the dialogue. I know it is nitpicking but you'll begin to notice after some time. If that would happen to a live actor, I would call it a wooden performance. Now, the pros. The action sequences were amazing. Especially the second last fight. That really got me pumped up. Earlier there used to be a lot of cut- away's during a fight sequence. The difference here was that each individual fight was done for a longer time before interjecting it with a scene. That increased the intensity of the fights by a notch.
VOICE-ACTING - There were a lot of known actors and actresses doing the voices like, Rosario Dawson as Wonder Woman, Alfred Molina as Destiny and of course Matt Ryan as Constantine. It's so sad that his show got cancelled. It was the only DC character I was invested in, especially due to his performance. Nicholas Torturro was amazing as Boston Brand. I know people will be hypothetically punching me for saying this, but he felt like the Deadpool of the lot. All the others were great as well, no complaints in the voice-acting department.
FINAL VERDICT - At one point I was thinking that what is Batman doing in the middle of all this magic and hocus-pocus. Just then all these magical elements started to deconstruct his character and I was like,"Oh! That's why he is there". It is quite rightfully rated R because there is a lot of violence, but personally, I wanted a little bit more. Maybe I am sadistic but if you agree then give me some assurance that I am not as sadistic as I think I am. Do give this one a watch. I am sure DC fans will, but if you're a fan of animated movies, I am sure this one won't disappoint. -
hasheerzulfiqar25 January 2017After a bad year for DC animation in the form of Batman the killing joke. Justice league Dark makes up for it and more. The story follows the exploits of some of DC's biggest magical characters. A simple yet well told story with enough intrigue and heart to keep one's interest. The visualization of magic was perfect and the abilities and variances of each character were well done. A personal worry for me before watching the movie was the amount of batman, considering he was front and center on the cover. Yet the movie uses him well. As nothing more than and outsider, with some action during the climax. The voice acting is spot on from Matt Ryan's reprisal of Constantine to Camilla Luddigton as Zatanna. Jason O'Mara does a good job as batman and although not as good as Kevin he is a good replacement. it must be mentioned that some may find it overwhelming to meet about 8-9 magical characters from the depths of DC's lore as this is the first movie outing for some of them and they range from straight forward to down right weird, they all have enough screen time and charm. Overall a solid movie to add to DC's brilliant library of animation and one that has great potential for the future.
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SnoopyStyle8 August 2018Regular people are committing crimes after hallucinating demons as the people around them. The Justice League is out of their element in this world of magic. Batman gets possessed by Deadman and given a message, Constantine. He recruits Zatanna to find Constantine to battle the mysterious new evil. With the help of Swamp Thing, the group fights Destiny.
The start is nice and it shows the JL unable to deal with magic. It gives a good reason to assemble a Justice League Dark. The secondary need is to present compelling characters. The JL characters are household names but these other ones are generally not. Constantine is great and Zatanna provides a good foil possibility. I'm not sure Batman is the natural bridge. It may be more compelling to send Superman and have him overwhelmed by magic. It would show that physical power is useless in this realm. There is a lot of explosive action which is like a crutch for this movie. It needs to set a different tone from the JL. Overall, it's a good start and time will tell if this goes anywhere good. -
MoistMovies24 January 2017Only writing this because there's no other reviews listed at the moment. A basic summary - We're introduced to the backstories of each character as the generic story/villain plays out in the background until we get a more focused conclusion at the end, with a few connections to protagonists like the etrogan/sorcerer(villain, ritchie,), tho that felt a little thrown in as fan service, it worked. I know ritchie is a old school character from the hellblazer series. So its a great animation to watch it you're interested in learning more about dc characters you were unaware of or didn't know well before. And for avid comic fans i'm sure seeing less appreciated characters on screen, and not done poorly, would be a satisfying thing to watch. Tho i don't know the characters in depth so perhaps they were done poorly to the astute comic fan. But for me, it seemed more fleshed out that other DC films in there treatment of backstory and context for each character. Except batman.. Who was thrown into this film for the sake of it and almost takes this rating down to a 7 for that sake... But his role ended up working. So i can forgive that DC cash grab/afraid will fail without batman approach.
Ultimately, this is the next big DC film to come out since the Klling joke.. Both of which i had high hopes for. And for me, This is the better film of the two by a bit. Perhaps because i expected the killing joke to be really brilliant and it was a mix of batgirl and pretty good. This film fit my expectations allot more. So i expect allot less people to be let down by it, especially DC comic fans.
7.5/10 -
ToThePointPR28 August 2018A good animated DC movie about the more magical aspect of the DC Universe. Better than any of the live-action DCU movies released in recent years. Zatanna and Constantine are both interesting and great characters in this. I have a few issues, including how Swamp Thing is handled. Batman didn't need to be in it but he isn't over used so it was fine. But all in all I enjoyed it.
Personal Enjoyment Score(IMDb): 7/10 Movie Score (Letterboxd): 6/10 -
This was a surprisingly dull entry in the WB/DC animated run of films. Just a run-of-the-mill plot, odd voice-acting at times (maybe the comics explain it but why does Deadman sound like a cab driver?) and a lack of Swamp Thing - I know that's a petty thing to say, but Swamp Thing is an outstanding character in the comics, and is so little used here he barely should make the cover of the DVD (Batman gets most prominence because... Batman, but, honestly, Green Lantern is in this more than ST).
It's not that I can pinpoint to a specific moment like 'here is where this whole thing falls off a cliff and omg it's so good until before then. Jay Oliva's direction is simply standard throughout, never really rising too far above what is absolutely required for such a boilerplate comic book story, and I think it's because there seems to be so much potential with these characters and the world that it's set in that to all of sudden see that it's just... well, time to fight a God that is doing all of this because, y'know, God and all that, that it falls radically short. Not to mention there's things that make it feel painfully standard like the 'oh no here's the twist/reveal that this character was not what we thought he was!' that feels weak and hackneyed.
Even the writing for a character like John Constantine, who is a wonderful bad-ass in his own series, is often here giving simple exposition. Occasionally a character will have a good line or quip, and the writing tries really hard (and maybe once or twice succeeds) in giving Zatanna some dimension and pain in moments with her magic usage. But overall this feels poorest in the writing than in the animation, though that comes standard as well. Lastly, it doesn't help knowing that there *could* have been a out of this world JLD movie from Guillermo del Toro, which is probably another in the long ranks of lost, promising works of his. -
TheMunkeyBoy30 July 2018I love Justice League and I am a huge Batman fan, so I was pretty pumped to see that Batman was a huge part of this with Constantine. But, I have to say I didn't overly enjoy this film. It wasn't holding me. It was Dark that's for sure. Supernatural, magic and demon s kind of dark. I don't mind that - not my fav though. I don't like comparing movies but I have to say that JL Doom and Public Enemies were bounds ahead. I wanted to love it but I don't think I'll watch this again. Just something missing. It just felt lacking, slow and boring. Can't win them all I guess.
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koltonbrett4 January 2022If magic isn't your thing, this isn't the movie for you. It's like a war of wizards and demons. Magic in movies is often hard to wrap the mind around. The limits don't seem to be well defined. This is of course a thing of personal preference. Many will enjoy this movie, many will not.
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mexpo-6673412 June 2020It's a good movie but nothing beyond that, people praise this movie way too much!
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masonsaul12 May 2020Justice League Dark is another incredible DC animated movie that successfully explores the more magical side of the DC universe. Jason O'Mara is reliably great as Batman and Matt Ryan is perfect as Constantine. Camilla Luddington is really good. The animation is also really good as well as Jay Oliva's direction. It's extremely well paced and the music by Robert J. Kral is great. However, it's brought down slightly by a weak villain.
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questl-1859226 January 2020Standard DC animation. It's fun to look at and some of the characters are neat but if you're not super into the DCU then this just feels like a lot of fan service that I don't get. It might be pretty, but the story is just sort've ok.
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saurabhanand-3699324 January 2017After watch 'Batman: The killing joke' I thought now DC don't have good stories to make nice animated movies but I prove wrong after watching latest DC animated movie 'JUSTICE LEAGUE DARK'. Hell of a story-line, some immense, powerful and totally unexpected heroes. Even though in this movie there are only 2 or 3 shots of whole justice league team except Batman. Fighting scenes are just amazing. Dark Magic is in the air. People killing people, heroes fighting heroes. I an not going to tell you about the whole movie from the first scene to last one because I want to create suspense for you but this suspense is totally worth it. So just download this movie and watch and you will be amazed.
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HafizhMaulana2119 November 2022The mystery of the evil that haunts Gotham City requires Batman to summon his supernatural comrades to eradicate the evil of the devil. Together with Constantine, Zatanna and Jason Blood they must prepare to fight the strongest demon before it is too late to affect humans.
Justice League Dark is one of the DC animated films that has a dark feel and supernatural powers. Justice League Dark can be a new formula to be introduced further besides the Justice League group that has been appearing to exist. The concept of a supernatural hero deserves to be given space to develop and get full attention to movie lovers. Justice League Dark presents several new characters with supernatural powers, such as John Constantine, Zatanna, Deadman and Jason Blood who are fused with Etrigan's body. In fact, the story of Justice League Dark is enough to explore the magical world, but the story focuses more on John Constantine's personal problems that are the cause of the mystery of chaos in Gotham City. Although the villain is Jason Blood's mortal enemy, Jason Blood's existence is not the main character as Constantine's companion. In the end, the conflict that was built was fairly shallow in its execution. The number of characters present makes this film build a lot of the character story than the main story of this film. The concept of mystery is also not built so grandly that it is a mysterious impression or
Constantine's existence as a pioneer of supernatural heroes does need to be explored more deeply. Although seen throughout the film, not too much of Constantine's strength is revealed. Likewise with the roles of Zatanna, Deadman and Etrigan who can reappear in the next DC animated film. Swamp Thing, even though it is present for a moment, doesn't actually give anything to the story. The presence of Swamp Thing is like an impromptu character to appear impromptu. It would be better if Justice League Dark could be made live-action. -
AviCoolChatt25 January 2017So we finally have a Justice Dark movie, eh? Bloody hell its time.
Let's get one thing sorted though. Its nice to see Batman in the movie, and he has ties to Zatanna actually - but its a stretch to see his usefulness in this universe. But John and Bruce are actually quite alike, except for the backstabbing thing. They both see the world more black than white and are the ultimately escape artists with plans within plans. One is a human walking with gods, and the other is a conman playing the angels and demons.
Coming to the movie, the animation is solid and I loved how they used the spells with multi coloured sigils for different mages. The character designs are nice (though I could do with a more fresh faced John, that aftershave look was doing him no favours) and the action scenes are well rendered.
Story: There are actually three threads here, two are character stories and one the main A-plot. Both Deadman and Jason Blood get fleshed out backstories though I dispute the latter was in any way better than the one given in the Timmverse. That was actually tragic but it seems Jason's backstory keeps getting changed to the main plot whenever he's involved to make him more important. Deadman and his budding need for friends and love was more intriguing and he was a good comic relief. The main plot of Destiny resurrecting and plaguing people with nightmarish visions would have been bland if not for Ritchie being involved. So Ritchie is a seriously bad luck guy. His Hellblazer end was worse, but he was a nice twist when I was expecting someone like Felix or Winters to be a pawn of Destiny (we all know he was to be the main bad guy, c'mon!). All in all, the Deadman back story was shoehorned, but he was necessary for the plot. I just wish Bruce tied in better, especially given how awesomely he handled an alternative version of Destiny in the Timmverse.
So overall a nice introduction to the Dark Universe of DC and I'm hoping this can be expanded to a good two and a half hour life action feature film in the DC movie verse. Some points of improvement: 1. Don't include Batman in everything. Be confident in your other properties and take a chance DC! 2. If you replace Matt Ryan, do it well. He's been a great casting choice and hopefully whoever his counterpart is in the movieverse, lets hope he captures the character well (accent which has been a problem for Matt, is not as big an issue as his portrayal). And the romance with Zatanna was done well. Include that. 3. Etrigan was brilliant in this movie. But ensure he doesn't always have a backstory change just to be relevant! 4. Be better in integrating Origin stories. Deadman's was superfluous and jarring to the flow of the movie. This is one thing BvS got right in how they showed Batman's origin. I would have placed this origin at a movietime when Rama Kusha the deity connected to Deadman gave him the task to unite everyone. At the beginning of the movie maybe.
Overall an above par movie with a solid cast and a good story. -
renegadeviking-271-5285689 September 2022DC has a reputation for producing high-quality animated films, from Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox, to Justice League: War. A lot of their success is placed on the shoulders of Batman, with him being a central character in many animated films, to the point he eclipses other characters. Thankfully, this wasn't the case with DC's latest movie, Justice League Dark, which focuses on magical heroes like John Constantine, Zatanna and Etrigan.
Although Batman is featured in the film, he's used as a background character. He represents the point of view of the audience, who are introduced to a different world. Constantine and Zatanna are the true heroes. The film begins with people hallucinating they're seeing demons and commiting crimes because of nightmare magic. The Justice League suspects there's a supernatural threat, leading Batman to track down Zatanna for the whereabouts of Constantine.
Batman, Zatanna and Deadman travel to The House of Mystery to find Constantine. They form a team and visit Constantine's friend, Richie Simpson, who is suffering from magical cancer and resents Constantine for not doing more to help him. Richie loans them the Keshanti Key, an artifact that lets them access different planes of existence. The team are joined by Jason Blood, who was looking for the Dreamstone. Together, they investigate the nightmare magic.
My favourite character in the film is Constantine, voiced by Matt Ryan. He's irreverent, sarcastic and cynical, providing a great counterpoint to Zatanna's hopeful outlook. Ryan does a grand job of presenting the surliness of the character. He also captures the vulnerability of Constantine underneath all the sarcasm and biting wit.
Zatanna is a highlight and the true powerhouse of the team. In a stand out segment, she fights against Felix Faust and kicks his ass single-handedly. Camilla Luddington puts a lot of effort into bringing Zee to life, from capturing her optimism, to showing off her toughness.
The animation is top-notch, with smooth facial expressions and eye-popping colours. The story features the right amount of twists and turns, so it never feels boring. Humour is executed well to balance darker moments, with comic relief coming from Deadman, Constantine and Etrigan.
Justice League Dark is an impressive showcase of DC's magic community. It's a reminder that Batman doesn't have to be at the centre of a story to make it entertaining. I hope the trend of lesser known characters having their time in the spotlight continues. -
joebloggscity22 August 2018I just watched this after finally watching the much maligned Justice League.
Everyone has already had their say on Justice League, but this is very different. The Justice League appear but briefly. Batman is here but really in the background. Without the Justice League/Batman tag, this story would never have been made.
We have an occult story, but I haven't a clue overall what was going on. It just didn't grip me. Seemed to have a bit of a Lord of the Rings story merged in with League of Extraordinary Gentlemen etc. That doesn't make it bad, but mostly derivative. It wasn't exciting or interesting.
It was quite adult, and I'm no prude, but even I thought some of the language was unnecessary as many kids will end up watching this. It was misplaced here, and really devalued the work.
However the characters were kind of cool, espeically Deadman and John Constantine. That's what's good about this alone.
Probably now these characters are introduced to us, any later episodes will be more interesting. This was a start, but hoping for better moving forward. -
An interesting movie based on the more magical aspects of the DC universe. All the characters are great and Batman is utilized just the right amount. Just too much and not too little. Zatanna and Constantine are both amazing. I have issues with how the Swamp Thing was handled but this is a fun time and recommended if you are sick of the low quality of the DCU movies.
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mhorg201815 July 2018When the supernatural raises it's ugly head, what is the Justice League to do? Simple, band together John Constantine, Zatanna and Etrigan to name a few. They have to take on and save the earth from a deadly supernatural evil. Part of the New 52, I didn't love the comic and found this to be just OK. A lesser entry.