Review: Justice League (2017)
First: Spoilers, spoilers, yes there will be spoilers. So, don’t read this until you’ve seen the film…seen the film!
I always say that every (successful) comic book has the same plot: Our heroes must get the thingamabob (infinity stones, mother boxes, equality crystals) to the whatchamacallit before the villain does the gobbledygook (alien invasion of earth, destruction of earth for other world gain, allows vampires to take over the earth.) And I find it a true shame that critics do not better receive this film. It is a good movie, again, it’s not a great movie but I enjoyed it. Whenever I go to any type of action film weather it’s a superhero movie or a James Bond flick or whatever, the thing I ask myself is…Was I entertained. And this movie is very entertaining. I loved all the characters, and each had their own action moment to shine. The actors were top notch, and each brought their own unique take to the character they played. The effects were great, (a little over done on the CGI, but otherwise great) and I really enjoyed the banter between Batman (Ben Affleck) and the Flash (Ezra Miller) It was reminiscent of Iron Man (Tony Stark) and Spiderman (Tom Holland) in the MCU. I loved Henry Cavill this time around, much better than in Man of Steel and his uniform was bright red and blue, which is how I always thought it should be.
My favorite scene in this film is when they bring Superman back to life. The tense moment where we don’t know if he’s going to understand who he is or who the others are (As Barry Allen says, will he be like Pet Cemetery?) There’s a battle between the heroes and it’s an incredible scene. Well directed and paced. Don’t know if this was Zack Snyder or Joss Wheden but it was the highlight of the film nonetheless.
So why are the critics weak on this? To the point where the film is only at 40% on Rotten Tomatoes? The simple answer is in it’s villain. Steppenwolf is unremarkable. We don’t know anything about him. In the Avengers we knew Loki was Thor’s brother and there was sibling rivalry. The tension was there, we felt our hero’s plight and Loki’s menace. The character was well thought out. Steppenwolf is only there so that their will be a bad guy and nothing more. He has no relation to any of the main characters and we don’t ever get the sense that the world is in danger (kind of like Apokolypse in the last X-Men movie.) It’s not the epic film it needed to be. As of this writing Justice League has one of the weakest openings to any DCU movie (around $96 Million) So the future of the Justice League on film is iffy. I hope there’s more, but it may come down to the DCU consisting of only sequels to Wonder Woman and that would be a shame, since they’re coming closer to the quality of Superhero film that they need to become to compete with the MCU.
Director: Zack Snyder
Producers: Charles Roven, Deborah Snyder, Jon Berg, Geoff Johns
Distributor: Time/Warner
Screenplay: Chris Terrio, Joss Whedon
Story: Chris Terrio, Zack Snyder
Based: Justice League by Gardner Fox
Production companies: DC Films, RatPac Entertainment, Atlas Entertainment, Cruel and Unusual Films
Distributer: Warner Bros. Pictures
Music: Danny Elfman
Cinematography: Fabian Wagner
Cast:
Batman: Ben Affleck
Superman: Henry Cavill
Lois Lane: Amy Adams
Wonder Woman: Gal Gadot
Flash: Ezra Miller
Aquaman: Jason Momoa
Cyborg: Ray Fisher
Alfred: Jeremy Irons
Martha Kent: Diane Lane
Commissioner Gordon: J. K. Simmons
About the Author
Kevin Given Kevin Given has studied with "Longridge Writers Group" and "Writer's Boot Camp" a speech/communications major from the University of Maine Presque-Isle/Orono sites. He has created the "Karl Vincent Vampire Hunter" franchise which includes 2 novels and 8 comic books. They can be found on amazon, Indyplanet and Kindle. For a limited time you can get digital copies of "Karl Vincent: Vampire hunter" #1 and "Files of Karl Vincent" #1 for free on Indyplanet. Kevin is producing the third novel in the series "Dracula Rising" (working title) and developing "Foul Blood" into comic book form.
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