Justice League: Gods and Monsters | |
Director: | Sam Liu |
Producer: | Bruce Timm |
Writer(s): | Alan Burnett |
Release Date: | July 28, 2015 |
Running Time: | 72 minutes |
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Justice League: Gods and Monsters is the seventh animated Justice League film that's an original story.
Plot
In an alternate story of the DC Universe, Krypton begins collapsing in on itself, with severe earthquakes breaking the planet down to its core after it is drilled into for energy. Jor El and his wife, Lara, prepare a spacecraft, called an incubator pod, able to act as an artificial womb for Lara's child. Her egg already inside the pod, Jor El is about to use his fingerprint complete the child's genetic code, when his finger is shot with a energy handgun by Zod, who criticizes Jor El for not allying with him and that they could have ruled Krypton. Jor El reminds Zod that he was the one who drilled to the core for energy he wanted for his army. Zod then places his own fingerprint and genetic code into the pod, ensuring that his and Lara's child will be the planet's legacy, before the pod launches and Krypton explodes. Throughout the pods travel, the child develops inside of it, and by the time it reaches the Milky Way Galaxy and eventually, Earth, finishes its development and becomes a newborn baby. The military, along with Lex Luthor, arrives on the desert crash site only to find it empty, with a small capsule filled with ambiotic fluid. Luthor orders that the ship be taken to S.T.A.R. Labs and that it be kept secret from the public. As the military search the area, a Mexican couple run off in secret with the baby from the crash.
In the present day, the child, now called Hernan Guerra/Superman, along pseudo-vampire Kirk Langstrom/Batman and New God, Bekka/Wonder Woman, have joined together to become the Justice League, a super-powered, anti-terrorist group that is hated by the public for their inhumanly brutal and vicious nature and intimidation tactics. The three raid a terrorist groups bunker under the Kasnian Embassy. These terrorists also possess a stolen file from President Amanda Waller. Steve Trevor, a military commander, tells them not to engage the terrorists. They quickly ignore the order and massacre the terrorists when they are shot at by them. The three are also confronted by a burly superhuman that Batman struggles with until he bites into him and drains his blood, a girl with an energy weapon that drives Superman back but is eventually overwhelmed and knocked unconscious, and a superhumanly agile man with clawed brass knuckles that faces off against Wonder Woman until she overpowers him and pounds him onto a wall. A another man trying to access the stolen file but is stopped by Superman's attacks. They are berated for the massacre by Trevor but they again ignore him, with Superman saying that the president will be happy not upset with their work before they fly away. The incident is talked about on the news, which the team watch from Metropolis in their building, the Tower of Justice. Lois Lane is the anchorwoman on the news and speaks of the massacre as horrific, with only one passing comment that the men killed were dangerous terrorists, which annoys Superman. Lex Luthor is then shown to have warned against the team before, as they are simply an advanced S.W.A.T. team and a mere weapon of mass destruction. Lex believed that the team would become out of control at some point and no authority could stop them. Superman opposes this thinking, as he believes that their are common people would love for them to be in control and rule the planet in one united government. Superman then meets with Silas Stone.
Meanwhile, Victor Fries is attacked in a snowscape by a dark, humanoid, one eyed, robotic creature with a red hue and a sharp mouth like opening on its face. After it appears after a flash of red light, it chases him and eventually grabs and bites into him in a manner similar to Kirk Langstrom. Ray Palmer, while leaving to reveal his miniaturized horses, products of his experiments with molecular miniaturization, to a senate committee, is attacked on the road by a similar dark, one eyed, robotic creature after it appears after a flash of white/silver light. This one has a more white/silvery hue, a sword like weapon similar to Wonder Woman's in one hand and an almost feminine appearance, as its feet resemble high heel shoes. When his truck goes into a raven, he hides from the creature, which kicks his truck even further downhill and off a cliff, until his phone rings, alerting it to Palmer's presence, leading to it killing him. In the distance, a nearby mountain lion is shown to have one of Palmer's horses, dead in its mouth and walks off with it to eat it.
Will Magnus talks with his friend Langstrom, who is withdrawn from humanity and lives in an abandoned building outside of Metropolis, having created a makeshift laboratory. Kirk is working on a batch of fake plasma to feed on. Magnus has run failed tests on Kirk's DNA, trying to reverse the antigen while its cellular walls do not hold, meaning that every attempt to reverse Kirks transformed genetics have failed. Kirk is unimpressed with this, as he seems to have lost hope of a cure to his condition. Will the mentions Palmer being missing after his truck was found totaled in the wilderness. Kirk says it is not his jurisdiction to check out the site. Will is upset by Kirk not wanting to find his colleague and mentions that he does not abide by jurisdiction anyway. Kirk reluctantly decides to go, despite his foresight about conflict with the authorities, though Magnus points out they hate him anyway.
Silas Stone is at a hanger building and working on what he calls a micro booster, a direct energy beam weapon he believes will be capable of destroying a tank. His child, Victor Stone, begs him to talk about his meeting with Superman, but he evades the questions and will not say what Superman had him do for him. Victor then asks about Wonder Woman, whom Silas is more willing to talk about, a third, dark, one eyed, robotic creature bursts through the ceiling in a manner similar to Superman. This one has a more blue hue, is more bulky than the other two and has a rounder head. It fires heat vision at the two, while Silas defends his son with his energy weapons, allowing Victor to escape. He is knocked back when the creature throws a large part of the wall at him and prepares to destroy Silas. Vic returns with a micro missile weapon and drives back the creature, only to run out of ammunition. He goes to his father when the creature summons energy to its arms and releases it in all directions, causing an explosion that destroys much of the lab and kills Silas and Vic. The police arrive on the scene, along with Lois, Trevor, Superman and Wonder Woman. Lois sarcastically notes that there is more going on if Trevor and other Feds are present at a crime scene, though Trevor ignores her questions. Superman looks around the scene for clues, with Lois trying to enter but is quickly taken back to the yellow tape. He has found the skeletons of Victor and Silas and is somewhat upset by it. Superman receives a call from Kirk on his earpiece, with Kirk saying Silas is not the only dead scientist and asking Superman to return to the Tower.
Kirk shows the other League members an image of Victor Fries's body, saying that he was measuring atmospheric carbon levels in the Arctic Circle three days ago. His carotid artery was severed, with those that have studied the body believing that he had fallen and severed the artery when it hit ice on the ground. The only problem with the theory that he had bled to death was that they cannot find any blood, as his neck should have been in pool of at least a half quart frozen blood. Kirk then shows Ray Palmer and his truck, with it appearing to have been sliced up and kicked, as a boot print with a pronounced heel was found and as a feminine shape and size. His body has not been found but he is still presumed dead. Stone lab is last shown, with a fire believed to have been started, with the signatures of heat making look like someone went through the lab with two blow torches, or heat vision as Superman puts it. Superman is astounded as he now realizes that someone is trying to frame them for murder. Kirk and Wonder Woman both believe that the police will have put this together and come to the conclusion that the team has killed the scientists and that this will go public sooner or later. When asked by Superman if these scientists are somehow connected, Kirk reveals that they have worked together one time or another on government projects that were usually top secret. Kirk decides to go to Gotham University, where Silas was a visiting professor and where some of his files are. Superman has Wonder Woman keep on Trevor, to make sure he does not make the situation worse for them. He tells the team to stay ahead of everyone, especially the media. In addition, he voices out that whoever is messing with them will regret it.
Kirk goes to Silas Stone office at Gotham University and logs onto the offices computer, discover files on a project called Fair Play. Its participants include; John Henry Irons, T.O. Morrow, Michael Holt, Victor Fries, Pat Dugan, Emil Hamilton, Karen Beecher, Ray Palmer, Silas Stone, Dr. Thaddeus Sivana, Kimiyo Hoshi, Stephen Shin, and William Magnus. Lex Luthor and Steve Trevor are also mentioned to have some indirect participation in the project. Kirk then takes a flash drive and copies the data from a computer. He then notices portraits on a nearby wall, one of them being a picture of all the scientists that where part of Project Fair Play on their graduation day from Gotham University, along with himself before his transformation. Lex Luthor is also seen in the picture with them, further implicating his involvement in Fair Play.
In a flashback to when the picture was taken, Luthor tells them that they are the best their generation has to offer, not to squander their talents, and that they are among the few who can change the world. Luthor then leaves while Kirk, back then shown to have brown hair and blue eyes, as well normal pink skin, goes to finish his lab work. Will Magnus repeated tells Kirk, his best friend through their school years, to go to the party tonight, as not going would upset Tina, Will girlfriend at the time and Kirk's close friend. Kirk, while being more interested in his work, agrees to go, only to end up still at his lab later that night, having fallen asleep their while working. Tina and an annoyed Will wake him and repeated tell him to come to the party and finish his work tomorrow. His computer has been sequencing human and bat blood coagulants and Kirk is close to matching them. After being coaxed enough by Tina, to the annoyance of a jealous Will, Kirk leaves with them. Even further that night, they return to Will's apartment, with a inebriated Will. Tina again shows deep concern for Kirk when he almost faints with head pains after entering the room, though he dismisses it quickly. Magnus then orders Kirk to take the couch to sleep, while he implies for he and Tina to sleep together, though Tina is against this and wants to go home instead. While Magnus protests to this, Kirk notices Will's science project, a ship in a bottle that is actually being made by microscopic nanites that according to Will, are self replicating, with their being at least trillions by now, are becoming part of the ship as they finish it, and they are made of iron, lead and a little mercury. Kirk asks if this process can be applied to organics, with Will saying that it is theoretically possible. Kirk is convinced that Will's being able to program nanites with such complexity is the answer to his problems with his own project, which is trying to cure lymphoma with bat venom. It is able to almost eradicate lymphoma, but its cell structure breaks down, even as it forms, meaning that it dissolves before it can be fully effective. Kirk believes that if molecules could be programmed to secure the cell structure and keep it from breaking down, it will stabilize its effect and allow the bat venom to fully eradicate the lymphoma. As he explains this, he collapses of head pains and falls unconscious on the couch, with Will thinking this is due to over excitement. Tina shakes Kirk to try to wake him and when this fails, she calls an ambulance for her sick friend. At the hospital, Tina says that Kirk should have told them how bad his own lymphoma was, and that he could have since they were his close friends.
Cast
- Benjamin Bratt as Lor-Zod/Hernan Guerra/Superman
- Michael C. Hall as Kirk Langstrom/Batman
- Tamara Taylor as Bekka/Wonder Woman
- C. Thomas Howell as Dr. Will Magnus
- Jason Isaacs as Lex Luthor
- Paget Brewster as Lois Lane
- Daniel Hagen as Doctor Sivana
- Bruce Thomas as General Zod and Darkseid
- Dee Bradley Baker as Ray Palmer and Tin
- Jim Meskimen as Victor Fries
- Carl Lumbly as Silas Stone
- Penny Johnson Jerald as President Amanda Waller
- Eric Bauza as Ryan Choi
- Larry Cedar as Pete Ross
- Richard Chamberlain as Highfather
- Trevor Devall as Emil Hamilton
- Dan Gilvezan as Pat Dugan
- Grey Griffin as Tina Magnus and Platinum
- Josh Keaton as Orion
- Arif S. Kinchen as Cheetah and Michael Holt
- Yuri Lowenthal as Jor-El
- Taylor Parks as Victor Stone
- Khary Payton as John Henry Irons
- Tahmoh Penikett as Steve Trevor
- Andrea Romano as Jean Palmer
- André Sogliuzzo as Cop
- Lauren Tom as Lara
- Marcelo Tubert as Blockbuster and Tough Guy
- Kari Wahlgren as Livewire and Karen Beecher
Non-Speaking Cameos
Trivia
When Batman accesses Silas Stone's computer at Gotham University, he finds an email mentioning "Project Fairplay" but also other documents which contain extracts from "The English Mail-Coach or The Glory of Motion", an essay written in 1849 by Thomas de Quincey. One document which begins with "In some of these the custom permitted the student to keep what are called 'short terms'" has been edited to remove references to "Mr. Palmer" (John Palmer, instigator of the mail-coach service in Britain). This is probably to avoid confusion with DC character Ray Palmer who is murdered earlier in the film.