Justice League - Movie Review

By
Adonis Monahan
6.5

10

0
6.5

10

Justice League

SPOILER ALERT! This review contains spoilers to the plot of the film.

The film got a lot right, but sadly a lot more wrong.

The overall story was very linear, predictable, and one dimensional. Big bad comes to town and group of heroes, most of which we have never seen before, nor care about, fight him off. Make me feel something, please! They added some lame family of innocent bystanders to try and evoke emotion, but it felt like an unnecessary tangential storyline that only hindered the overall flow of the film.

They almost captured batman perfectly, but then let the character slip through their fingers for the sake of comedic relief. Batman/Bruce Wayne was depicted as the detective he is at his core. From the beginning of the film and Batman is either ahead of the overarching plot points or on par.

This is a considerable improvement on previous depictions of the character in live-action adaptations. While being an intelligent, observant detective is his core characteristic, he has other qualities that the film severely missed.

Barry Allen asks him what his superpower is, to which he responds, “I’m rich.” This made my eyes roll so far back I think I saw my own brain. When Superman is brought to life and batman is left hurt after their face-off, he comedically says, “Something is definitely bleeding.”

This is the kind of dialogue that would never be said by the character in any comic or animated work, simply because batman’s character is not one to be self-deprecating. Batman apologizes to Wonder Woman multiple times after bringing up her dead love interest.

It’s important to understand that Batman brought him up for a reason; to demonstrate a point to Wonder Woman, and with such a motive he would never apologize. The film closes with Bruce Wayne scouting an area to be a ‘base of operations’ for the Justice League, and enthusiastically echoes Diana when she says “… with room for more.”

Batman is, in a way, a loner. He doesn’t really act as part of the Justice League unless it suits him. And despite the ever-growing cast of sidekicks his storylines inevitably have, he prefers to work alone. These lines, when added up, detract from the phenomenal job the rest of the film does in building his character.

Moving on to Cyborg and The Flash: The characters left me underwhelmed given the lack of build-up of their origin. One can argue that their origin is not necessary at this stage, especially with the success of informally introduced characters in their competing franchise; Black Panther in Captain America and Spiderman in the Civil War.

The difference is those characters were ancillary to the overall story being told, the background given was sufficient for the plot those movies were following, whereas here Cyborg and The Flash are part of the main ensemble. Kudos to the phenomenal acting by Ray Fisher, who was limited in what he could portray given the majority of his face and body were covered.

They also missed the mark on Barry Allen’s intellect. Yes, he’s a comedic tool, but he was used poorly! He can provide comic relief without being the butt of a joke or not knowing east from west … He is, after all, a CSI.

https://revyou.com/uploads/thumbnail-960/1600438582127Justice_League2.webp Justice League - Movie Review

Can we talk about the atrocity that was Aquaman? They worked so hard on giving his character depth, with the back story of his mother abandoning him and him not being present in Atlantis, but threw it all away with his surfer bro’s herky-jerky attitude and atrocious dialogue during the battle scenes.

The man should be a regal king, and yes, they’re diverting away from that but must he be an airhead surfer? Also, dialogue during fight scenes is such a powerful tool to develop narrative and form bonds between one character and another, if not between the character and the audience. But we were given generic phrases like “oh yeah” and “all right!” Thoroughly, unamused.

Does Wonder Woman have a different writing staff than the other characters? Her storyline, dialogue, and overall role worked perfectly in developing her character and story following her original film. We need more positive progression like this in the DCEU.

We now get to the final member of the Justice League – Superman. Let me start off on a high note and say that Henry Cavill nails the role. That said, the role he was given to play was thoroughly disappointing and quite underwhelming.

One of the main drawbacks of Superman, and seen as a major character flaw by many DC fans, is that he is overpowered. They steered right into that. So, he fights the entire Justice League without breaking a sweat, right after coming back from the dead … while shirtless! Honestly, there was no need to have him shirtless, but he looked great and there’s a certainty than many (but not all) of the female viewers were dragged along by their boyfriends and this was to give their evening a positive while making every guy feel inadequate and out of shape.

His god-like physique aside, is he stronger than Wonder Woman, Cyborg, Aquaman, The Flash, and Batman combined? Yes, I’m sure they were holding back given they brought him back to life and just wanted to explain what happened, but he essentially beat Steppenwolf alone. To put this into context, Steppenwolf gave the rest of the League a run for their money.

Speaking of the big, bad Steppenwolf – were they going for the most one-dimensional villain of all time? Seriously, the most boring villain they could have come up with. Granted, he is a steppingstone to Darkseid.

But he had no motive other than to destroy, no real reason to be other than evil. That may have worked a few decades ago, but villains are multilayered now. They have depth. We need to understand their motive – maybe even empathize with them! This is just a banal monster that needed a few punches to the face.

I mean, his minions feed off fear, right? Why wasn’t that his motivator? Why couldn’t he feed off of it as well? He just fell flat. That and the CGI didn’t do anything for his facial expressions at all.

Now let’s talk about CGI. While some recent blockbuster films can transport you into a world of amazing wonders, the CGI in this film made me feel like I was playing something on a gaming console… just very cartoony.

All that said, the actual filmmaking elements were not as weak as the other aspects of the film. Some color grading would have been wise to delineate between the various cities visited throughout the film, but overall the shots were well made, the camera work was good, and the framing was excellent.

Some shots were as if the actual comics were coming to life, a much-appreciated aspect. The use of color was visually enthralling. The direction and cinematography were top notch.