Justice League

Year: 2017
Director: Zack Snyder
Cast: Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller, Henry Cavill, Jason Momoa, Ray Fisher, Jeremy Irons, Amy Adams


Plot: Steppenwolf, an ancient being bent on conquest, seeks the three powerful Mother Boxes, which when combined, will enable him to enslave the planet. With Superman gone, Bruce Wayne and Diana Prince begin recruiting superpowered people to their ranks; the king of Atlantis, a cyborg, and the fastest man alive.


Review: There is a tremendous amount of pressure on Justice League to succeed. After all, it is supposed to be as big a deal as The Avengers, bringing together the greatest heroes of the DC universe in one film. While the DCEU has made a box office killing so far, it has not been a darling of the critics, save for Wonder Woman's recent solo adventure. While Justice League is nowhere near the train wreck Suicide Squad turned out to be, it isn't exactly the epic it could have been.

It starts off well enough; a rousing rendition of Leonard Cohen's Everybody Knows by Norwegian singer Sigrid as the opening credits roll, showing the aftermath of Superman's death. This is probably my favorite part of the whole film, which says a lot about what the rest of the film looks like. Bringing Joss Whedon onboard to finish Zack Snyder's work after he departed due to personal matters may have lightened the previously sombre tone felt in Batman Vs Superman, but personally I didn't care either way. Justice League has a few cool moments, such as Diana coming to the aid of a handful of hostages about to be blown up by a doomsday cult, a chase sequence between the Amazons and Steppenwolf, and a resurrected Superman (yes he returns, don't pretend you didn't know that was going to happen, it's no spoiler) getting into a mini fight with the League. The banter between the League members work for the most part, and Ezra Miller's Flash is actually quite funny, even more so than Tom Holland's Spider-Man or nearly every character in Thor: Ragnarok.

But Justice League falls a bit short on being the superhero epic it could have been. For starters, Aquaman, Cyborg and Flash deserve more time for their characters to develop. Cyborg honestly was the least affected by the lack of time, as his struggle to accept his new form after being resurrected by his father feels genuine. Flash is presented here as an underachiever, living as a petty thief while lamenting his father's wrongful incarceration for murder. I felt there was a lot more about him that Snyder / Whedon could have explored. And Aquaman is just a guy with a rock star attitude spending time saving people from shipwrecks and helping fishing villages, who has his own parental issues. Again, his story is not fully fleshed out. 

The action sequences are mostly clunky and filled to the brim with CGI and green screen effects. While using CGI is pretty common in most superhero movies, it felt quite overused here, and it doesn't help that some of it looked weak, none more so than Steppenwolf. His look here is only a couple of notches above the bad CGI in The Scorpion King. Speaking of Steppenwolf, he's pretty much one of the weakest villains I've ever seen in a superhero movie. Unlike the charismatic Loki or the brilliant Joker, Steppenwolf feels like a prelude to a greater villain that will come later.

Acting wise, the cast are mostly spot on. Ben Affleck and Gal Gadot both bring a good amount of gravitas to their respective roles as Batman and Wonder Woman. Ezra Miller is perfect as the comedic Flash, though I wish he was given more to do, including the action sequences. Jason Momoa gives Aquaman plenty of attitude while Ray Fisher brings a subtle performance as Cyborg. Jeremy Irons has much less to do here as Alfred, and J.K Simmons has even less time than Irons playing Commissioner Gordon, sporting a horrible toupee while he's at it. Amy Adams is always welcome as the returning Lois Lane, while Henry Cavill does what he can as Superman, only appearing in the second half of the film. In fact, once he shows up, the rest of the League nearly gets upstaged by him.

In the end, Justice League is entertaining and coherent enough to not be bad, but considering that this should be the DCEU's crown jewel, it should have an epic feel and more "wow that's cool" moments. It's a good movie, but not a great one. 

P.S. Stay till the credits finish for two post credit sequences. (7/10)