Justice League appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This became a largely satisfying image.
Overall sharpness worked well, with only a smattering of slightly soft dimly-lit shots on display. Most of the movie boasted positive accuracy and delineation.
The image lacked jagged edges or moiré effects, and edge haloes remained absent. Print flaws also remained absent.
Unsurprisingly, the film’s palette favored a notable orange and teal hint, though some segments favored a pretty desaturated feel, and the apocalyptic climax pushed toward reds. The disc replicated the colors as intended.
Blacks seemed dark and dense, but shadows could seem a little murky, as low-light shots weren’t quite as smooth as I’d like. Still, I felt happy with the transfer in general and thought it offered a good representation of the film.
Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the movie’s Dolby Atmos audio added great dimensionality to the effort. With many action scenes, the mix used the various channels to create a lively, vivid soundscape.
This meant various vehicles zipped around the room in a smooth, convincing manner, while other aspects of battles and mayhem brought out well-placed material that blended together in a nicely integrated way. The soundfield meshed together to deliver a well-rounded impression.
Audio quality also impressed, with speech that seemed natural and concise. Music appeared vivid and full, with dynamic tones.
Effects fared best of all, as those elements seemed accurate and tight, with crisp highs and deep lows. As I expect from a movie of this sort, the soundtrack excelled.
When we shift to extras, we find a slew of featurettes, and these begin with the 14-minute, 10-second Road to Justice. It offers comments from animation producer Bruce Timm, DC co-publishers Jim Lee and Dan DiDio, producers Deborah Snyder, Charles Roven and Geoff Johns, comics writers Marv Wolfman and Grant Morrison and actors Ray Fisher, Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck and Ezra Miller.
“Road” follows the origins and development of the Justice League, with tangents about various TV adaptations. It delivers a short but tight history.
With Heart of Justice, we find an 11-minute, 52-second reel with notes from Johns, Roven, Snyder, Affleck, Lee, Miller, Cavill, executive producers Wesley Coller and Curtis Kanemoto, and actors Gal Gadot, Amy Adams and JK Simmons. “Heart” gives us notes about Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman, the core of the Justice League. We get a smattering of decent notes but not much depth.
Next comes Technology of the Justice League, an eight-minute, 14-second piece with Miller, Fisher, production designer Patrick Tatopoulos, set decorator Dominic Capon, visual effects supervisors Tom Proctor and Bryan Hirota, and costume designer Michael Wilkinson. As implied by the title, this show looks at vehicles, costumes and other gadgets/gizmos featured in the film. “Technology” brings us an efficient effort.
Justice League: The New Heroes goes for 12 minutes, 24 seconds and features Fisher, Roven, Wolfman, Johns, Coller, Miller, and actor Jason Momoa. “Heroes” covers elements related to Cyborg, Aquaman and Flash. It’s another fairly informative piece.
The villain comes to the fore with Steppenwolf the Conqueror, a three-minute, three-second featurette that includes Johns, DiDio, Lee, and actor Ciaran Hinds. We learn a little about the film’s villain – too little, as this becomes a show that should run a bit longer.
Costumes become the focus of Suit Up: The Look of the League. It lasts 10 minutes, 21 seconds and brings remarks from Wilkinson, Affleck, Momoa, Gadot, Fisher, Proctor, Cavill, and Miller. Dominated by Wilkinson, this offers a solid take on the superhero outfits in the film.
Four Scene Studies occupy a total of 15 minutes, 16 seconds. We see “Revisiting the Amazons” (3:32), “Wonder Woman’s Rescue” (3:14), “Heroes Park” (4:48) and “The Tunnel Battle” (3:32).
Across these, we hear from Tatopoulos, Wilkinson, Cavill, Hirota, Affleck, Adams, stunt performers Hayley Warnes and Jolie Stanford, stunt coordinator Eunice Huthart, location manager Matt Clarke, supervising location manager Amanda Stevens, fight choreographer Freddy Bouciegues, digital effects supervisor Harry Mukhopadhyay, visual effects leads Chris Mulcaster and Josiah Holmes Howison,
and actors Samantha Jo, Hari James, Brooke Ence, and Michael McElhatton. The clips look at stunts, effects, locations and related areas, as they offer useful material about the various production elements.
In terms of deleted scenes, we find The Return of Superman, a two-minute, four-second pair of clips that boast “footage not seen in theaters”. Don’t expect much, as we just get a few minor shots of Supes that add little.
The disc opens with an ad for Justice League VR. No trailer for Justice League appears here.
After prior misfires, DC Comics bounced back in 2017 via Wonder Woman and Justice League. The latter didn’t find as big an audience as expected, but I think it delivers a brisk, fun superhero adventure. The Blu-ray brings us largely positive picture as well as excellent audio and a serviceable set of supplements. This develops into a pretty enjoyable tale.