Review of Justice League (2017) by Andrew V — 19 Dec 2017

After the highly disappointing Last Jedi movie (despite the magnificent critic reviews it had received), it has become clear to me that film critics are not quite honest. Thus, I am going to start posting my own honest reviews of films, since I'm not on the Disney bankroll (unlike some of these film reviewers).

For Justice League, let me start out by saying that I did not like Batman v Superman or Suicide Squad. I actually hated both of them, particularly Batman v Superman and its treatment of the two heroes. I therefore had doubts about the future of these DC movies. Only when Wonder Woman came along did my feelings sway a bit. That is a terrific movie from top to bottom and if you haven't seen it, go check it out.

Now onto Justice League.

Justice League is a great movie. MUCH better than the critics made it out to be. I honestly don't know why it received such a negative critical response. I thought the plot was solid and each of the characters had a chance to breathe and develop in this movie. They played off each other well, and I honestly didn't find any of the heroes lacking in terms of development (maybe the Cyborg character could've been developed more, but there's not all too much you can do in a two hour film without cramming too much into it).

Critics laughed at the villain Steppenwolf in this movie, panning him as a cardboard shell of a villain who is uninteresting and underdeveloped. That is not what this movie is about. The purpose of this movie was to bring together some of the greatest superheroes in comic book history. That is what this film done. Unfortunately the villain needed to be the device to bring this group together, and therefore his story needed to be sacrificed. I am totally ok with that, mostly because we finally get to see the Superman that we deserved, we finally get to see a reasonable film version of the Flash and Aquaman. The actors all seemed to be enjoying themselves in the movie (except Affleck, who clearly wants out) and it showed in the film.

The story was also much simpler than the overly complex Batman v Superman. Villain threatens Earth and a team of superheroes join up to defeat him. Yes, it sounds derivative of an Avengers movie, but most movies are derivative of another movie these days anymore.

I know that DC is most likely going to wipe the slate clean and start over with most of these superheroes. I'm fine with that, but I am happy to see that this latest installment redeemed the prior outings of Batman and Superman, and it was a joy to watch this movie.

Highly recommend for people to bypass the critics and watch this movie. Have modest expectations going in and enjoy the ride.