Justice League Dark: Apokolips War is very different from almost any other DC animated movie, but it's also a remarkably close encapsulation of the DCEU story Zack Snyder had planned. Snyder's work in the DCEU began with 2013's Man of Steel and continued with 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, both of which remain deeply polarizing to this day. Though his involvement with the DCEU continued with Justice League, his departure from the film along with the last-minute reshoots it went through resulted in the movie that hit theaters in late 2017 being far removed from the version he'd directed.
Aside from Justice League itself, Snyder had a grandiose vision in mind for the DCEU that was meant to both test and deconstruct DC's most iconic characters like never before. With everything from interplanetary invasions to heroic sacrifices, the story Snyder had intended for his DC films would end up being unexpectedly detoured with the revamping of Justice League. This would ultimately lead to the rise of the campaign for the Justice League Snyder Cut.
Arriving in the midst of that, Justice League Dark: Apokolips War is a very unexpected development due to how vivid a representation of Snyder's planned DCEU arc it has proven to be. Not only are its stakes as high and its style as visceral as Snyder's, but the story the movie tells is so similar to Snyder's plans that the parallels between the two are simply impossible to miss. Here are the ways in which Apokolips War mirrors Zack Snyder's plans for the DCEU.
Apokolips War Is Very R-Rated
If ever there were an animated superhero movie that completely threw caution to the wind, it's Justice League Dark: Apokolips War. While DC's contemporary animated movies tend to be fairly intense affairs, Apokolips War makes dead certain that viewers know it's an R-rated battle for the fate of the world where many characters are either killed or horribly maimed, complete with enough F-bombs to keep it further outside of the PG-13 realm. In short, the subtitle Apokolips War is as much a descriptor of the movie's content as it is an indicator of its story.
This also makes it incredibly similar to Zack Snyder's DC movies. Man of Steel was a true PG-13 movie, while the Ultimate Edition of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was hard-edged enough to earn an R (and even the movie's theatrical cut is still a very hard PG-13). For as split as the reception tends to be on Snyder's movies, his approach to superhero films is a lightning rod, with few filmmakers pushing the limits of injecting material for more mature audiences into superhero movies like Snyder does. Apokolips War operates under the very same mindset. Furthermore, the similarities between Apokolips War and Snyder's DCEU plans go even deeper.
Apokolips War Isn't Precious About Its Characters (But Still Stays True)
As already mentioned, Justice League Dark: Apokolips War is an extremely violent movie. Multiple heroes are literally torn apart in the first battle on Apokolips, but the movie also deconstructs its audience's pre-conceived images of its archetypal characters by making antagonists out of half of them. Following Darkseid's victory, many of the heroes who aren't killed are made into minions under his control, with Batman in particular becoming one of his most valuable assets in maintaining his dominion over Earth. The heroes who do survive find themselves at their lowest point, with Superman completely depowered, Raven struggling to hold her father Trigon at bay, and John Constantine racked with guilt over Zatanna's demise. However, this is the basis for the very theme of the movie, that of vanquished heroes rallying for one last stand to save a world that has been brought to its knees. On top of that, the parallels with the DCEU story envisioned by Zack Snyder are astonishing.
The Knightmare future of Darkseid's invasion of Earth was first glimpsed in Batman v Superman, with Snyder having intended for it to also factor into his subsequent DC films. This future was meant to come about via Darkseid's killing of Lois Lane, followed by the distraught Superman aligning with Apokolips after falling to the Anti-Life Equation. Darkseid's invasion of Earth and the Knightmare run directly parallel to the story of Apokolips War, with Earth finding itself at the mercy of Darkseid as many of its heroes are killed or weaponized. However, the whole point of this was Snyder's aim to confront the Justice League with a seemingly insurmountable challenge, making their battle against Darkseid far more triumphant and illuminating of each character's inherent heroism, as is also the case with Apokolips War.
The Movie Isn't Afraid Of Collateral Damage (Or Blaming It On The Heroes)
Far more so than other animated superhero films, Justice League Dark: Apokolips War wreaks cataclysmic havoc on the entire world. Even without the sheer number of major heroes brutally killed in the movie, the body count of Apokolips War is in the billions as a result of Darkseid's victory and his subsequent conquering of Earth. On top of that, the movie also positions these events as deriving from The Flash's decision to save his mother that formed the basis of Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox. With that course of action having already forced Barry Allen to undo his meddling with the timeline (with the DC Animated Movie Universe continuity arising from it), by the end of the movie, Earth has been sent on a path towards certain destruction, forcing Barry to reset the timeline once again with another Flashpoint.
This is in line with the style of Snyder's DC movies, with the colossal level of destruction seen in Man of Steel being one of the major criticisms that the movie was subject to. This feeds directly into the world's uncertain opinions of Kal-El and The Dark Knight's distrust of him in Batman v Superman, and while that movie includes far less collateral damage, it carries over Snyder's theme of consequences deriving from the existence of metahumans and superhero activity. Naturally, this was also meant to carry over into Justice League and beyond, with Snyder's plans also including a deeper dive into the Knightmare, along with the key role that The Flash's time-travel abilities were to play in Batman's efforts to undo the damage of it.
Apokolips War Makes The DCAU A Self-Contained Arc
Above all else, Justice League Dark: Apokolips War establishes the interconnected DC Animated Movie Universe as truly its own universe and telling its own story. Though The Flashpoint Paradox would set things in motion, this continuity truly kicked off with Justice League: War, with Apokolips War serving as the conclusion of the films set within the continuity. By the end of the film, Apokolips War definitely establishes the continuity it bookends as its own independent story.
This also solidifies the comparison to what Zack Snyder had planned. Snyder's DC films were intended as a five-movie arc with a clearly delineated beginning, middle, and end. Though full details are not known about how it would have played out, it is known that Snyder planned for Batman to die. Like the finale embodied by Apokolips War, the story Snyder envisioned would not have been the be-all and end-all of DC movies, but instead its own story arc with its own endpoint.
Apokolips War has created a lot of hype for its role as the conclusion of the DC Animated Movie Universe while also positioning itself as being like no other animated superhero movie with its world-ending scale and graphic violence. However, the most unexpected element of it is just how closely it follows the same path as what Zack Snyder had planned for his five-movie arc. In its own, very surprising way, Justice League Dark: Apokolips War has ultimately added even more fodder for the continuing campaign for the Justice League Snyder Cut by just how much it embodies the essence of Snyder's planned DCEU story.