Justice League (C+ or 2/4 stars)
'Justice League' (directed - mostly - by Zack Snyder & a little bit by Joss Whedon, who co-wrote it ... more on all of that later) is better than I expected it to be; but that's faint praise. Justice League is DC Comics' answer to Marvel's lucrative, wildly popular Avengers group. On paper, the Justice League should be AS important & amazing than The Avengers, if not more so. And yet, DC Comics continues to pale. Though Marvel flicks have their own flaws, they are almost always fun. i.e., the most recent Thor. The action & plots might be paint-by-numbers, but there's always wit in the scripts & energy in the proceedings. So, with the recent exception of Wonder Woman, WHY do these DC films often feel like a chore to sit through!? Why are the visuals so muddy & bleak? The darkness in Christopher Nolan's films is organic & essential to the proceedings. But that's not the case with these DC movies.
This blockbuster starts off with the world still mourning Superman's (brawny Henry Cavill) death after the events of Batman v Superman; including his mom (Diane Lane) & girlfriend, Lois Lane (Amy Adams). In Gotham City, Batman (Ben Affleck) notices flying alien creatures that feed on fear keep popping up -- where do they come from & who's controlling them? Over in Themyscira, Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen) & the other scantily clad Amazon women face off against 8 ft. tall super villain Steppenwolf (CGI-ed Ciaran Hinds), the monster who controls the flying aliens. He has returned to Earth to find 3 "mother boxes" of energy (one is with the Amazons, one is with the Atlanteans deep under the sea & the last one is hidden among the race of men -- this all sounds very Lord of the Rings, no?).
If & when the 3 boxes are joined, it would cause mass destruction & a new world in which Steppenwolf could rule {ugh}. Bruce Wayne enlists Diana/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) to help him recruit a powerful team of superheroes. They include: nerdy teen Barry Allen/The Flash (Ezra Miller) - who's capable of hyperspeed; reclusive Victor Stone/Cyborg (Ray Fisher) – a former college athlete who turned into half-man/half-machine after a freak accident; & rebellious Arthur Curry/Aquaman (Jason Momoa) - the magical half-human heir to the underworld throne of Atlantis. Together, they aim to stop Steppenwolf & his fear-devouring aliens from destroying the world. If only they could resurrect a 6th superhero for added help {wink, wink}.
The trailers for this movie were so horrendous that I suppose it's a win that I think it is merely meh. Part of that could be attributed to the fact that director Zac Snyder - grieving over the suicide of his 20 yr. daughter - left post-production/reshoots to co-writer Joss Whedon (of Marvel fame). But really, the film is just too 'no one cares' to overcome the director fiasco, anyway. And rather than having a full-bodied story, it's mostly just set-up for future installments; ugh. The superheroes have such potential {on paper} and, the film works best when highlighting the team-building aspects. But at less than 2 hours in length, there's not enough time given to them for us to truly enjoy their strengths or revel in their personalities.
Ben Affleck's Bruce/Batman is not as super-serious this time, but looked bored. Thank goodness for Gal Gadot; who carries over Wonder Woman goodwill from her own movie that came out earlier this year. Ezra Miller is funny enough as Flash. But I found Ray Miller's Cyborg to be fairly ineffectual. And Jason Momoa is fine as Aquaman. I enjoyed when he mistakenly sits on WW's Lasso of Truth & blurts out how "gorgeous" she is. But the chemistry of this team doesn't really gel until they band together to - SPOILER ALERT - resurrect Henry Cavill's Superman {don't even ask how they do it ... its ridiculous}. From then on out, the sizing-up, bickering & bonding takes over with enough humor & feeling to create a rooting interest.
As for the action; well, Zac Snyder is an action stylist. But while his slow-mo choreography is on-point, much of the 'battling' falls into the been-there-done-that classification. You know: extraordinary powers that cannot be explained, fireball explosions, superheroes that can just DO stuff with no explanation and/or can withstand the force of a truck with nary a scratch on ‘em, etc. It's all sooo familiar & boring at this point. As for the villain, not only does he have no back story or distinct personality, but he's inconsequential in the grand scheme of things and, a terrible CGI creation. His CGI is awful, as is the sequence on Themyscira with Connie Nielsen. I don't expect such poor quality in a film of this magnitude. On the whole, I wasn't bored during the film, but wasn't engaged either. 'Justice League' is a decent enough crowd pleaser, but I'm disappointed in how diluted, rushed & shrug-worthy it wound up being.
This blockbuster starts off with the world still mourning Superman's (brawny Henry Cavill) death after the events of Batman v Superman; including his mom (Diane Lane) & girlfriend, Lois Lane (Amy Adams). In Gotham City, Batman (Ben Affleck) notices flying alien creatures that feed on fear keep popping up -- where do they come from & who's controlling them? Over in Themyscira, Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen) & the other scantily clad Amazon women face off against 8 ft. tall super villain Steppenwolf (CGI-ed Ciaran Hinds), the monster who controls the flying aliens. He has returned to Earth to find 3 "mother boxes" of energy (one is with the Amazons, one is with the Atlanteans deep under the sea & the last one is hidden among the race of men -- this all sounds very Lord of the Rings, no?).
If & when the 3 boxes are joined, it would cause mass destruction & a new world in which Steppenwolf could rule {ugh}. Bruce Wayne enlists Diana/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) to help him recruit a powerful team of superheroes. They include: nerdy teen Barry Allen/The Flash (Ezra Miller) - who's capable of hyperspeed; reclusive Victor Stone/Cyborg (Ray Fisher) – a former college athlete who turned into half-man/half-machine after a freak accident; & rebellious Arthur Curry/Aquaman (Jason Momoa) - the magical half-human heir to the underworld throne of Atlantis. Together, they aim to stop Steppenwolf & his fear-devouring aliens from destroying the world. If only they could resurrect a 6th superhero for added help {wink, wink}.
The trailers for this movie were so horrendous that I suppose it's a win that I think it is merely meh. Part of that could be attributed to the fact that director Zac Snyder - grieving over the suicide of his 20 yr. daughter - left post-production/reshoots to co-writer Joss Whedon (of Marvel fame). But really, the film is just too 'no one cares' to overcome the director fiasco, anyway. And rather than having a full-bodied story, it's mostly just set-up for future installments; ugh. The superheroes have such potential {on paper} and, the film works best when highlighting the team-building aspects. But at less than 2 hours in length, there's not enough time given to them for us to truly enjoy their strengths or revel in their personalities.
Ben Affleck's Bruce/Batman is not as super-serious this time, but looked bored. Thank goodness for Gal Gadot; who carries over Wonder Woman goodwill from her own movie that came out earlier this year. Ezra Miller is funny enough as Flash. But I found Ray Miller's Cyborg to be fairly ineffectual. And Jason Momoa is fine as Aquaman. I enjoyed when he mistakenly sits on WW's Lasso of Truth & blurts out how "gorgeous" she is. But the chemistry of this team doesn't really gel until they band together to - SPOILER ALERT - resurrect Henry Cavill's Superman {don't even ask how they do it ... its ridiculous}. From then on out, the sizing-up, bickering & bonding takes over with enough humor & feeling to create a rooting interest.
As for the action; well, Zac Snyder is an action stylist. But while his slow-mo choreography is on-point, much of the 'battling' falls into the been-there-done-that classification. You know: extraordinary powers that cannot be explained, fireball explosions, superheroes that can just DO stuff with no explanation and/or can withstand the force of a truck with nary a scratch on ‘em, etc. It's all sooo familiar & boring at this point. As for the villain, not only does he have no back story or distinct personality, but he's inconsequential in the grand scheme of things and, a terrible CGI creation. His CGI is awful, as is the sequence on Themyscira with Connie Nielsen. I don't expect such poor quality in a film of this magnitude. On the whole, I wasn't bored during the film, but wasn't engaged either. 'Justice League' is a decent enough crowd pleaser, but I'm disappointed in how diluted, rushed & shrug-worthy it wound up being.