10 years and $300 million dollars in the making, ‘Justice League’ hits the screens with a giant “meh”. I’m not going to go so far to say that I didn’t enjoy it or thought it was bad, rather I’ll just say it was just ‘okay’. Director Zack Snyder has been a controversial figure whose vision has been the core of the DC movie universe. Critically unsuccessful, but financially viable, many had trepidations when it was announced that Zack Snyder was once again called upon to assemble the League. There was a glimmer of hope as last summer’s ‘Wonder Woman’ (ironically directed by Patti Jenkins and not Zack Snyder) that seemed to finally get the formula right. However, a lot of behind the scenes drama, including extensive re-shoots and another Director being brought in to finish ‘Justice League’, caused everyone to hold their collective breaths as release date approached. The result was a respectable $90 million opening weekend, but given the immense budget and mixed reviews, it has to be yet another disappointment for the Warner Bros executives.
If it sounds like I am beating up on this film, well…I am. That doesn’t mean there weren’t many things that I admired and even liked from a fanboy perspective. I am actually a fan of Zack Snyder’s video noir style (can I coin that term?). The opening montage of the world post-Superman was beautifully shot with the haunting melody of Leonard Cohen’s ‘Everybody Knows’ sung by Sigrid. It set the tone for the movie and actually made me quite hopeful at the beginning. The introduction of the villain Steppenwolf (an unrecognizable Claran Hinds) is where it started to go south for me. I was actually quite excited when I heard the lesser known villain from Jack Kirby’s Fourth World would be in the Justice League (a warm up to Darkseid), but the CGi was so extensive and the evil was so generic that it overwhelmed any real connection to the him. The secret of a great villain is that he/she has to be somewhat sympathetic, otherwise it is a fairly boring good vs evil which has been seen countless times before.
The goal of Steppenwolf is to gather three Mother Boxes (objects that weren’t very well explained unless you know the story from the comics) and unite them into one earth dominating force. He failed at this mission millennia ago because o the combined forces of Earth and the Gods united against him and drove him away. Now with the death of Superman, Steppenwolf believes the Earth is unprotected and seeks to conquer the planet once again. Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) uncovers clues to the upcoming invasion and uses his new found friendship with Diana Prince aka Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) to seek out other individuals of “extraordinary abilities”. Superheroes are loners by nature so it is no easy task to gather the others (with the exception of The Flash who is eager to join right away). Both Aquaman (Jason Mamoa) and Cyborg (Ray Fisher) are powerful additions, but it doesn’t take long for Batman to realize that they are still hopelessly out powered by Steppenwolf and his army of para-demons. They need Superman.
The plot holes are many and the pseudo science is head scratching, but they do manage to effectively bring the team together despite an overall cartoonish feel. There are a lot of awkward political themes shoehorned into the story, but conversely a lot of easter eggs for the comic book readers of things that are to come. The most exciting of which is the first glimpse of a Green Lantern in this version of the DCU. All this being said, I’m not going to list this film as another DC failure, however, it is not the victory that the WB execs were hoping to score riding on the momentum of the highly successful Wonder Woman movie of last summer. It’s a fun time at the movies for sure, but it will also be a highly forgettable time at the movies as well where I’m not really looking forward what’s next. A skill that Marvel mastered from film one.
I give this film **1/2 stars out of five.
No comments:
Post a Comment