Thursday 16 November 2017

Film Review: Justice League


DC takes two steps forward and one step back on its bumper team-up tentpole, Justice League.

After fours years, just as many films and a hype train large enough to tow a small planet, DC and Warner Brothers hastily arrive at their Avengers moment in Justice League, a crossover event that sees established superheroes like Ben Affleck’s Batman and Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman team up with fresh faces such as The Flash (Ezra Miller), Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and Cyborg (Ray Fisher).

Their mission is to stop Steppenwolf (voiced by Ciaran Hinds), an ancient interdimensional demon from uniting three ‘mother boxes’, shiny Rubix Cubes with the power to destroy all life on Earth when joined as one. 

Having undergone a troubled production, the expectation going in is that Justice League would be a mess, visually, tonally and narratively. Unfortunately, those fears appear to have been well-founded for the most part; Snyder’s third swing of the bat isn’t a miss on the scale of 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, but it’s hardly the home run many fans were hoping for either. Justice League rates somewhere in the middle; nowhere near as cataclysmically awful as Suicide Squad but not a patch on Patty Jenkins’ spirited Wonder Woman from earlier in the year either.

Narratively, cowriters Chris Terrio and Joss Whedon (the latter of whom also directed a few reshoots after Snyder departed following a family tragedy) cobble together a passable plot that is markedly more straightforward that its bloated predecessor; here, Bruce Wayne and Diana Prince, following the death of Superman, are recruiting a team of people with special abilities. The first half is concerned with this string of introductions; the second sees them suit up and do battle. 


This streamlining is a good thing; rather than getting bogged down in mythologies, Justice League (with Whedon offering some of his trademark quips) affords its central five heroes time to interact. Batman and Wonder Woman don’t see eye to eye; Cyborg isn’t a fan of Flash’s silliness. It endears us to their cause, making the abysmal CGI throwdown in the third act at least tolerable.

Visually, Justice League isn’t great. The VFX lack polish and an over-reliance on green screen is abundantly clear once the heroes jet off to face their ultimate foe in the final act. The reshoots and last minute tinkering hasn’t done much to help in this department. I'm not a huge fan of Snyder's metallic and gloomy aesthetic either; it does feel like they've bumped up the contrast but the overall look is still there.

The cast is a mixed bag as well; Affleck swings between suave and narcoleptic; Gadot is equal parts a radiant beam of sunlight and a thrilling whirlwind of ferocity; Miller is a jittery and sarcastic millennial who can’t sit still; Fisher is stoic and only afforded a hint of depth; and Momoa’s Aquaman is an insufferable X Games bro with lazy milky white contacts and penchant for surf lingo – it comes as a genuine surprise that he doesn’t throw a single shaka. Cringe.

Even the score is a heinous hodgepodge of intersecting leitmotifs, as Danny Elfman throws everything but the kitchen sink into the mix; Hans Zimmer’s uplifting Man of Steel theme and Junkie XL’s thunderous Wonder Woman cues overlap with John Williams’ original Superman theme and Elfman’s own 1989 Batman score. The result is a clunky and disjointed mess – a summation that extends to most of Justice League, to be brutally honest. 

And so, we arrive at the end. Things are more hopeful, the status quo has shifted once again and better things to come are teased. But it does beg the question, how long can audiences go before the crippling mediocrity (save for Wonder Woman, which a goddamn miracle in hindsight) lastingly cripples DC’s efforts to ape Marvel? Justice League sees the former lean into the latter’s formula heavily, and it signals a shift in the right direction, albeit a slow one. Once again I find myself whispering under my breath – “maybe the next one will be better…”

The Verdict: 5.5/10


Justice League is the third and least egregious of Zack Snyder's DC films to date. Given the number of people who had a hand in shaping the look, feel, tone and story of this film, it should come as no surprise that it's a patchwork quilt of ideas, but a fun one nonetheless – which is something that could not be said for Dawn of Justice. I liked Gadot and Affleck, but the other heroes aren't anything to write home about and the VFX is really grubby, especially in the third act. Sigh.

Justice League is in cinemas across Australia from today.

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