Justice League: Gods and Monsters (2015)

People are voting emotionally.

Just perfect...

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Okay, I have to admit I really hated the Chronicle shorts because of how much overkill and brutal they were. Plus I couldn't stand the universe changes which also confused me. But this movie answered most of my questions.In this version, we see that Jor-el couldn't give his DNA simple to baby Ke-ll when he was getting sent off to earth but General Zod gave his instead and he turned out to be his son. Kirk Langstorm takes the Man-Bat formula and becomes Vampire and from there he becomes Batman. Wonder Women for some reason is Ares daughter. The movie is also very brutal in a way because a lot of innocent scientists get murdered by Will Magnus's droids to frame the JL.What doesn't make sense is like why was Will Magnus evil and why did he make a robotic version of Tina (Kirk's love interest who he kills by smashing her head through a table).Overall it was an awesome movie and good voice cast.

Superman is the son of migrants. His past, full of being mistreated, shapes his character.LOL How are modern migrants, the illegal immigrants, treated in America? They're allowed to break laws, in return for which they receive benefits and support from hard working legals and citizens.This turns all sorts of western culture ideals upside down. Good is bad, bad is good. That sort of moral equivalency makes for a rotten back drop.Throughout the story I wanted to see how the real Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman would deal with this situation: framed for crimes they didn't commit.PC Superman wasn't necessary for that.

To say that I've become disenfranchised by the DC Animated films would be a bit of an understatement. Ever since Justice League: War, they've just been a mess. There was the one bright spot of Assault on Arkham but otherwise they've just been dull action movies that don't do the characters justice. Thank goodness WB brought back Bruce Timm, who was one of the primary creative forces behind the Batman and Justice League animated series that kicked off DC animated projects being good in the first place. The result is the best DC animated film since New Frontier.Gods and Monsters can be said to be the first true Elseworlds story that's been done in animation. Sure there's been some parallel world stuff (Crisis on Two Earths) and plenty of out of continuity stand alones (like the aforementioned New Frontier) but they've still kept the characters pretty close to the standard versions we all know. None have really tried to craft a completely new vision of what these characters are, and that's what this story does. It makes the wise choice of having different characters taking on the mantles of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman rather than actually trying to muck about with Clark, Bruce or Diana. Instead Superman is the son of Zod, Batman is Kirk Langstrom (better known as the Man-Bat in the main DC universe) and Wonder Woman is one of the New Gods (such as High Father and Darkseid.) Their backstories are explored just enough to give a good picture of these versions without ever bogging down the narrative itself.Like any good Elseworlds story, this is an "all bets are off" take where any prior knowledge of the main DC universe can add some weight when characters like Victor Fries or Dr. Sivanna get name dropped, but nobody is exactly the same as their standard representation. All of the voice work is solid, and each of the primary characters (and even some of the secondary ones) are given the chance to stretch a little and show some dimension.The action is also a huge step up from what we've gotten lately. Most of the DCAU films based on the New 52 continuity have had well done yet rather mundane action sequences. The problem is that those films are trying for a more realistic version of fights, which isn't what animation is good for. Animation is good for over the top stuff that couldn't be replicated by just two actors and a fight choreographer, and that over the top stuff is what we get here.I don't think I can recommend this highly enough for anybody who has found the recent output of DC animated films to be sorely lacking. This is a return to form, it's a top notch story, it's a fun and engrossing new take on characters and it's the kind of thing I hope we see more of in the future.

When characters are actually mortal.So we have a very different take on the Big Three of DC. Superman is the son of General Zod raised by migrant farmers, Batman is a vampiric form of Dr. Kirk Langstrom (AKA the Man Bat) and Wonder Woman is resident of New Genesis who fled to Earth after her family wiped out Apokolips. These heroes have no compunctions about killing the bad guys.So someone is using killer robots to murder scientists who would normally be enjoying careers as super heroes or villains in the regular DC Universe. The use of Powers and their arrogant nature makes the Alt-Justice League the obvious suspects.Nice flashbacks of how the characters came to be, very well told.The twist ending mostly works, and it is nice to see alternate takes on the characters.