The Review of and Accuracy in…Justice League: War

I don’t see any buttons, so I’m guessing it works of concentration. And you weren’t concentrating…

**½

So this is the extremely accurate adaptation of Geoff Johns’ and Jim Lee’s Justice League story arc “Origin” from DC’s “The New 52” reboot from about five years ago. The best part about this is how the animation looks great. It has almost an anime style to it. Other than that, it is an okay story that was competently executed with the same old characters.

Similarities: These are too numerous for me to count. Most of the movie is verbatim from the comic book. This may be the most faithful adaptation I have ever seen. Somewhere Zack Snyder is jealous.

Flash, Diana aka Wonder Woman, Shazam, Cyborg and Green Lantern (Hal) discussing strategy. 2014’s Justice League: War.

Differences:

There is this little guy added into the movie. Billy Batson. I thought in the New 52 Captain Marvel takes several kids to transform into Captain Marvel at the mention of Shazam! Not here, it’s just little orphan Billy. Further down you see whom he replaced.

Cyborg’s look is different. How he meets the rest of the heroes also differs from the comic. Except at the very end press conference, then he looks normal. No explanation given, but who cares.

When and where the Flash shows up changes. Instead of helping Green Lantern and Batman stave off Superman, he goes to Star Labs where Cyborg has just been created. And Captain Marvel shows up.

Some differences for Wonder Woman are that she saves the president on Air Force One. And gets comments on her hotness and asked if she has a boyfriend—both by Captain Marvel—so it is more sexist than the comic.

There is no Aquaman! When the plan to blind Darkseid is hatched it’s premised on two sharp things, not just Wonder Woman’s sword. We need that trident. And they even push the battle onto the water taunting the viewer—although I think Batman calls it a river, despite it having no other shore. At least in the post-credits an Atlantean comes up to announce the king is dead, and Aquaman is Prince so you know what that means.

Superman kills Desaad. Yeah, Desaad is one of the worst characters in the DC universe, as a sort of sadistic, Alien Josef Mengele, but Superman just kills him out of anger. And then Superman tries to kill Batman.

Upon Superman’s return to Earth the battle with Darkseid takes a lot longer and a lot more work than in the comic. Particularly lacking is how Cyborg loses agency by instead of exerting his will to operate the mother box, he needs more energy to boost the strength of his router. Neither option is cool, but there you have it.