Review of Justice League (2017) by Ursula M — 27 Nov 2017

I'm going to start by saying that I think that a lot of the more positive feedback Justice League is getting seems to come from fans who are in denial about how bad it was. Look, I completely understand. I've been waiting for years to watch a movie including Supes, Batsy, Flash, Cyborg, and Wonder Woman. But unfortunately, put in simple terms, there is just no way anyone with an objective mind can watch this movie and say that it was good. And saying that the film is fine just because it was better than Batman vs Superman and Suicide Squad is a fallacy in itself. If you want a review that's more than just "This movie was AWESOME!" or "Take that, Marvel fanboys!" then keep reading. I'll mention what I remember off the top of my head, because despite my strong opinions about it, the movie is also oddly forgettable.

The writing in this movie was mostly awful--while many of the jokes did land, some just fell flat, and there wasn't much dialogue that wasn't ridiculous or cheesy. The amount of empty, soulless lines spoken by actors who were too good for the material felt painfully awkward to watch on screen at certain moments. With the DC universe rushing to catch up to Marvel's movie franchises, Justice League had the same problem that 2016's Suicide Squad had in that it tries to come off as an Avengers-style crossover film, but it doesn't succeed because four of the six characters featured in it don't already have their own film franchises. Introducing the new characters of Aquaman, Flash, and Cyborg meant crunching their backstories into the first twenty minutes of the film, oftentimes telling more than they show. The lack of development was more or less expected when it came to those three characters, but it extended way beyond. There is one awful scene in the beginning of the movie involving Lois Lane and Martha Kent in which you realize that Lois was never given much depth in the first two Superman movies and it is perhaps because of that that the actress' performance feels so awkward--she didn't have anything to base it off of. Even Wonder Woman was reduced to a mere archetype under Snyder's directing. I knew it wouldn't go well for her from the beginning, when the first shot we see of her comes from below her skirt.

The film's villain--a giant CGI mess dubbed "Steppenwolf"--is perhaps the worst I've ever seen in any superhero movie. There was no personality and no motive, and he moved like a videogame character. The CGI in general was just lackluster, especially for a Zack Snyder movie. It was actually astounding how this movie--directed by someone who is arguably a visionary when it comes to modern visual effects--was such a hot mess to look at. The final battle looked fake and ugly. Superman's face was hilariously animated in an attempt to cover up the moustache Cavill sported during the reshoots. There is a long story as to why that ended up looking so bad that doesn't really justify why it did. The same goes for the film's editing. The action passes way too fast to really understand what's going on, and apparently Warner Bros. hired an editor to ruthlessly chop Snyder's original, 3+ hour long movie to its 2 hour runtime. Does that excuse the awful editing and the narrative problems? No. Does Snyder get more sympathy because of this? Also no.

It's not that there are zero silver linings to this film. The actors all own their roles pretty well, despite not having much to interpret due to the lacking script, and there is chemistry. The best scene in the whole movie is one involving Aquaman and the lasso of truth. I won't spoil anything, but it would suffice to say that that scene is funny, and heartwarming, and everything that everyone probably wanted Justice League to be, with an Avenger's-type humor and the signature DC grit. At the very least, the movie will make you laugh a couple of times.

Most notably, Ezra Miller (who plays Flash) is probably the best thing about the movie in general. There is plenty of eye candy in Snyder's signature slow-motion cinematography, even if this gets very repetitive after a while. But all in all, this movie is one you're probably going to want to skip unless you're a completionist who can't stand not watching the latest installment in this shaky franchise.