Justice League

Don’t let the score fool you, I genuinely liked and enjoyed this film, I just have to be a critic about it…albeit a super biased one.

In the months following Superman’s (Henry Cavill) death, Batman (Ben Affleck) has enlisted the help of Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) in order to bring together a team of meta-humans to combat Earth’s greatest threats and enemies, more specifically a new evil in the form of Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds) as he tries to consume and conquer the planet via the technology known as the Mother Boxes. Filling in the ranks of Batman’s call to arms are Aquaman (Jason Mamoa), the Flash (Ezra Miller), and Cyborg (Ray Fisher), all new to the game and all (eventually) ready to take on the challenge of saving the world. But with Steppenwolf closing in on his goal and the team still not exactly operating on the same wavelength, will justice eventually prevail, or will the death of Superman be the end of these heroes before they’ve even become the team they were always meant to be?

Just to set the record straight, this isn’t a particularly good movie, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the ride. This film isn’t what I hoped for, nor is it what I feared, but it’s what I was expecting. It’s a film full of thrilling scenes and missed chances, fun fan service beats and annoying “trying too hard” moments, genuine thrills and forced laughs, and some great team building mixed with a sad excuse for a villain and story. But above all else, a new light hearted tone ends up steering this film into line with the Justice League cartoon and pre-The Dark Knight trilogy/Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero era films more than anything else. In short – just like (most) of the superhero flicks from those days i.e. Batman Forever, the first X-Men and Spider-Man films etc. – Justice League is a flawed yet fun film that should have been better had it not been for the meddlesome hands of studio involvement.

If you’re unfamiliar with the behind the scenes turmoil surrounding the completion of this film, just know that the original director – Zack Snyder – left during post-production of this film to deal with a family tragedy, only to be replaced with Joss Whedon, director of The Avengers and creator of lots of nerd things, to help finish up the film, punch up the script and shoot some extra scenes. The problem with this is that – just like with what Warner Bros. did with Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad – the studio let all of the meddling go a little too far, allowing the entire ending of the film to be changed, key scenes be removed or altered and dialogue added or replaced in order to fit what many believe to be yet another gut reaction to the success of Marvel, the studio’s own Wonder Woman, and the idea that these films need to be “more light hearted and fun” to do well both critically and commercially.

Well this time around it didn’t screw up the movie entirely, but it did just enough damage to make the film feel unfinished and slightly frustrating. Luckily there’s an equal amount of good to offset most of the bad, but not nearly enough to save the film from some odd choices in regards to both the story and characters involved in it. I still think Ben Affleck is my favorite Batman, but now I’m not sure with all the added one-liners and smiling. Affleck is still pretty great in the role, but even he looks uncomfortable at points, something that became more obvious as the film moved on. Ezra Miller’s portrayal of the Flash is great, if not a little grating only because it was obvious what Whedon had influenced. His overall look and use of his speed powers are just plain cool and way more fun than what I initially thought they’d be like, so kudos to the filmmakers for making this version of the Flash totally different from his TV counterpart. Jason Mamoa’s Aquaman took a second to warm up to, but fits the role well even though he ends up feeling like less of a focus than the other heroes at times. Rounding out the newbies is Ray Fisher’s Cyborg who surprised me the most in how genuinely cool and interesting he was even though his CGI seemed a little wonky here and there. I don’t really think I need to say much about Gal Gadot in the Wonder Woman role since she’s already the only actress that could play the character as she was always meant to be played, so just know that even if the film falters, these heroes certainly do not.

The action is fun if not a little run-of-the-mill with Snyder’s vision coming to the forefront in these scenes while Whedon’s influence is heavily felt in any scenes with talking heads. The visual style unfortunately seems a little toned down at points to make way for Whedon’s bland shooting style, but when it comes to payoffs and cool shots, Snyder usually gives us something to drool over even if it doesn’t happen as often as I would have liked. With Whedon, the character work is fun and dynamic enough to like each member of the league even with his pretty blatant and cheesy Marvel-esque one-liners peppered throughout, but it’s the joy of seeing all of these characters fight and interact and work together onscreen that got me going the most, something the script does well enough to help me forget some of the more annoying aspects of the film.

On the musical side of things, I really enjoyed Danny Elfman’s score, maybe more than I should have considering I’m writing an entire paragraph about it. It harkens back to the old school feel of superhero film scores much like what was heard in 1989’s Batman (also by Elfman), the original Superman film or even in any of DC’s animated series that came out in the 90s and early 2000s. In a way, the score set me up to understand that I wasn’t going to be getting the serious “Zack Snyder” film I was hoping for, it was too wacky and absurd for that, but with strings and loud, bombastic trumpets galore, the music itself essentially became a character in its own right as the movie progressed. It might have even helped to dull the more corny and comic book-y parts of the script just because that’s the type of tone the music was going for, something I embraced instead of fought. I can also totally understand people wanting something a little more…I don’t know…epic than what was heard here, so take the music at face value if you can.

While it’s really not the worst thing in the world like what  a lot of people are expecting and claiming it to be, Justice League is better than it’s parts but not quite whole enough to make it anything more than a just okay film. The actual story is pretty thin and rushed (thanks to the mandated 2 hour runtime by the studio) and the Joss Whedon add-ins are obvious and way too hit or miss to be consistent, but underneath all the clutter and studio politics is a film that gives us a near exact representation of a comic book come to life, and for me, that made all the difference.