Review of Justice League (2017) by Michael M — 01 Jun 2018

For all the hate it got, there was a lot I actually liked about Batman V. Superman. Sure it had some really low lows, but its highs were high enough that overall I found myself liking the movie. Justice League however, is more like a consistent tone of meh. It's not that bad I guess, but nothing about it is particularly good.

There are things in it I did like. The casting is all really good first of all, and when the team is together playing off of each other they are enjoyable. A standout for me was Flash. He's not the Flash as we've typically seen him, he's more the bright-eyed youngster of the group who's still learning his powers, but I liked him. Affleck is still good as Batman, though not as much a standout as in BvS, and Henry Cavill finally feels like a pure good-hearted Superman in this one. The only role that felt a little off to me was J.K. Simmons as Jim Gordon, mostly because I so identify him with angry characters I kept expecting him to chew out Batman and demand pictures of Spider-Man or something. He does his best, but he's not in the movie much, and never given a chance to do much.

What I didn't like about the movie? Oh god...I really wanted to like this movie. Every time a new thing would happen, I would perk up and think "oh, I wonder how this will go?" and then I would get mad or disappointed. Going to Atlantis? Oh, it looks like crap. Introducing the villain? Oh, he's just some bland BS. Big action sequence? Oh, just a bunch of CGI nonsense. The CGI in this movie in particular is just awful. I never felt like I was looking at anything real, it just felt like a video game cut-scene, and not even a good video game, but like a low-rent Xbox 360 game. The story is fairly straightforward, moreso than BvS anyway, but it's just not that interesting. It feels rushed, and because most of these characters are getting introduced in this movie it feels like the cliff notes version of a larger story. I would say that maybe they needed more time, but I've seen animated Justice League movies that are able to introduce their characters, give them a threat, and provide a solid story in roughly 70 minutes. Having said that, DC's animated game is killing it right now, just stick with that.

If this movie had come out 20 or even 10 years ago, it would have been passable. It wouldn't have been great, but compared to the superhero game of the time it would have been considered pretty good. Now, the bard has been raised so high, something like this just can't compete. It has no real identity beyond playing catch up and trying to do what it thinks people want, which just gives it an identity crisis. My rating honestly is probably a bit harsher than it should be here. The thing is, there is stuff in this movie I did like, there were little sparks of hope and little moments where I realized they were headed in the right direction. But the end result is just so jumbled and ugly that I really can't recommend it. I was so consistently annoyed my whole time watching the movie. I kept thinking it would turn around, but then something would piss me off. A couple of brilliant moments can't make up for that.