Review of Justice League (2017) by Felipe A — 30 Jun 2018

Disappointing, unoriginal and superficial, Justice League turns the greatest comic-book team ever into poorly developed characters that do not represent the greatness of the Justice League. Zack Snyder and his vision was held back by Warner Brothers, which is obvious when looking at the insufficient plot and runtime.

WB also left a considderable ammount of scenes out of the final cut (don`t they ever learn?), including scenes which developed the new characters, which was certainly lacking. Speaking of "lacking", Steppenwolf is one of the worst villains I've seen in recent years.

He starts off well in a great action scene, but afterwards becomes pure "CGI-catchphrasy-I will destroy you all" kind of villain, with no development whatsoever. It is also ridiculous how easily Superman beats him, which raises the question of what good is the League if Sups can save the world so easily? Wonder Woman is great in this film, although a bit "catchphrasy" too.

Aquaman's personality is a lot different from the comic books, and although he is extremely underdeveloped, it was a good approach for the character. However, being different from the comics did not work at all with the Flash, especially because they chose to adapt Barry Allen, by transforming an intelligent and complex character into an idiotic hyperactive teenager with no timing for humor at all.

Cyborg had the most interesting drama in this movie, or at least he would have if half of his scenes weren't cut away from theatrical release, leaving the character also underdeveloped. Batman is not at all what we saw (and loved) in Batman V Superman.

In JL, he seems to be attending therapy, being oddly lighthearted and cracking dad jokes which are totally out of character. Also, we do not see the smart detective and strategist, just a dumber version of Tony Stark.

Superman was okay, having some good moments but also corny lines. It is important to remark that there were a handful of good scenes, such as Batman's first appearence, the opening credit sequence, a slow-motion interaction between Flash and Sups, and a few others.

The special effects were relly not good, especially in the uninspired final fight. Overall, having conflicting visions between Zack Snyder and WB (which hired Joss Whedon to carry out their visions), Justice League is a Frankenstein monster which teases potentially good characters, plot and action, but ends up not delivering any of those, and ends up being a unoriginal attempt to be simply a "good" movie, while actually being plain mediocre.