ANI-MOVIES, *Injustice

Based on both the first video game and the Year One comic book prequel series, Injustice show what would happen if Superman lost all inhibitions and tried to bring his own brand of "truth and justice" to the entire world. Originally starting out as a spinoff of Mortal Kombat Vs. DC Universe, the Injustice video games took characters from the DC Universe(s) and had them each on the same power level thanks to a special super-pill which would allow characters like Black Canary be able to survie an actual fist fight with General Zod. None of that level of combat translate in the movie adaptation as its later on in the story, but is more of how the world would react to a serious paradigm shift with its super heroes.

Set in another version of the standard DC Universe, the Joker with Harley Quinn kidnaps Lois Lane, and exposes Superman to a Kryptonite-laced faceful of fear gas, forcing him to see Lois as the monster Doomsday. The resulting fight kills Lois and her unborn child, sending Superman into a vengeful frenzy, and impales the Joker. Under Batman's orders, Green Arrow secretly takes Harley into custody to save her from Superman's wrath, while the Man of Steel slowly divides the Justice League and the rest of Earth's heroes as he along with Wonder Woman establish a new world order. Batman heads up an underground network of vigilantes to maintain peace on a street level, while Superman's influence spreads stopping all wars, and using hi-tech monitoring systems that he forced Mr. Terrific to acquire. Superman tries to send the inmates at Arkham Asylum to a secret prison, but Batman gets in the way, resulting in Robin accidently killing Nightwing who later becomes this universe's version of Deadman as "Deadwing". Robin convinces Superman to ally with his grandfather, Ra's al Ghul, and creates a superpowered android named Amazo to be the first of an army of mechanical monitors. Amazo blows a major fuse while patrolling Smallville, and Superman is shocked to find out that Ra's gave it similar powers, causing the deaths of Hawkman and Cyborg. Batman's remaining heroes arrive to help take down Amazo, while Mr. Terrific uses a dimensional gateway to bring in a Superman from another universe to battle his corrupt counterpart. A Lois Lane from a totally different reality still pregnant with her Superman's child to convince this tainted Superman to surrender, leaving Batman and the remaining heroes to salvage the rest of their Earth.

The task of folding an entire comic book maxi-series along with portions of the first video game into a single feature-length production doesn't play out as tight as a longer movie or mini-series might have had a better chance at. Key characters like Lex Luthor are completely absent, while others like Flash get either killed or taken down off-screen, and numerous plotpoints are other rushed or rewritten in an attempt to streamline the narrative of this massive saga, which means leaving out the other 4 volumes of the Injustice prequel comic, and pretty much all of the first video game. The singular story on its own is decent, but works more like an alternate universe 2-parter from the Justice League animated series. The Injustice movie makes for a good enough watch for fans of DC superheroes, although hardcore admirers of the original source material might be turned off by the abridged plot.