Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		1.0
Overall		2.5

Justice League: Warworld Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Randy Miller III July 24, 2023

Jeff Wamester's Justice League: Warwold is DCAU's newest offering, a Tomorrowverse film that finds familiar faces in unfamiliar territory with no real knowledge of how they got there. Four stories are very loosely tied together and flow in a mostly staccato anthology format, which might make casual fans think they're watching the first several episodes of an abandoned TV series. Some are better than others but none are perfect, leaving what's essentially half of a solid end product that will likely only appeal to die-hard fans of the studio's ongoing animated productions.

The first segment finds Wonder Woman (wonderfully voiced by Stana Katic) riding solo in the Old West, defending the mostly innocent townspeople against lawless Jonah Hex (Troy Baker) and his band of ruffians. It's unsurprisingly lean on dialogue and relies mostly on Western tropes and, while the setting and general plotline are fine enough, any real tension is deflated by the simple fact that Wonder Woman's essentially blowing through the game on Goddess mode: no one -- and I mean no one -- poses a real threat, so it's ultimately hard to care about what happens.

Our next segment smash-cuts to the desolate world of Skartaris, mostly inhabited by barbarian types including the appropriately gruff and grumpy mercenary Bruce Wayne (Jensen Ackles), who's stuck in the middle of a war between his captor Warlord (Teddy Sears) and the dastardly wizard Deimos (Damian O’Hare) along with Machiste (Roger Cross) and a few chessecake-y female warriors... including Wonder Woman, again. Theirs is a more journey-driven narrative and thus more compelling than the previous short; it's got better stand-alone moments too, though it takes a few too many swipes from Conan the Barbarian and even the climax of Aladdin if you squint hard enough.

The third segment eventually kinda-sorta blends into the last one, and its beginning scenes are perhaps the best that Warworld gets: we're dropped into the black-and-white Cold War-torn town of Grover's Mill where FBI Agent Faraday (Frank Grillo) and his new partner Clark Kent (Darren Criss) are on the trail of possible alien visitor. Their search has lead them to a roadside diner where several persons of interest are staying warm, including... yep, you guessed it, Diana Prince AKA Wonder Woman, and paranoia grows as their investigation takes shape. As the story progresses, this segment eventually shifts to full color and, from there, our primary (and eventually, fully costumed) heroes Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and a very special friend all face off against the evil Mongul (Robin Atkin Downes), who seems to be behind everything. We also get to see Lobo (John DiMaggio), which is always a good time.

Though not without its bright spots, Warwold is so oddly put together that it's almost not worth picking apart; this is the kind of movie you'll have to take a face value to enjoy, as the spine of its narrative is so weak that I'll assume it was written by multiple writers and no one got exactly what they wanted. The beefed-up blood and violence -- which earned it a rare "R" rating among DCAU releases -- is more distracting than effective, and the same goes for its stiff animation that makes much of the action feel uninspired. For these reasons Warwold isn't exactly the most essential film in DCAU's ever-growing library, which also means this judgment applies to Warner Bros.' Blu-ray home video package as well: it's got a decent enough A/V presentation, but the bonus features are sorely lacking.

Justice League: Warworld Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Although it unsurprisingly comes in second to its 4K counterpart, Warworld holds its own on Blu-ray. There's not a lot of content here -- less than two hours in total -- which usually doesn't pose any major encoding issues, but it's still fairly easy to pick out mild amounts of posterization and macro blocking during specific scenes, as well as mild black crush in darker segments. (These issues are perhaps most noticeable on extremely flat colors, many of which are hidden behind added textures and subtle gradients but present nonetheless.) Otherwise, the picture falls within format expectations, with overall crisp image detail and a decently thick and dense appearance. Despite the varied visual aesthetics of the individual stories -- dusty earth tones for the Wild West, a more fantastical palette for Skartaris with added grit and grain, a smooth black-and-white patina for most of the FBI story, etc. -- they come through equally well and will hold up in-motion on small to medium-sized displays. When viewed with an investigative eye or on larger displays, the format limitations will be fairly noticeable and for those viewers I'd recommend the 4K option instead.

Justice League: Warworld Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Warner Bros.' DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio mix is a mostly appealing effort, one that occasionally reaches heights slightly above what we've come to expect from DCAU straight-to-video movies: decent immersion and potent discrete activity, which mostly applies to action scenes (superpowered or otherwise), echo, and the original score. Conversations likewise come through clean and clear without incident, highlighting most of the solid voicework on display during the film. My only reservations apply to a handful of less polished moments where some action-related effects -- specific gunshots, punches, and other normally hard-hitting elements -- sound almost alarmingly weak in comparison, rarely carrying the weight that they need and deserve. (One sound effect might even be missing entirely: a surprising twist near the end of the first "chapter" involves a gunshot from afar that hits a character close to the camera, but there's absolutely no sound of a bullet impact in the foreground.) Yet while small parts of this lossless surround mix definitely feel a bit rushed and unpolished, the wide majority is quite good and adds to the overall viewing experience.

Justice League: Warworld Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a standard keepcase with illustrative cover art and a matching slipcover; a Digital Copy code is tucked inside. The bonus features are much slimmer than usual for DCAU releases and don't even include the usual sneak peeks or "From the Vault" animated episodes... which is especially odd, since the loosely-related two-part Justice League Season One episode "Warworld" is mentioned and briefly shown during a featurette.

• Behind-the-Scenes Featurettes - This pair of short promotional pieces includes a few details about Justice League: Warworld's origins, story changes, development, and voice casting, with some concept art and related vintage comic panels but mostly brief interview clips with key crew members including producer Jim Krieg, executive producer Butch Lukic, DC Comics writer Tim Sheridan, and director Jeff Wamester.

• Illusions on Warworld (7:45)
• The Heroic, the Horrible, and the Hideous (7:52)

Justice League: Warworld Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Jeff Wamester's Justice League: Warwold differs from its original source material, which was translated more faithfully in a two-part episode of the animated series' first season. That's not a bad thing since the guts of a good film are here, one that's more interesting than "characters facing off in an area while the crowd cheers". Yet this well-intentioned end product still fails to come together, as the separate stories feel extremely disjointed and there's almost zero attempt to create a solid narrative through-line on the way to its lackluster climax. Even so, it has its moments and the voice work is stronger than most DCAU efforts, offering a successful blend of established voice actors and one celebrity stand-in. Warner Bros' home video presentation offers decent but not overwhelmingly great A/V specs, though, and the bonus features are disappointingly lackluster. Unless you're a die-hard fan or collector, try before you buy.