Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen Part Two

• Directed by Kerry Shawcross
• October 17, 2023

Voice Cast

• Vixen-Ozioma Akagha
• Yang-Barbara Dunkelman
• Weiss-Kara Eberle
• The Flash/Barry Allen-David Dastmalchian
• Ruby-Lindsay Jones
• Wonder Woman/Diana Prince-Laura Bailey
• Superman/Clark Kent-Travis Willingham    
• Green Lantern-Jeannie Tirado
• Cyborg-Tru Valentino
• Batman/Bruce Wayne-Troy Baker
• Blake-Arryn Zech
• Dinah Lance/Black Canary-Jamie Chung
• Dr. Arthur Watts-Christopher Sabat
• Klein Sieben-J. Michael Tatum
• Mark Mardon/Weather Wizard-Travis Willingham
• Sam Scudder/Mirror Master-Troy Baker
• Waylon Jones/Killer Croc-Maxwell Friedman

After returning from Remnant cyberspace, the Justice League and Team RWBY realize that the Grimm and Kilg%re still pose a threat.

I would like to say this was a vast improvement over Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen Part One. I would like to say that but it’s not. I don’t even know why I invested my money in this. Most likely because I’m a bit of a completist at heart. It has its own set of problems which are compounded by the issues of the first.

One problem I have with this just like before is that like before you need a significant amount of knowledge of RWBY to fully understand what is going on here. They reference elements of that fictional universe but almost never give even a little explanation or minimal context. Like it or not, RWBY is much closer to a niche item than the Justice League is.

As before Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen Part Two is not aimed at the general Justice League fan but much more at someone knowledgeable of RWBY. Unfortunately they do a very poor job of explaining the mythology and much of what happens in Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen Part Two connects to events in the RWBY Universe. But having no idea of those events leaves the ignorant in the cold. Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles gave enough that I think nonfans of TMNT knew what was going on.

I’m not against crossovers of any type-especially the weird ones. Weird ones can be rather entertaining but they need to be accessible to everyone. That way fans of both universes can understand things they might be ignorant of when it comes to the presented story. The film needs to be crafted in such a way that is a complete standalone effort. This fails on that completely.

There’s a large focus in Team RWBY and their relationships along with their assorted problems, but due to a complete lack of familiarity, I was lost. And unless you know anything about them I’m willing to bet you’ll be lost as well. No idea on how they are connected. I think two of them are siblings.

The overall tone of Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen Part Two feels like it is talking down to the audience and presenting the viewer with simplistic characters. While I cannot comment on any of the RWBY characters, the dialogue for those from DC feels, well, generally off. Wonder Woman in particular feels dumber and just, well, somewhat submissive rather than at the minimum forceful.

The character designs and animation in general is generic. I am guessing it is keeping in line with the look of RWBY. It looks like early 2000s video game cutscenes which is more than a few steps down from even the worst looking DC animated offering of today. This may be direct-to-video, but this is DC and it does not equal previously established DC quality.

The most egregious sin of this is probably that events didn’t feel like they mattered to the caast of characters. With the occasional giggling and fist bumps, it looked like they were on a fun adventure rather than saving the world or defeating two foes. Kilg%re and Dr. Watts didn’t feel serious enough to be that big of a threat and the goal of both was to remake the entire world. It looked like they were going to completely alter it after the Grimms did…what? I have no idea exactly.

Seriously. These creatures were important to the plan clearly, but I have no idea how they played into the plans of remaking the world. They did not even seem to be a real threat to anybody. They weren’t attacking citizens or destroying property. The only time they ever became a threat was when the Justice League or Team RWBY got near them. Beyond that not much of anything. They talked about how dangerous these things were, but they never actually showed it. The creatures tended to just wander around until our heroes showed up and decided to attack. 

There’s not too much story here. It’s more series of fight sequences to stretch out events from Point A to Point B. And they’re not frenetic or exciting, but rather safe and just overdrawn leaning into the worst excesses of a Zack Snyder film.

At 76 minutes Justice League x RWBY: Super Heroes & Huntsmen Part Two is 76 minutes that I can’t get back. Maybe fans of RWBY will like it, but I’m not sure if anyone else will. Skip!