Justice League - Review (Non-Spoiler/Spoiler)
Directed By: Zack Snyder/Joss Whedon
Rating: PG-13
Rating: PG-13
Starring: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Ray Fisher, Jason Momoa, Ezra Miller, Gal Gadot, Ciaran Hinds, Robin Wright, Jeremy Irons
Blurb/Synopsis: Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman's (Henry Cavill) selfless act, Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) enlists the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince (Gal Gadot), to ace an even greater enemy. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat. But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes - Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Cyborg (Ray Fisher), and the Flash (Ezra Miller) - it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.
Expectations/Background: All anyone needs is hope. The tiniest spark of hope can make the difference between being excited and completely disinterested, even apprehensive. And I had hope. I had been let down by Zack Snyder once, but I knew that he had learned from his mistakes after the disaster that was Batman v. Superman. He had to have - the fans responded and he should have known. Then, tragedy struck and Joss Whedon was inserted to finish the film. But again, I had hope. This was Justice League. Not some B-list character. Not even two A-list characters. SIX A-LIST CHARACTERS with great development, histories, backstories. And after seeing the promotional material, I thought it would be enough to have Ben Affleck (who I didn't mind as Batman) lead a league with Superman in it. This was going to be the film that brought the DCEU up to competitive level. This film would at least get a 70 percent on Rotten Tomatoes and show the world that Warner Brothers knew how to make quality movies. This was going to be the one. I thought it would be enough.
The Movie: I was wrong. In a big way. This film was one of the biggest disappointments that I have ever seen. First of all, I do think that this film is better than Suicide Squad (by a fair margin) and better than Batman v. Superman. That being said, it's only slightly better than Batman v. Superman, and realistically, it's hard to be worse than that film. What astounded me was that Zack Snyder made some of the same choices he made with Batman v. Superman that I wish he would have learned from.
Positives: Having read that, one may think that this film was a total disaster. And while disappointment was the word to use, disaster is not. This film does straddle the line, but there are many redeeming qualities to the film.
First, let's talk performances. Actually, on the whole, I thought almost ever single member of the League was very good on their own. The team dynamic really shined through and their chemistry really worked in many instances. There were times in the film where I began to feel a slight attachment to this band of heroes (slight).
Ben Affleck as Batman was good (not great) and yes, half the time he did look bored out of his mind. But at the same time, he did give a good enough performance as did serve as the leader of the League. Gal GAdot again was great as Wonder Woman. Ray Fisher's PERFORMANCE was good as Cyborg (much better than I had anticipated) and Ezra Miller and Aquaman worked pretty well as well.
And like I said, there were moments in the film where I really felt the connection between them. And those were the moments that I found myself having a good enough time with this movie. The moments where perhaps they were sanding around bantering among themselves (perhaps Whedon?) and the moments when they were fighting as a unit and using each other's skillset to help each other out. Those parts were great.
And I will say there is one scene in particular with the entire League that is pretty awesome. If you watched that clip alone, you would think this movie was really great.
That's about it.
Negatives: There is quite a bit that went wrong with this movie. Quite a bit.
First of all, more on him later, but the villain was garbage. Both his performance, character, motivation, and the way he looked.
Secondly, let's talk briefly about Superman (if you consider this a spoiler, I'm not quite sure what to say. We all knew he was coming back). I won't go into detail until the spoiler section, but I will say the way he was brought into the movie felt so convenient. There was literally a scene where someone in the League says something to the effect of "I have an idea!" and it's as if a lightbulb actually floated above his head as he said that. The way they do this feels so forced and feels like "We need Henry Cavill alive again".
Thirdly, and this is something I had hoped would work but it didn't; the humor. To put it into perspective, I could count the number of times I audibly laughed in the theater on one hand (and yes I have 5 fingers). Firstly, and perhaps this is not a discredit to the movie itself, but most of the major jokes were revealed in the marketing. But even so, there was only one joke that I felt I would've laughed at if the marketing had not shown it. Only one. The humor felt dull, it felt forced, and it felt like a cheap attempt to get back at Marvel. It was not original, and felt very contrived.
Fourthly - the script. There were some lines that felt like they belonged in the 1960s, they were so campy and cheesy. There was one in particular that was such a blatant reference to the team name (which is never anywhere else referred to in the film) that I almost gagged. It felt like it belonged in one of the old Batman films with George Clooney and Chris O'Donnell.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly (and unfortunately) - the story was a complete disaster. While this film itself wasn't a disaster (mainly because the cast was holding the film together) the storyline was. We jump from Earth to the home of the Amazons, to some weird red dystopian future looking place. The tone felt jumbled, it felt lost, and it felt misguided and directionless. It really did feel like the studio and the creative team were on completely separate pages - I imagine a board meeting where the studio sat down and said "We want this, this, this, and this in the movie" figure it out. And from there, the creative team tried to connect those points by some convoluted, boring, and stupid manner.
And final side note - half the time the CGI looks good but the other half to he time the CGI was horrific. Utterly unacceptable for a film released in 2017 with a 250 million + budget.
Positives: Having read that, one may think that this film was a total disaster. And while disappointment was the word to use, disaster is not. This film does straddle the line, but there are many redeeming qualities to the film.
First, let's talk performances. Actually, on the whole, I thought almost ever single member of the League was very good on their own. The team dynamic really shined through and their chemistry really worked in many instances. There were times in the film where I began to feel a slight attachment to this band of heroes (slight).
Ben Affleck as Batman was good (not great) and yes, half the time he did look bored out of his mind. But at the same time, he did give a good enough performance as did serve as the leader of the League. Gal GAdot again was great as Wonder Woman. Ray Fisher's PERFORMANCE was good as Cyborg (much better than I had anticipated) and Ezra Miller and Aquaman worked pretty well as well.
And like I said, there were moments in the film where I really felt the connection between them. And those were the moments that I found myself having a good enough time with this movie. The moments where perhaps they were sanding around bantering among themselves (perhaps Whedon?) and the moments when they were fighting as a unit and using each other's skillset to help each other out. Those parts were great.
And I will say there is one scene in particular with the entire League that is pretty awesome. If you watched that clip alone, you would think this movie was really great.
That's about it.
Negatives: There is quite a bit that went wrong with this movie. Quite a bit.
First of all, more on him later, but the villain was garbage. Both his performance, character, motivation, and the way he looked.
Secondly, let's talk briefly about Superman (if you consider this a spoiler, I'm not quite sure what to say. We all knew he was coming back). I won't go into detail until the spoiler section, but I will say the way he was brought into the movie felt so convenient. There was literally a scene where someone in the League says something to the effect of "I have an idea!" and it's as if a lightbulb actually floated above his head as he said that. The way they do this feels so forced and feels like "We need Henry Cavill alive again".
Thirdly, and this is something I had hoped would work but it didn't; the humor. To put it into perspective, I could count the number of times I audibly laughed in the theater on one hand (and yes I have 5 fingers). Firstly, and perhaps this is not a discredit to the movie itself, but most of the major jokes were revealed in the marketing. But even so, there was only one joke that I felt I would've laughed at if the marketing had not shown it. Only one. The humor felt dull, it felt forced, and it felt like a cheap attempt to get back at Marvel. It was not original, and felt very contrived.
Fourthly - the script. There were some lines that felt like they belonged in the 1960s, they were so campy and cheesy. There was one in particular that was such a blatant reference to the team name (which is never anywhere else referred to in the film) that I almost gagged. It felt like it belonged in one of the old Batman films with George Clooney and Chris O'Donnell.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly (and unfortunately) - the story was a complete disaster. While this film itself wasn't a disaster (mainly because the cast was holding the film together) the storyline was. We jump from Earth to the home of the Amazons, to some weird red dystopian future looking place. The tone felt jumbled, it felt lost, and it felt misguided and directionless. It really did feel like the studio and the creative team were on completely separate pages - I imagine a board meeting where the studio sat down and said "We want this, this, this, and this in the movie" figure it out. And from there, the creative team tried to connect those points by some convoluted, boring, and stupid manner.
And final side note - half the time the CGI looks good but the other half to he time the CGI was horrific. Utterly unacceptable for a film released in 2017 with a 250 million + budget.
Character Ranking
1. Wonder Woman
2. Batman
3. Superman
4. Alfred*
5. Flash
6. Aquaman
7. Cyborg
8. Lois Lane
9. Steppenwolf
*isn't it sad when Alfred was better in this film than 3 members of the Justice League? I think so
The Villain(s): Steppenwolf is atrocious. You thought Doomsday was bad, at least he was only in the last twenty minutes of the movie. I don't understand in the slightest why Snyder went with this piece of garbage as his villain. He could've picked anyone else for the League to team up and fight - Darkseid even. But he picks who? Steppenwolf? This C-List side character that no one really cared about. And I speak as someone who had never read the comic books before, but I can tell you - he was awful in the film. He was like Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron, except Ultron was at least charismatic and had a small backstory and motivation. Steppenwolf has no reason to be in the film except to have someone for the League to punch around. And the CGI looked horrific on him.
The Music/Score: Danny Elfman went around talking about how his score was revolutionary and how he thought that he reused old film scores in a new way. And while I didn't hate his score, I barely noticed it. So I have no idea what he was talking about. It wasn't terrible, but it was completely forgettable. And maybe it's because I have no nostalgia for the older films, but I shouldn't need to in order to enjoy a film's score.
Spoilers: Going to Superman for a second, I enjoyed his character quite a bit. I really did. This was the Superman we should have had from the beginning - a light, hopeful, optimistic Superman. But the way they revived him, with Bruce Wayne literary saying something to the effect of "What if we could use the Motherbox to bring Superman back to life!" had be cringing and face palming in the theater. There are better ways to reintroduce the Man of Steel than having Flash run super fast at t box and having to touch it at exactly the right moment - that felt very video game like to me.
And really there isn't much else to spoil in the film. It's almost all in the marketing and you can essentially guess the story from the beginning. I didn't like the part about Bruce Wayne saying at the end "We're going to turn the Wayne Manor into a hall of Justice". What? That makes absolutely no sense.
The line I really did think was funny was when Superman was lying on the floor and said, "Nope, now I want to die." That was 100 percent Whedon and I ate that line up, because at that point I was so dehydrated form the lack of creativity this film ahd.
And when Superman said, "I like Justice." I cringed so much in the theater. That line belongs in the 60s.
1. Wonder Woman
2. Batman
3. Superman
4. Alfred*
5. Flash
6. Aquaman
7. Cyborg
8. Lois Lane
9. Steppenwolf
*isn't it sad when Alfred was better in this film than 3 members of the Justice League? I think so
The Villain(s): Steppenwolf is atrocious. You thought Doomsday was bad, at least he was only in the last twenty minutes of the movie. I don't understand in the slightest why Snyder went with this piece of garbage as his villain. He could've picked anyone else for the League to team up and fight - Darkseid even. But he picks who? Steppenwolf? This C-List side character that no one really cared about. And I speak as someone who had never read the comic books before, but I can tell you - he was awful in the film. He was like Ultron in Avengers: Age of Ultron, except Ultron was at least charismatic and had a small backstory and motivation. Steppenwolf has no reason to be in the film except to have someone for the League to punch around. And the CGI looked horrific on him.
The Music/Score: Danny Elfman went around talking about how his score was revolutionary and how he thought that he reused old film scores in a new way. And while I didn't hate his score, I barely noticed it. So I have no idea what he was talking about. It wasn't terrible, but it was completely forgettable. And maybe it's because I have no nostalgia for the older films, but I shouldn't need to in order to enjoy a film's score.
**READER DISCRETION ADVISED - SPOILER ALERT - IF YOU WANT TO AVOID SPOILERS SKIP TO "VERDICT"**
Spoilers: Going to Superman for a second, I enjoyed his character quite a bit. I really did. This was the Superman we should have had from the beginning - a light, hopeful, optimistic Superman. But the way they revived him, with Bruce Wayne literary saying something to the effect of "What if we could use the Motherbox to bring Superman back to life!" had be cringing and face palming in the theater. There are better ways to reintroduce the Man of Steel than having Flash run super fast at t box and having to touch it at exactly the right moment - that felt very video game like to me.
And really there isn't much else to spoil in the film. It's almost all in the marketing and you can essentially guess the story from the beginning. I didn't like the part about Bruce Wayne saying at the end "We're going to turn the Wayne Manor into a hall of Justice". What? That makes absolutely no sense.
The line I really did think was funny was when Superman was lying on the floor and said, "Nope, now I want to die." That was 100 percent Whedon and I ate that line up, because at that point I was so dehydrated form the lack of creativity this film ahd.
And when Superman said, "I like Justice." I cringed so much in the theater. That line belongs in the 60s.
SPOILER ALERT OVER
The Verdict: For what it's worth, Justice League is a huge disappointment. The story was barely coherent and the villain was absolutely awful. But, what saves this film from going completely down the drain was the characters. They were likable for the most part, and they held the film together. On the whole though, DC needs to step up their game big time. Letter Grade: C-. Number Score: 4.2/10
**IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER**: Letter grades and Number grades do not mean the same thing. Just because I give a film an A does not mean it gets a 9.5 or above. They do not line up like a traditional school grading system To see specifics, see below.
A- to A+: Amazing
B- to B+: Enjoyable, but Flawed
C- to C+: Redeemable in some cases, but heavily Flawed
D- to D+: Nothing but Flaws
F: A Failure of a Film
9-10: Nearly Perfect to Perfect
8-9: Very Good
7-8: Good
6-7: Okay
5-6: Average/Mediocre
4-5: Apparently Flawed
3-4: Heavily Flawed
2-3: A complete and utter mess
0-2: A Failure of a Film
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