Injustice delivers as close to its source material as possible with an action packed and story filled 80 minutes run time. Injustice: Gods Among Us, was first released as a comic book in January 2013, later in April 2013 as a video game and, when It’s popularity grew to warrant a sequel, Injustice 2 was released in May 2017.
The main plot which follows the key trigger point remains the same for the movie as it was in the comics. In a parallel universe, the Joker tricks Superman into killing his pregnant wife Lois Lane and detonates a nuclear weapon that destroys Metropolis, killing millions of people. Mad with grief and rage, Superman murders the Joker, quickly losing his moral compass and descending into a tyrannical regime over the world.
The movie does capture the essence of the comic book storyline and manages to condense the key events and emotions in under two hours. The movie is rated R and if you watch the trailer you’ll know why, but essentially, they don’t hold back on the violence – which is crucial to the Injustice storytelling amongst other things. There is one fatal flaw in the movie where a beloved character is prematurely axed off, not sure why they couldn’t keep them around given that they’re pretty important to the story (or was in the comics).
Justin Hartley voices the main man here, Superman. I wonder how his Green Arrow/Aquaman personas feel about that? Anson Mount (Captain Chistopher Pike from Star Trek) plays Batman, another strong key role casting. Fan favourite Harley Quinn is played by Gillian Jacobs (Britta Perry on the NBC comedy series Community).
Also fitting that they got a comedian, Kevin Pollak, to play the Joker himself – although the jokes were a little darker than what he’s used to. And, to cap it all off, Wonder Woman, a strong female hero, is brought to life by Janet Varney (Korra herself from The Legend of Korra).
In an alternate universe where Superman himself goes rogue and tries to police the world with the help of his Justice League loyalists, they go up against Batman and his crew who now have to operate in the shadows, adopting guerilla tactics as they stand no chance in an open fight against the Man of Steel himself. There are casualties on both sides of the war with characters suffering painful emotional losses along the way, shaping them for the better or worse.
As a self-contained movie with no real cliffhanger ending alluding to a part two, Injustice does wrap up quite sensibly. DC animated movies generally favour the good guys, so you know it’s going to end in a win for them (not akin to ending well for them either), thus Superman is eventually defeated, not in a conventional way, but how they do it is what makes the story interesting.
Overall definitely a movie DC fans should watch, and also any other aspiring dictators (to enlighten you on why it is never a good idea to be one). Strong casting, solid story (close enough to the comics), chock-full of action and emotion (making it a well-balanced movie in that sense). For the Marvel fanboys, think of this as a one-shot DC What If…?.