Who will stand against The Man Of Steel? When his world is shattered by tragic events set in motion by the diabolical Joker, Superman becomes hell-bent on enforcing peace.. at any cost. The Man of Steel begins a reign of tyranny that can only be stopped by one hero : Batman. The splintered Justice League divides it’s ranks as the two former allies wage a deadly battle for freedom. In this alternate world of chaos, loyalties are tested, and the line between freind and foe blurs. Based on the critically acclaimed Video Games, and graphic novel, Injustice unleashes and all-out war fought by DC’s mightiest. Can the world survive?

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A story in which Superman loses everything – friends, parents, wife, lifestyle, beliefs, reputation, his own city with the entire population, in the end. Not only exciting and tense, but at the same time multifaceted and controversial, raising the very insidious questions of superhero morality and non-resistance to evil. It is extremely annoying that the comic plot, which would have been more than enough for the directors for a dozen sequels, for some unknown reason, it was decided to cut off on escalation and present it in a finished, but extremely cut down version in this animated film. But nevertheless, it was not done so badly, and here there is something to talk about.

‘Injustice: Gods Among Us’ is, as is now often the case with DC animation, as interesting as it is a controversial project, in this case disappointing primarily at the level of expectations, and not as such. This is generally a good, albeit mediocre cartoon, whose main flaw is endless fading and flatness when correlating it with the story told in the comics.

It is impossible to avoid comparisons with the original here, because, like Superman: Red Son of 2020, this picture closely follows the plot of the original source, it should only be so that at some point, uncompromisingly, say goodbye to it, instead offering your version of events. which destroys the original idea of ​​the work, the portraits and the behavioral model of the characters, the plot ending and its conclusions, in the end.

For the story about the villainous Superman from Soviet Russia, this is many times more legitimate and painful reproach, but for Injustice it is, so to speak, fair. If you try to summarize what is wrong here, you get the following: the film undertakes to show everything, but does not show the main thing. Following the comic canvas, the cartoon takes us through all the main events that caused Superman’s fall to despotism and cruelty. But due to the ridiculous duration and the abundance of events that the work can accommodate, the shown looks very superficial and unconvincing. Where comics allotted many pages for the exposition, the gradual movement towards conflict and different angles of view on it, the morale of the characters and the changes in them, in the animated film there is only a naked skeleton of the plot, according to which the characters stupidly move in the frame, without showing any reflection or any other manifestations of living consciousness. And if the compositional scenes from the film really correspond to those from the comics, then there is little meaningful left of them, and therefore Harley Queen, morally crushed by the death of her idol, but still capable of touching melancholic jokes, as she was in the original, turns into simply mischievous a fool who does not even remember why she should be sad at all.

This is practically everything here – idiots in the UN, feebly applauding the usurper who has declared his power over them; the silent obedience of some heroes and the complete elimination of others from the narrative; Nightwing, which is an example of a situation where screenwriters try to come up with something of their own, but it turns out to be nonsense; Superman himself, who is the worst in this movie. So much worse that Batman here experiences twenty times more emotions from the loss of a partner than Superman from the death of his beloved wife and the death of Metropolis. It’s just laughter. Instead of living, human reactions, the whole film he reads his script with an indifferent expression on his face, as a result of which one can even forget that everything that happens began with the loss of this bad actor’s wife – this is so unimportant for the film this event, its emotional or declarative response. And when emotions nevertheless overtake the hero of the drama, then only in order to kill someone in the agony of rage – the cartoon does not have complex and contradictory characters for you, only a one-dimensional maniac, which, it seems, has always been that way. Only Batman manages to look like an interesting, adequate and charming character, but rather his own nature obliges him to be so.

Therefore, the final verdict of ‘Injustice’ is unconvincing, unreliability of what has been shown – there is a tragedy here, but its importance is not felt; there is a world, but there is no impression that someone lives in it; heroes move along the plot, but without any lifelike. Static pictures with ovals for text have learned to tell polysyllabic and dramatic epics, and in the animated film they spared a dozen frames for Superman’s facial expressions in order to integrate him at least a little into what was happening. How to call it, if not mediocrity.

But although in the context of drama everything is sad here, ‘Injustice’ also has significant merits. Although, due to the completely copied introduction, some elements of the plot do not make sense, but on the whole this is an adequate complete story, which was not possible for the ‘Red Son’, for example. The ending, invented for the cartoon, is a certain convention and is rather naive, but it is not bad, and could well appear in a similar comic. The visual style is interesting, acting as a reference to the style of the same original comics. The Joker, which for obvious reasons is not enough here, also left a pleasant impression. And, most importantly, even with the indicated shortcomings, which are very significant, it is still interesting to watch, because of the fast pace of the narration and even a certain intrigue. A controversial but interesting cartoon, which, of course, could have been much better, but which would not be superfluous to watch.

Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (49.9 Mb/s)
Resolution: Upscaled 4K (2160p)
HDR: HDR10
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1

Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Italian: Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitles
English SDH, French, Spanish, Italian.