Bare minimum. That’s the perfect description of the effort Warner Bros. put in their desperate rush to deliver Justice League. The Justice League of America, comics’ biggest superhero team, finally on the big screen is a monumental event in its own, something for the history books as they would say. Pop culture’s biggest superheroes coming together in one film should be the culmination of our investment in these characters – most of whom, sadly, never got their own chances to shine in solo movies (unlike Marvel did with The Avengers).
Unfortunately, what resulted is a bland and uninspired movie, with director Zack Snyder trying his best not to let the rest of the heroes’ perfunctory introductions not take up too much time of the film. They serve their plot-mandated roles very well, though it’s a bit tough for us to care for most of them given how little backstory they have, no matter how fun they may be, unless of course you’re already a fan. Flash (Ezra Miller) plays the comic relief of the group, and the movie really rubs it in our noses. His nerdy awkwardness is reminiscent of Peter Parker, made much more evident by his mentor relationship with Batman – WB’s attempt at a budget Tony Stark-Peter Parker interaction. Aquaman (Jason Momoa) is the tough cool guy, although the movie can’t help itself with the tired “talking to fish” trope. Surprisingly, Cyborg (Ray Fisher) plays a much bigger role to the story than I initially expected, and received the most character development among the newcomers. As for the trinity Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot and Ben Affleck have settled in their characters well. However, it is visibly apparent that Affleck’s interest in this franchise is starting to wane, especially now with the rumors of him trying to bail on being Batman.
I also can’t help but feel that the newcomers’ debut are essentially just teasers for their solo movies down the road, much like Wonder Woman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. WB’s strategy of cramming in as much of their biggest superheroes as they can in one movie, then just fleshing them out later, doesn’t do them any favors. It’s all eye candy at the end of the day.
On a more positive note, it seems WB really took the criticisms for Batman v Superman, as it is painfully clear they tried their best to remedy its mistakes. Justice League has humor, a lighter color palette and very simple plot – so much so, that the film literally has no subplots or significant character arcs (apart from Superman’s, and even then it’s poorly written). Justice League is just one linear surface level story with no further intricacies – Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds), another cookie-cutter CGI villain, comes to Earth with his parademons searching for three mother boxes that, when fused together, would terraform Earth to his home planet. Sounds familiar? It should be, because that’s the exact same premise as Man of Steel (which is also directed by Zack Snyder). In the end, Steppenwolf is as generic as they come, and I bet you’d have already forgotten about him by the time you finish the movie.
There’s also another glaring problem with Justice League. Later in the production, Joss Whedon was brought in to do reshoots, and possibly make it much more light-hearted than Batman v Superman. Snyder was never really into comedy, so the jokes and quips must have come from Whedon. Problem is, the final product is a result of a combination of two visions from two different directors, whose styles are on different ends of a spectrum. A scene’s seriousness will be downplayed later on by some quip, never really letting it play out the way it should. Although it’s not as severe as Avengers: Age of Ultron‘s joke-heavy nature, it can still be distracting, especially from characters that are not quippy in nature like Batman. Not to mention that the best jokes are already in the trailers.
To put it simply, this is WB’s attempt at incorporating the Marvel formula into Justice League. It is certainly better and more coherent than Batman v Superman, and it’s a pity because that’s probably the best praise I can give it. Once the novelty of seeing the Justice League together wears off, you are just left with a mediocre, one-note movie.
Rating: ★★½
The Talking Screen 