Justice League Dark Apokoplips War - The crowning jewel of DC animation

As a hardcore DC fan, I've often felt heartbroken and disappointed watching our feature films struggle to make an impact on the big screens with so much potential and so much source material going waste. Maybe this was because of too much studio interference, cast issues or maybe we didn't pick the right directors but for decades, DC and Warner Brothers have been killing it in the animation game. They've given us classics like Batman Mask of the Phantasm and a great set of animated series including Batman, Superman, and Justice League. The same streak continued when they started off the New 52 animated universe with Justice League War and Flashpoint Paradox.

While fans like me were feeling sorry for the DCEU's current state watching Marvel excel at every stage, the animated studio kept themselves quite busy with a universe comprising of the New 52 characters. They started off the universe with Justice League War and kept giving us a couple of movies every single year. Justice League Dark Apokolips War is the final entry of the universe and it was a masterpiece that was better than the box office mammoth Avengers Endgame itself. It was an experience of a lifetime with all our heroes coming together one last time. Just to give you an idea of how cool it was, it basically had the Justice League, Teen titans, suicide squad along with my new favorite John Constantine and his friends fighting together against the biggest baddie of the DC universe, the character of which Thanos was based on, Darkseid.

This movie turned out to be as good as it was because every single character had already been set up beautifully along the course of 15 movies and no character felt new. Next time someone says DC is no good at making Justice League films, I'd like to show them this. This movie was fan service personified and my favorite character from the entire series was Damian Wayne. His character arc was easily the best and most complex. They used up at least 4-5 films having him as the main hero and in the end, I ended up liking him more than Batman.

The movie focuses mainly on Superman, Damian Wayne, Raven, and John Constantine. Superman has never been handled any better, this doesn't show an evil Superman out of control. It has shown us the best of the boy scout and easily my favorite Superman of all time. I can say the same about the rest of the characters, with the coolest of them all being John Constantine, sorry Stephen Strange, but he's my new favorite wizard now. Raven and Damian's arc were perfect, I love that so much screentime was given for the Titans.

I've never seen a better climax in any other film, including the genius one from Doctor Strange and the portals scene from Avengers Endgame. It was such a fresh take, exceeded all my expectations, I didn't see it coming and the ending was literally out of this world. This whole universe started and ended the same way and it was a beautiful way to wrap it up. The reason behind this is our strong source material and I am extremely excited about the future of this universe even though they were clear about this being their final entry. I think I kind of know what they're going for with this ending but I don't want to spoil it here. Most of the DC fanboys can predict what's coming next and I for one cannot wait.

This is an R rated masterpiece once again proving to us that DC is the boss when it comes to the animated film game and their stories have been so much better and darker than any other story. Easily one of the darkest stories ever and that's saying something. This is my DCEU and I'm waiting for their next animated movie announcement to see if I'm right about where they're headed. I'm grateful for whatever they've done with the New 52 series and Justice League Dark Apokoplips War is the best DC animated movie I have ever seen and my favorite comic book movie of all time. The animated movie writers deserve so much more credit than they actually receive, I hope more people start watching DC animation. I really don't see why Warner Brothers don't even think about handing the big-budget films over to them because in the end it's all about telling a story and no one has done it better than the makers of the DC animated universe.

Here's the list of the New 52 movie universe for anyone who still thinks I'm out of my mind in saying that DC is better than Marvel or for anyone who just wants to explore the DC universe more.

1) Justice League Flashpoint Paradox
2) Justice League War
3) Son of Batman
4) Justice League Throne of Atlantis
5) Batman vs Robin
6) Batman: Bad Blood
7) Justice League vs Teen Titans
8) Suicide Squad: Hell to Pay
9) Justice League Dark
10) Teen Titans: The Judas Contract

11) Wonder woman Bloodlines
12) The Death of Superman
13) Reign of Superman
14) Constantine City of Demons
15) Batman: Hush
16) Justice League Dark Apokoplips War

Verdict:
Fan in me: 10/10
Critic in me: 9/10