The superheroing business turns magical -- and deadly -- in the DC Universe with Justice League Dark, an animated feature focusing on some of DC's mystical characters who, teamed with a reluctant believer Batman, must tackle a demon onslaught that is causing mass hysteria and widespread slaughter throughout the world.

It's the kind of problem that the usual Justice League lineup -- Superman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, etc. -- aren't equipped to deal with, although some members of the team make appearances early and late in the film.

On the other hand, it's fun to see Batman discomfited by a problem he doesn't quite understand. When seemingly sane people start acting out violently -- sometimes fatally -- because they are seeing other people as demons, Batman deduces that the root of the problem is magic, so he puts together a team of mystical heroes to discover the source and fight it.

Batman (here voiced by Jason O'Mara) is joined on this mission by Zatanna (Camilla Luddington), John Constantine (Matt Ryan) and, not entirely by design, Boston Brand, aka Deadman (Nicholas Turturro). They are assisted along the way by Jason Blood/Etrigan (Ray Chase), Orchid (Colleen O'Shaughnessey) and Swamp Thing (Roger Cross), the latter of whom is woefully underutilized.

Among their magical foes are Felix Faust (Enrico Colantoni) and Destiny (Alfred Molina). And then there's Ritchie (Jeremy Davies), one of the many people Constantine has wronged along the way, and who now -- seemingly on his deathbed -- isn't sure he wants to lend a hand.

It's a solid entry in DC's animated line of movies. JL Dark is the second in the series to earn an R rating (after The Killing Joke, reviewed here), but the violence is fairly tame all the same. It is, perhaps, a higher body count than we're used to seeing in a DC cartoon, but the fatalities are for the most part bloodless, and mostly offscreen.

There are no surprises in the plot, but getting to the conclusion is a satisfying journey. Fans hoping for a mystical resolution might be disappointed, however, because the ending is a fairly typical Justice League slugfest -- but with beams of magical light instead of fists serving the punch. Still, I enjoyed it -- in part because of Ryan's excellent turn as Constantine (he also played the trench-coated magician all too briefly on TV).

I'm generally not a huge fan of comic-book stories that rely too heavily on magic, because -- even in a universe where people fly and shoot lasers from their eyes -- magic is unpredictable and never follows any rules to limit the users' abilities. And here, there certainly is no rhyme or reason to explain just how powerful Constantine and Zatanna are, or what might successfully hinder their efforts to save the day. So, if stuff like that bothers you, you might not enjoy the movie ... but, on the other hand, sometimes it's OK just to shelve those concerns and enjoy the ride.

The film's 75-minute runtime is too short to really develop the story and characters, but it's a nice shift from the usual DC material. I didn't love Justice League Dark, but it was certainly enjoyable enough to kill an hour while folding laundry.