Review: JUSTICE LEAGUE GODS AND MONSTERS

Well, despite my insane schedule, I managed to carve out some time to watch Justice League: Gods and Monsters with my DC-loving girlfriend. After seeing the three-part Gods and Monsters Chronicles series, I was really curious to see how this feature-length story — centering on alternate universe versions of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman — would play out. If you haven’t seen the three animated shorts yet, check them out below.

As you could guess from the title, Gods and Monsters offers up darker versions of Justice League’s big three.

This universe’s Superman is not Clark Kent but rather Hernan Guerra (Benjamin Bratt). Just before being jettisoned from Krypton, General Zod imbued Superman with his DNA, explaining that wicked goatee he’s rocking throughout the picture. And, after landing on Earth, this baby Superman was taken in by a Mexican couple, adding a political twist to Superman’s alien status. Batman (played by Dexter’s Michael C. Hall) is a former scientist named Kirk Langstrom who, while trying to cure himself of a life-threatening disease, unintentionally turns himself into a blood-sucking vampire. And Wonder Woman is Bekka (Tamara Taylor), a member of the New Gods who had a less-than-stellar wedding on the planet Apocalypse.

It’s made rather clear from the outset that this is not our usual Justice League — the three heroes (if we can call them that) quickly dispatch a group of terrorists in some particularly brutal ways. And their position on the world stage is also tenuous, with President Waller (24’s Penny Johnson Jerald) weakly asserting her authority over Superman, who reminds her of how powerless she really is. To complicate matters, scientists with ties to the Justice League begin dying in mysterious circumstances, and all evidence points to Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. The three seek out whoever is behind the elaborate frame job and try not to create a major conflict with the U.S. government in the process.

Although Gods and Monsters explores a new offshoot to the DC Universe, stylistically these characters look very familiar. Any fan of the DC Animated Universe’s style in the ‘90s will feel right at home. And the casting couldn’t have been better — Michael C. Hall brings a kind of creepy cool to the DC Universe matched only by Jeffrey Combs, and I hope DC calls on him to do more voice work in the future.

Where Gods and Monsters fell short for me was in the story. The three shorts I mentioned above are tight little snippets of these characters in action. They immediately pulled me in and left me wanting more. Unfortunately, I just can’t say the same for the feature. And it pains me to say it — I really wanted to like this movie! The murder mystery plot weaved in the characters’ backstory rather well, and the violence certainly upped the stakes, but the element of human drama I saw in the shorts (at least the Batman and Superman shorts) was missing. And the story never culminated into satisfying climax. Simply put, the villain just isn’t that interesting — probably the rarest complaint I could make of a DC animated movie. And with such a vast amount of villains to choose from in the DC Universe, I couldn’t help but wish they had done something more interesting with a well-known and powerful baddie — the same way they did with Brainiac in Superman’s short.

That being said, I did enjoy Gods and Monsters. And I’d definitely consider revisiting this alternate universe — I found all three characters genuinely interesting, and I’m more than curious to see what other DC characters might look like. I’d just need to be hooked with a more interesting plot.

If you’re a big DC fan, I have no doubt that you’ll like it. I just don’t know that you’ll love it.