Review of Justice League (2017) by Kelly G — 05 Dec 2017

Acting:

I want to start off by saying that Justice League is not an entirely bad or unentertaining movie. The movie features some decent performances by great actors. Ben Affleck continues to grossly exceed expectations (albeit low ones) as Batman. I found Ezra Miller's Flash not only quirky and genuine, but also surprisingly funny. Jason Momoa does a decent job presenting a different, grizzled and manly version of Aquaman. Other actors and actresses were less than stellar... While I certainly don't blame the talented Amy Adams, Lois Lane is a completely forgettable character and there is no real chemistry between her and Superman. Normally that wouldn't matter as much, but this movie really spends a lot of time highlighting their relationship. On a related note, Henry Cavill's Superman has evolved from the rugged, damaged character that he was in Man of Steel to a brooding, whiny and depressing character that reminds me of Hayden Christensen in the Star Wars prequels. Gal Gadot is fine but underutilized. Most importantly, I forgot Ray Fisher's Cyborg as soon as I walked out of the theatre. Take that for whatever it's worth. What bothers me most is that I truly believe that the acting talent is well above average. The issue is that the actors simply cannot overpower poorly written lines and a nonsensical script.

Plot:

Pretty much the entire movie revolves around the characters making snarky comments to each other while battling a forgettable enemy. When you add that to the fact that the main characters are also teaming up to fight a nondescript CGI army (see the next section for more on that), it's easy to see how many people said this movie was trying copy The Avengers. Some of the comments are truly witty and funny. The problem is that you can't have every character make constant cocky, humor-attempting remarks throughout the entire movie. This methodology provides a great amount of clips for the trailer but makes for unrealistic dialog in a full movie. The Avengers pulled it off with less snarky comments and also had the benefit of Robert Downey Jr. whose character can pull off those comments. The other major plot problem is that once you see that Superman is more powerful than the rest of the Justice League (combined) and the main villain, the sense of conflict and tension vanishes. He's faster than flash, stronger than Wonder Woman and can fly while shooting lasers from his eyes. I would have loved to see some Kryptonite in this movie to remind everyone that Superman is one burst of green gas away from being as weak as a kitten, but, unfortunately, Kryptonite does not make an appearance in the movie. Instead, his "weakness" is his love for Lois Lane. It just doesn't come off as a believable motivating factor, in large part because we just don't see enough of the two of them together.

Special Effects and Action:

I'll start off by pointing out that major superhero movies need to take a step away from having the main characters fight massive faceless CGI armies. It worked for Lord of the Rings and the Avengers, but it likely won't ever work again. Take a look at recent successful superhero movies like Spiderman: Homecoming, Captain America: Winter Soldier & Civil War, Dr. Strange and even D.C.'s Wonder Woman and you'll see how good movies trend towards interpersonal conflict and identifiable villains. Those movies can be juxtaposed with The Avenger's: Age of Ultron and Suicide Squad... This leads me to another point. The main villain in the movie was the opposite of compelling. Having a CGI character is a major risk, because for every Groot there's a Silver Surfer, Scorpion King and Jar Jar Binks. At least they weren't fighting a giant space fart (Green Lantern). Moving on, apparently during several reshoots Henry Cavill wouldn't shave his mustache and they had to use CGI to give him a new mouth. This was not only clear to me while I watched the movie, it was extremely distracting. On a positive note, the action sequences looked cool in an intense, adrenaline pumping sort of way. Clearly a lot of money was spent on the fight scenes that should've been put into making Steppenwolf (CGI bad guy) look more realistic and paying Henry Cavill to shave his stache.