Justice League
Directed By: Zack Snyder
Grade: B
Expectations were somewhere in the middle considering all the behind the scenes stuff that went on with this movie. When I couldn’t see it this weekend I started hearing it had bombed because it made under a hundred million. Really? I mean the movie itself had some problems (some big) and it’s not something I’ll see again in theaters but I enjoyed it and I’m still hopeful for the DCEU.
The Iffy…
Ah, see. I’m generally disappointed by comic book movie villains so Steppenwolfe or whoever. I was prepared for him to be lame. He was okay. He kind of reminded me of the dark elf from Thor: The Dark World.
I also almost never enjoyed the effects or big battles in the DC/ Snyder films so I was ready for that. I have to say it was better than usual. The Amazon stuff looked like video game bad and I hope they make Atlantis look better on screen before Aquaman rolls around. But I actually really liked the daytime superhero fight and the Flash effects looked good.
The best part of the movie for me- the part that pushed it over to enjoyable- was the cast and the characters. I liked all the actors in their roles and I thought they had good chemistry together, for the most part. While I appreciated that they didn’t spend forever setting up origins and actually got to the point rather quickly I felt that made some of the humor a little weaker.
(Also I get the impression there were a lot of things cut. There’s actually a petition going around to get the Zack Snyder cut released.)
Cyborg (Ray Fisher) was a nice surprise. I was worried mostly because I’m not familiar with the character and then the back and forth of his solo movie being pulled. But Ray Winston was really good in the part and I thought Cyborg fit in nicely. Also a plus was the back and forth between Bruce, Diana and especially Bruce and Clark. But see? That worked for me because of the history in Batman vs. Superman.
So while I say I don’t need origin stories and solo movies for a shared universe it does help to have the history.
Bonus points for a bit of a sense of humor on Superman, at last. (Cavill was the best I’ve seen him in the role too.) I was also surprised by how they brought him back. For some reason I hadn’t expected the League to play a part in it.
So in the end I liked Justice League. It has the benefits of a great cast and characters but also all the problems I expected of it to be frank. I still have hope for Aquaman (though we didn’t see much of him) but I do think they desperately need to get the behind the scenes stuff together and let the directors have their vision. Keep the studio out of it.
Recommend: Yes.