Movie Review - Justice League

MegaSoulhero Ugh! Justice League is a movie I was not looking forward to at all. The trailers made it look very bad. Plus, the previous movies like Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad made me lose faith in the DCEU. I started hating Suicide Squad after watching it a couple more times. However, Wonder Woman proved to us that the DCEU can make good movies. So I went to see this one.(sigh) Let’s talk about it.

While Superman is still dead, Batman recruits Wonder Woman, Aquaman, the Flash, and Cyborg to defeat a villain known as Steppenwolf. They become a team called the Justice League. I’ll give the movie this. It was entertaining seeing these superheroes working as a team. For years people have been wanting to see some of DC’s greatest heroes saving the world together. And that’s what we got. So that itself is something worth noting. They definitely work great together. The interactions they have during battle sequences and other moments make them develop a lot as a team. Even the performances are spot on. Ben Affleck is still great as Batman. I remember when everyone was nervous about Affleck playing Batman, but ever since Batman v Superman, people got over it. I still absolutely love Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. You can tell how into the role she is. I’m really excited for Wonder Woman 2. That is if she decides to do it considering recent events. Also, I should probably point out that we actually get shots of her butt. That alone makes me glad I saw the movie. Superman is in the movie, but if you watched the trailer or have any common sense, you probably already knew that. I thought he was gonna be wasted and wouldn’t really have that big of a role, but he really shines in this movie. I think this is the best portrayal of Superman yet. As for the Flash, he was hilarious! He was pretty much the comic relief of the movie. He gets some pretty funny lines. I really liked him and it makes me excited for his standalone movie.

Now let’s get to the flaws. Oh boy! There are quite a lot. Something that made me frustrated while watching the trailers was the overuse of CGI. And yeah, there is a VERY heavy use of it. Not just in the scenery, but also the characters! HALF OF THE CHARACTERS ARE CGI! But it doesn’t matter how much CGI is used. As long as it looks good. So how does it look? It looks like absolute garbage! This is some of the worst CGI to come from a major film! A lot of times they look like something out of a video game! There’s also something I should point out. After Zack Snyder left because of his daughter, Joss Whedon came in to do reshoots. And because Henry Caville grew a mustache, it had to be digitally removed. And it is so distractingly obvious! I couldn’t keep my eyes off of it! It was so bad! It was worse than Tarkin and Leia in Rogue One! Even Cyborg is CGI and it looks very bad. Keep in mind that his entire body is robotic while half of his face is normal. The CGI on him looked very bad! I know Marvel films tend to have an overuse of CGI once in a while, but at least it looks good! Here, it doesn’t!

Another thing, the characters individually are very underdeveloped! Sure Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman are already developed, but that’s because they were in previous movies in which we got to know them a little more. As for the others, since the movie wants to focus on getting the team going as fast as possible, they don’t have time to develop the other characters. And it doesn’t help that the movie is under 2 hours. A lot of things were cut from the film to make it shorter than it was originally going to be. This makes the pacing seem kind of sloppy and it feels pretty rushed. Aquaman doesn’t really do much. Which isn’t surprising. And Cyborg I thought could’ve been really cool, but I didn’t find him interesting at all. Very bland character. The villain of the film, Steppenwolf, was so bad! In my honest opinion, he is the most forgettable villain in any comic book movie! I literally don’t remember anything about him! Except for bad the CGI on him was. Other than that, I don’t remember his motivation or any line of dialogue from him! Throughout the movie, it becomes pretty obvious which elements were from Zack Snyder and which one were from Joss Whedon. However, if you didn’t know what happened behind the scenes, you would probably think that it was all just one person’s vision since they kind of mix together pretty well. Something else that bothered me was a scene in which Batman calls his crawler and it gets there instantly despite it moving slowly. How did it get to him so fast if it was going slow? I actually laughed at that a little. The movie is mess, it’s sloppily paced, it has bad effects, but I actually kinda liked it.

Despite all these flaws, the thing that really made me enjoy the film was simply seeing the Justice League working together. And they do it in a very entertaining way. Unlike in Batman v Superman, I was very captivated with what was happening. They add much more humor, it happens at the right time, and even the action scenes are pretty fun. Not visually appealing, but still fun. This is a perfectly okay film. It may be a step back from Wonder Woman, but I feel like the DCEU is starting to get the hang of things.

Score: 6/10

Comments

To be honest, I liked Cyborg in this film, and I do believe he might get a worthy solo film of his own. The character's lore is really interesting and I want to see that expanded upon in the future.

I do agree with some points you make, although we do have differences. I'd give it a 7/10. And as for Superman, we can definitely see a good future to a Man of Steel sequel seeing as Cavill's performance in this was solid and stays true to his comic book ideals and personality. - CrimsonShark

I pretty much agree. The trailer pretty much told me everything I needed to know about the movie. I was pleasantly surprised by Jason Momoa as Aquaman. The special effects were a real let down and the villain of the movie was just awful. Good review as always! - RoseRedFlower

Good review. I loved the film. I actually like Steppenwolf. He was a menacing villain with a cool voice. In my opinion Henry Cavill is the best Superman actor. - girlcool

Wait
I was surprised the flaws did not take up most of the review
This was such a disappointment. - iliekpiez