RWBY x JL is, on surface, a fanfic meeting of two very different teams. Unfortunately it's the kind of fanfic we all laugh at. JL characters are written either completely wrong or with a fingernail deep understanding of that character (Batman in particular suffers from the writers just fundamentally misunderstanding how Batman functions) and RWBY characters are written as either jackasses, are written boring, or have regressed SEVERELY (Jaune and Ruby regress a lot in this from the previous Volumes). All of this seemingly justified by everyone losing their memory, but that just isn't enough to justify the melodrama and bad character writing.
Unfortunately there aren't enough cool action scenes to simply ignore these aspects. Thankfully the fighting is, for the most part, pretty good. However the final fight drags way too long and doesn't show anything we haven't already seen in the movie.
The animation of the show is uniquely RWBY and that's not necessarily a good thing. RWBY's art style is oft sited as a reason people don't watch the show, so while it makes since for what is most likely going to be the biggest piece of RWBY media produced (in the sense that it's going to reach audiences that have probably never even heard of the show via JL fans) to give an authentic RWBY experience, the animation style is a far-cry from the usual DC movie and is going to be a turn-off for some.
And, of course, the movie suffers from being a "part 1". Leaving the plot half resolved is a major turn-off for me and this movie does exactly that. While there is a victory at the end of the film, it's set up for a bigger mystery for part 2 and it's not particularly intriguing set-up for anyone that hasn't seen RWBY (and even then it's not all that interesting because of when it's revealed to be taking place).
Overall, RWBY x JL just isn't good. I spent half the time during non-fighting scenes wanting to skip it and get to the fights, then the final fight had my eyes glazing over. I really don't understand what happened here. This movie is coming off the heels of 2 of RWBY's best volumes (8-9) and another volume that, while having issues, is still pretty good (7), yet is somehow the worst thing RWBY has done since Volume 5 and 6 (and it's worse than both those). I do not recommend you buy this movie.
Unfortunately there aren't enough cool action scenes to simply ignore these aspects. Thankfully the fighting is, for the most part, pretty good. However the final fight drags way too long and doesn't show anything we haven't already seen in the movie.
The animation of the show is uniquely RWBY and that's not necessarily a good thing. RWBY's art style is oft sited as a reason people don't watch the show, so while it makes since for what is most likely going to be the biggest piece of RWBY media produced (in the sense that it's going to reach audiences that have probably never even heard of the show via JL fans) to give an authentic RWBY experience, the animation style is a far-cry from the usual DC movie and is going to be a turn-off for some.
And, of course, the movie suffers from being a "part 1". Leaving the plot half resolved is a major turn-off for me and this movie does exactly that. While there is a victory at the end of the film, it's set up for a bigger mystery for part 2 and it's not particularly intriguing set-up for anyone that hasn't seen RWBY (and even then it's not all that interesting because of when it's revealed to be taking place).
Overall, RWBY x JL just isn't good. I spent half the time during non-fighting scenes wanting to skip it and get to the fights, then the final fight had my eyes glazing over. I really don't understand what happened here. This movie is coming off the heels of 2 of RWBY's best volumes (8-9) and another volume that, while having issues, is still pretty good (7), yet is somehow the worst thing RWBY has done since Volume 5 and 6 (and it's worse than both those). I do not recommend you buy this movie.