Justice League is one of the films that I have been waiting for absolutely all year. I am a die-hard DC fan who has been waiting for all of the greatest heroes to get together on the big screen once and for all, and The Avengers just didn't do it for me. So after the success of Wonder Woman earlier this year, I was very excited and positive about this film. After watching this film however, I was not entirely as enthralled as I hoped to be. I thought that DC had gotten their act together judging their previous film, but I guess I had too high of hopes.
Let's start by addressing the basic problems: the plot and generic tone of everything. The plot of this film just felt so generic. The villain Steppenwolf was arguably the most boring villain in any modern superhero film, but we did finally get a Darkseid name drop, which excited me a lot. The villain quite literally had the mindset of "find some ancient relics and destroy the world," which is the dullest reason for taking over the world, as it has been done thousands of times. Besides the fact that Ciarán Hinds' antagonist was entirely CGI, he was just excruciatingly generic, and not a bit threatening, in my opinion. All three acts of the film led up to the final battle with the villain, and as it was supposed to be the climax of the film, it felt so unsatisfying. Steppenwolf's end came so quickly and was very anti-climactic that I thought he might have a final form or come back for more. Alas, I have gotten used to settling with mediocre DC films and attempting to support them even when the other 99% of moviegoers are against me.
The root of the biggest problem with Justice League was the change of directors. While Zack Snyder left the project towards the end of production to deal with a family tragedy, Warner Bros. decided to bring in Joss Whedon to assist in finishing the film. This was the worst possible move they could have done, and instead of pushing back the release date and keeping the dark tone of Snyder, they pushed to include Whedon's hyper-sexualized vision. This caused so many problems throughout the film, and the pacing just felt so off. It was easily visible to see which director worked on which parts, as Whedon is infamous for his misogynistic and shitty romantic subplots. This was seen in the strange scene between Bruce and Diana where she was massaging him and the costume changes seen in the Amazons, as they were a lot skimpier than the warriors had dressed previously. Whedon was the worst move that could have been made, and I hope that Snyder's original film is released when it comes out on Blu-Ray, because I feel that it would have been infinitely times better.
As for the characters, it was indeed great to see my personal favorite heroes all meet together finally, and that sense of nostalgia helped a lot. One of the best things was the interactions between the members, as it really felt like an old episode of the Justice League cartoons. There was plenty of humor and color throughout, and I'm glad that DC took critique from their past films to fix this problem. My personal favorite additions were the characters of Aquaman and The Flash. Ezra Miller portrayed such a lively and naive version of Barry Allen that we are not used to seeing, especially from The CW's Grant Gustin. I appreciated his character the most because of his ability to break the awkwardness with a witty comment or joke, even though it felt out-of-place at times. The Flash and Aquaman were definitely the scene-stealers of this film, and Jason Momoa's performance as Arthur Curry made me very happy and enthusiastic for his upcoming solo film. While Ben Affleck played the typical snarky and brooding Batman and Gal Gadot played the heroic and all-around fantastic Wonder Woman, the character I was least impressed with was Ray Fisher's Cyborg. I was expecting a lot more liveliness and energy from his character that I'm used to in the Teen Titans, but they did include his trademark "booyah!" so I can't say that I'm entirely disappointed.
Now for the nerdiest and greatest parts of this film, which made me enjoy it more than your average comic fan. I was hoping that the inevitable return of Superman would not come off as cheesy, and it was honestly done quite well. It reminded me of a technique that some Marvel characters might attempt, which is why I guess I loved it so much. His return was the perfect amount of cheesy yet satisfying. And his transition from zombie, brain-dead Clark back to "truth and justice" Clark was handled decently well, other than the obvious CGI removal of Henry Cavill's mustache. Other parts that made me geek out and hopeful for the upcoming DC films include some notable cameos and the post-credit scenes. We finally saw the first glimpse of Abin Sur, who, as many comic nerds know, is the Green Lantern whose ring eventually ends up on Hal Jordan's finger. While we did not get any glimpse of who that ring may belong to next, it was refreshing to see a Green Lantern that looked so good on screen (sorry Ryan Reynolds, stick to Deadpool). And, like mentioned before, the name-drop of Darkseid got my tenses tingling, but we did not get to see him quite yet, as they have not yet casted him (probably saving for Justice League 2). As for the post-credits scenes, the first one simply gave me pure joy. The age-old question of who would win in a race between Superman and The Flash was done so humorously, but it fit so well with both of their characters. It's just one of those scenes that makes you smile like an idiot. And the very last scene, with Lex Luthor and Joe Manganiello's Deathstroke forming the Injustice League gave me so much more hope for their (hopefully bigger) roles in the future. Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor was quite honestly the greatest part of Dawn of Justice, and he embodies the crazy and rich madman very well.
In conclusion, Justice League was a bit of a mess. While it is bounds better than Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, it doesn't quite measure up to Wonder Woman. Despite many plot flaws and confusing tones, this film is held together by some great performances and cameos to excite fans of this franchise for the next addition. If you are a fan of the classic Justice League cartoons, then you will enjoy this film immensely. Just try not to focus too much on anything other than the nostalgia and pure bliss.
My Rating: ★★★
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