I’m only familiar with the basic premise of the Injustice comics but I haven’t read them so I’m coming into this adaptation with that level of ignorance. By the sound of it though, this is not a very good adaptation but I can’t speak to that. All I can speak to is that the film had promise at the start but rapidly started to lose it and then to seemingly jump around until it just… ends.

The film is an elseworlds (or a what if) story… what if The Joker tricks Superman into killing Lois Lane and exploding Metropolis. Superman goes a little mad with the desire for revenge and then forcing peace on everyone from the average person to the mightiest superpower. And how the Justice League has to respond to the threat… or side with it.

For the first twenty minutes, I thought this was a pretty strong film. A movie made in the usual DC kinda cheap animation style but agreeably R rated given the subject matter. Many heroes and villains die and they don’t shy away from the blood. It’s horrific enough to justify the idea of Superman snapping and deciding to force people to be good.

But slowly the thing just loses focus and introduces a bunch of side characters doing side character things. I wanted more focus on the very real threat that a Superman gone rogue would deliver and I don’t think this flick delivered well or consistently enough. And the resolution was simplistic and lame and so very convenient.

So this is not one of DC’s best animated films but probably not the worst (unless you are a fan of the source material, apparently). The concept of Superman But Evil has been done recently so much better in Invincible and The Boys that this take feels superfluous (pun intended).

Score: 72