| "Justice for the World" films | |||||||
|
|
| |||||
| “ | From Director Roland Emmerich and Academy Award-Nominated Screenwriter Ehren Kruger |
„ |
— Person Tagline |
| “ | More than Earth's war | „ |
— Tagline |
War for Justice Across Worlds (also known as War for Justice, and internationally known as Justice for the World: War for Justice) is a 2032 science fiction action film, co-written, directed and produced by Roland Emmerich. It is the third film installment in the Justice for the World film series, and a sequel to Blood Moon: Justice for the World. The film stars Maika Monroe, Cody Walker, Jordana Brewster, Patrick Wilson, Alessandra de Rossi, Bill Pullman, Mark Strong and Vin Diesel. In the film, while humanity builds a new home in Mars, the aliens plan to strike one last time against humanity on both planets of Earth and Mars.
Despite the box office success of Blood Moon: Justice for the World, it didn't live up to Legendary's expectations in terms of profit, and was baffled by the negative reception the film had received. Emmerich had signed on for one more film, and he used a story that he and Harald Kloser wrote before Blood Moon came out, referring it and the third film as "two-parters." Legendary brought in screenwriters Ehren Kruger and Josh Friedman to polish and finalize the screenplay. Principal photography began in May 2031, and wrapped in August 2031. The film was made on a production budget of $220-245 million.
War for Justice Across Worlds was theatrically released on October 9, 2032, to mixed reviews, though the film was received much better than the previous two, with praise towards its visual effects, action, cinematography and the performances of Monroe and Walker. The film was also noted for being the "most faithful" adaptation of the franchise at the time, although the runtime, screenplay and characters received criticism. The film grossed $642 million, making it the seventh-highest grossing film of 2032, Emmerich's highest-grossing film, and the highest-grossing film in the franchise. The film received the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, and was nominated for Best Sound and Best Cinematography. A prequel-sequel to the first film, Survival of the Justice for the World, was released on June 11, 2033, while a sequel, titled Justice for the World: Brothers in Arms, was released on October 20, 2036, starring Tom Cruise and Dwayne Johnson.
Plot[]
Years after the Blood Moon event, and as the Earth's population slowly, but surely, climbed back to 1 billion, NASA had developed plans for Martian colonization. The plan has been put under the leadership of the Warring family, with Han Warring, son of Joshua and Rosa Warring, being the lead developer of the project. Meanwhile, from several million miles away from Earth laid a mothership, with the alien conqueror, Xaz R'ida, and his commander-in-chief, Sav Tha'lin. Still desparate and power-hungry for Earth's resources, R'ida decides a plan of attack; destroy any transports heading over to Mars for colonization.
With Patricia Peterson and Brian Harris, now engaged, meet up with Han and his girlfriend, Maxine Richardson. While the four discuss plans for their Martian plan, they suddenly see giant fireballs raining down on Earth. The four run away from the chaos, as the landing pods drop onto Earth's atmosphere. Peterson, recognizing they were the aliens, calls in the United States military. Meanwhile, Xaz R'ida is up in space, overseeing some transports. His fighters attack the ships, killing everyone in the vessels.
Xaz now focuses on the Martian colony that humanity has built. Currently, President Warring, First Lady Warring and VP Thomas Barrett are in the main base of it. Xaz sacrifices ten of his fighter spaceships to push Deimos out of orbit, and be pulled by Mars's gravity. With red alerts alarming the base to evacuate, the Warrings and Barrett get in their emergency escape rockets, backed up by several experimental space fighter jets. Barrett, however, decides to try and help others escape, and so, he abandons his escape rocket. Deimos finally impacts, causing billions of dollars in damage, and thousands of deaths who couldn't escape, including VP Thomas Barrett. The fireball engulfs half of Mars, when looked at from outer space. Xaz hasn't stopped his rampage, killing the space fighter squadron, and capturing the rocket holding the president and the first lady, but rather than killing the two, he holds them hostage.
On Earth, the United States military defeats the aliens and gathers their technology. Determined to be much more advanced than their previous alien enemies, Patricia and Brian reverse-engineered them to be tailored towards humans. While doing so, they learn that the president and the first lady have been captured, and that the aliens surrender Earth to them, and become their slaves. The two, along with Han and Maxine, hatch a plan to free the two, and finally crumbling the alien empire.
They first engaged in a full-on space battle. A shuttle, disguising as one of the alien spaceships, boards Xaz's mothership, where the president and first lady are being held hostage. Patricia, Brian, Han and Maxine, armored with alien tech, barge their way through the ship. They finally stand face-to-face with Xaz and Sav Tha'lin. Patricia and Brian take on Xaz, while Han and Maxine take on Sav. With the two groups being separated, and their weapons destroying the ship's halls as they fight, Han and Maxine finally overpower Sav and kill him by stabbing him in the head with his spear. Meanwhile, Xaz has been overpowering both Patricia and Brian, with him punching a hole through Brian's torso, and crushing Patricia's left leg. Xaz leaves them to die to their wounds.
Han and Maxine finally find the Warrings, and they head to an escape vehicle, but Xaz catches them and chases after them around the ship. Patricia and Brian, both handicapped and unable to walk, decide to make the ultimate sacrifice, as they limp over to the main engine of the mothership. Upon realizing that the engine is powered by nuclear power cells, they call to Han and Maxine about their plan to blow up the mothership's nuclear engine to cause a large enough explosion to wipe out their entire space fleet, and for them to escape immediately. While Han and Maxine adamantly refused, Patricia and Brian tells them there is no other way. Xaz, overhearing, tries to run as fast as he can to the engine room, which was at the opposite end of where he was.
With Han, Maxine and the Warrings finally out of the blast radius, after some trouble with the alien soldiers, Patricia and Brian share a moment together, recollecting all their past memories with each other after that first asteroid impact. They share one last kiss together, and with Xaz finally running into the engine room, Patricia and Brian use their alien plasma cannons to shoot at the nuclear power cells, triggering a detonation that blows up the entire fleet. Humanity had finally won the war.
Back on Earth, everyone on Earth mourn the deaths of Patricia and Brian, but they also honored them for their sacrifice to save humanity once and for all. They had won a decisive battle for the fate of humanity, thanks to two people.
In an end credits scene, Xaz R'ida floats in the vacuum of space, before reopening his red eyes, to signify that he is alive.
Main credits[]
Staff role on the left, staff member's name on the right.
- Director - Roland Emmerich
- Screenwriters - Roland Emmerich & Harald Kloser and Ehren Kruger and Josh Friedman
- Storywriters - Roland Emmerich & Harald Kloser
- Producers - Roland Emmerich, Mary Parent, Harald Kloser and Larry J. Franco
- Executive producers - Ute Emmerich, William Fay, Volker Engel and Thomas Tull
- Director of photography - Ueli Steiger
- Production designer - Barry Chusid and Patrick Tatopoulos
- Visual effects supervisor - Volker Engel
- Film editors - Adam Wolfe, Peter Amundson and Peter Elliott
- Music composers - Harald Kloser and Thomas Wander
Cast[]
- Main article: List of characters in Justice for Love duology
Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.
- Maika Monroe as Patricia Peterson
- Cody Walker as Brian Harris
- Jordana Brewster as Maxine Richardson
- Lucas Black as Han Warring
- Patrick Wilson as Joshua Warring
- Alessandra de Rossi as Rosa Watson-Warring
- Bill Pullman as Thomas Barrett
- Mark Strong as Sav Tha'lin
- Vin Diesel as Xaz R'ida / Alien Conqueror
Production[]
Development[]
Despite the box office success of Blood Moon: Justice for the World, it didn't live up to Legendary's expectations in terms of profit, and was baffled by the negative reception the film had received. In spite of this, Roland Emmerich, on top of the reason of being contractually obligated, pushed to complete his trilogy of films. In exchange, Emmerich would make the third film more faithful to the source material. Executive producer Thomas Tull, having acknowledged the criticism received by the previous entries, told Emmerich to stop messing up his chances at adapting the material.
| “ | You messed up Godzilla. You almost messed up this franchise. Don't fuck it up. | „ |
— Thomas Tull to Roland Emmerich, after Blood Moon: Justice for the World's box office run ended |
This line almost discouraged Emmerich to quit, but decided to stay, as he was still contractually obligated to do one more film. As he put it, "It's time I put in my all."
Pre-production and writing[]
Since Emmerich had signed on for two films after the first film, and before Blood Moon came out, he pre-wrote an outline with Harald Kloser, to try something different. James Vanderbilt, the co-screenwriter for Blood Moon, was unavailable to work with them, so Emmerich and Kloser were on their own. While aliens would still play a pivotal part in the story, they wrote in another part on how the characters were trying prevent an asteroid from hitting the Earth, a parallel to how the asteroid wiped out Earth in the original film. This would eventually rewritten into the sequence where Mars was impacted by Deimos. However, due to lack of trust from Legendary, they brought in screenwriters Ehren Kruger and Josh Friedman to polish and finalize the screenplay, by analyzing the scripts from the original Toho film and Amy Heckerling's Emily and the Apocalypse regarding their themes. One of the key things that they rewrote was the ending to have the main couple die via a giant nuclear explosion; Emmerich's original ending had them surviving and living a happy life. Upon reading over the revised script, Emmerich was satisfied, yet still did additional rewrites to make it closer to his original vision.
Vin Diesel portrays the villain, Xaz R'ida
Vin Diesel was the first person to be announced on the third film's cast, on February 2031, as the villain. Originally supposed to be paid $13 million, Diesel was paid a salary of $30 million to be in the film, as he was not fond of playing a supporting character, but eventually obliged. Diesel, having not portrayed a villain previously (aside from Riddick in 2000's Pitch Black), took his inspiration for his performance from Magneto from the X-Men movies, as Diesel's character, according to him, as "megalomaniacal warmongers." Emmerich didn't know what to name the character, and Diesel said, "Let's combine Xander Cage and Riddick, and make it alien-sounding," hence the name "Xaz R'ida."
Maika Monroe, Cody Walker and Patrick Wilson were stated to reprise their roles on March 2031. Jordana Brewster, Lucas Black and Mark Strong were announced to be in the cast on April. Alessandra de Rossi was announced to reprise her role in May, one week before filming commenced.
Filming[]
Principal photography began in May 2031, and wrapped in August 2031. The film's cinematographer became Ueli Steiger, after Markus Förderer had a scheduling conflict. The film was made on a budget of $220-245 million, which topped the previous film as the most expensive film in the series. Like the first film, the film was shot in IMAX 3D. Scenes were mostly shot in Washington, D.C., Phoenix, Arizona, Frankfurt, Germany and Manila, Philippines. Most of the scenes featuring Mars were shot in Badlands National Park, although other scenes were filmed in Warner Bros.'s Leavesden Studios.
While filming, most of the cast were not fond of working with Vin Diesel, with Alessandra de Rossi even stating, "He's the epitome of someone who wants the spotlight with no worth." Because so, Cody Walker, Jordana Brewster and director Roland Emmerich all backed him up through production, with Diesel stating that he was happiest on set when Walker was with him.
| “ | He reminds me of Paul, my close friend and brother. Whenever he's around, I feel like I'm at ease. It's a good feeling to be at ease, when everyone else feels intimidated by you. | „ |
— Vin Diesel regarding Cody Walker |
Eventually, most of the cast got around to Diesel, with Patrick Wilson and Mark Strong stating how cool he was during production, and how involved he was, with his role. They also remarked that, during a break in filming, Diesel was kind enough to invite them to watch Riddick in an IMAX theater that Diesel himself rented.
Controversy[]
The heat between Vin Diesel and Alessandra de Rossi did not stop, however. Diesel had creative control over his character, on how he was portrayed and how he was written. Diesel would make requests to Roland Emmerich for these changes, and Emmerich would mostly oblige, to "not anger our most bankable star." Emmerich did tell Diesel that he was still playing a villain, so he eventually had to lose. Diesel also obliged to this request.
While Emmerich, Walker and Brewster encouraged him to change and use the character as he wanted, and the rest of the cast seemingly neutral, de Rossi got so bothered by how much control he had over his role, that she even questioned Emmerich on Diesel's role in the film's production.
| “ | Is this guy a producer, too? Because he seems so important, that he can make sudden changes to the character in the middle of filming! | „ |
— Alessandra de Rossi speaking to Roland Emmerich, regarding Vin Diesel, from leaked behind-the-scenes audio |
It got so bad, that de Rossi almost dropped out in the middle of production. Eventually, Emmerich agreed to a compromise between the two, that de Rossi would film her scenes separately from Diesel. And whenever time was running out, and they had to film together, de Rossi and Diesel would use their body doubles to finish scenes.
Post-production[]
Like the previous two films, the visual effects were supervised by Volker Engel. The same five visual effects companies from the previous film worked on the film; Uncharted Territory, LLC, Scanline VFX, Weta FX, Framestore and Method Studios.
Uncharted Territory, LLC was the primary visual effects vendor, mostly utilized during the action sequences. Scanline VFX and Method Studios did additional visual effects work, primarily adding more layers to shots mostly done by Uncharted Territory, LLC. The Martian landscape's visual effects were composited and rotoscoped into the vast terrain of Badlands National Park by Weta. Framestore did effects simulations for the Martian terrain particles and weather. The companies in total were paid at $40 million.
Music[]
Like the previous two films, the film's music was composed by Harald Kloser and Thomas Wander. The soundtrack was released on September 31, 2032 by WaterTower Music. Kloser and Wander experimented with both retro and orchestral soundtracks, taking inspirations from Tron: Legacy to balance out the tracks. A rap single, "The Diesel that Fuels the Rage," was released on September 13, 2032. It was sang by Vin Diesel, and written by Charlie Puth, whom previously collaborated with Diesel for Furious 7 and Fast X.
Marketing[]
The marketing costs for War for Justice Across Worlds were reported to be $90-100 million. No matter what Emmerich had said, Warner Bros. did their best to lower their marketing budget, especially since War for Justice was the most expensive film of the franchise by far (at maximum, $295 million). Emmerich was less worried, when Diesel agreed to "promote the film like crazy." The film was promoted in the 2032 San Diego Comic-Con, by Emmerich, Maika Monroe, Cody Walker, Vin Diesel, and lead star of Asteroid Clara, Rebecca Rittenhouse. Monroe herself did not do much promotion on the film, as she was busy shooting Survival of the Justice for the World. The first teaser trailer was released on February 19, 2032, with the full trailer releasing on July 3, 2032, commemorating the 36 years since the release of Independence Day as well. The film was promoted at 2032 New York Comic-Con by Emmerich, Diesel and screenwriter of the original film, Ryuhei Kitamura, mere days after his appearance at a private screening at Toho Studios, for which he responded to the film positively.
The film's novelization, written by Alex Irvine, who wrote the previous two films' novelizations, was published on October 5, by Titan Books, and the art book The Art of War for Justice Across Worlds was released on October 25.
Release[]
Theatrical[]
War for Justice Across Worlds premiered in Tokyo at the red carpet, on September 10, 2032. A private screening at Toho Studios was held for early reactions to the film, on September 17, 2032. A week later, another private screening was held at GMA Network Center in Quezon City. It was finally released worldwide on October 9, 2032, in IMAX, 3D, Dolby Cinema, RealD 3D, IMAX 3D, 4DX, and ScreenX. The film was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, except for China, Japan and Philippines, where the film was distributed by Universal Pictures, Toho Co. Ltd. and GMA Pictures. Like the previous installments, Toho and GMA Pictures released the film with Japanese and Tagalog dubs respectively.
Home media[]
The film was released on Digital HD on March 13, 2033, and released on DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K Ultra HD on April 21, 2033. The 4K release includes HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision high dynamic range, and a Dolby Atmos soundtrack. A trilogy pack, with the first and second film, was made by Best Buy.
Toho and GMA Pictures released multiple editions of the film on 4K, Blu-ray, and DVD in Japan and the Philippines on July 22, 2033. Like the first and second films, it was released with Japanese and Tagalog dubs respectively. GMA Pictures also released a five-disc limited edition set, with the original film, Asteroid Clara, the first film and the second film. Erroneously, Toho sold a two-disc pack with only Asteroid Clara alongside it, before discontinuing the pack two weeks after release.
Reception[]
Box office[]
War for Justice Across Worlds grossed $206.6 million in the domestic box office, and $435.4 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $642 million. It was the highest-grossing film in the franchise. The film dethroned Emmerich's previous record-holder, Justice for the End of the World, for the highest worldwide and domestic opening weekend in his filmography, as its opening weekend earned $269.7 million, with its domestic weekend earning $108.1 million.
Due to Vin Diesel's star power, the film was popular in foreign territories. In China, it opened with $87.7 million, and grossed $238.3 million. In Japan, the film opened with $19 million, before going on to gross a total of $60.8 million. In the Philippines, the film opened with $4 million, before going on to gross $16 million in total.
Deadline Hollywood reported the film made $162.7 million in net profit, after factoring all expenses and revenues.
Critical reception[]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 49% based on 381 reviews, with an average rating of 5.40/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Despite its dumbfoundingly bombastically action, the fact that War for Justice Across Worlds is more faithful to its adaptation than the previous installments speaks volumes on this franchise." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 53 out of 100 based on 50 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A-" on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an overall positive score of 81%, and a 68% "definite recommend."
Response from staff[]
Toho[]
Both Ryuhei Kitamura and Shusuke Kaneko, screenwriter and producer of the original film, both attended the private screening at Toho Studios. Both have been openly critical about the previous two American entries. Kaneko still disowned the film, and the American series as a whole, stating how a subplot should not fix the series. He's also stated how the franchise has run its course, and that it was time for the series to end.
However, Kitamura said he was pleasantly surprised by how good and, to a degree, faithful the film was to the original.
| “ | This film finally got me. It's dumb, sure. And I think Asteroid Clara is still a lot more of what we wanted to do. But it's a hell of a lot better than what they previously tried. | „ |
— Ryuhei Kitamura's reaction to the film on his Instagram |
GMA Network[]
Directors of the original Toho entries, Gina Alajar and Don Michael Perez, gave mixed responses, praising its degree of faithfulness and the action sequences, but still deemed it a "dumb-downed version of a melodramatic soap opera." Des Garbes-Severino stated how it was an improvement over the first film, and, while having not watched the second film, has stated, "I would watch this one hundred times more than those other films that belong in the garbage pile."
Mollie Heckerling[]
Amy Heckerling's daughter, Mollie, was still disappointed regarding the finished film, and while it was more faithful compared to the previous installments, it is still "nowhere near enough" to her mother's vision for the film. After watching the film, she advised not to see the film as a respect to her mother's work, and recommended to read the graphic novel instead.
Accolades[]
| Award | Ceremony date | Category | Recipient | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy Awards | March 13, 2033 | Best Sound | Ethan Van der Ryn, Mike Hopkins, Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson | Nominated |
| Best Cinematgraphy | Ueli Steiger | Nominated | ||
| Best Visual Effects | Volker Engel, Neil Corbould, Mike Chambers and Remo Balcells | Won | ||
| BAFTA Awards | February 6, 2033 | Best Special Visual Effects | Nominated | |
| Best Sound | Ethan Van der Ryn, Mike Hopkins, Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson | Nominated | ||
| Critics' Choice Movie Awards | January 16, 2033 | Best Cinematgraphy | Ueli Steiger | Won |
| Best Visual Effects | War for Justice Across Worlds | Won | ||
| Visual Effects Society Awards | January 26, 2033 | Outstanding Visual Effects in a Photoreal Feature | Volker Engel, Neil Corbould, Robert Winter, Mike Chambers and Remo Balcells | Nominated |
| Outstanding Compositing in a Photoreal Feature | Matthew Giampa, Daniel Lee, Adrian Sutherland and Ed Wilkie | Won | ||
| Outstanding Created Environment in a Photoreal Feature | Giles Hancock, John Hansen, Tom Martinek and Scott Younkin - "Mars" | Won | ||
| Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a CG Project | Michael Balog, Richard Bluff, Shawn Kelly and Ueli Steiger | Nominated | ||
| Outstanding Effects Simulations in a Photoreal Feature | Jonathan M. Nixon, David Moraton, Nicolas Illingworth and David Caeiro Cebrian - "Martian Dust and Weather" | Nominated | ||
| Golden Reel Awards | February 21, 2033 | Outstanding Achievement in Sound Editing – Sound Effects and Foley for Feature Film | Ethan Van der Ryn and Mike Hopkins | Nominated |
| Saturn Awards | November 2, 2033 | Best Science Fiction Film | War for Justice Across Worlds | Nominated |
| Best Special Effects | Volker Engel, Neil Corbould, Mike Chambers and Remo Balcells | Won | ||
| Best Actor | Cody Walker | Nominated | ||
| Best Actress | Maika Monroe | Nominated | ||
| Best Director | Roland Emmerich | Nominated | ||
| Satellite Awards | March 12, 2033 | Best Visual Effects | Volker Engel, Neil Corbould, Mike Chambers and Remo Balcells | Nominated |
| Best Art Direction and Production Design | Barry Chusid, Patrick Tatopoulos and William Ladd Skinner | Nominated | ||
| Best Sound | Ethan Van der Ryn, Mike Hopkins, Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson | Won | ||
| Best Cinematgraphy | Ueli Steiger | Nominated | ||
| Jupiter Awards | March 27, 2033 | Best International Film | War for Justice Across Worlds | Nominated |
| Golden Raspberry Awards | March 19, 2033 | Worst Screenplay | Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser, Ehren Kruger and Josh Friedman | Nominated |
| Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel | War for Justice Across Worlds | Nominated | ||
| MTV Movie Awards | May 6, 2033 | Best Fight | Maika Monroe and Cody Walker vs Vin Diesel | Nominated |
| Japan Academy Film Prize | March 11, 2033 | Best Foreign Language Film | War for Justice Across Worlds | Nominated |
Sequels[]
- Main article: Survival of the Justice for the World
- Main article: Justice for the World: Brothers in Arms
- Main article: Justice for the World: End of Times
- Main article: Justice for the World: The Final Fate
A prequel-sequel to the first film, titled Survival of the Justice for the World, was released on June 11, 2033, taking place between the asteroid impact and the war against the aliens. It was directed and shot by Zack Snyder, and written by Snyder, Roland Emmerich, Harald Kloser, Shay Hatten and Kurt Johnstad. After the resolution of the conflict between him and Warner Bros., Snyder was interested in the franchise, and asked Emmerich if he could direct an entry. The film was in-production, months before the third film was released. The film received mixed reviews, and was a box office success, as it grossed $545.6 million, against a $198-223 million million budget.
A standalone sequel, titled Justice for the World: Brothers in Arms, was released on October 20, 2036, starring Tom Cruise and Dwayne Johnson, to positive reviews and critical acclaim, and grossed $943.9 million. Two entries, Justice for the World: End of Times and Justice for the World: The Final Fate were released on September 2, 2038 and September 1, 2039, respectively. Both films were critically acclaimed, with both receiving Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, and McQuarrie being nominated for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay for The Final Fate. The Final Fate became the highest-grossing film in the franchise, grossing $1.125 billion.
Trivia[]
- War for Justice Across Worlds became the first film that was based on a property created by Toho to break $1 billion at the global box office.
- Due to having creative control over his own character, Vin Diesel was asked if he wanted a "produced by" credit. However, Diesel declined the offer, saying, "It's just a job."
- Furthermore, Diesel did not meet the guidelines to even get the "produced by" credit by the Producers Guild of America.
- Despite its mixed reception among critics, War for Justice Across Worlds became the first film by Roland Emmerich that was not heavily panned by Toho or GMA Network.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
.jpg){kind=link}
