Review – Justice League
Justice League is arguably the most important movie for the DCEU. For fans, it’s the first time ever we get to see these legendary superheroes on screen together. For the studio, they just had a major hit with Wonder Woman (2017) after a string of less than stellar films to start their cinematic universe and are looking to grow from it.
Unfortunately, while the movie isn’t a complete trainwreck and has some fun moments, it isn’t the film one would want with these heroes.
When Earth is threatened by an otherworldly being, Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) looks to put together a team of superheroes to save the planet.
Justice League is the DCEU’s best impression of a Marvel movie. This movie is really unlike any other DCEU movie. Before, we got darker comic book movies that were filled with destructive action. There was little humor and the movies were epic in length and scope. Justice League is the opposite of a lot of that. The movie is under two hours, is light in tone, with a number of fun, comedic moments, and is a little lighter on the action. There are obviously some big sequences, but the movie is more about building the team around the recently deceased Superman’s morals and humanity. I honestly am not a fan of this lighter DCEU. I liked that the DCEU was darker in tone and mood, as sort of a counter to Marvel’s poppy, bright, lighter movies. You can still have dark movies that are fun (see Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy) and that is what the DCEU was missing, fun. The DCEU needs to blend the fun of Justice League with the tone of the other films and it would be perfect for the stories and characters.
Speaking of characters, I have a couple issues here too. Look, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman is straight up perfection. She is Wonder Woman through and through. The physicality, the motivations, everything is perfect. It is one of the great comic book castings ever. I also enjoyed Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman once again, though this may be the last time we see him don the cape. But all the other characters? Meh. Barry Allen/Flash (Ezra Miller) carries most of the comedy weight in the film and gave me slight hope for his solo movie (if it ever gets made). I have no idea what in the world is going on with Aquaman (Jason Mamoa). He drinks whiskey, talks like a biker, and walks on land? I’m so confused. And I know nothing about Cyborg (Ray Fisher) other than he’s a robot created by his dad (Joe Morton, who also played the creator of Skynet in T2, just saying) after a car accident. Notice a trend? All of these characters needed an origin movie before this one to give us some context as to who they are. Also, the film’s villain, Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds), would have benefited from a Loki-esque storyline and be a bridge between all the characters, as his motivations affect all of the League. He is also given some of the worst CGI I have seen in a big budget film in a long, long time.
What really bugged me about Justice League was how underwhelming I felt leaving the theater. It’s tough to not want to compare this movie to The Avengers (2012), but the one thing The Avengers did was give me a sense of ‘wow’. There are some cool action scenes in the film, but there was never a moment that blew me away. There wasn’t even a cool shot of the entire team, a la the circle shot in The Avengers, symbolizing when they officially became a team. There was no emotion in the movie either. I never felt any stakes and never felt any sort of drama during the action scenes.
Some of the visuals are cool, some of the action is exciting, and Gadot is sensational, but overall, Justice League is rather disappointing. With lack of character development, unnecessary change in tone, poor CGI, and an overall feeling for mediocrity, I expected far more from a movie that features some of the greatest heroes ever created.
Did you see Justice League? What did you think? Comment below or hit me up on Twitter and Instagram, @kevflix, or on Facebook by searching Kevflix.