I first started my blog with a review of "Man of Steel", the Superman reboot that would be the beginning of the DC Extended Universe. It's kind of crazy that it's been almost five years and how much I've grown in my writing since then. I've been covering the DCEU from the start and it's definitely been a rocky road, and it's led to this: the Justice League. While DC has taken a different approach than Marvel did leading to the Avengers, I've always remained hopeful that Justice League would be just as epic. That said, Justice League is pretty good...but it's not epic.
The film has a bit of a rocky start with some odd choices in dialogue and fight choreography, but it really starts to find its groove after the scene on Themyscera featuring another Amazon battle and once the team starts to come together. After that, I was pretty entertained for the rest of the film between the action and interaction amongst the heroes. I'm not saying that I didn't like it, but compared to the previous films leading up to this, "Man of Steel" and "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice", it just felt really different than what came before. It didn't have any major themes from what I noticed. There were quite a few moments I really enjoyed, but nothing that made me geek out as hard as the Batman warehouse fight in BvS. Believe it or not, I actually still like BvS more. What's really sad to say though is that I kind of expected things to go this way for the film.
Earlier this year, director Zack Snyder had stepped away from the film after the death of his daughter, leading the reigns of the film through post-production and reshoots to Joss Whedon, director of the first two Avengers films. While Whedon did film additional material, it was constantly said that Snyder's vision and story were still at the forefront, even with the different styles of the two directors. But even so, what didn't help was that Warner Bros. had mandated the film's runtime to be under two hours. To put this in perspective, the majority of DCEU films are roughly two and a half hours with the extended cut of BvS clocking in at three hours, making Justice League the shortest film yet. This may not have been a problem if not for two things: 1) We're being introduced to three new heroes in Aquaman, Flash, and Cyborg. and 2) It was pretty clear that many scenes were cut, from the characters who were expected to appear but didn't (like Iris West) and scenes shown in the trailers but not in the actual film. It really did feel like a more condensed version of what Snyder intended. When the extended version of BvS came out on Blu-Ray, the extra scenes helped that movie flow better and filled in some holes the story was missing, many believing that the film may have been better received had that been the version released in theaters. It seems that not only has WB not learned its lessons from before, but they're doubling down when it comes to "Justice League". The DCEU hasn't had the best reception overall, which of course leads to course correcting, but sometimes it can go too far. "Suicide Squad" had this problem after the poor reception to "BvS" and you can say "Justice League" did the same after the success of "Wonder Woman". But of course, from my understanding, "Wonder Woman" succeeded because director Patty Jenkins was allowed to make the film she wanted with little interference from WB. Even "Man of Steel", with its more mixed reception was still its own story, as the major plan of the DCEU was still in its infant stage. My point is that if WB wants to get the DCEU on track, they need to allow the directors of these movies have more free reign, which I understand is supposed to be the direction they're going now, giving me hope still in the DCEU. All that said, I'm trying not to judge the Justice League film I saw too harshly as we clearly won't see the whole story until the inevitable extended cut will be released on Blu-Ray. But enough behind-the-scenes drama; let's talk about the film itself.
As the returning cast members, Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, and Jeremy Irons are still on point from their previous performances as Batman, Wonder Woman, and Alfred. Gadot continues to radiate divinity as the demi-goddess. I've seen some criticism of Affleck's performance in this film, like that he doesn't seem like he wants to be there or that he's phoning it in, but I say he's still on par with his portrayal in BvS. I've always thought of Bruce and Batman's voice to remain at the same serious tone with inflections when necessary, which he still has here. And let's be honest, it's not like Batman is the kind of guy who's good at expressing himself, not that he wants to anyway, which makes sense why his attempts to bring the team together at first aren't very successful. He's approaching them as serious Batman Bruce Wayne, not the charismatic business man Bruce Wayne. Besides that, I really enjoyed his character interactions amongst the others, from the co-leadership and romantic tension with Diana, the mentor role for Barry, and butting heads with Arthur and Clark.
Henry Cavill is also back as Clark Kent/Superman, and he's a bit different here than we've seen before. No longer unsure of himself and his place in the world, we see a Superman who's finally smiling and enjoying saving the day, the Superman some people have been waiting for since "Man of Steel". Of course, had they realized that this had been the planned character arc for Superman over three movies, they may not have had a problem with waiting so long, but I digress. The action scenes and character interactions involving him are some of the best of the film, really making the team feel complete by the end, especially for the big group shot. If I had any complaint, it's that his transition between coming back from the dead and suiting up as Superman went a little too fast, but this may be one of those instances where cutting scenes hurt things.
As mentioned before, we have three new heroes introduced in Aquaman, Flash, and Cyborg. While I didn't really think too much about DC not having each hero get their own solo movies before the big team-up, now that the big team-up is here, I can't help but think Aquaman and Flash really would have benefited from having their own movies first. Both have already had their powers, so it would have been nice to have some idea of their lives before this point. Besides that, this is our first look at Atlantis, and we only see a tomb holding a Mother Box.
Jason Momoa as Aquaman was pretty good and a real badass. From a character perspective, I find his situation similar to Clark's in "Man of Steel" or even Thor in his first movie; he's not truly Aquaman yet and hasn't taken up the responsibility placed on him. He's yet to become the king he's meant to be.
It was said beforehand that Ezra Miller's Flash was the highlight of early fan screenings, and I can see why. He's probably one of the most entertaining characters of this film. While part of that is because he was the source of most of the film's comic relief, his powers were quite a sight to see, especially with the lightning flying around. One of Zack Snyder's tropes is his use of slow motion, and I can't help but think he had a good time when it came to filming Flash's scenes where he was moving so fast it was almost like everything around him was frozen in place. Besides that, we see a slight rivalry between him and Superman about who's faster, including an "oh shit" moment where Barry realizes Clark can still follow his movements at high speed. As for Barry's character himself, he's a bit odd. Compared to Grant Gustin's depiction on the TV show, he's very different. If anything, he reminded me more of Wally West than Barry Allen. Hell, swap out Barry's background for Wally's and there wouldn't have been a big difference for the main story. But again, Barry apparently had more scenes depicting his everyday life that got cut, so there's that to consider.
After his brief cameo in BvS, Ray Fisher makes his feature film debut as Victor Stone/Cyborg. Unlike the previous two, Cyborg's origin being integrated into this film makes more sense considering his connection to the Mother Boxes, not to mention that the New 52's Justice League origin was also Cyborg's introduction in that timeline as well. Fisher does a good job portraying Victor's character arc from being ashamed and angry about his situation to becoming more accepting of his gifts and working with the League. And if you're expecting him to say a certain line the character's known for, don't worry, he does.
Our main villain of the film is Steppenwolf, whose character likeness for CGI and voice is provided by Ciarin Hinds. Steppenwolf is evil and out to conquer the world...and that's about it. Some of you may remember Hinds for portraying Mephisto in "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance". Let's just say he's two for two when it comes to forgettable comic book villain roles. It's not that Steppenwolf is a bad villain, but he's just not memorable. Hell, whether you liked Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor or not, you can't deny he was a forgettable part of BvS. Besides that, I feel that Steppenwolf's story could have been plotted a little better. In the film, this is his second time coming to Earth after being fought off by the combined armies of man, Amazons, and Atlanteans. The way I would have done it would be that the Mother Boxes would have been sent to Earth a long time ago with Steppenwolf only now coming to Earth to conquer it. After he's defeated and goes back to Apokolips, he's punished by Darkseid for his failure, but Darkseid's curiosity is still peaked that his top general was defeated on such of meager world like Earth (and yes, I know that's similar to how Thanos probably felt after the Avengers defeated the Chitauri). Steppenwolf being defeated twice on the same world just makes him look more weak than Earth being that strong. Besides that, in both CGI quality and character design, he reminds me much of Incubus from "Suicide Squad".
Danny Elfman performed the score to the film and while I don't usually talk about this kind of thing, I feel the need to hear. From the Simpsons, Nightmare Before Christmas, the original Spider-Man trilogy, and so much more, Elfman's a fantastic composer. And while I got a warm feeling hearing his Batman theme return in this film, other than that and the music during Flash's slow-motion scenes, I couldn't help but miss Hans Zimmer's previous themes from "Man of Steel" and BvS. It's just another factor that makes Justice League feel more removed in terms of tone from those previous two films. While both composers are amazing, in terms of the DCEU, Zimmer's just produced more memorable themes.
So overall, Justice League is pretty much how I expected it to be and still entertaining enough to be worth seeing in theaters with a post-credits scene that does get me excited for what's to come, but it could have been much better. Between this film and the Defenders back in August, I can't help but think how the Avengers did it better, introducing the main heroes with constant momentum and build-up before the big pay-off of the team-up. But again, I'm talking about a film that I've technically only partly seen. If/when an extended cut comes out, I'll probably have some more thoughts to share on whether or not the extra scenes help deliver a more complete film. But until then, the two words to sum up this film for me are "pretty good".
My Personal DC Extended Universe Film Rankings:
1. Wonder Woman
2. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
3. Man of Steel
4. Justice League
5. Suicide Squad
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