Let’s talk about the Justice League movie. It’s bloody awesome!! You thought I was gonna say it’s crap didn’t you?
Some minor spoilers, but not major plot spoiling, follows.
It was trashed by critics, but all I can think of that is 1. the critics are Marvel fans, and are moaning because Justice League doesn’t follow the Marvel formula (Justice League is DC), or 2. They are DC fans but are overly judging the movie based solely on Joss Whedon’s reshoots.
Okay so on to the review (and critique of critics claims).
Okay so the movie took a while to line up all the “heroes”. This was one of the criticisms by reviewers. Yes it’s true, a good half of the movie was devoted to pulling together the Justice League. Guess what, the movie is called “Justice League”. It’s the friggin origin story of the Justice League. The time Zack Snyder spent delving into backstories and characters was well worth the effort – by the time the characters were assembled you felt you knew them and had some interest in them. This is in contrast to Suicide Squad, WHICH CRITICS DUMPED ON BECAUSE IT DIDN’T SPEND TIME DEVELOPING THE CHARACTERS!!
I teared up in several scenes during Justice League. There was actually time given to emotional development of the characters and story. This is something you don’t really get in Marvel movies. This makes a nice change and I’m really hoping we’ll see more Zack Snyder DC movies.
Another criticism was the fully CGI villain Steppenwolf. I found the CGI realistic. Ciarán Hinds played Steppenwolf and did the voice work and motion capture, and personally I wasn’t distracted from the character by the CGI, and that for me is the golden rule of CGI characters.
The one surprising area of CGI that WAS a distraction, was the digital removal of Henry Cavill’s moustache (which he had grown for his role in another movie). It would have actually been more realistic to digitally add a moustache for his other role, then digitally remove it for superman. It didn’t ruin or even really mar the film for me, but it was as slight distraction from the character, which could have been avoided.
I felt the storyline led naturally to the final battle in an appropriately climactic manner. There was a cute subplot that involved a scared but determined family who ultimately are saved by The Flash. Some might say that it was an unnecessary element but I thought it was sweet and certainly added to the movie for me.
Bringing back superman was believable (as superhero movies go) and wasn’t just thrown in in a tokenistic manner. The writers used the event to do some exposition on Batman and Wonder Woman’s relationship and introduce a bit of philosphising which added to the emotional depth of the film.
Wonder Woman was amazing. It was disappointing to see the sexed up costumes (aka reduced skin coverage) that some of the Amazon warriors were given – but the main Amazonian characters were appropriately adorned in protective gear, and I might add, looked amazing. And the way the action played it certainly didn’t look like a bikini fest, the revealing costumes weren’t showcased, they were only worn by background characters.
There were some minor weaknesses in the film, for example the explanation interchange between Aquaman and Hera -the acting was fine and Amber Heard as Mera Queen of Atlantis was great – please more of Mera in upcoming DC movies! – but the exposition was weak. Overall however all the characters made sense and their working as a team was built from initial antagonism to mutual trust at an acceptable pace, not just suddenly going from go to woah but taking time to develop the relationships.
On a final note I’ll mention the controversy over Joss Whedon’s reshoots. Some claim (though I don’t think the studio has confirmed) that Whedon was called in to reshoot the movie to reduce the darkness of the movie’s overall tone. It’s hard to say whether this was necessary or not. In my personal view, the verbal sparring and joking amongst the characters, which lightens the mood and much of which is supposedly the result of Whedon’s reshoots, was appropriate. It’s expected that superheroes laugh at danger, and that in itself is not simply a Marvel trait that DC has copied but a theme common amongst most writers of super hero characters.
The movie did have an element of darkness to it, and I LIKE THAT. When I want light and bubbly superhero movies I go to the MCEU. When I want dark, I can, I hope, got to DCEU. Please DC, don’t be hoodwinked by reviewers into thinking you need to go the Marvel route. Joss Whedon’s reshoots were fine, but leave it at that okay? Zack Snyder did and EXCELLENT job, I enjoyed Justice League immensely.