Movie Review: Justice League

Justice League [2017]

So I watched Justice League today. The internet is pretty divided, with some reviews calling it a shit 2/10 movie or whatever, and some people calling it a 8/10 9/10 movie. The thing is... I really do think that people get caught up in the Marvel-vs-DC lambasting war a bit too much for their own good, and I certainly thought that Justice League is a perfectly good and serviceable superhero movie. It's entertaining as hell. Does it do anything particularly new or revolutionary in the ever-diluted superhero genre? No. Is it a good, solid movie regardless, though? I genuinely do think so.

And yes, the bar was set pretty low since Batman v. Superman and Suicide Squad are pretty much barely better than disasters, and I don't think it's better than its direct predecessor, Wonder Woman... but it's still a good movie nonetheless. It's certainly not perfect. There are many moments that I thin could've done well with extra editing. But there isn't a huge moment that made me go "come on, this is fucking stupid" like the Martha moment or the random 'Knightmare' sequence in BvS. And the fact that I want them to simply add things to the movie as opposed to removing scenes or subplots really speak to the fact that, yes, it's a good movie. It's definitely flawed, don't get me wrong... but calling it a 'mess', 'stumbling' or worse than its predecessors honestly isn't particularly accurate. I'd accept average or mediocre -- which I personally feel this movie rises above -- but I'll fight anyone who calls this movie outright bad.

Am I slightly biased? Definitely so. I've been a huge, huge DC fanboy since I was a kid. I grew up with Batman and Justice League cartoons. And seeing the League assembled in a live-action movie, all of the main big dudes (and Cyborg) assembled and fighting a huge threat is still worth the price of admission. But I really am very pleased to find out that it's a good movie nonetheless.

Let's talk about the bad parts of the movie first, really, before we go to the good parts, if only so that I can tick them off of my list.

The lack of a huge 'HELL YEAAAAAAAH' Justice-League-all-assembled scene is a bit sad for me. For all its faults BvS had this great moment of Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman assembled before Doomsday as the music ratchets up and Diana slowly lowers her hands and we have a slow pan zoom-in of the DC trinity -- and that single moment probably redeems BvS a lot more than it should in my eyes. Avengers has this great scene of turning around the main six Avengers in the New York city -- you know the shot. The Flash's first season finale had that great lineup of Firestorm, Flash and Green Arrow assembled in a team-up as the music and tension builds up. Civil War had that scene of both Team Cap and Team Iron Man assembled, slow-walking towards each other. Sure, we get many scenes of the Justice Leaguers assembled together or in a badass line, but it never quite manages to build up the way that other superhero team-ups have. Small complaint, perhaps, but it's definitely a bit of a shame for me. The big beats of the League forming together or Superman returning back from the dead or Steppenwolf being felled didn't quite have the huge impacts that those scenes deserve, in my opinion.

Steppenwolf is one hell of a flat villain, and the Mother Box plot device is, well, plot device-y as all hell. Cyborg is also more of a plot device than a character in the third act, but it's not as terrible as it seems. Steppenwolf is at least decently acted, and the plotline is easy enough to follow without being a convoluted mess (BvS, Age of Ultron, hello?). But Steppenwolf is threatening enough, Ciaran Hinds' performance is great and gives him an aura of malice, and while he's undoubtedly a flat character I don't think that's a problem that Justice League has alone -- really, any superhero movie villain not named Loki tends to be a one-note hammy villain anyway. If anything, I'm glad he's at least not as dumb as Doomsday was. I did wish he did do a little less 'ooo mother calls' thing, though.

There were some moments that I feel was weird and kind of took me out of the movie for a while. First is the weird super slo-mo scene in the opening of some thug kicking a bunch of oranges, which felt absolutely unnecessary, and the constant cutting back-and-forth to the random family in Russia that are hiding in their house as Steppenwolf's Parademons fly around it... I really felt that that was a huge distraction that could've been better spent doing literally anything else. There were also a couple of scenes that I'll criticize -- Steppenwolf using the random abandoned nuclear plant as a staging ground wasn't really explained that much, and for a moment I thought that was where humanity's Mother Box was. And Aquaman going from being chastised for being a broody antisocial dude by Mera to randomly showing up when Steppenwolf traps the League in a flood is pretty odd.

And I really wished Steppenwolf was built up to be even more ridiculously powerful so the climax is 'oh my god, is the combined League enough to take Steppenwolf down?' and not 'oh my god, can they wake up Superman in time?' but that's not that big of an issue for me, honestly, and considering how poor of a showing Superman has been given in BvS it's really pretty fucking great.

All the other problems that other people have about this movie, I think, is otherwise just nitpicking. Superman's badly-CGI'd mustache removal is barely noticeable, and I was paying attention. The huge 'tone imbalance' between the Zack Snyder and Joss Whedon parts of the movie isn't that jarring. And the fact that Justice League has a generic sci-fi plot is honestly pretty much the plot of half of the superhero movies out there, and when you're introducing a slew of new characters to an audience you don't go for a ridiculously complex philosophical plot.

Oh, and the absolutely cheesy flowers blooming all over the dead town is honestly a bit too cheesy for me... although it certainly didn't ruin the movie.

So yeah. Time for me to praise the movie.

Because I like it. It's not the best work DC has ever done (that award still goes to The Dark Knight and Wonder Woman) but it's still a good movie.

The plot was... fine. It's just basically an alien invasion, with Steppenwolf being nigh-unbeatable and tossing around everyone until the League is properly assembled. It's a simple three-act movie, with the first act being a neat montage of Batman and Wonder Woman collecting heroes all over the world while Steppenwolf arrives, and beats up the Amazons of Themyscira and the Atlanteans to steal the two Mother Boxes that they keep. Four of our heroes manage to team up and fight against Steppenwolf in an absurdly wide sewer-chimney system and didn't defeat him. And the second, shorter act is basically them bringing Superman back to life. It's actually relatively well-paced, and while Superman does go crazy for a bit, bringing Lois Lane back to calm him down is a great emotional beat. And not as stupid as Martha. It's absolutely chilling to see Superman be confused and out of control, without the silliness of having him flip-flop between good and evil (Transformers 5, looking at you). The third act is a simple extended climax which kind of drags on for a bit too long, and both Cyborg and Superman being kind of plot devices hurts it somewhat, but it's otherwise a pretty simple yet satisfying end.

Oh, and the score! Before we go anywhere, the score's just amazing. They even added a lot of tracks that take directly from Christopher Reeve Superman films, and Batman: The Animated Series' main opening theme, and I just shivered when I heard the all-too-familiar DUNNNN DUNNNNNN DAAAA DAAAAAAAAAA DAAAAAHHHHHHH blare out.

And a lot of the action scenes are awesome -- I'm just sad that a lot of the key Aquaman scenes are already shown in the trailer, so sequences like Aquaman's airborne battle against the Parademons and slamming one down onto a building, or his underwater scuffle with Steppenwolf, or his holding a wave of water back with his quindent didn't quite have as big of an impact as they probably should... but it's partially because of me watching the trailers a bit too much than I should.

But the rest of the action scenes are pretty great! Batman with the thug on the rooftops of Gotham City was just amazing and I was instantly enraptured by it. Wonder Woman and the terrorists and just how quickly she deflects everything was a huge, huge 'holy shit!' moment. The Amazons' game of hot potato with the Mother Box as they go through elaborate maneuvers to toss the plot device around as Steppenwolf chases them is one of the best action sequences in the movie. The underwater swirling sea-storm created by Mera is amazing. And that's just the first act. Superman facing off against the League is perhaps my favourite action scene, with a special highlight to Flash running towards Superman while the world around him goes to slo-mo... and then Superman follows Flash's movement and the 'OH CRAP' realization and Superman going wild, keeping pace with Flash, is just great.

Superman pounding Steppenwolf to the ground in the climax? Also amazing. The Batwing swooping in and just missile striking everything? Flash and Superman's team-up in saving the civilians? Wonder Woman and Aquaman holding off Steppenwolf? Superman's arctic breath? Superman holding Batman by his throat? The flashback with a motherfucking Green Lantern and Zeus, the God of Thunder, fighting against Steppenwolf? Batman's Knightcrawler kicking all sorts of ass? All amazing action scenes.

And thankfully, the movie isn't dour. It's not a laff-a-minute moment like Thor: Ragnarok was, and I'm actually thankful for that. It's not forced, because there's still this huge opera-esque dramatic tension behind it... but the heroes are wisecracking and having fun. Most of it is from Aquaman, the bro-iest bro ever in the world of bro, and Flash, who's even goofier and awkward than his TV-series version, but everyone gets their moment. Even Superman, who spent his last movie being a brooding sack of sadness, smiles a lot in this movie and I'm so thankful. He even cracks a joke! This is the Superman we need. The course correction was definitely needed, in my opinion.

I'm going to try and not ramble about too much, and go through each character separately. That, I think, is the beauty of this movie. Each character has their own personal arcs, and it's gradually shown to us. No one gets their origin story displayed a lot -- even the three newcomers -- but we do sort of learn who they are and what they are. Aquaman is mentioned to come from Atlantis, he's the royal son but has some emotional issues. Flash's whole 'trying to clear my dad's name' origin is mentioned and we see Henry Allen in prison talking to Barry a couple of times, but we don't get pointless foreshadowing to Reverse-Flash or whatever that won't be followed up here. Cyborg's backstory is described in greater detail, but only because his father Silas's involvement in obtaining one of the Mother Boxes is crucial to the Steppenwolf-and-Boxes plot. And I like that it makes the movie self-contained, while still building on to the mythos.

Batman's the first Leaguer we see, and after that awesome beat of a one-on-one against a Parademon, we get to see that he's been preparing for the invasion, trying to find out what's going on, and ends up trying to recruit people. Most of all, he's trying to atone for his sins in being a paranoid shit who tries to kill Superman, and tries his best to play well with others. He's patient with the hyperactive Flash, and his whole 'save one person' speech to the Flash is mentoring and well-delivered -- perhaps one of the most effective scenes in the entire movie, to be honest, with the whole "I have never fought, I just run fast and push people over." "Save one person. One. You'll know what to do next."

Batman and Wonder Woman also get a lot of great scenes together, because, of course, they're the only two members of the main five members that actually fought together before this. And Diana's not wrong in pointing out Bruce's obsession with bringing Superman back being perhaps based on a bit of a guilt complex. In conversations with Diana and Alfred, though, we get to see Batman as acknowledging how much of a shit people person he is (Flash joins because he's just more excited about the cause that Batman's own sales pitch, Aquaman refuses outright and later joins on his own whim, Cyborg was brought in by Diana's talk) and he knows that both Wonder Woman and Superman would make for far better leaders than he is. This road of sacrifice and atonement is definitely well-delivered, and this type of Batman that's equal parts broody and equal parts self-sacrificial for his friends, being motivated by making the world a better place and protecting his allies and friends, is far more Batman than the paranoid chessmaster that he was in BvS.

He's borderline suicidal in places here, between his talk with a memory-confused Superman ('do you bleed?') and his one-man charge to draw the Parademons away while his allies take down Steppenwolf, knowing full well that he can't last against the Parademon swarm? Yeah, Bruce's on a bit of a self-destructive, self-sacrificial bit here, and he's eventually reminded that, yes, he has friends. And that absolutely dopey grin he has when Superman shows up to whack Steppenwolf in the climax? That's absolutely great. (Bruce buying the bank is also amazingly hilarious)

Wonder Woman, meanwhile, is basically being groomed by Batman as a leader. She doesn't do quite as much as she does in her solo movie, but she still delivers a pretty great showing here. Between kicking ass (and she does a lot of ass-kicking here, from single-handedly defeating a bomb attack to single-handedly challenging Steppenwolf multiple times to the headbutt-battle with angry evil Superman), Wonder Woman also proves herself to be the most compassionate of the group. She connects with the self-loathing Cyborg very well, she admits her own problems -- Batman brings up Diana shutting herself from the world for hundreds of years when she could've been a symbol of hope like Superman was, and she definitely wants to stop Batman from pulling another Steve Trevor. The final shot we see of her is Wonder Woman once more being a hero in the eyes of a group of children, embracing the fact that like Superman flying in the sky, she, too, is a symbol of hope and courage. Diana is perhaps the most static character out of the main members of the League, but that's okay. She just had a whole movie to herself, and she's definitely still got a lot of great scenes here.

The Flash, a.k.a. Barry Allen, is perhaps the most vocal and most well-developed out of the three newcomers in this movie. And while it's perhaps tempting to go Ezra Miller vs. Grant Gustin... I love both Flashes, and I think both actors are great. Flash here is a lot more inexperienced and scatterbrained, far younger than the other five members of the Justice League, and is honestly just trying to get his shit together. We get to see him geeking out over Batman and trailing off on tangents during their first meeting on the... Flashcave? We get to see a more somber side to the bubbly boy when he meets Henry Allen, trapped in prison for a crime he didn't commit, and while he does fine standing next to Batman, Wonder Woman and Cyborg, when push comes to shove Flash panics, freaks out over the alien army, and as Batman tells him to just 'save one person', Flash ends up realizing what he has to do.

And no, Flash doesn't actually fight a lot, and he's the easiest to point out as the 'support' member of the group. Even Batman kicks more ass than the Flash with a combination of his Knightcrawler, Batmobile, Batwing and the stolen Parademon gun. But I think it's actually pretty appropriate for this incarnation of the Flash, with how he's established to honestly just be a kid. He ends up getting more confidence, more friends, and delivers a whole ton of fun jokes on the way.

Cyborg is perhaps a bit more plot device-y than he should have been, but we actually did get a pretty large mileage out of his story than I expected to. It's perhaps a bit predictable, but it's delivered well and Ray Fisher definitely makes a pretty good Cyborg. Cyborg's origin was always slightly more dark, even in the Teen Titans comics he comes from. Cyborg is still full of loathing -- both at himself for what he's became, and for his father for making him into, well, a machine. Yes, he ends up being kind of a huge walking plot device due to how he's a robot that can access anything. He's crucial to the climax because he's the only one who can hack the united Mother Box, and he's the one that malfunctions and antagonizes confused-Superman. But at the same time, Cyborg does get a couple of great scenes. The first scene he has with Silas is predictable, yes, but definitely touching. His scene with Diana and how he was initially refusing to work with anyone is also neat. At the end, bonding enough with his friends to trade wisecracks with Aquaman or Superman, and fist-bumping the Flash despite refusing to do so earlier, is definitely a neat little character arc for Cyborg. All the moments he interacts with his aloof father is definitely great parts.

I was definitely losing my shit over that 'boo-yah' too.

Aquaman is... really interesting. His character arc was one who went from a loner who physically assaults Bruce when he tries to recruit him, and we learn later on that he's running from all responsibilities. Not wanting to be tied to the land or the sea, he refuses Bruce's call to be a superhero, and he refuses Atlantis's demands that he be a king, feeling rejected by everyone -- especially for the mother who he thinks threw him away and abandoned him. And being played by Jason Momoa makes him badass as all hell, likable even when he's being kind of a dick.

And while the lasso of truth scene was hilarious, it also shows that Aquaman hides a layer of vulnerability beyond his huge bluster and testosterone-laden act. He probably could have stood to have gotten more scenes, really, but while he perhaps could've had more character beats, the character is just so damn badass and charismatic it's practically impossible for me to dislike him.

And lastly, Superman. His death is definitely felt by all. Batman, Lois and Martha mention it at different parts of the story, and after the League bring him back, Superman ends up being confused and after a bit of a weapons mishap by Cyborg, Superman ends up showing his worth as the strongest being on Earth... and that's a spot that I absolutely love. Aquaman and Wonder Woman might match him blow-for-blow, but Superman quickly tosses Aquaman around, shrugs Cyborg's blasts, and is fast enough to keep up with Flash. Wonder Woman gets knocked down when it comes to a one-on-one between them, and Batman is just not at all committed to even raising a hand at Superman. And it's just amazing. Yes, perhaps it sort of kills part of the tension how Superman just ends up being so freakishly powerful, but I feel that after his last two appearances not quite getting Superman right, this is definitely something I prefer compared to his prior DCEU appearances. A Superman that breaks away from the fight to help Flash rescue civilians? Hell yeah. After the DCEU mishandled Superman so badly, this is definitely a direction I support wholeheartedly.

He ends up calming down when he sees Lois, and returns to his old farmhouse. They have a couple of short scenes as Superman remembers who he is, and reiterates why he loves Lois... but those scenes are short, and make sense (unlike Ghost!Jonathan in BvS), and Superman shows up with an appropriately cheesy "I like justice! And freedom!" or some line like that... and I am absolutely fine with cheesy Superman. Hell, Evil!Superman was far more charismatic than the brooding mopey dude we got from BvS! This is how Superman should be. Like Cyborg, he's more plot device than character, with the biggest beats he has is reiterating his friendship with Batman and Wonder Woman, and his little friendly rivalry with Flash. But still, pretty damn great.

The other big player who get a lot of screentime is Steppenwolf, who... other than huge hammy talks about how he is THE END OF WORLDS and a couple of foreshadowing about the world he comes from, isn't particularly that interesting. He's threatening and hammy enough to be a proper comic book villain, and that's fun enough. And, again, Ciaran Hinds gives a pretty great performance.

Alfred acts like the ultimate support role, as Alfred is supposed to. He's just so dry and wisecracking and I'm just a huge fan of it. Lois does Lois stuff -- being a love interest and everything, and while she doesn't get to do much, she's pretty great in the few short scenes she shows up in, and I completely buy the romance between her and Clark. Lois also narrates the final speech for the movie, and that 'up in the sky' is just amazing as hell. Silas ends up being an aloof but well-meaning father, and acts more as a relative-in-distress for the rest of the movie. He's got a couple of great lines too, though.

The Parademons were.. okay. It's kind of compulsory for most team-up movies to have an army of disposable minions anyway, and the Parademons were serviceable. The whole 'feeding on fear' thing and how they turned on Steppenwolf was slightly sudden, but it's not a particularly bad twist.

What else? Mera, Gordon and Hippolyta all have short roles. Gordon's little more than a cameo, and we've seen most of his scenes in the trailers. It's definitely a great Gordon, though. I think Atlantis's introduction ends up being a bit too rushed and underwhelming for my taste, and Mera ends up being simply a tool to introdump Aquaman's backstory... but at least she gets to fight Steppenwolf and gets a few cool action beats because of it. Hippolyta ends up being a badass herself, and while she doesn't really do much beyond the action scenes, her trusting that Diana will stop Steppenwolf when she warns her with the flame is definitely an effective heartwarming moment.


We get Zeus and, unexpectedly, a fucking alien Green Lantern in the little flashback to Steppenwolf's war against the races of Earth in the First Age. I definitely lost my shit when the Green Lantern starts whacking around Parademons with his giant hammer construct. Well, at least the Justice League movie had a Green Lantern in it. Steppenwolf also mentions 'the world I come from', name-drops Darkseid, name-drops the 'New Gods' and hints that the Boom Tubes lead elsewhere, and while Darkseid himself isn't shown -- a decision I'm definitely a big fan of -- it's clear that he serves someone bigger.

We get a couple of post credits. The first is Flash and Superman racing, and the second? The revelation that Luthor (still bald, thank god) has did a little switcheroo by putting some bald dude in prison, and is now on a yacht... with mother fucking Deathstroke! I love Deathstroke, and no amount of Deathstroke can ever be enough, and I was absolutely surprised by this particular part of the post credits. I believe the proper term for my reaction was 'fangasm'.

So... yeah. The movie as a whole definitely was enjoyable. It's definitely a good movie -- although I will freely admit to some DC bias, being a fan of the comics. It's not great, though, and there were many parts of it that it could improve on. So yeah. Definitely a good-but-not-super-great movie for me, but far, far from the 'mess' so many review outlets call this movie. It's just really kind of a shame that the DCEU really has quite literally finished all of the audience goodwill that they might've afforded this movie, since the DCEU really didn't do the build-up properly, and the string of relatively unimpressive movies (Wonder Woman aside) hasn't been impressive in brand-building. Throw it into the fact that Justice League shows up in a time where superhero movies are the norm rather than the exception, and it is really kind of unfortunate that this otherwise average superhero movie ends up having so much going on against it. Throw in, again, the very unfortunate rewrites and the gajillion different directions that the movie's pulled in, and it's no wonder that the movie's budget and earnings didn't match up.


DC Easter Eggs Corner:

• Not gonna do origin posts for all the characters, because it's late -- I've probably done all of them at one point or another in the Justice League or Teen Titans episode reviews, though. 
• Alfred mentions that in the past, all Batman has to worry about are 'exploding wind-up penguins', a reference to the Penguin, one of Batman's most famous enemies.
• Among Flash's many talents is 'sign language... gorilla sign language', which is likely a reference to his own famous enemy, Gorilla Grodd. 
• Danny Elfman, composer of the score, takes a lot of iconic beats from Superman: The Movie, the 1989 Batman movie and Batman: The Animated Series. 
• A red-skinned alien Green Lantern makes a brief appearance before being slain by Steppenwolf in the flashback war. Like Abin Sur's iconic ring, after the alien's death, the power ring flies into the air and zig-zags away to presumably select its successor. The unnamed alien Lantern has a cape, perhaps a nod to the only Green Lantern to have a cape -- the Golden Age Green Lantern, Alan Scott.
• Cyborg's line after they beat Steppenwolf is a 'booyah', a reference to the Teen Titans cartoon's Cyborg, who popularized it as the character's catchphrase.
• The skies turn red around Russia. Popularized by Crisis on Infinite Earths, the skies will turn red whenever a huge world-threatening crisis happens in the DC comics.
• Superman and the Flash racing to see who's faster is a plot repeated several times in the comic books, once in Superman: The Animated Series, and once by Flash and Supergirl in Supergirl.
• Superman calls back on Batman's (in)famous, often-quoted line from Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice when the two stare each other down in their first confrontation: "do you bleed?" 
• One of the buildings in Gotham has 'Janus' written on it. Batman villain Black Mask owns the Janus Cosmetics company. 
• Aquaman off-handedly saying that the Atlanteans and Amazons were once at war might be a little reference to a how the two were at a huge, bloody war in the Flashpoint maxi-series alternate universe. 
• Flash is left baffled when Gordon turns back and talks for a while and every other hero is gone -- Batman's disappearing trick on Gordon is a common trope in Batman stories, and it appears Cyborg and Wonder Woman has picked up on it as well. 
• At the end of the movie, Cyborg is shown to develop new armour plates for his chest and shoulder, making his appearance far more similar to his classic, original comic-book appearance as opposed to the far more streamlined form he has in the movie. 
• The one bit of continuity oddity in the movie -- Cyborg claims that the Mother Box transformed him from human to cyborg the night Superman died... but Batman saw the video of the Mother Box transforming Cyborg during the events of BvS, so... um... yeah.