Sean Marshall Heads Up! There are spoilers placed in this review, but they are in bold lettering.
Justice League follows the inspiring & saddening events of 2015’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. After the death of Superman, Bruce (Ben Affleck) & Diana (Gal Gadot) forge a team of heroes & outcasts that includes Barry Allen (Ezra Miller), Arthur Curry (Jason Mamoa), & Victor Stone (Ray Fisher) to take down Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds), who has arrived on Earth with his legion of Parademons who are searching for the three ancient Mother Boxes scattered across Earth.
Justice League is a big disappointment & drops the ball quite a few times during this film, which ultimately made it boring, dry & uninteresting. Moviegoers that didn’t enjoy the dark tone & brooding Batman from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice will jump for joy over the fact that he’s gone & has now become easy-going & humorous. In fact, the overall tone of the film is bright & humorous. In Batman v Superman, Batman was more complex & the Batman that we saw there felt like the character we enjoy & know, while this Batman feel like he’s being held at gunpoint & is being told to crack some jokes or else Gotham will be destroyed. Bruce went from being this tough, grizzled character in the previous film to being somewhat of a fearful & at times overly emotional man. Had Bruce & Clark had a solid relationship before Justice League, I would be able to accept Bruce feeling as though he lost his best friend, but it was forced in the previous film & is forced here.
Gadot’s Wonder Woman was very stale & almost forgettable in the film. I feel that her character was overshadowed by the less interesting characters which says a lot. Miller’s Flash was definitely a standout in the film & the laughs were centered on him, but it’s the heavy jokes that made him feel more like Wally than Barry. If you’re not a comic book reader & Miller’s Flash is your introduction to Flash, you will throughly enjoy him. Nevertheless, I feel that almost all of his moments on-screen were entertaining & seeing his interactions with the rest of the team were definitely the best moments in the film.
Mamoa & Fisher were not standouts in the film at all. This was highly disappointing, as Aquaman was promoted heavily before the trailers for Justice League emerged & this is Aquaman & Cyborg’s first time getting to do something major on the big screen. Hinds’ Steppenwolf was another major letdown of the film. The sad part about Steppenwolf is that we rarely spent anytime with him, because he only appeared to find out about the Mother Boxes or to take one. To be honest, we spent more time with the Parademons than we did with Steppenwolf, which is such a waste. He was also defeated too easily by the Justice League while the Parademons gave the Justice League more of a run for their money. I mean, the Parademons are the ones that defeated Steppenwolf. By the way, if you’re going into this movie thinking you’re going to see a lot of J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon, you’ve pretty much saw his scene during the trailer.
SPOILER
As for Superman, his return was wasted! Superman actually came back as a temporary villain & tossed the Justice League around for a few minutes, but he was quickly taken out of the equation with a hug from Lois. I feel that they should’ve had him fly off still confused by his “rebirth” & had him be a lingering issue for the next film. Superman literally had a Hulk & Black Widow moment.
Danny Elfman was a solid replacement for Hans Zimmer & Junkie XL, especially when the Batman theme song from the 80’s would play. However, the other tracks were a miss for me & didn’t deliver the heavy-hitting & inspirational music we received in the previous films.
Besides the characters, the film suffered from some bad CG, which at times took you out of what was going on. The last 30 minutes of the movie felt & looked like a video game. I mean, there was a point where Clark was standing in poorly CG crops with Lois. Some might think this is so minor that it shouldn’t be discussed, but it was too noticeable to overlook.
All-in-all, Justice League was a letdown, but it might just be what some fans & moviegoers deem as a great film. At the end of the day, one can only hope that they get it right the second time around.
Justice League Review
Pros
- Ezra Miller stole this movie & kept us laughing
- The post-credit scene was absolutely worth the wait
Cons
- Story lacked a strong backbone
- The ball was dropped with Steppenwolf & Superman
- Character interactions lacked fluidity
- Forced & out of place humor
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