JUSTICE LEAGUE: WARWORLD (2023)
Label: WBHE
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: R
Duration: 89 Minutes 29 Minutes
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 5.1 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: 2160p UHD Widescreen (1.78:1)
Director: Jeff Wamaster
Cast: Jensen Ackles, Darren Criss, Stana Katic, Ike Amadi, Troy Baker, Brett Dalton, John DiMaggio, Robin Atkin Downes, Frank Grillo, Rachel Kimsey, Damian O’Hare, Teddy Sears, Trevor Devall, David Lodge, Kari Wahlgren
Say what you will about the DC cinematic universe but the DC Animated Universe has long been a place of comic fertility, we're at least 50 movies in and the latest entry is Justice League: Warworld (2023) wherein DC icons Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman find themselves transported to foreign landscapes and historical periods under mysterious circumstances with no memory of who they are or how they arrived there.
First up is Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (Stana Katic, Absentia) who rides on horseback straight into an Old West town, it's a scene straight out of a Sergio Leone
spaghetti western where she faces off against old west outlaw Joan Hex (Troy Baker), and it has a very cool The Woman With No Name-style about it. The story is not original by any means but transporting the iconic hero with a cool re-design into this Italian styled western makes for a fun time with plenty of violent shoot 'em ups, Gatlin Gun carnage, six string soundtrack, and a nitroglycerin-fueled train-bomb that keeps the momentum moving forward.
The second story posits Bruce Wayne/Batman (Jensen Ackles, The Boys) into strange environment under mysterious circumstances with no memory of who he is, and it is super-cool to see Batman as a sword-swingin' Conan-esque barbarian. Seeing Batman out of his elements in a Frank Fazetta-esque sword sandal and sorcery world alongside Warlord (Teddy Sears, TV's The Flash) to battle an evil shapeshifting sorcerer named Deimos (Damian O’Hare, Constantine: City of Demons – The Movie). This has plenty of action, sword-battles and even dinosaurs and dragons with Warlord disemboweling a T. Rex dino!
The last entry features Clark Kent/Superman (Darren Criss, Superman: Man of Tomorrow) is initially set in a black and white world where Kent is a Federal Agent working alongside his partner Agent Faraday (Frank Grillo, Captain America: The Winter Soldier) investigating reports of an alien invasion in the town of Grovers Mill. Something I loved about these three stories is not just how they set these icons in new settings and eras, but also how well they homage the spaghetti western, sword and sandal, and paranoid thriller genres; case in point, setting this in Grovers Mill - the setting for War of the Worlds, that's just cool. The black and white thriller is certainly also channeling the
paranoid smalltown fervor of the classic The Twilight Zone episode "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street". This third film actually ties the previous two segments together quite nicely, with both Wayne and Prince figuring into the story, which leads to a reality-bending twist involving Martian Manhunter (Ike Amadi), Lobo (John DiMaggio, Futurama) and Mongul (Robin Atkin Downes, Batman: The Long Halloween) - which I won't spoil much more than I already have. Needless to say, I had a blast with this one, I love it when they take these established and iconic characters and do something little different with them, and even though this comes back around to more traditional DC storytelling by the end, while the I found the destination less exciting than the journey, the road there was quite a bit of fun. Also, I loved Joe DiMaggio as the voice of Lobo, I think this might have been his first time voicing the character and I don't want anyone else doing it, keep him DC!
Audio/Video: Justice League: Warworld (2023) arrives on 4K Ultra HD from WBHE framed in a screen filling 1.78:1 widescreen. The stylized animation favors thick pen lines, it looks fantastic in UHD with well-saturated color, the WCG color-grading easily edges out the Blu-ray counterpart with deeper hues and superior black levels and contrast. Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA 5.1 with optional English subtitles. The sound stage sounds nicely immersive with robust sound effects and action sequences, zero complaints.
Extras include a pair of new 8-min featurettes with Executive Producer Butch Lukic, Producer Jim Krieg, Director, DC Comic Writer Tim Sheridan, voice actor Darren Criss, and Director Jeff Wamester exploring the production and taking these familiar characters out of their element. Both have plenty of character sketches, images from source related comics and animated series. The 2-disc release arrives in a dual-hub black keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork, inside there's a code for a digital copy of the film, and it comes with a glossy, metallic finish slipcover with the same artwork as the wrap.
Special Features:
- Illusions on Warworld (Featurette) – Go behind the scenes and inside the process of designing and creating three distinct genres for the Justice League to inhabit on Warworld.(7:46)
- The Heroic, the Horrible and the Hideous (Featurette) – Dive deep into the origins and histories of the key players on Warworld and learn how the filmmakers brought them to life. (7:53)
Screenshots from the WBHE Blu-ray:
Extras:
