Joker destroys Metropolis and tricks Superman into killing Lois Lane,
​which sends Superman into a blind fury in which he conquers the planet.

ACTION/SCI-FI

Injustice (2021)

Directed by Matt Peters

Written by Ernie Altbacker

Starring Justin Hartley, Anson Mount, Janet Varney, Laura Bailey, Zach Callison, Derek Phillips, Oliver Hudson, Edwin Hodge,
​Gillian Jacobs, Reid Scott, Faran Tahir, Kevin Pollak

Based on characters from DC Comics

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Connor Eyzaguirre

February 28, 2022

8/10

The Injustice storyline from DC Comics and the popular videogame is one of the most epic stories DC has ever put out. An alternate universe where the Joker broke Superman and made him a power-mad despot who divided the Justice League and branded Batman a terrorist? Holy shit, does that sound insane. It's a story worthy of an entire series, or at least a film trilogy. My only gripe with this film is that they condensed it into a film that isn't even an hour and twenty minutes long. But what they put into that runtime is pure gold, even with the fairly mediocre voice talent they had this time around. This would've been the perfect reunion for George Newbern's Superman and Kevin Conroy's Batman, but Justin Hartley and Anson Mount are okay too, I guess.

In an alternate universe, Joker (Pollak) nukes Metropolis and uses Scarecrow's fear toxin to trick Superman (Hartley) into killing Lois Lane (Bailey) and his unborn child. Superman kills Joker, declares martial law on planet Earth in a bid to end all crime. This move divides the Justice League and destroys Superman's friendship with Batman (Mount). What follows is a series of increasingly poor decisions on Superman's part to keep the peace, including aligning with Ra's al Ghul (Tahir) and killing a warehouse full of innocent people. As usual, DC's animation department kills it, and what they do with Injustice is memorable and wholly entertaining, particularly the ending. I just wish we'd gotten more.

Hopefully one day, we get the Injustice live-action movie Zack Snyder teased with his director's cut of Justice League. But that's a fool's hope. In the meantime, we can make do with this super hardcore, R-rated adventure that shows us the dark consequences of an immoral Superman with nothing to lose.