Review of Justice League (2017) by Joshua M — 26 Dec 2017

"Justice League" has the seeds for a great movie within it, but they're caged within a merely "good" film. Though the writing still fails his character (and ironically it shares a lot of similarities to Tony Stark's role in "Avengers: Age of Ultron"), Ben Affleck still comes off as a pretty solid Batman and he much more like the way I want the character to be.

[However, I know it's a personal thing, but it's still weird seeing an interpretation of Batman, Miller-inspired or otherwise, using guns meant to hurt people and not just for rappelling up/down buildings; that's just me talking.

] He is even better here than he was in "BvS." Another great thing, obviously due to her movie's success, is that Wonder Woman is given many of the best action scenes and lines in the flick.

I was also pleased that this film finally delivered the kind of Superman I have wanted, and have been waiting, to see Henry Cavill play for two movies now (even if the method for the Man of Steel's resurrection seems almost more complicated than the comics' version).

The filmmaking crew gave Aquaman (Jason Momoa) some nice opportunities to show off his cool powers, but outside of what the hardest of the hardcore DC fans know about him, general audiences have no real reason to care about this character or his backstory (later to be explored in his solo movie this December).

Despite Ezra Miller's and the script writers' aims to turn Barry Allen into the CW "Flash" show's version of Cisco Ramon, he becomes something more akin to "The Big Bang Theory"'s Sheldon Cooper with all of his jittery behaviors and anti-social demeanor.

Still, even with that and his powers feeling very reminiscent of the Quicksilver scenes from the most recent "X-Men" flicks (and again, not to mention the CW show), this Flash was cool to watch on the silver screen.

On the other side of things, both the reverse-engineered message of "hope" (compared to "BvS"'s dourness) and Aquaman's second-act speech [that's designed to create team tension a la "The Avengers" as well as push the narrative forward] feel hollow and come off as cheap sentiments.

When viewers finally get to the good action and thrilling teamwork at the end, the film decides it is time to wrap up all plot threads with a whimper. My biggest critiques of the film, though, come from the story, its tone, and the half-hearted, phoned-in stabs at humor that undermines the proceedings (making one feel like he/she was watching one of my least-favorite Marvel movies, such as "Guardians of the Galaxy" or "Ant Man"), as well as the suggestively-incomplete CGI for Cyborg (who fails to leave an impression) and Steppenwolf; I assume both of these problems are possibly symptomatic of a larger issue (re: easy-to-fix minor nits growing into bigger concerns for the film as sacrifices for the movie to meet its release-date deadline).

I was also HIGHLY disappointed in Amy Adams' Lois Lane being placed in such a limited role that she might as well have been written out of the plot. Overall, the film is watchable and thrilling enough and far from the dumpster-fire that numerous critics have claimed it is, but DC kneecapping its own product keeps it from achieving true greatness.