The odds were, undoubtedly, stacked against Justice League being a success even before it was released. Burdened by being a part of the much maligned DCEU and being under immense pressure to continue the upward curve that appeared to have begun with Wonder Woman earlier this year, people's expectations for Justice League have been pretty low. Personally, I was cautiously optimistic. I was hopeful that DC had learnt their lessons and confident that, at the very least, this entry could't be any worse than some of its predecessors. I was wrong. My optimism and goodwill towards this movie (and lets face, it the franchise as a whole at this point) has now all but disappeared, because Justice League is a bad movie.
After Superman's death in Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) is a changed man. Fearful of a imminent otherworldly invasion, he seeks the help of Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) to assemble a team to defend the world now that their 'beacon of hope' is gone. With the help of Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and The Flash (Ezra Miller), the heroes must unite in order to stop the villainous Steppenwolf and his army from destroying our world.
I will start with the positives, despite there not being many. To me, the undisputed best part of this film is Superman. Shock horror - he's back from the dead. Despite his resurrection being a bizarre mixture of incredibly convoluted and stupidly basic, its well worth it because in my opinion this is the best interpretation of Superman that has ever been put to screen. The crying and the scowling from the previous movies is gone, replaced by a comic accurate suit, an insanely overpowered skill set and, perhaps most importantly, a smile. He can finally be seen as the symbol of hope that he was always meant to be. His dialogue is somewhat cheesy and the difference in his power-levels in comparison to the other members is hilarious, but that's exactly what I want from Superman. Hands down the strongest part of the film. Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman is also a strong as ever. Stepping into a leadership role in Kal El's initial absence, she is powerful and gorgeous in equal measure and Gadot makes her really endearing and likeable to the audience. However, there are several occasions where she is needlessly over-sexualised, which goes against everything that was established about the character in her solo film. I enjoyed Jason Momoa's Aquaman and was really impressed by Ray Fisher in his first cinematic performance. Generally, all the heroes get equal chance to showcase their abilities and contribute something to the team, which can be difficult in large ensemble films but is handled well here. Amy Adams, Jeremy Irons and J.K. Simmons are all good, given that they have very little to do. However, there is little else about this movie that I didn't hate.
I do feel genuinely bad for Ben Affleck. For all the criticism that the DCEU has received, his performances as Batman have always been one of the strongest parts of this franchise. However, the stresses of critical panning and constant bombardment from fans asking 'Hey, when are you gonna direct the Batman movie?' has clearly taken a toll on him and it's painfully evident here. Throughout Affleck's performance is static and poor, clearly the result of his general boredom and disinterest with this project and this series as a whole. You can tell that he's only here to cash his pay cheque until he can eventually find a way out of this hellish role. I can't blame him. Why would anyone want to commit to continue having your work torn apart by critics and fans alike? The other weak point in the performances is Ezra Miller's Flash. I don't necessarily think its the fault of the actor, but I hated this portrayal. He's intended to provide comic relief, yet without exception everyone of his punchlines felt forced and left an uncomfortable silence. The funniest part about him is Miller's pathetic run. The effect of his speed-force is pretty good, but it's never really used for anything.
In fact, despite trying desperately hard to be, this film is not funny. At all. All the best jokes were used in the trailers so had no impact upon viewing and the rest were unmemorable and again left almost eerie silences among the audience. I'm not quite sure how this is possible, given the fact that Joss Whedon, the man who's quips brought The Avengers to life back in 2012 was responsible for much of the dialogue. Yet here, the dialogue is awful, interactions between character is uninspired and at times boring and the humour has clearly been forced into a universe that was not built for it. People have been asking for the DC movies to be more lighthearted, and this certainly is, but it's such a knee-jerk change from the dark and gritty Batman vs Superman that it feels wholly unnatural and unearned.
Due to the tragic and untimely death of his daughter, Zach Snyder stepped away from the project back in March and Joss Whedon was hired to finish what he has started. Unfortunately, this has been to the detriment of this film. It's clear to see where the two differing ideologies of these filmmakers has been squashed together and it quite simply doesn't mesh. The story is practically paint by numbers, to the point where if you've seen one of the trailers for this film, you know exactly what is going to happen. There are no twists and turns along the way. The villain is just awful. Visually uninteresting and with dull one-note motivations he is no more entertaining than any of him army of faceless para-demons, which also feels very played out by this point. I don't understand how it's possible to make a film with such great characters boring, but they achieved it.
Coupled with the uninteresting story, is a lack on any memorable action scenes. With only one or two exceptions, the set pieces are poorly paced and offer very little enjoyment. Snyder's favourite slow motion shot is yet again massively over used and there are examples of action beats that have literally been ripped straight from Avengers Assemble but are somehow executed worse. Quite remarkably, despite having a whopping $300 million budget to cover Whedon's reshoots, the visuals in his movie range from quite good to simply God awful. The design of the villain is poor, there are some excruciatingly obvious location changes that have been horribly green-screened over and the attempt to digitally remove Henry Cavill's moustache is frankly laughable.
I cannot help but wonder, if I had not seen a Marvel movie would I have enjoyed this. Potentially. Unfortunately for DC though, I have and in a year where the MCU has released 3 great movies they needed something infinitely better than this to stay relevant. It's infuriating the amount of potential that is wasted here. It baffles me that two directors with such an iconic group of characters backed up by a undeniably strong cast and a $300 million budget couldn't make better than this. Uninspiring, uninteresting and on the whole a massive let down - though to be honest I don't know why I expected anything else.
2/5 Stars
