The DC Extended Universe appears to be jinxed. After the unprecedented success of Wonder Woman, expectations sky-rocketed when their next film was announced. Most of Justice League was completed and director Zack Snyder quit when his daughter passed away suddenly. The reins were handed over to Joss Whedon (The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron), who switched camp from Marvel. Unexpected delays, several re-shoots later, finally Justice League hit theatres.
It’s unequivocally evident that Whedon and company have rushed to release the film. But Justice League does what a superhero film should: it’s not entirely bad, but it’s not very good either. Without individual films for The Flash (Ezra Miller), Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and Aquaman (Jason Momoa), precious screen time is wasted giving the audience back stories. Whedon and Snyder could have focused on upping the drama ante or even stretching out the action which is the film’s redemption. The Flash is a wise cracker, Cyborg has a pithy arc of coming to terms with his bionic powers and Aquaman… well, when he’s not showing off his ripped body, he’s saying things like, ‘all right and ‘my man’. Plus, it’s a real pity they completely avoided using Gary Clark Jr’s cover of the Beatles’ ‘Come Together’ in the film during any of the fight scenes. The trailer scored really high on swagger only because of the track.
- Director: Zack Snyder (with screenplay by Joss Whedon)
- Cast: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa, Ray Fisher, Jeremy Irons, Diane Lane, Connie Nielsen, J. K. Simmons, Ciarán Hinds.
- Storyline: A new god, Steppenwolf will destroy the world if Batman doesn’t band together superheroes with special abilities to stop him in time.
Another low point is the humour, which is unnervingly sparse. Much of which comes from taking Batman’s (Ben Affleck) case; his lack of any special abilities, dressing up as a bat, etc. The poor guy doesn’t just become the posterior of all jokes, he’s also treated to the worst of all combat scenes and reneged as an ancillary member. Even the big bad ugly of the film, Steppenwolf (a motion captured (Ciarán Hinds) is underwhelming. All the superheroes seem to understand the magnitude of his evil, but it’s never quite translated to the screen. Everyone’s favourite Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) remains untouched, as if the makers were afraid to mess with her sanctity, so they didn’t dared try anything different. Finally, as one of the most expensive films to ever be made (on a reported budget of a whopping $300 million), a little restraint with the CGI effects would have gone a long way.
In the end, it must be reiterated that Justice League is still adequately enjoyable. It’s always great to watch superheroes kick some evil behind and save the world. Talking about the best part of this DC film would amount to huge spoilers. So just watch out for a fantastic sequence where the good guys fight one of their team and another battle scene with the Amazon women. But if Wonder Woman could follow the debacle that was Suicide Squad, there’s still hope the upcoming Aquaman solo film will pick things up.
