Justice League: Warworld - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Justice League: Warworld



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
DC’s “off the beaten path” films in the DCAU is really what I’ve been paying more and more attention to over the last few years. While the DCAU has been one of the longest running “verses” in the animated studio’s repertoire, there have been offshoots with the “Elseworlds” films, and now the Tomorrowverse series. The Tomorrowverse is a sort of soft reboot of the DCAU, with tweaks done to the title characters and a darker tone to the world. So far that have been 5 films (6 if you include this one) in the new rebooted DCAU Tomorrowverse, with Batman: The Long Halloween and Superman: Man of Tomorrow being the highlights. However, I was curious about Justice League: Warworld from the trailer, and even though there were some narrative problems in the 3rd act, it turned out to be one of the most interesting Tomorrowverse films to date.

The film is a series of seemingly unrelated vignettes for the first two acts of the 90 minute run time. We see Wonder Woman involved in an old western adventure where she squares off against a villainous Jonah Hex, only for us to segue directly in a medieval fantasy. There Batman is a mercenary, Wonder Woman an enslaved character, and The Warlord a king of a tribalistic warrior race fighting against Demos the wizard. Finally we culminate in another old fashioned story, with private investigator Clark Kent investigating an alien sighting only to come up against an army of white martians.

Spoiler alert. It turns out that the entire first hour of the movie was an illusion created by the mind of The Martian Manhunter aboard a universe destroying weapon known as “Warworld”. It seems that the mighty being Mongul has been trying to unlock the true power of the world sized super weapon, and has been kidnapping people from all over the multiverse and using their hatred and fear to power the ship until he finds the true key. Only thing was, he didn’t expect the resistance of Earth’s mightiest heroes, and now EVERYONE is fighting for a way out, and hopefully the end of their torture aboard the world ship.

Justice League: Warworld is not the best film ever, but it’s surprisingly engaging and one of the most interesting of the new Tomorrowverse films due to the fact that it actually uses NEW (to most of the audience) stories and a villain that we haven’t seen before in the DCAU. It’s fresh, rather fun with a sort of Noir lacing to the story, and I generally enjoyed the voice acting. The one problem with the film stems from the fact that things get a bit too simplistic in the 3rd act once everyone is awoken from their “stupor”. The battle with Mongul himself was a bit contrived, and the setup for a world altering event (another spoiler, it looks like it’s going to be another variation of Crisis on Infinite Earths) comes across as rather hammy.

That being said, I really did enjoy Warworld as a fun adventure movie in the new DCAU offshoot. The first couple of adventures were REALLY fun, and even the Neo Noir detective story with Clark wasn’t bad either. Also, John DiMaggio is having a blast as Lobo, just chomping at the bit to cause chaos whenever he can. But the ending sort of left me feeling like there could have been a better ending. Not the end of the world, but not as perfect as I would have liked.




Rating:

Rated R for some bloody violence.




4K Video: Video:

If you’ve been watching the DCAU films for any length of time than my 4/5 rating for both video and audio is not going to shock you. The show is simplistically animated, with basic attention to details and good coloring. The jump from 1080p to 4K UHD is not going to net massive results simply due to the fact that the animation style doesn’t lend itself towards tons of extras details. However, the line art is solid, and the details shown are very clean and crisp. The larger benefits come from the fact that the banding found on the Blu-ray (very typical) is just about non existent in 2160p, and the HDR applications really enhances and enriches the primary colors throughout. Solid looking disc though, and definitely an uptick in quality from the equally solid Blu-ray, but just that. Solid.









Audio:

Just like with many DC animated films, there is a single DTS-HD MA 5.1 track in English on the disc and no sign of Atmos anywhere. That being said, the track is still quite good, with strong dialog in the center channel, decent panning of the mains, and some very punchy bass during all of the battles. It’s not going to blow you away once more, but the track hits every check mark in the book to create a very strong and robust action track that is very much in line with previous films in the franchise.







Extras:

• Behind the Scenes Featurettes
-- Illusions on Warworld
-- The Heroic, the Horrible, and the Hideous

Final Score: ​

Justice League: Warworld is a fun side jaunt for the new Tomorrowverse, and while it’s imperfect, definitely very entertaining. The Warner Brothers 4K UHD disc looks and sounds good, but like usual, is fairly light in the loafers when it comes to the extras. Worth checking out at the very least for dedicated DCAU fans.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Jensen Ackles, Troy Baker, Matt Bomer, Martian Manhunter, John DiMaggio, Frank Grillo
Directed by: Jeff Wamester
Written by: Jeremy Adams, Ernie Altbacker, Josie Campbell
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1, Spanish, French DD 5.1, English DVS 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish
Studio: Warner Brothers
Rated: R
Runtime: 90 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: July 25th, 2023

Recommendation: Great Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. Will check this out. I haven't been up to date with all the DC animated films.