Review: Justice League (Minor Spoilers)
2017 has been a pretty darn good year for the superhero subgenre. Fox delivered the best Wolverine film to date, DC finally put out a (really good) Wonder Woman film, and Marvel is still chugging along with three successful films, both critically and financially. But where does that leave the DCEU’s Justice League? Now in full disclosure, because unfortunately life now demands this, I am a fan of both the DC and Marvel film properties. This review will contain mentions to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
To sum up my thoughts, Justice League is a mixed bag of everything the superhero genre has come up with the last thirty years or so. We have the gritty reality, the slapstick humor, the actual good humor, fancy costumes, a CGI villain, a team that doesn’t want to be a team, etc. However, it just seems like Warner Bros/DC was trying to appease everyone TOO MUCH and gave a strangely edited and fairly basic superhero team-up film. Zack Snyder’s (300, Watchmen) films of this universe thus far have been received with mixed response. Many claim they are masterpieces of thoughtful storytelling and great effects, while others feel they disrupt the comic book feel of their characters and attempt too much. Justice League, in opposition to Man of Steel or Batman v. Superman, seems to attempt to fix some of the later and ignore most of the former in a superhero jumble that is an OK watch but poorly handled. I’m mostly going to focus on the characters because there is little in the way of plot that needs discussing.
The cast of Justice League is vast and fairly spot on, though some performances and the writing for the characters is still questionable. Gal Gadot returns and beautifully plays Wonder Woman once again, providing some of the best action in the entire film, though her character is not as well used as she was in the Patty Jenkin’s blockbuster. Ben Affleck returns as Bruce Wayne/Batman in the most conflicting performance of the film. Many of Batman’s lines have been changed from the trailers (most likely due to Joss Whedon), and though Batman still looks AMAZING, nothing he says is either thought provoking, or even funny. The same goes for Bruce Wayne, a personality it seems no one can write for anymore. It seems Ben Affleck is really trying his best, but he cannot compensate for poor writing. And of course, Henry Cavill is back as Superman. This is honestly some of the best and some of the worse we have seen of the character. When he is resurrected (not a spoiler), he plays this confused and immoral Superman so great, and when he joins the final fight Cavill really goes all out as the charming and powerful Superman. The problem the bridge between these two points is so muddled with bad writing it almost ruins the little arc established for him.
For our new faces we have Jason Momoa (Game of Thrones), Ezra Miller (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them), and Ray Fisher (The Astronaut Wives Club) playing Aquaman, Barry Allen (they never even hint at the Flash), and Cyborg respectably. With short thoughts, Aquaman looks AMAZING and the writing and performance of his character is great. At least until he joins the actual Justice League and he is turned into a oversized action figure, with his few lines consisting of ‘My Man’ and ‘Alright’, along with a ‘emotional’ monologue that comes out of nowhere and did nothing for me (more on that in a sec). Ezra Miller’s Flash was really the big question mark for me going into Justice League, and surprisingly he turned out to be one of my favorite characters. Yes, not all his jokes quite hit and his personality could become annoying in a full length Flash film, but the script really gave him the best development, humor, and action sequences. And finally, Ray Fisher’s Cyborg. Growing up with the Teen Titans animated show, I was interested to see what they would do with a good spirited Cyborg in the film. And to my (happy) surprise, they made a choice to go more Robocop than Teen Titans Go for his portrayal. If there was ever a character to ground in reality, its Cyborg, a character torn apart and put back together without his permission. This movie emphasizes his cold exterior perfectly, which may turn off some viewers. the script gives him little to do overall, which is a shame, along with the CGI design (though the end gives me hope for a better looking Cyborg).
The biggest problem with this movie, however, is I just do not care for any of these characters. As previously stated, the film attempted to give Momoa’s Aquaman some sentimental dialogue that just felt empty considering the little time he had had with this group of people. It didn’t hit like the scene in Guardians of the Galaxy where Gamora and Drax agree to join Quill’s crusade. DC failed to set up these characters properly, and its a shame because I do like Flash and Cyborg in this universe (and to a degree, Momoa’s Aquaman). I’m not going to say they needed the Marvel formula to make these characters worth caring about, but the film’s (and this overall movie universe’s) runtime is so rushed, it does nothing for these interesting characters.
This is a film you can see was a cut and paste project by the numerous studios, filmmakers (God bless the Snyder family), composers, difficulties in production, etc. The (too short) runtime, varying quality in visual effects, a poor villain (Stepphenwolf) that meant nothing and honestly did nothing, and a poorly written story deeply affect Justice League. Literally Stepphenwolf gets the last Mother Box because our heroes left it on a car. Its just some of the most basic writing I have seen in a film in a while. HOWEVER, I enjoyed this movie. The runtime actually helps as a band-aid quickly getting ripped off, and thus I can look more fondly back on the good rather than the bad. The Flash, Cyborg, and Wonder Woman were bright spots, the DCEU achieves on getting Superman right, the overall dynamics of the work pretty well on the surface, and the post credit scenes are some of the best I have seen in a while. Justice League is a disappointment in a year of really good blockbuster superhero films. However, it does achieve to amuse its audience on the surface level, and gives comic book fans (like me!) plenty to gush over.
While I enjoyed Justice League and I’m probably being a little too nice with its score, I would say that it is NOT a film you necessarily HAVE to see in theaters. Fans of this will go and will probably enjoy themselves, but the film is a little too forgettable for me to justify the average person enjoying it, especially considering it would be cheaper to just wait for it to come out on DVD, Redbox, iTunes, etc (unless you pick up the probable extended cut). Justice League is not great, but its good enough fun with likable characters that really do capture many of the good aspects of the comics and cartoons.
Justice League’s Final Score: 7/10
