Justice League: Gods and Monsters (2015)

Justice League: Gods and Monsters (2015)

Dir. Sam Liu

An alternative universe story in which the League's primary members, that's Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman, are superpowered killers, autonomous but sanctioned by the government - for as long as it suits either party to keep the association. Superman's idea of leadership is to respect his fellow League members and to trample all others who may be in his way. Feared by a vast percentage of the populace, he looks upon himself as a God among ants.

The last son of Krypton's origin story has been shown many times in DC's output. Gods and Monsters does it yet again, but with a difference, one that explains his domineering and militaristic attitude. There's a similarly flashbacked origin story for the other two members, too. It's not just their costumes that differ from those of the usual Justice League world.

When a number of prominent scientists get bumped-off in nasty ways, the eyes of suspicion turn to the trio, who must then clear their name. It can be a difficult thing to have an audience on the side of such characters — they aren't entirely villainous, and they aren't exactly anti-heroes, either — but the story manages it well. It helps, perhaps, that even though many of their actions are wicked in nature, it's shown that they can feel love and regret like the rest of us.

It can be fun to see alternative universe versions of well-known characters in situations that the normal versions wouldn't often find themselves, and mostly that's where the praise ends, but Gods and Monsters earns high marks for its voice work and its daring script. The flashbacks spoil the pacing a little, but the benefit they bring to the whole definitely makes amends for that.

I was very glad to hear someone other than Rosario Dawson voicing Wonder Woman because I really dislike the DCAMU version, which was DC's main continuity version at the time. Tamara Taylor gets the honour this time. I also liked its version Lex Luthor (Jason Isaacs) quite a bit.

NOTE: the movie was preceded by a three-episode webseries titled Justice League: Gods and Monsters Chronicles. The episodes are each approximately six minutes in length and focus on one of the three League members. The only one worth watching is Ep 02: Bomb / Dir. Bruce Timm, which has Superman as the central character. The other two are weak in comparison. And even though they're technically prequels, I feel it would be best not to watch them until after the main feature because they may influence your feelings in a way that would impact negatively on how you're initially supposed to perceive certain things in the full-length work.