For a long while, a live action film had been talked about based on the Justice League Dark, a team made up of magic users and supernatural based characters in the DC universe. Nothing had really come of it, aside from a shortlist of a possible cast that included Colin Farrell as Constantine, which is an actually good choice in my opinion. While it could still happen eventually, for now, fans would have to settle for a film set in DC's animated movie universe. The last few Justice League films in said universe have usually been used to focus on other characters besides the League. "Throne of Atlantis" had a good focus on Aquaman, but still felt like a League movie. "Justice League vs. Teen Titans" mostly served as a launchpad for the Titans, but still gave almost even ground to both teams. When it comes to "Justice League Dark", this approach works for and against it.
Let's start with the characters and voice cast. Matt Ryan returns to voice John Constantine after portraying the character in the short lived TV series and his guest spot on "Arrow". At this point, its needless to say that his portrayal has left a mark on the character and fans. Hell, I even hear his voice when I read Constantine in the comics. It only made sense to bring him back for this film, and he's as good as ever. The way I see the character, he's an asshole who still tries to do good, and that shines through in this film. A running gag I love is how all the characters know who he is and show some animosity towards him, something Constantine just shrugs off like "yeah, I'm used to it."
A bit of a subplot is Constantine's relationship with Zatanna, voiced by Camilla Luddington. There's hints at a previous romance between the two, something they're apparently not over, and the chemistry between the two really shines through. Aside from that though, Zatanna's as entertaining as you can expect from the character, but I still prefer Lacey Chabert's voice and the traditional costume over the New 52 version she has in the movie.
While not a major character compared to the others, Ritchie Simpson, an associate of Constantine's, is part of the film and they even got the actor who betrayed him on the Constantine show, Jeremy Davies, to return to voice him. I found that surprising.
The main villain of the movie is Destiny, and while there's nothing really past him besides being all powerful and wanting to take over the world (which we've gotten before with Darkseid and Trigon), he gets extra points for being voiced by Alfred Molina, who just has a perfect villain voice. But he also gains strength through making people cause pain and death toward each other, which I think is a pretty decent power, particularly for a supernatural villain.
Deadman acts as one would expect from the character, but the voice they chose for him, Nicholas Turturro just really irks me. He's usually the comic relief of the film, but he didn't need such a funny voice. Honestly, the best voice I've heard used for the character was Michael Rosenbaum on "Batman: The Brave and the Bold."
Much like Deadman, I have problems with the voice for Felix Faust as well. He's supposed to be a powerful wizard, but his voice makes him sound like a novice. Besides that, he's used mostly as a red herring and doesn't really bring anything to the plot.
I don't really have an opinion on the voice of Jason Blood and Etrigan. They act as you'd expect, but a nice touch is that Etrigan has the sword he uses in the New 52, something I don't recall him having before in animation. The two also have a character arc that I won't spoil, but adds a nice touch of brotherhood between the two despite their differences.
And like the other movies in this universe, Batman's in it too. Real world reasoning: marketing. Story reasoning: he brings a touch of skepticism to the film. At the beginning of the story, he doesn't really buy into a paranormal theory of why people are inexplicably killing each other, based on his own experiences with the criminally insane. Ironically, he's the driving force that bring the JLD together (with some coercion from Deadman). A running gag the film has is that whenever something really out of this world happens, Batman lets out a "Hmm." It's like, he's impressed or surprised by what's going on, but he can't let it show because he's Batman.
But let me get to the main problem of this film: too many characters. As I've said, the last few Justice League movies have been used to focus on other characters, but the League still had some purpose or capacity. In this film though, they really don't serve much of a purpose other than beginning the main investigation of the movie. Superman, Wonder Woman, and Cyborg are back with a few lines (the first two more so). Flash and Aquaman make non-speaking cameos. Shazam is mentioned but not present. And apparently, the League got some new members since the last movie: Hawkman, Martian Manhunter, and John Stewart/Green Lantern. Out of the new members, only Stewart speaks, but just a total of three lines. While I know these movies are mostly made for fans, I'd still like to know the context of how they join. These movies don't stand alone anymore; it's a shared universe. Don't just throw in new characters and act like they've been there before. Not only that, but Wonder Woman mentions other magic users the League have faced before, like Trigon in "Justice League vs. Teen Titans", but also Circe and Faust. I feel like the point could have been made by just mentioning Trigon. Circe has not appeared in these films, and they could have just introduced Faust here. Honestly, the main League didn't need to be in this movie. They could have just had Batman investigating strange deaths in Gotham, finding out from Wonder Woman about similar instances around the world, dismiss her paranormal theory, and the film could have played out the same from there. I don't know what next year's movies will entail, but I'm kind of hoping we get another movie focusing on the main League.
Aside from the previous characters though, there are a few more introduced in the film I didn't mention yet. The first is Black Orchid, who is actually the spirit of the House of Mystery taking on a bodily form and follows Constantine's orders. There's not much to her, honestly. Although she and Deadman share like three sentences together, which is apparently enough for them to hook up by the end of the film.
And of course, there's Swamp Thing. When he first appears in this film, you automatically feel his presence as he rises out of the swamp to meet with the JLD, and has a very powerful voice. He even has a great fight scene with Destiny that shows off the extent of his powers. Unfortunately though, Destiny gets the upper hand and rips out Alec Holland's corpse from the Swamp Thing body (it'd be easy for you to Google his origin than for me to explain it), which causes Swamp Thing to return to the Earth...and that's the last we see or hear of the character. I mean, Holland's body probably just landed in the middle of the streets of Metropolis. Is he even still connected to the Green? Is that the last we've seen of Swamp Thing in these movies? They had something awesome going and they just cast it aside. Honestly, it feels like they just introduced Swamp Thing and the Green just so they could have some precursor to Brother Blood and the Red in the upcoming Teen Titans film.
A few last notes:
* Going in, I kind of expected this to be the superhero horror movie we didn't know we wanted. We do kind of get that in the first few scenes, a hospital fight scene with a literal shit monster (yes, you read that right), the Shrouds, and Swamp Thing's introduction. But for the most part, there's just a lot of magic being used like you've seen in Harry Potter or more recently Doctor Strange.
* For what's supposed to be a team movie, they don't actually form an official Justice League Dark. At least half of the members go their separate ways by the end, which makes a group shot before the credits a little strange.
* The music's a little good and bad, with the main score being similar to the opening titles to the Constantine TV series, but then you have some weird dubstep during the fight between Swamp Thing and Destiny.
"Justice League Dark" is the weakest film of the DC animated universe since "Son of Batman", but mostly better voice acting, character interaction, and the clever way the villain is defeated keep it from being the worst. It introduces new elements not seen before in these films, but doesn't give it enough focus as it should have. But still, if you're looking for a bit more horror with your superheroes, I'd give it a view.
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