Rent Justice League X RWBY: Super Heroes and Huntsmen: Part 1 (2023)

Justice League X RWBY: Super Heroes and Huntsmen: Part 1 (aka Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes and Huntsmen Part One) review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

Despite what the title may imply, this crossover between the franchises of Justice League and RWBY is very much a RWBY film. The animation is restricted to the budgeted, cel-shaded CGI that RWBY has been known for. The character designs remain trapped in that anime style that seems only to accommodate teenagers, which is most likely why all the DC Comics characters are reduced. For RWBY fans who appreciate the intricate lore, simplistic character chemistry, and anime influence that is strictly surface-level, that might suffice. But as someone who is a bigger fan of DC Comics than RWBY, I can’t help but feel that the team behind RWBY has used this franchise more like props than a legacy worth extracting for more drama and comedy.

Set in the RWBY fantasy universe, the entire Justice League is reduced to being teenagers who can’t figure out the change in the universe, animation style, outfits, and age shifting. This is such a weird staging, considering how it feels like the DC Comics characters have been abducted for this franchise. Don’t expect the DC Comics characters to add anything to the RWBY world of magical girls fighting inhuman magical monsters. The superheroes are tourists of this world and need to learn more from the central cast rather than vice versa. If the best angle to explore with Superman within this premise is that the superhero is too much of a boy scout and that Superman is a silly name, it sure does seem like there’s a disinterest with the Justice League. Characters who are color-coordinated and named as such shouldn’t be mocking a title like Superman. I kept waiting for one of the DC Comics characters to mention as much, but to no avail.

The plot involves the superheroes having reduced powers and trying to figure out who is behind this act of abduction and stolen powers. The story attempts to become more intricate by making Kilg%re the central villain and placing all the characters within a simulation. Yes, this film goes the Matrix route by suggesting that nearly the entire experience was fake. Well, sorta. The Justice League really is transported into the world of RWBY, but not really. It’s a plot way messier than it should be for what mostly amounts to a series of fight scenes with DC Comics characters' skins inside the RWBY universe.

The characters all around are paper-thin in this plot, where any thematic element is handled in the most stumbling ways. RWBY’s characters continue to exist in a vanilla-coated melodrama, with talk of their pasts and their plights playing out like a half-thought high school story. The Justice League characters are so divorced from their familiar DC Comics personalities that you could easily pass this off as a Marvel tie-in. Even the more charismatic and distinct characters like The Flash and Cyborg come off very softened. They rarely have anything insight or charming to say as they play tourists to the RWBY world, making sure not to get in the way too much of the plot. They all combine forces for many fight scenes, which RWBY used to be known for, but come off lackluster when positioned alongside a knee-capped Justice League.

Of all the direct-to-video films to bring the Justice League to life in animation, this is easily one of the worst. As an RWBY film, it’s not even as compelling as the earlier episodes, which balanced its sticky world-building with the superior fight choreography. Adding DC Comics characters into the mix doesn’t improve this Matrix-esque story that becomes so lost in its own lore that it forgot to make the characters sound like people, not generic anime ciphers. This is a travesty of a way to utilize the Justice League, with the second worst thing about this film being that it’s part one of a two-part film.