Justice League Review

Justice League is the fifth film in the DC Extended Universe following 2012’s Man of Steel and returns director Zack Snyder and stars Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Henry Cavill, Jason Momoa, Ray Fisher, and Ezra Miller as the members of the Justice League. The film picks up following the death of Superman and sees Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg, and the Flash attempt to stop the villainous Steppenwolf from destroying the world. This film suffers from a horrendous narrative that does not have any depth and feels extremely generic. Steppenwolf is one of the worst villains in cinematic history and completely wastes the talents of Ciaran Hinds (Game of Thrones, There Will Be Blood) with a CGI blob that has the most generic plan and is beaten in the easiest way. Of all the iconic villains in the DC universe, to make the first villain that the Justice League face Steppenwolf, a bland character that is essentially just a minion to a higher power, is a complete travesty.

Another major problem that plagues this movie is the CGI. For a movie that supposedly cost $300 million, this is arguably the worst use of CGI that I have ever seen in a blockbuster film. There are literal scenes where the use of green screen can be easily seen and you can almost cut out the outlines of characters because the green screen is so bad. Green screen and CGI are not bad things, as numerous movies and TV shows use them to great effect to the point that it is noticeable, with Game of Thrones and the recent Planet of the Apes films as great examples, but it is just so bad in Justice League that it is noticeable. On top of the fact that he is poorly written, Steppenwolf is an a CGI creation that is horrendous. It feels half-baked, and he looks hilarious. There are so many noticeably bad CGI scenes that it brings down the movie to an extremely low-level.

However, where this movie does succeed is in the members of the League, with the exception of Ben Affleck’s Batman. Once again, Gal Gadot shows that she was born to play Wonder Woman and is the perfect embodiment of this character. She is strong, fierce, and should be the focus of the DC Extended Universe going forward. Henry Cavill returns as Superman and is sadly given nothing to do again. Cavill is a perfect choice to play the Man of Steel but has constantly been given the short straw in his appearances as Superman. Ezra Miller (Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, The Perks of Being a Wallflower) and Jason Momoa (Game of Thrones) steal the show as The Flash and Aquaman, respectively. Miller is endearing as the comic-relief and Miller’s franticness is put on perfect display in this film. Momoa kills it in this role, and he is a perfect casting choice for what Aquaman needs to be in order to be taken seriously on-screen and gives the best monologue in the movie. Even though Joss Whedon’s (Avengers, Firefly) presence on this film did not mesh entirely well with Zack Snyder’s (Whedon co-wrote the script and stepped in as director for the reshoots after Snyder suffered a family tragedy), the characters of Flash and Aquaman were obvious beneficiaries of his presence. Newcomer Ray Fisher is perfectly fine in his first ever film role as Cyborg, but his character is a total plot device. There is no good reason for Cyborg to be in this film other than give the team a way to defeat Steppenwolf, and, as a result, he is not given much to do. One of the massive problems that this movie faces is Ben Affleck as Batman. While Affleck was totally engaged and gave a great performance as the Caped Crusader in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, he does not even phone in his performance here, he texts it in. Affleck looks like he just does not want to be playing this role as he sleepwalks his way through every scene and is just a lumbering presence in the action scenes. If this franchise is to succeed, Affleck needs to leave the cowl behind since it is obvious that he is done with this role and fans deserve a lot better than the performance that he gave in this film.

If you are a fan of these characters, then you will enjoy everything with them in Justice League, but the poor CGI and weak story will ultimately leave you walking out of the theater mildly disappointed in what you just watched but excited for the future adventures of these characters.

Justice League: 6.25 out of 10

Photo Credit: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0974015/