I am not the biggest fan of the DC cinematic universe. “Man of Steel” was okay, “Batman vs. Superman” was not good and “Suicide Squad” was a dumpster fire of a movie. Add on the fact I do not think Zack Snyder is a great director, and I was left walking into the theater to see “Justice League” with very little hope.
The only thing which gave me some hope going into the movie was the success of “Wonder Woman,” and Joss Whedon’s involvement directing some of the film.
What I got was a surprisingly decent film, overall. You can definitely tell this film is a mixture of both directors.
There is a lot of Snyder’s visual style, mixed with the witty banter and chemistry of a Whedon film. I remember thinking to myself about halfway through the movie, “Wait…am I enjoying this?”
Turns out I was. I enjoyed all the old characters, and the new ones as well. Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg are the newcomers to the team.
The movie gives you decent reasons for each of them wanting to join the League, which gives them each a little bit of a character arc. They are not particularly great arcs, but they are there, and I appreciate the effort.
I think Wonder Woman is my favorite part of the movie. Gal Gadot is fun to watch on screen, and it is great to watch her kick bad guy butt. Plus, her arc is by far the most interesting to me.
Steppenwolf is just a throwaway villain. He has no real motivation other than to take over the world, and he is essentially just a pawn in a much bigger plan. It is also difficult to take a fully CGI villain seriously.
The CGI in this movie is terrible. Just downright bad. I mean for goodness sakes, if you cannot fix Henry Cavill’s mustache he had for reshoots, I think it means you need more time.
The movie could have benefited from having more time.
Zack Snyder had to step down as director toward the end of production and Warner Brothers brought in Joss Whedon to finish it.
Rather than push off the release date to let Whedon fully do his thing, they kept it and gave him only three months to partially do his thing. The movie could only be better if they had given Whedon more time and decided to push the release date into early 2018.
Overall “Justice League” is a fun time at the theater, with at least some depth to it. It is definitely not the greatest superhero movie, definitely not even in my top 10, but it is a step in the right direction for Warner Brothers and the DC Extended Universe.