Ladies and Gentleman, the Pinnacle of DC's movie franchise
and the fifth installment into the yet to be titled and unofficial name
"DC Extended Universe," the Justice League is finally here. After two
viewings, a lot of my opinions changed, so let's cut to the chase.
Criticisms - The out of place Josh Whedon jokes brought this
movie down a bit. If you are into that stuff, you will love this movie. The
pacing was too quick. Warner Bros. mandating it to be under two hours hurt the
film. It needed more time to slow down the pace and introduce the backgrounds
of the characters in greater detail. The plot of the movie is the basic plot
you would see in a standard Marvel movie. Bad guy wants to destroy the world,
good guys fight bad guy. These were the weak points of the film, but nothing
that hurt the fun factor nor was it overwhelming and took away from the movie.
Sustains - STICK AROUND FOR THE 2 POST CREDIT SCENES, THE
HYPE IS REAL!!! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!! The characters are what make the movie.
The chemistry is just perfect when they are together. The action is amazing,
but the best scenes are when the league is sitting around talking and planning,
especially when they are in disagreement. Steppenwolf is intimating as hell.
Dude is straight up beast. Great villain, clear motivation. Scary dude. It is
not as light hearted in tone as originally thought. It is lighter than Batman v
Superman: Dawn of Justice, but when you add light hearted characters to the
mix, of course, it will be less dark in tone. I think it was a great blend of
seriousness and light, but still mostly serious in tone.
The Leaguers themselves. Aquaman is here. He steals the
movie for me. Jason Momoa kills it. No complaints for Aquaman at all. Perfect.
Aquaman hype is real. 13 months until his movie. Side note - Amber Heard as
Mera is in a brief scene, but my goodness is she stunningly gorgeous. She did a
fantastic acting job and her voice was very sexy.
Ezra Miller as The Flash? Yes! Yes! Yes! The Flash is a
funny, lovable character. At first, I thought the The Flash was a bit dumbed
down, but he really isn't. For him, he is young and naive. I would chalk up any
dumb moments to him being excited/anxious about what's going on because
everything that happens in Justice League is nothing he would have ever experienced
or thought of experiencing ever in his life. You will see what I mean. Excited
for his next movie.
Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman? Yeah, y'all already know.
Gorgeous, funny, and a badass. She is struggling still with the events from the
her standalone movie, 100 years ago, and shows great character development.
What else is there to say, she was great again.
Cyborg wasn't too bad. Nothing really made me excited for
him, but he was good. Nothing bad to say about Cyborg.
Originally, I had a big problem with Batman. I thought he
was out of character and not very "Batman" like by telling to many
jokes and not doing much against the big bad. However, Batman doesn't say as
many jokes as originally thought. Sure, maybe he says a few more than normal,
but nothing I felt that was too out of character. Affleck does another
fantastic job. Bats is still pretty savage.
Do I wish Batman did a bit more against the big bad?
Absolutely. My inner Batman fanboy wants him to solo Steppenwolf, but looking
at it from a strategic standpoint. It makes sense why he was less involved with
Steppenwolf and concentrating on fighting Parademons. Flash saved the
civilians. Cyborg was focused on something that prevented him from fighting
which is why Bats fought the Parademons. Aquaman and Wonder Woman fought
Steppenwolf. All were focused to get attention away from Cyborg. It made sense
this way.
I think we all knew Superman was coming back, but let's just
say he is fantastic. His first scene is, honestly, my favorite scene in the entire
movie. Say goodbye to brooding Superman. I loved brooding Superman, but this
new one, that's Superman. Henry Cavill is Superman.
Overall, if the movie didn't try to do to a bunch of
unneeded Josh Whedon jokes and we were allowed to get 15-20 more minutes of
film to help with the pacing, it would have been damn near flawless. Don't get
me wrong, 90% of the jokes were funny, but I felt they were, at times, unneeded
and took away from the seriousness of the situation. However, it is a really
enjoyable and fun movie to watch. There is very little to criticize about this
movie. The heroes have great chemistry together. All the actors do great jobs
as their characters.
Overall score: 6 out of 10. I recommend to everyone.
