Justice League (2017) Review
It's been almost a year and half now since my review of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice Review, so I had to go back and scan it to see what I liked about it. My positives for the movie were mainly about the new take on already established characters and the cinematography. I think I also liked the idea that Warner Brothers tried to take a risk with killing off Superman in order to sort of reset his character. I hoped that later down the line, he would come back after Batman established the Justice League. I also hoped WB would learn from their mistakes. I originally thought the movie was good, but had a lot of problems in trying to telling a decent story. The characters were great (even if Batman let his no-kill rule go), the comic book/cartoon references were awesome, and the fact that DC was trying something new in the comic book movie genre was refreshing.
However, critic's opinion would dictate that BvS wasn't good. And neither was Suicide Squad (which I didn't like). Wonder Woman brought some hope to the DC CinetmaticUniverse. It was a decently told origin story and it was done well. It may have not been the Iron Man DC was loooking for, but it gave the WB train some light in the tunnel of darkness they might have been heading in. But the train was already set in motion and Justice League was already in production.
Until it wasn't. Zack Snyder removed himself from overseeing the editing of the movie due to personal tragedy and Joss Whedon took over. Reshoots were done. And any DC fan who hears "reshoots" tends to bite their nails in anxiety. Suicide Squad had reshoots and it didn't save it. BvS has a "director's cut" which is kind of a reshoot. It didn't really help much but it did give some help in explaining the story better. How would this be any different?
To tell you the truth, Justice League isn't utterly terrible in terms of a fun, superhero movie. It's got cool characters doing cool things. It has friggin' Batman being the strategist and recruiting superheroes that he could never beat hand to hand. It doesn't drag on (though I would have liked to have more story in my movies..). It's also got some humor strewn about. But the movie still makes mistakes. And it's terrible because it's so disappointing to a lot of movie goers. It still has some really bad pacing issues that were reminiscent of BvS. It has wonky CGI (that I didn't personally mind). And it does quite right the errors of BvS.
Without further ado, here's what I liked and didn't like from Justice League (2017).
What I Liked:
The Characters
Batman is less angry and more like Nick Fury. He's the recruiter and the leader despite being outmatched physically by his peers. I feel like a lot of people would say that Batman was a bit too mopey from feeling guilty about the death of Superman and then feeling way too happy when he came back. I didn't think any of that was a problem to be honest. Despite the controversial "Martha" scene from BvS, Bruce and Clark shared some type of bond. The only problem I had with Batman in this movie was when he gave a goofy smile later in the movie during the fight with Steppenwolf. If you've seen the movie, you'd know what I'm talking about.
Wonder Woman took a bit of a turn for the worse. Her introduction in this movie really didn't seem to fit in very much, she kind of just showed up at Bruce's doorstep and wanted in. I never like Gal Gadot's performance as an actor. She doesn't emote very well and never takes the scene with her performance. She may look the part, but the Wonder Woman I know is much more forceful and more aggressive. Literally every other Amazonian in the movie was like this--except her.
Even though the CGI may have rubbed people the wrong way, I really liked Cyborg. He definitely carried a Frankenstein Monster's vibe. Sadly, his arc in the movie happens too fast. There's very little time for him to develop as a character. Aside from some small conversations with Wonder Woman and The Flash, Cyborg is basically just along for the ride.
Barry Allen (The Flash) probably had the best representation outside of Batman and Wonder Woman. It's very easy to remember The Flash's scenes and lines from the movie since his character was the only one in the movie that brought levity and energy to the ensemble. He may have had some terrible jokes at odd times, but for the most part it was enjoyable to see him try and make friends with other members of the JL. I also think his "origin" in the movie was the best version of "show, don't tell." His conversation with his dad proved to be a good enough motivation for Barry Allen to do something greater than himself.
Superman's Return (despite it being too soon) Fight
However, Superman does little else throughout the rest of the movie. He meets back up with Lois Lane and only comes back to quickly dispose of the Steppenwolf and...that's it. I think his screen time during the final fight was about two or three minutes. His inclusion almost seemed like an after thought in the movie. It's sort of sad to have the world's most iconic character be included so sparingly, especially when he's the one to "rally" the alliance.
But Warner Brothers has made a good effort to try and bring Superman's character back to be more upbeat and optimistic instead of brooding and existential. If anything, Justice League did show that the world does need a Superman. Because he can literally beat up anyone.
Batman Is Still A Superhero
In a world where there are superhumans and demonic beings from another world, there's only so much a very smart, extremely rich, and impeccably fit man can do. Batman's literal superpower is money and resources. He's able to recruit and lead, but his physical might is shadowed by his peers. Besides the Gotham City fight scenes, there wasn't much else Batman could do. However, there were some key takeaways that made Batman memorable and worth watching:
1. Batman finds the weakness of the parademons and even though he can't beat them as quickly (and he's old), he can help distract the parademons away from the team.
2. Batman is the leader of the pack; he knows evil is coming and is the catalyst in the creation of the Justice League
3. Batman has one of the most memorable lines in the movie. Diana (Wonder Woman) tries to console him about Superman's death. Somewhere in the conversation Batman realizes out loud that Superman was "more human than I ever was." I loved this statement because it's true. Despite Clark Kent being an alien, he experienced and loved like a human more than Bruce every did in his whole life.
4. Batman planned to sacrifice himself at the end of the movie to get the JL close to Steppenwolf.
I hope I get to see a standalone Batman film with this version of Batman. It just sucks that WB did not do so hot with this movie at the box office. And I think I may know why....
What I Didn't Like
Storytelling
There were many things wrong with this movie. Rather than itemize them, I think I'm going to focus on one thing: Storytelling.The DCEU has a disease. It is trying to do too much in too little time and their effort is lacking. For every terribly told movie that comes out, it adds to the next one. The only movies that seem to do well are simple stand alone movies like Wonder Woman. BvS's story telling had a lot left to be desired, but I thought if WB made some more stand alone movies, it could turn the universe around and the JL movie would have legs to stand on. But they ended up following up a ensemble movie with another ensemble movie. Wonder Woman's origin story didn't really setup anything in JL. JL was a direct sequel to BvS. I even thought in my BvS review that more stand alone films would happen before the release of JL. I stand corrected now.
But with WB shooting themselves in the foot with this decision, they still didn't try to write a decent story. Everything was exposition. There was too much the audience didn't know and it didn't help that the dialogue to push the plot along was written with no other intent then to push the plot along. There were some jokes and a few conversations that helped build rapport between JL members.
Diana: "We're asking people we don't know to risk their lives."
Bruce: "I know. That's how it works."
These two lines are an analogy to how WB approached this film. It's almost like the director was trying to tell the fans that this mess of a story/universe is intentional. Despite all the mentions of director cuts and ultimate version of DCEU movies, I get the feeling that WB doesn't want its audience to know about these characters origins, personalities, or motivations. These superheroes (who we've all grown to love in some shape or form) are somehow strangers. It doesn't help that the audience also has to piece together a lot of story since it's not shown.
Scenes are positioned so awkwardly. BvS had the same issue but had less characters to deal with. Here it seems like some scenes were filmed for an entirely different purpose than how they were used. There's a moment in Superman's return where Lois tells Clark he "smells good" is so out of place and awkward. It felt like a scene that should be placed at the end of the movie. There is another part where Superman saves a building in the middle of a fight with Steppenwolf. He pops in, everyone is all happy, Superman throws a few punches, and then he zooms out to save civilians.
The way the movie was edited, it was pretty clear there were parts of the movie that were straight up missing. The whole scene with Aquaman going back to Atlantis was odd and out of place. The conversation was meant to give Aquaman some background and origin but it was confusing. We barely even know why Arthur (Aquaman) went back to Atlantis in the first place.
Being a fan of the characters helped fill in some of these holes in story telling. But if you never heard of Motherboxes, Darkseid, or Parademons, this movie won't make much sense. If you never read a Flash comic book or watched all the Justice League and Teen Titan Cartoons, you might not be able to piece some of this stuff together.
Conclusion
This review came off more like a rant than anything else. I always thought WB nailed the characters but never really could tell the story quite right. I have been giving excuses to them for a while but I want to see a really good movie from them. It's okay that the DC universe isn't a carbon copy of the Marvel one. It's just that these movies are not learning from their mistakes and continuing to double down on them. And when that mistake is story telling, the mistakes will only ruin the subsequent movies more and more.
These aren't video games either. Video game stories don't have to always make sense or can be super confusing when they're so damn fun to play.
So while this review may have been heavily negative, there is hope. JL is the last of the movies set in motion by Zack Snyder as the executive producer of the DCEU. Now that they have Geoff Johns in Snyder's stead, they have someone who not only understands DC comic book characters but can also write some really good stories.
I'm tired of having my childhood heroes be handled with such unsteady hands. I can forgive BvS a lot since it was trying to play catch up to Marvel's Avengers and had a late start due to Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy. But I can't forgive the mistakes made by JL as much. It's not hard to have good storytelling of good characters. JL gets it half right.
P.S. I still hope the current DCEU succeeds. I don't want to see another origin story for Batman.
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