Justice League

Superhero team ups in media are among the celebrated events for audiences depending on the studio involved, the execution of interaction, action utilizing their teamwork, how they are affected by the events that have taken place, and where they leave off after. In our modern superhero media renaissance that began with Iron Man in 2008, it's been making waves with families and comic book fans from the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the smash hit Avengers, average Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Captain America: Civil War, while on the small screen the MCU's modest hit Netflix series The Defenders and the CW Arrowverse crossover events. This brings us to the DC Universe, a series of films that have divided audiences and critics over the quality of its entries. After the crowd pleasing success of Wonder Woman this past year, many people were still concerned about the next entry in the lineup, Justice League. (One of the reasons being the marketing/production history, summarized below in its own section). I was looking forward to this after being tired of the MCU fatigue from this year and the critical reception is rather mixed among critics and audiences. I went in ready to give the team up a chance while being interested in how the iconic heroes are handled and left it having a very satisfied while wanting to rewatch it as well as the extended cut.

Thoughts on previous DCU entries: Since you might be wondering, "What does this guy think about those DC films up until that point?": Starting with Man of Steel, there are aspects of it I liked such as the casting choice of Henry Cavill as Superman, the first flight scene, and the action scenes, but overall thought it was okay (I wasn't really bothered by the controversial scene in the third act since I understood the intent but it could have been done better). Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice tried doing too many subplots instead of sticking to one, bad writing, and bad performances from Henry Cavill and Jesse Eisenberg, but had great acting of Ben Affleck, Jeremy Irons, and Gal Gadot as well as great visuals and awesome scenes in the opening along with the warehouse fight. Suicide Squad is easily the worst with bad script, too much studio interference, Jared Leto, and terrible bland color palette. Wonder Woman is a delightful experience with a good origin story, charming lead portrayals, a great action sequence in the second act but a terribly written third act climax.

Marketing/Production History: It started with director Zack Snyder leaving the production to deal with a family tragedy and bringing on Joss Whedon for rewrites/reshoots. From there, the marketing campaign showed a change in visuals, a different assortment of scenes, and more humorous moments. It should also be noted that Henry Cavill had grown a mustache while shooting his role in the upcoming Mission Impossible 6 during the reshoots with Whedon and wasn't allowed to shave it off so there was money spent to digitally cover it up. As a result, the costs of the reshoots and facial hair coverup added to the budget. It was also reported that there was more than 2 hours and 50 minutes of the footage shot and the studio mandated that a 2 hour theatrical cut be shown instead, which is the focus of this review. This also means that portions of what's shown in those trailers didn't make it in the theatrical version.

Plot: The story takes place sometime after Superman's inspirational, sacrificial death, where conquering villainous threat causes our main protagonists to form a group to work past their own issues and save the world. One thing to keep in mind is that there's course correction going on throughout the film, in which they want to forget about certain aspects of a character and want to fix manners towards a more optimistic tone in the process (that can understandably bother some of you while watching it, but personally I didn't mind it). The experience felt like watching an episode of the Justice League cartoon where a generic villain comes with deadly plans for Earth, the heroes meet for the first time, and they work through their differences to save the day (except here the antagonist uses his menacing CGI). This deserves credit for making the movie flow fairly smooth in how Snyder's and Whedon's scenes are mostly difficult to tell apart. Something to appreciate here is the world building angle where scenes of iconic places are either revisited or making their debut, providing some great beats of action. While the plot is structurally predictable, the best aspect involves these warriors and misfits meeting for the first time while learning to help one another through their own issues along the way. One drawback, however, is that due to the aforementioned production history, not all of the league members have enough scenes displayed to add more depth to them. Overall while the Justice League's simple but effective story is predictable and is affected by the behind the scenes issues, the characters dilemmas, world expansion, and lighter tone are more than enough to make up for it.

Characters: The protagonists to focus on are Batman/Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck), Wonder Woman/Diana Prince (Gal Gadot), and Cyborg/Victor Stone (Ray Fisher). Bruce is our rich playboy/businessman/vigilante who has grown up from his previous kill-rage and works to unite the league in honor of Superman when Steppenwolf makes his move. Ben gives a great performance as this experienced crime fighter discovering his own physical limits and learning to rely on his teammates strengths instead of only his own. Diana is an Amazonian warrior princess of Themyscira and Bruce's acquaintance who has also matured from where we previously last saw her. Gal gives a good portrayal (better than in her origin film) as this heroine learns more about providing the public an inspiring hero as well as being a den mother for the team. Victor is a former college athlete cybernetically reconstructed after a car crash accident. Ray provides a solid but subdued portrayal as a someone emotionally dealing with what their body is going through and learning his capabilities (not only being very useful for the plot but also one of my favorite characters). Honorable mentions go to the Flash/Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) and Aquaman/Arthur Curry (Jason Mamoa) with Ezra's charm bolstering this cheerful (possibly autistic) speedster whose combat inexperience and (mostly efficient) comic relief antics are fun to watch while Jason's charisma helps this Atlantean with a gruff exterior and go with the flow attitude about life. A special honorable mention goes to the 6th member of the group for their impact and excitement they bring when they arrive later on. Overall the cast all give good performances all around and the interactions are worth watching (despite a few of their extra scenes being cut).

Action: The action can get pretty insane throughout the film from single focused battles or large situations that require a tactical approach. Every league member gets their chance to shine to help standout with the chaos going on. One thing to note, however, is that half of the Flash's actions look weird in the second half of his running in terms of his form. There are a couple of fights that basically feels as impactful as those from the Injustice video games series. And yes, there is a decent number of Snyder slow motion beats that occur, but most of them are for the Flash, which makes more sense anyways considering his powers.

Overall Consensus: Justice League provides iconic heroes an optimistic opportunity with an abundance of great interactions, solid acting, and a simple story, despite its flaws created by the production problems. ⭑⭑⭑1/2🍿🎟

Reasons to watch it: You like any of the aforementioned actors. You like any of these well-known DC figures and are interested in how they are handled. You like superhero movies with an lighter tone and some comic relief moments. You enjoy fights that feature slow-mo. You want to see how they covered up Henry Cavill's mustache (if you can find it). You want to play a game called "Snyder or Whedon scene?". You saw Wonder Woman and want to see what they do with Diana. You want to see Henry Cavill smile. You like team-ups that do world-building of their universe.

Reasons to avoid it: You dislike any of the aforementioned actors. You dislike any of these well known DC figures. You are annoyed with optimistic superhero movies. You are annoyed by fights that feature slow-mo. You are hit with the comic book media fatigue. You are bored with standard predictable stories in blockbusters.

Coming up next: November has just gotten better with the surprisingly good time Justice League provided, which helped off-set the issues from Thor: Ragnarok and The Florida Project. With the last comic book film adaptation of the year going out in satisfying but flawed manner, it's time to take a look at the last family animated blockbuster movie of the year. With that genre having had a rough period of dismal failures as very few of them are considered good (Captain Underpants and The Lego Batman Movie), let's see if Pixar can redeem themselves after the bland Cars 3 with a trip to the afterlife and dive into Mexican culture involved with their newest project, Coco!!!