Justice League (2017)

[baumer]

This is a thread for REVIEWS FROM THOSE WHO HAVE SEEN IT.  Keep the chatter to the other threads.  This is for reviews only.

 

May God have mercy on our souls.

[antovolk]

Alright. I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought it would. But this seriously needs, is absolutely desperate for, a longer cut.

Let's put BvS, MoS and Whedon involvement aside - add another 20-30 minutes of connective tissue, it's honestly Avengers 1 level of quality. The issues with pacing and editing I completely agree with and are *the* issue with this film - I'd even go so far as to say is that it's choppier than BvS theatrical. Have WB not learned from that film as well as Watchmen...let Snyder breathe.

Other iffy things? (Sorry, doing those first because I already started with the pacing) It's the same as any other solid superhero movie, and yes I will go there and say it, people gave Marvel a bigger pass on a lot of those for some reason. That includes the formulaic plot (which I had less of an issue with than with WW actually), crappy villain, macguffins...so yeah, those I'm actually all okay with.

Anyway, my surprise at the critical drubbing aside (with BvS I somewhat got it because it *really* swung for the fences with its own distinct vision on top of theatrical cut messabouts), it's a lot of fun, the characters and the interactions are worth the price of admission, and the action, is, of course, great. Snyder v Whedon - it's all surprisingly cohesive but yes, final act does feel like Whedon's Avengers 1 but with the JL and Snyder-style visuals. Connections to MoS and BvS are (for better or worse) only the ones that are really needed for the plot, otherwise not there. Some good thematics teased that aren't followed up on...but understandable given course correction and chasing crowd-pleasingness because editing issues aside, it's a solid, and incredibly enjoyable teamup that's sure to be a good crowdpleaser. 

Which brings me onto...what could have been. Which is less a comment on the film quality but.... okay - a 'trilogy conclusion' to MoS and BvS, outside of the basic plot, this is not. The absolute thematic (actual themes as well as musical, visual....) repudiation of these films and what Snyder tried to do, after he put almost too much effort into progressing this forward from MoS to BvS, is, as a fan of these preceding films, is disappointing (even though the reasons why are understandable). The other thing is Warner Bros marketing shamelessly using Snyder stuff even in stuff released in the last week, only to have Whedon/reshoot stuff in final version (there are two things that immediately stick out like sore thumbs). There is some great Snyder stuff still left early on (say what you will about the use of a Leonard Cohen cover but the opening titles are great). I would LOVE to know what the original plan for this film was before BvS got the critical drubbing.

7/10

P.S. the second credit scene is FANTASTIC

CBM 2017 ranking:
Logan
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Kingsman: The Golden Circle
Thor: Ragnarok
GOTG Vol 2
Wonder Woman
Justice League
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

[rjones1325]

I hate the first forty or forty-five minutes of this movie up until the six unite and fight together in an incredibly fun action sequence. The film does something that you wouldn’t expect Zack Snyder’s Justice League do: fight and SAVE PEOPLE! There's not that much destruction that goes on and to actually see these heroes care about saving people for a change, really puts a smile on moviegoers face compared to how "MoS" and "BvS" turned out. 

 

The way how the action is choreographed, the way the humor is inserted, and even how these heroes sort of bond with each other due to natural chemistry that’s more organic than something manipulative like “Suicide Squad” are duly noted as you can tell DC is slowly fixing up their mistakes of their past.

 

Steppenwolf has to be the most generic villain of generic villains I've seen in any superhero movie since Malekith in “Thor: The Dark World.”  This is the primary factor of my fatigue I’m getting from superhero movies now which are the villains, and this film is exactly no help with defending my case. Steppenwolf is pretty much the DC version of Marvel's Ronan the Accuser from "Guardians of the Galaxy." But here is the thing, Ronan was going up against the B-team group of heroes that nobody really knew. Steppenwolf, on the other hand, is going against THE JUSTICE LEAGUE who are literally the A-team (seriously who doesn't get Mr. T vibes from Jason Mamoa). Every line of dialogue Steppenwolf has is just *Insert villain quote here.*  That is all of his dialogue. Nothing but clichéd lines about world domination and puny humans. Like every villain in the history of villains, he’s just a creature vent on taking over Earth and starting war and...

"Justice League" is the cinematic equivalent to a man running a 300m hurdle race while holding a baton. At first, he painstakingly crashes through the hurdles, but 1/3 of the way through he begins to progress by by leaps and bounds while never to drop the baton. Though the first act is established unbearably sloppily, "Justice League,"  makes a 180° left turn by the second act and maintains throughout by becoming an entertaining ensemble superhero movie that proves the DCEU may still have some fuel in its tank.

FULL REVIEW HERE: http://www.rendyreviews.com/movies//justice-league-review

[cookie]

Taken from the JL thread:

 

It's alright. I was entertained for the duration of the film but out of all the CBMs I've seen this year it is the weakest one by some distance.

 

Positives: WW and Batman do what you expect them to do, Flash has some funny lines and his running effect was well done, the lighter tone and coloring helps, Aquaman has one really funny moment, the action has its cool bits, Cyborg was better than I thought he'd be, too early to tell if they've fixed Superman but I approve of what they did with him here, after-the-credits stuff was cool

 

Negatives: The movie feels unfinished, editing and story flow is out of control at times, there's more than a few gaping plot holes, Steppenwolf is a real mixed bag in terms of CGI, as a villain he's kind of whatever, Aquaman is underwhelming in how he's mostly background furniture for a lot of the first two acts, Cavill's upper lip is hilaribad

Edited November 17, 2017 by cookie

[Ezen Baklattan]

I thought the Flash, as well as some cool visual touches near the ending, mark the high points for the film - it kind of falls flat and feels undercooked in a lot of places, but it’s jot exactly bad. Just kind of.....there.

[Goffe]

Yeah, you can definitely feel that Snyder was behind the camera but not in charge of post. 

 

Snyder apologists can breathe in relief tho, some of his DNA has survived Whedon&WB committee's paws, but sadly, and it's palpably obvious that a lot of his ideas were thrown out for a simpler more straightforward movie. Only fragments, bits of his ambition survived throughout the movie.

 

As a lighthearted romp, it works... more or less. Humor is not overplayed like I feared, and most of the times jokes land. Visually, it's above average whenever it doesn't revolve around awful CGI. Its heroes, the team members are are fun to watch (except Batman the Marvel Quipper) and share some fantastic moments together, which includes Aquabro (criminally underutilized) psychoanalyzing himself under the lasso of truth and Superman catching up with the Flash in Superman v League brawl.

 

I gave it a 6.5/10 yesterday, now it is trending towards lower.

Edited November 17, 2017 by Goffe

[rukaio101]

Just got back from my JL screening. And I'll give it this. It's a big step up from MoS, BvS and SS. Unfortunately though, just because it's not as soul-crushingly bad as those movies doesn't mean it's all that good. It has good moments, no doubt about that, and there wasn't anything that outright pissed me off like those other movies. But ultimately, I just found it kinda meh. Not terrible, not all that good, just meh.

 

Now, to get this out of the way first, I have to talk about the awful CG. I know we've all made our fair share of jokes about it here, but trust me when I say MoustacheGate is real. Seriously, I saw a bootleg screenshot of Clark's awful-looking face making the rounds on twitter and my immediate thought was 'Hah, that really looks terrible. But it's probably just one bad shot. I'm sure it can't be that bad.' Then the movie started, we got our opening Superman scene and my thoughts went to 'Oh, Oh Clark no. Oh no no no.' It looks baaaaaaad. Really bad. Like 'opening stages in a Monster Factory episode' bad. And this is coming from someone who was fine with CG Tarkin and Leia. Sure, there are a few scenes where Supes looks okay, but I honestly think there are less of those scenes than there are of him looking terrible. This was clearly a rush job and it shows. 

 

It's kind of a shame, honestly, because Superman is so much more well written in this movie and Henry Cavill finally really gets a chance to show off his charisma in the role. Seriously, forget flat brooding Superman, this was the sort of thing I was waiting for ever since MoS. Right from the opening scene he feel like the sort of character he should've been all along. Charismatic, friendly and inspirational. Hell, he was so good in this movie I'm honestly disappointed there wasn't more of him, that's how good he was here. But damn if his face doesn't look bad.

 

That said, I will give the moustache CG this. There are some scenes where Supes looks fine ...Which is a lot more than I can say about Steppenwolf. Seriously, every complaint you've heard about him is accurate. He's the epitome of the generic disposable comic book bad guy and a disappointment all round. At least Malekith looked like he was actually there most of the time. Christ, Doomsday felt like he had more personality than this guy. Honestly, the action in general was kinda disappointing. There were only a couple of fights I really liked all that much, specifically the Amazonian fight and, of course, the Superman fight. The rest just felt like grey noise. 

 

Okay, now that I've spent three paragraphs complaining about moustache CGI, let's get down to the nitty gritty of why I think this movie does and doesn't work. First of all, on the positive side, the film cuts down on a lot of the Snyderisms that plagued MoS and BvS. Which means no obnoxious editing, no convoluted motives and, most gratifyingly of all, no pseudo-philosophical gibberish designed to sound deep without any actual meaning. Thank merciful God. Even the plot, which I've heard a lot of people derive as too simple/exposition filled (which I to some degree agree with), still feels like an improvement over the convoluted mess BvS's story turned out to be.

 

On the second positive side, there's actual characterisation to go around for our heroes this time! Yey! Each character feels consistently written and, like, you know, an actual person! Which makes a biiiig improvement over the 'Who needs actual characters when we have brooding?' philosophy of MoS/BvS. And, indeed, there are a lot of really great little character moments between the cast scattered throughout the film, which I have to give a lot of kudos for. Even little relationships that I really didn't expect to enjoy, like Cyborg and Wonder Woman. 

 

So... why doesn't it ultimately feel like it comes together? Well, I think it comes down to three big things. First of all, while I did mention there are a lot of great little character moments in the movie, 'little' is kind of the key word there. Most of these great character moments barely extend beyond a single scene and, despite clear set-ups for a character arc in many of them, none of them really follow through and go the distance. Honestly, I can't think of a single character beat that lasts throughout the movie instead of a couple of scenes at best. Which is disappointing because, as mentioned, some of them are really damn good.

 

The second issue, and this may require a bit of an explanation, is that... it kinda felt like the team came together a bit easily? Yeah, there were a couple of teething difficulties at the start, but once everyone is properly joined up, they're more or less on the same page for the rest of the movie (minus mild disagreements over a couple of actions and the obligatory 'we're not a team' moment). And, to be honest, that's kinda dull. Good drama needs good conflict, after all, and God knows Steppenwolf ain't going to provide any of that. I hate to make the dreaded Marvel comparison here, but part of what made The Avengers so great was that after the initial gathering of the team, the Avengers didn't really get on. They fought and squabbled and while some of that was exacerbated by Loki, it was also a large part due to their personalities and aims naturally clashing. Hence why it's all the more affecting when they put aside their differences and team-up for real in the climax. The Justice League never really has that and, as a result, their big team-up moment isn't nearly as powerful. 

 

Which brings me to my third issue. This movie really needed to wait until the solo movies had come out. Seriously, they spend so much time setting up the origins of Aquaman/Cyborg/Flash and then recruiting them onto the team that, while they manage to spare enough time to create a solidly grounded character for each of them (except maybe Momoa who gets kinda neglected and has a truly awful exposition-packed scene with Amber Heard), they don't get enough time to dedicate to the actual team dynamics. Aka, the most fun stuff of a team-up movie. GOTG worked as a single-movie team-up because it managed to use its team dynamics to help establish and develop characters by the way they bounced off one another (in part thanks to the conflict between them). But this movie doesn't try to be GOTG, it tries to be Avengers. And you can't be Avengers while trying to fit in three separate origins. You just can't.

 

Phew. That's most of my big thoughts out of the way. It's a bit of a jumble because I really wasn't entirely sure how to feel about the movie walking out of it. Perhaps more stuff will come to me after I sleep on it, but thankfully this isn't a movie I feel I have to dissect in 5 feature-length articles. Like I said before, it's not terrible. But I can't really call it all that good either. I don't know whether I'm going to be looking at it kinder or harsher with time, but for now I'm going to give it a C.

 

[MrPink]

It's just dull, and mostly pretty ugly (though to be fair, the projector was broken which was probably worsening things). I never really connected with the stakes in any way. It had three pretty good gags though, Aquaman and the lasso, Flash seeing Superman and his speed for the first time, and Superman rescuing the building.

 

Affleck literally at one point looked like he was reading a script/cue cards being held by terrorists in one of those hostage videos. By movie's end though seemingly he looked like he was having more fun. I though Flash was likable even though half of his jokes were falling flat for me. Cyborg is just there, sympathetic to a point, but that's all. Aquaman really felt like he barely did anything? Unfortunately most of his best stuff was in the trailers. Superman was good, outside of the very distracting lip, and Wonder Woman was fine. I question whether any of Cavill's scenes from the initial shoot made it or was I imagining the lip looked bad for 95% of his scenes?

Edited November 17, 2017 by MrPink

[cookie]

To exemplify the problem I had with Aquaman: Just before they use the motherbox to revive Superman the team spends roughly two-three minutes arguing inter midst themselves if they should do it, Wonder Woman leading the charge in the argument against it. Then just before they decide to do it anyway, Aquaman randomly says something along the lines of "I don't think this is a good idea either" but it is just one line and he never lays out his case. For most of the scene he just stood in the background and acted basically non-partisan to the whole ordeal. It's like they forgot that he was supposed to have a part in this until the last second.

Edited November 17, 2017 by cookie

[Gopher]

BvS, Suicide Squad, they wowed me with their badness. They found ways of being dysfunctional I didn't know were possible in big-budget filmmaking. The only thing interesting about Justice League's badness is that it doesn't feel like a Snyder film, a Whedon film, or anybody's film. It's a completely anonymous movie, more disposable than the worst of the Marvel franchise, that manages to cut out themes and arcs in exchange for pure functionality. It's the worst looking mega-blockbuster I've ever seen: I'm hard-pressed to think of an uglier one. Even the second Transformers had a more interesting visual design. Cyborg, De-stached Superman and the bad guys are all very difficult to look at. Ezra Miller is great in this, and I have respect for the performances Fisher and Cavill are giving. Affleck, Gadot and Mamoa are disasters, Gadot deserving of material that serves her and Affleck and Mamoa wrong for this franchise. 

[Chewy]

21 minutes ago, Gopher said:

It's the worst looking mega-blockbuster I've ever seen: I'm hard-pressed to think of an uglier one.

I said this in the Justice League thread! It's genuinely awful. A full third of the shots in this movie are flat out hideous. I don't know how it happened

 

The villain is an embarrassment. It's not even some big name character for the fans that they've ruined, it's just a villain from a 2002 PS2 game placed in the middle of a $300M motion picture

 

I thought most of the cast acquitted themselves well considering the material they got. I loathed the Cavill Superman character in the other two movies but he's fine here

[somebody85]

This was the most exhausting movie I've seen since Transformers: The Last Knight. It definitely gives audiences what they paid for but as a film, it's a complete mess plot wise and there is so much bad CGI (especially in the last act). It felt completely rushed to meet the 2 hour run time and a lot of newer characters get very little development. It's one of those, this happens and then this happens and then this happens movies. The new cast are all enjoyable but this is a story with very little depth. It feels like it was made for kids or hardcore comic fans who can fill in the dots.
 

All of the heart of Wonder Woman is gone. What's left is a villain that is basically Megatron that's end goal is to rule the world (just because) and a team up that feels like it wasn't even necessary. And all of the returning characters feel different here so it was almost like watching alternate versions of them from this universe.
 

Affleck phones it in as Bruce Wayne and plays it completely different to Dawn Of Justice. It doesn't even feel like the same Batman. Without spoiling anything, they finally get Superman right but it's hard not to remember everything that's come before. All of the heart Gadot brought to Diana is left mostly off screen. And so many other great actors like J.K. Simmons, Amy Adams and Diane Lane are completely wasted. I would be fine with these changes if they felt like natural character progressions but they don't.
 

I guess it's as good as it could be with the re-shoots and change in directors. Whedon's touch is all over the material as far as the humor (and there's a few really bright spots)...but this just makes it all feel like a less coherent Avengers. I was starting to lose interest around halfway through because there doesn't feel like there are any actual stakes to the empty CGI battles. One set piece is done really well though and I wish the rest of the film had been like that.
 

Overall, it's definitely not a complete disaster like Batman V Superman or Suicide Squad but it could have been so much more if they just spent more time in fleshing everything out. As it is, I think audiences will have a good time and I'm happy for the fans who have been waiting for this team up for so long. And I did love how they incorporated Elfman's old 89 Batman score and had a nod to the animated series. But beyond that, It was too much for me. - C+

Edited November 17, 2017 by somebody85

[somebody85]

5 hours ago, Gopher said:

BvS, Suicide Squad, they wowed me with their badness. They found ways of being dysfunctional I didn't know were possible in big-budget filmmaking. The only thing interesting about Justice League's badness is that it doesn't feel like a Snyder film, a Whedon film, or anybody's film. It's a completely anonymous movie, more disposable than the worst of the Marvel franchise, that manages to cut out themes and arcs in exchange for pure functionality. It's the worst looking mega-blockbuster I've ever seen: I'm hard-pressed to think of an uglier one. Even the second Transformers had a more interesting visual design. Cyborg, De-stached Superman and the bad guys are all very difficult to look at. Ezra Miller is great in this, and I have respect for the performances Fisher and Cavill are giving. Affleck, Gadot and Mamoa are disasters, Gadot deserving of material that serves her and Affleck and Mamoa wrong for this franchise. 

I thought so too as far as the visuals for the most part (they looked cool when Diana approached Cyborg. The city (Gotham?) looked like a comic book come to life). It's bad when a shot of Superman and Cyborg lying on the ground doesn't even feel real. And when things don't feel real, there is very little to be attached too. It's just empty action.

[Olive]

I think its worse than BVS ,the CGI is bad ,the villian sucked big time and story and editing all are awful.

2/10

MOS 5/10

BVS 4/10

WW 7.5/10

[TheMovieman]

Short review, but I enjoyed, warts and all. Yeah, Steppenwolf was bad but the hyperbole of being the worst ever is a bit much. I actually didn't noticed the bad CGI for Superman that much and just all around had a fun time. Will be interested to see what will hopefully be an Ultimate Cut on home video.

***¾/*****, (B+, 7.7/10, 3/4)

 

Oh, and ranking...

 

Wonder Woman - A

Man of Steel - B+

Justice League - B+

Batman v Superman: Ultimate Cut - B+

Suicide Squad - C-

Edited November 17, 2017 by TheMovieman

[GroceryGuru]

Overall I liked this movie, and I saw it pre-spoiled, so if you haven't seen it... Wait to read these and see it. I can say unequivocally that it is not one of the great action movies or even one of the best superhero films by a long shot. It is the first modern day DC assembly with live actors, and it will be watched and treasured. As we fans grow up (I'm almost 50) we will use this film to realize just how childish we were for admiring DC and this assembly. Still I hope I never grow old. 

 

The first problem is with the pacing of the film, going from slow moments to action moments, even having a break in the middle of an action scene for some dialogue and banter. Marvel spent time planning films that build up to their first assembly and DC chose a different path. The need to see how these characters meet each other, quarrel and disagree with each other and ultimately work together is now rushed and well contained within one action movie and it cuts into the action to accomplish that so well. At least I know each of these heroes and how they interact. The film needed to be longer to pull it off better, and action suffered as a result. 

 

It was nice to have a superman villain other than lex or zod in a movie. And we never saw Batman's parents die in this film. Those are two things that have always been a hold up for DC's growth. Now Steppanwolf (first thought to be the musician playing the villian) is the character chosen to be the villain. The fight scenes are SPFXish and not martial arts real, they all can take blows through walls and get back up (even Batman at the outer edge or real) and the lame plot to rule the world is fine just not memorable. 

 

Unlike Marvel (which does this well), this film takes place under the city, or in a secluded russian province so minimal interaction between the heroes and the real governments and cops occurs. A scene in the previews showed what I thought was the crew standing over the new hall of justice but they were facing against for the first and possibly last time, a character that shall remain nameless. We lack openness for how they save the world and lack some care for them as a result. while DC uses their own landscape Gotham, Star city, etc... an invasion in NY included NY cops fighting, people in peril, tv reports of an invasion going viral, and public acceptance of heroes becoming relivent. 

 

Steppanwolf mentions Darkseid, who I know to be the bigger villain from DC and likely to be in Justice 2, only once. He mentions his mother several times, enough that a motherly appearance at the climax was more needed than anticipated. (think sleepwalkers by S King) They mention the Lantern once too, which brings me to my final point. 

 

It was too convenient that atlantians, amazonians, and man make up the earthly threesome. three boxes three peoples, three lord of the rings movies, just enough to put all the characters motivated to come together. Thank you DC for not making Steppenwolf kill Barry's mommie.  

 

Still, I awaited this film eagerly and enjoyed it immensely. 

[Deja23]

So I did like the movie overall. Weirdly, I liked the Flash best out of all the characters, though I wasn’t really liking him based on the trailers, even over Wonder Woman! I’d rate Superman high too because him punching Steppenwolf was awesome, but it sucks that he was in it so little. Thought I’d like Aquaman, but he wasn’t really given enough for that to happen outside of the lasso scene. And the CGI was surprisingly obvious. It didn’t look like a $250m+ movie. And it might’ve been all the red, but until Superman showed up, the final battle was a blur for me. So yeah, it was overall enjoyable, but if I start picking it apart, I’d probably like it less. So I won’t bother doing that. It was a movie I liked and might watch again. B-

Edited November 17, 2017 by Deja23

[baumer]

I loved the last hour and thought the first hour was good. 

Overall I'd give it an 8.5/10

The Flash was terrific and Miller was so good.

Loved Mamoa and his laizer faire kind of attitude as Aquaman.

Affleck was terrific as well.

Gadot lights up the screen.

The villain was fine, he served his purpose.

I loved the ressurection of Superman.  So well done.

I loved the Pet Sematary joke, made me laugh out loud both times.

The lasso of truth around Aquaman that makes him start telling WW she's hot was also pretty funny.

 

The action was very well done imo,

One of the best action pieces in any comic book film was the Superman vs the other members of the JL when he is first brought back to life.  There was tension and thrills and terrific choreography and the battle between he and WW was really well done.

 

The final hour was some of the best super hero stuff I've seen.

 

I loved most of the movie and it was a great time at the show.

 

8.5/10

[filmlover]

So this was a near total mess that showed the signs of a product that obviously was tampered with in post-production. The nicest thing I can really say about it is that it's better than Batman v Superman, but that's because it's not as pretentious and runs a half hour shorter. This is just more of the same for the most part: incoherent storytelling, thin characterization, empty spectacle, emotionless drama, too many characters for one two hour film to juggle, and the lamest movie villain in forever (brought to life by some of the most atrocious CGI ever committed to film - is this really the best $300M can buy?).

 

The problems with these movies can all be traced back to one person and one person only: Zack Snyder. The man certainly has proven to have an eye for visuals throughout his career (though not so much here - I've played video games with more impressive F/X), and you can see that he has plenty of ideas (some better, some worse). But he doesn't have a fucking clue as to how to properly execute any of them. Moments that should have impact (like the resurrection of Superman) end up having none, and all of the action is rendered as nothing but noise. Perhaps it's because of WB foisting a shared universe without giving the audience a chance to properly meet most of these characters, but there really isn't much chemistry among anyone. I never bought this group of heroes as full-fledged team like I did with Marvel's Avengers in their first group outing. And for a movie with such a vast cast, it's astonishingly low in its ambitions. One thing I will give BvS (and even Man of Steel) is that at least it tried to be about something (even if it failed spectacularly at doing so). Here, we're stuck with a movie comfortable with merely "existing." A cash cow needed to be milked, and so they did (without a solid plan as to how to get there). This is the most cynical kind of filmmaking there is. It's amazing Wonder Woman turned out as great as it did with so many of the same people involved in it.

 

And as I said, you can tell this thing went to hell and back in the editing room. Snyder had to leave during post-production due to an unfortunate personal tragedy, with Joss Whedon picking up the slack to see the film to completion. It's evident throughout the movie, as it goes from scene to scene with little rhyme or rhythm. And that digital mustache removal on Henry Cavill: . Hilariously distracting (and terrible).

 

The unevenness stretches to the performances, too. Ben Affleck looks bored and ready to be done with these movies. Gal Gadot is fine but isn't as appealing as she was in her solo movie (the script being the problem here). Ray Fisher is pretty good with what little he is given. Jason Momoa is just there. Ezra Miller is a lot of fun though; I'm actually interested in seeing his standalone Flash movie (assuming it still happens). Amy Adams, Jeremy Irons, Diane Lane, and J.K. Simmons come and go fast enough to collect paychecks. And Cavill is finally given a chance to show off a refreshingly non-brooding Superman once he's resurrected.

 

I'm just grateful that this is the last time (God-willing) I'll never, ever have to see another Zack Snyder DCEU movie. This moment couldn't have come fast enough.

 

C

[Webslinger]

Well, just like clockwork, here we are again: another DCEU installment that isn't Wonder Woman, another frustrating mess. Like the other two Zack Snyder entries and Suicide Squad before it, Justice League has plenty of promising elements that could work really well if the filmmakers narrowed their focus and honed them carefully, but said elements have to fight with tonal issues, half-cooked subplots, attempts at emotional payoff that the characters of this universe have yet to come close to earning (that final voiceover really sticks out in this regard - more on that in the stray thoughts), and the overwhelming sense that we're still just seeing an extended trailer for the real big event off in the distance. The film's greatest strength is that at least all of the individual heroes are interesting enough that I wished we could have gotten at least one more film from each of them before seeing them join forces with one another here. The Flash, Cyborg, and Aquaman could all have fun standalone films, and the actors do their best to carve out distinct characters on the fly, but there's not nearly enough time in this team-up to develop any of them in truly satisfying depth. The film also has surprisingly little to add to what we've already seen of Wonder Woman, Batman, and Superman (spoiler alert for the extremely gullible, I guess?). The team is passably fun to watch in action, but they're stacked against a complete non-starter of a villain (even Thor: The Dark World's elf villain wasn't quite this boring) and don't seem to have a strong enough sense of their characters at this stage to make their team click as well as - ahem - a competing band of the world's greatest heroes. Like all of its predecessors, I really wanted to like this movie. The DCEU has not lacked for talent and there's certainly a place in the wider cinematic landscape for new interpretations of such beloved characters, but the filmmakers keep dropping the ball by focusing so much on angling so hard at the future that I can't help but find the present frustratingly underwhelming.

 

C

 

Stray Thoughts:

- In addition to the tone problems that have persisted in these films thus far (just look at the opening: we get a cute, funny video of Superman followed by a mostly serious opening with Batman and a dour opening credits sequence), the pacing and scene organization feel as haphazard as they did in Suicide Squad. Is there any scene in the first half-hour that doesn't feel like it couldn't be a logical opening scene for the entire film? And then when Superman comes back and needs to regain his memory, we only have a bit over half-an-hour to go with the climactic battle still yet to begin, so we know that whatever snaps Superman back to normal is going to have to happen in the course of just several minutes. It doesn't exactly have the swelling power I imagine the filmmakers hoped it would deliver.

 

- I can't help but wonder how much of Lois Lane's material didn't make the final cut. Amy Adams is in just a few short scenes, but then gets a final voiceover about light overpowering darkness. The narrative in the final cut spends such relatively little time on Superman and Lois that the voiceover feels like a forced conclusion to a thematic arc that wasn't really present in the film.

 

- Ezra Miller kills it. It will never ever ever ever happen, but I'd love to see a movie where his Flash and Tom Holland's Spider-Man just shoot the shit and occasionally fight crime for two hours.

 

- I hope Ben Affleck's tenure as Batman is at an end. He looks so wholly disinterested in taking part in any of this film.

 

- Did you remember that J.K. Simmons is in this? Or Amber Heard? Or Diane Lane? I'm only being half-facetious when I say that I wonder whether Jena Malone had another completely deleted role.

 

- We're three Superman movies in and Henry Cavill finally gets to be charismatic and charming!

 

- I have to second Gopher's comment about the directorial anonymity of the film. For all the problems Batman v. Superman had, at least it seemed like Zack Snyder's amibitious but deeply flawed vision through and through; this one feels like a disjointed hodgepodge of Snyder's vision, Whedon's ghost-directed vision, and the vision of executives desperate to shape the final product into a generic crowd-pleaser.

 

- For all the film's problems, at least its climax doesn't involve taking down yet another skybeam.

Edited November 18, 2017 by Webslinger