Justice League Review

OK, this is FINALLY a brand new post that features new content (all of it!) so this post will feature my review on the latest DC universe movie, Justice League. Now this film has recieved pretty mixed reviews from audiences and critics so far, so what do I think of it???  Well, let's take a look and find out....

And although I won't go into major detail in this review on the plot and its scenes, I will issue the usual warning...

SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!! 

STORY

So, the story begins with the supervillain, Steppenwolf, who thousands of years ago attempted to take over the Earth by combining the energies of three powerful devices known as mother boxes.  However, Steppenwolf was thwarted in his attempts by the Olympian Gods, Amazons and Atlanteans.  However in the present, as a result of the death of Superman (Henry Cavill) it triggers off the mother boxes again and Steppenwolf again sets about to try and recollect them and he successfully manages to take one from Themyscira (Diana Prince aka Wonder Woman's home).  And Diana's mother, Queen Hipolyta (Connie Nielsen) sends a warning signal to her that Steppenwolf is on his way.

Meanwhile, after recieving the warning signal, Diana (Gal Gadot) meets with Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) as the two of them plan to assemble a group of metahumans to help their cause in fighting against Steppenwolf. So, Bruce approaches Arthur Curry aka "Aquaman" (Jason Momoa) to join him but he initially turns him down but Bruce does manage to recruit Barry Allen aka "The Flash" (Ezra Miller).  Diana then tries to persuade Victor Stone aka "Cyborg" (Ray Fisher) to also join their cause but he too is also reluctant at first. 

However its not long before the crises of Steppenwolf stepping up his plans to take over the Earth with the aid of his army of parademons worsens.  And to top it all off there is still one superhero, the team need to recruit, or rather resurrect....

THOUGHTS

Well after the dreary Man of Steel and Batman vs Superman, Wonder Woman came along fixed all that as it was an excellent, fun, engaging and enjoyable movie and Justice League here continues in that vein albeit with not quite the same level of success.  However, despite any of its shortcomings (which I will get to a bit later) Justice League definitely sees the DCEU (Extended Universe) take a step in the right direction.  And the film is also nicely aided by the chemistry and banter that the superheroes all share with each other here that makes it a breath of fresh air over the previous DC dreariness we had seen. 

PERFORMANCES (Warning: although there will be no dialogue quotes here I will occassionally mention the odd scene or two!)

As for the performances, well they are mostly pretty good here.

Starting with Ben Affleck who is once again very good in his dual role as Bruce Wayne/Batman and this time around he is able to develop his character a bit more and the lighter tone allows for Affleck delivers some fun lines and good scenes.  And despite that rather weird sounding voice digitiser that Batman has in the film, this is a pretty good depiction of Batman and also of Bruce Wayne that we have seen in some time as the previous actors have tended to be stronger in one role than the other. But here Affleck shows that he is pretty good in his dual role and he also get's to wear some pretty cool bat shades later on too!

Gal Gadot next up is once excellent as Diana Prince aka Wonder Woman (again though she is never referred to as Wonder Woman once in the film!) and she looks mighty fine in that WW outfit of hers it has to be said!  Gal also again does great (or works wonders!) in her action scenes and also in her senes with Affleck where they confer, argue and of course fight together.

WARNING: IF YOU KNOW NOTHING OF THIS MOVIE THEN THE NEXT PARAGRAPH IS A SPOILER OF ITS OWN!!!

Henry Cavill is also really good once again as Superman/Clark Kent as he is resurrected from the grave (but I won't go into how of course!) to come back to join the Justice League.  In fact its worth pointing out that at the time of shooting the film, Cavill had a moustache as he was filming the next Mission Impossible movie and he was required to keep it for his character, so a result of this, his moustache was CGI'd out here.  Cavill still of course has some really good moments here in the film and his initial return scene is one of the best in the film.  Cavill also benefits from being given some good humoured dialogue and it adds a welcome dimension to Superman's character this time round after his two previous dreary Superman outings.

Ezra Miller is excellent in his role as Barry Allen aka "the Flash" and he actually provides alot of the comedy in the film and he naturally has some funny moments here that I won't go into but suffice to say he has his share.  Well, OK to mention one or two, there is a scene where Barry visits his father (Billy Crudup) in prison and when he is to sign, an aggressive man stands behind him telling to hurry up, so Barry in lightning speed, draws a face on the man in felt tip pen!  And later on, Barry also uses his lightning speed powers to rescue Diana and he ends up on top of her and he quickly jumps off her, which is also pretty funny.

Jason Momoa does pretty well in his role as Arthur Curry aka "Aquaman" who is at first reluctant to join the team but he later of course does.  Momoa has some good fun moments in the film also and I will only mention one where Arthur let's the other superheroes know how he really feels about things and tells Diana that "she's gorgeous" only for Bruce to indicate that Arthur is sitting on Diana's lasso (which compels whoever comes into contact with it, to tell the truth).

Ray Fisher is also good as Victor Stone aka "Cyborg" who was cybernetically rebuilt after he suffered a near fatal car crash and who also plays a pivotal part in the Justice League's fight against Steppenwolf.  Fisher of course portrayed the character mainly through the use of motion capture as the character is pretty heavily CGI'd looking.

Jeremy Irons also returns here from Batman vs Superman as Alfred Pennyworth, Bruce Wayne's butler and chief of security.  However I always felt that Irons was miscast in the role and I still feel that he is still so here in Justice League too, as he just isn't that good a fit for the character of Alfred even if the film is in is an improvement.

Amy Adams also makes a good return as Lois Lane, the love of Clark Kent/Superman's life and for the most part, her character is in mourning for her loss of the superhero, however of course that all changes as the film goes on.  Amy however is given somewhat limited screen time here and not a whole lot to do, which is a pity in a way, as she is pretty good in the role.

And last of all are Diane Ladd, who does a nice job in reprising her role as Martha Kent, Clark's adopted mother, Connie Nielsen, who is given a rather brief role as Diana's mother, Queen Hippolyta but she does what she can give with her limited material.  And last of all JK Simmons makes a welcome appearance as Commissioner Gordon albeit a rather too brief one it has to be said.

DIRECTOR AND MUSIC

As for the direction, Zack Snyder actually manages to redeem himself here after the mediocre and dull films that were Man of Steel and Batman vs Superman with Justice League as he manages to produce a film that is more engaging and enjoyable and has more fun in it than those other two films had in their whole running time! 

Sadly of course, Snyder endured a tragedy during the film's production as his daughter had taken her life, which caused him to withdraw from the film and this saw Joss Whedon take over at the directorial helm instead.  However the film doesn't feel like it has a clash in tone even with the fact that Whedon was also the directorial helm also and Snyder himself ended up with the sole directorial credit.

As for the music, Danny Elfman, throws his Superhero composing hat back into the ring here and he provides a pretty decent music score that even incorporates use of his old Batman theme, which was a great little inclusion in the film!  Elfman of course has produced better scores than this in the past but this is still a solid one by his own fine standards.

FLAWS

As for flaws, yes OK Justice League does have some although I won't really go into any major in-depth detail here either (for a change!).

And one of the film's main problems is to do with the somewhat rushed feel that it all his as in some ways it feels like an incomplete film.  There are also some scenes that had appeared in previous trailers that appear to be missing here also, which would have been nice if they have been included. So I kind of get the impression that this really was a bit of a mish-mash exercise in film making and in the end it has to be said the final result does show this.

Another problem I had was of course to do with the supervillain, Steppenwolf, who was anything but "super" and the only thing he was in this film was super weak!  Again, this is probably not helped by the fact that Steppenwolf is just a CGI villain and he is a pretty one dimensional one at that and had the role been played by an actual actor then the character could have been much better served here.

I also think the film tries to be a bit too ambitious with the amount of characters that appear in it, as we have not just the Justice League but also Amazonians, Atlantians and Parademons to juggle in there and it leaves precious little screen time for the majority of these characters.  Again this goes back to the rushed nature of the film itself as a flaw.

And lastly I think there are some minor pacing issues too as earlier on certain scenes just feel a bit sluggish and it really takes until the half way and indeed later on for Superman to show for the film to liven up that bit more.  Don't get me wrong this is still way more enjoyable that some of the stuff we've seen in the DCEU so far! ;-)

Anyway that's it for the flaws.

SUM UP

So, to sum up, Justice League sees the DCEU take a step in the right direction as it is for the most part an enjoyable movie with some pretty good engaging superhero characters, who are all thankfully well served here and the film's action scenes for the most part are good.  However while it is more fun this time round, its still not a very memorable film and it does suffer from having a very weak villain and having a rather overall rushed feeling to the final product.

However despite all this, I still came away from Justice League having enjoyed it and that's always a good thing.

OK, so that's it for now and I will be back soon maybe possibly with another post just before the end of the month.

So, till then its ciao fer now!