The last time Batman and Superman graced the silver screen together was a fairly infuriating affair. “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” was one of the most over-written, over-executed yet underwhelming films of the last decade. The oft titled DC Extended Universe (DCEU) was getting off to a rough start, and the next film in the catalog, “Suicide Squad,” only exacerbated the issue.
In my opinion, the release of this years “Wonder Woman” was the first DCEU film since 2013’s “Man of Steel” to provide a decent film-going experience while also helping a wider audience understand why these characters are so beloved and mythic in popular culture.
“Justice League” was torn between two sides. Would it be a travesty like “Batman v. Superman” and “Suicide Squad,” or would it rise to the occasion and deliver a fantastic experience like “Wonder Woman?” While the film is far from perfect, for me it sides closer to “Wonder Woman.”
“Justice League” takes place a few months after the events of “Batman v. Superman,” and the world is still reacting to the loss of the Man of Tomorrow. With Superman gone, the world slowly starts to descend into chaos, with criminals rising up to fill the inevitable power vacuum caused by the Kryptonian’s death.
The fear and disorder on Earth also sends a beacon into the cosmos, leading to the arrival of Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds), New God and herald of Darkseid, as he seeks to claim the three powerful Motherboxes to prove his loyalty to his home world of Apocalypse.
Batman (Ben Affleck) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) then assemble a team of super-powered beings to fight against Steppenwolf and his army of Parademons in order to save the world from the invasion of the New Gods.
I think in order to have a fully realized discussion about “Justice League” it is incredibly important to talk about a few things that don’t pertain to the content of the story. The first is that this film was handicapped from the first day of production.
“Batman v. Superman” (BvS) was a narrative mess and had plenty of problems that were inevitably going to bleed into “Justice League.” The characterization of Batman, the personality of Superman and a lot of the incomprehensible and messy plot points of “BvS” were going to have a substantial impact on this film because a lot of issues needed to be reconciled.
On top of that, Director Zack Snyder’s daughter passed away during the production of the film, which led to Joss Whedon (director of Marvel’s “The Avengers” and “Avengers: Age of Ultron”) to helm the rest of the production on this film.
Both of those points are my long way of saying that I knew this film would have a ceiling as to how good it could be. In spite of that, I think the entire team on “Justice League” did a fantastic job putting together this film.
What I love about this film are its heroes. Every hero in this film gets his or her time to shine and has an identity markedly different from every other character. Ben Affleck and Gal Gadot give very well-rounded performances that remain fairly accurate to their comic book-based source material as Batman and Wonder Woman respectively.
DCEU newcomers the Flash (Ezra Miller), Aquaman (Jason Mamoa) and Cyborg (Ray Fisher) all provide performances and characters that make the Justice League feel like a unique team consisting of varied and complex heroes. Each character gets an opportunity to shine, and the juxtaposition between the different characters gives the team a distinct identity that I think is important for the DCEU moving forward.
Standouts in this film are Ezra Miller, Jason Mamoa and Gal Gadot as the Flash, Aquaman and Wonder Woman, respectively. The Flash was quirky, funny and lovable all at the same time. His naiveté and earnestness make him the most relatable character in the film and really serves as the audience’s point-of-view character.
Aquaman hinted at his internal struggle between being the King of Atlantis and a child of Earth. He had a level of regality and raw aggression that pits him as DC Film’s version of Thor. Jason Mamoa was fantastic in the role, and his performance and treatment in this film made me very excited for his standalone film next December.
Wonder Woman retained her role as the most badass character in the DCEU. Every fight scene she’s involved in demonstrates her power, intelligence and growth as a hero. I think a lot of the conversation about Wonder Woman since the release of her standalone film has been about how she’s such a great hero for women and girls to look up to, but I think that’s shortchanging the real power of the character as I think she’s a hero that all people can look up to and admire.
In the midst of all the things DC Films has gotten wrong, Wonder Woman stands as a magnificent example of something they have gotten so right.
Now, as I said, this film has issues. The first and most prominent is that the CGI and VFX in this film can sometimes look horrendous. For the most part they look great, but when they don’t, you can immediately tell. Whether it’s particular scenes with Cyborg, the entire look of Steppenwolf, one particular character’s upper lip or the VFX battles and set pieces, there are instances when the visual effects are so poor that it pulled me right out of the film.
Some of this can be due to the extensive reshoots and the shift in directors. If that is the case, however, I felt like they should have delayed this film a few months to polish up those instances of obviously bad CGI. During the final battle, some of the VFX was so patently obvious that it looked like the theater was screening gameplay from “Injustice 2.”
Speaking of bad, Steppenwolf is a terrible villain. All of the villains in the DCEU have at least been serviceable, but Steppenwolf was pretty bad. He wasn’t convincing as a hero. He wasn’t as fast as the Flash or considerably stronger than Aquaman or Wonder Woman. He needed to be stronger to really justify this team of heroes coming together. On top of that, it feels like his villainous motivations were cut from the film somewhere.
This leads me to the last criticism: the story has issues. One of the major issues with the story is that it takes some logical leaps that I don’t think it’s earned. Specifically, the relationship between Batman and Superman and also the way the world views Superman. The pacing in the film is pretty wild. There are many different locations early in the film, and none of them seem to gain any sort of narrative rhythm.
Some scenes should have been cut, and some of the scenes that were obviously left on the cutting room floor should have been left in. “Justice League” is actually fairly short, all things considered. It comes in at just under two hours including the credits. I feel like another 15-20 minutes could have been used to fill in some of the gaps, although I don’t think it would have fixed the issue of the bad villain.
“Justice League” is a good but flawed step in the right direction. It never rises to the heights of fellow DCEU film “Wonder Woman,” but it does course correct the entire DCEU narrative moving forward. The bad CGI and choppy storytelling are outweighed by its lighter, more focused tone and its commitment to great characters. It’s a fun time if you can get past some of its blatant missteps.
I give “Justice League” 7.5 / 10
Dear Colton, I find your reviews to be insightful and right on! A lot of times it’s fun to read a review because you know you’re going to disagree with the reviewer. I find I pretty much agree with your reviews, which is unusual for me but nice! You do a very good job. As Mr. Spock said, “It’s difficult to be accurate,” but I give you a 9.23575 🙂