Movie Review: Justice League (2017)

Based on the super-team of the same name, Justice League is a 2017 superhero action movie team-up of all the biggest DC Comics heroes, and was directed by Zack Snyder. Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot and Henry Cavill return as DC’s holy trinity, of Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman, respectively, and are joined by The Flash (Ezra Miller), Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and Aquaman (Jason Momoa), as the team must band together to end the threat of the god-like alien Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds) and his army of demonic creatures.

+ in general, all of the heroes are fun in their own way. Gadot again shines as Wonder Woman, which is something I never thought I’d say, considering how vehement I was that she was not right for the character. Cavill and Affleck are once again perfect as their characters of Superman and Batman, respectively, though there is a small exception for Batman (see below). Of the new heroes, Flash is “the awkward one”, Aquaman is “the funny one” and Cyborg is “the tormented one”, and for the most part these work, though I would have liked a bit less funny for Aquaman (again, see below)
+ the action scenes were fun, especially the scene relating to the picture below, which may have one of my favourite comic book movie moments in recent memory (ask me!). Some of the stunts in the final battle were a bit over the top, such as Aquaman’s parademon surfing through a building, shown in the trailer, but I understand they may be more to other people’s tastes
+ there was good music, both the score and soundtrack. The opening riffs of Gary Clark Jr. and Junkie XL’s cover of Come Together match the battle beats, and The White Stripe’s Icky Thump fit perfectly with Aquaman chugging a bottle of whiskey in a storm. Once again, Wonder Woman’s “IS She With You” theme is a standout, though I do admit she needs more than just three seconds of a good theme before we can put it with Batman’s 1989 theme, or Superman’s iconic John WIlliams theme. Zack Snyder’s use of Leonard Cohen’s Everybody Knows over the opening credits brought back memories of the phenomenal opening sequence of Watchmen

– despite being the shortest DCEU movie so far, some scenes seemed to go on for far too long. The film was at it’s best with the comic book action (despite my above gripes with the action itself), and scenes of heroes antagonizing each other in an underground bunker did not fit the tone of the film
– many of the green screen scenes are jarringly obvious, especially during the ultimate battle with the parademons in Eastern Europe (as seen in the trailers, where Aquaman des his surfing shtick). Cyborg, too, often looked like to have a Snapchat filter overlay, rather than actually *being* a cyborg.
– Batman should not joke, ever. Flash, fine, because his brain goes too fast for most people. Cyborg can “Boo-yah” and maybe even Aquaman could bust out a few jokes, but every one of the heroes throughout the whole movie seemed to enjoy cracking jokes, and it just felt like DC had gone too far into the Marvel direction; the DC films are at times too dark, but this took it too far in the other direction

> If Darkseid’s inevitable appearance is anyone other than Michael Ironside, I’ll be very disappointed.
> I was surprised at just how much was cut from the final film, after I had been hearing character names pop up throughout the filming schedule.

Should you see this film: Simply put, this is the best DC film since Man of Steel, and significantly better than I thought it was going to be. Good action, and a cast that is finally able to act with more than a scowl make for a solid viewing, and hopefully a good sign of things to come.