Before we start talking about Justice League in-depth lets talk about the superhero genre. Its been a few years since superhero/comic book films have genuinely excited me and the only example to come close was Batman Vs Superman purely because of what the title and the project as a whole meant. So here we are in 2017 and there is a Justice League movie but I must ask, where was the hype? I know that I bring this up a lot with recent cinema but where was the sense of scale and not just within the film but as an event itself. Batman and Wonder Woman were going to share a $200mil plus movie with other superheroes that people care about, yet where was the hype?
As a person that takes an interest in the behind the scenes and someone who just knows about film production via osmosis I knew why this film was not being hailed as a masterpiece or an event but why wasn't the popular culture hyping this film to nth degree. The most I saw was bus stop posters and that was it. Keep in mind that I saw Justice League on the Friday following its release and you would not have known a Justice League film was showing other than a usual quad poster.
Justice League, in my opinion, marks the end of Warner Bros attempting to build a universe and honestly I think in order for the DC brand these films need to fade away for a few years. We have had 5 films within this universe and only one of them has truly found an audience, there were 5 Marvel films before the Avengers and at least all of those were enjoyable whereas DC currently have Wonder Woman and that is it.
Justice League should be the cautionary tale for any studio looking to build a shared universe without earning it or at least having somewhat of a cohesive plan in place. Why WB did not just identify the characters they wanted for their Justice League movie and make solo films of said characters, in the same fashion to how Marvel did it, then when the time was right build an epic 150 minute spectacular is way beyond me. So is Justice League any good?
Heck no, Justice League might be one of the worst budget to quality ratio's in the history of cinema. I understand the reason it went so over budget but I cannot ignore the poor writing, visuals, acting and just tone of the project. This film is a mess and to be honest I can't see anything within this chopped up Frankenstein's monster of a film that could have been better or even great if Zak Snyder got to finish his idea.
The story of Justice League does not work at all, the film starts halfway through a story that we have no concept of other than the dream sequence in BVS and what is told to us after the first scene. The first act of the film is trying to be mysterious by building up strange symbols but then just drops it so that two of the characters can just say "this is what is happening" and everyone else just goes with it and it all just leads to a worse version of the New York battle in the Avengers. This film infuriated me with how lacklustre the story was, I know I was not expecting much but dear lord this film does not even try for bare minimum. It turns out that there are three cubes and they are being hunted by a tall guy who looks like the villain from the Medievil PS1 game. Seriously this is as bare-bones as the plot gets.
You could argue "the story may not be great but what about the characters?" Trust me $300 million is not worth a what if episode of The Big Bang Theory if they became the Justice League. This film stinks of desperation especially the character of The Flash who is clearly there to appeal to the general audience to make quips that feel really out of place he is easily the worst character in the film. Every character is made to be sarcastic, which is certainly an addition from Joss Whedon but it does not fit with the rest of the film. The next part will include spoilers.
Superman gets his own section because this could have made the movie so much better but WB and the screenwriters dropped the ball hard on this one. The resurrection of Superman, arguably the most important character in these movies, comes in the middle and is resolved in 10 mins. He is brought back to life, goes evil for a second then is turned good by Louis Lane. Why bringing back Superman was not the entire focus of this story I don't know but it would have made for a far more interesting film. Just imagine a film where the members of the Justice League have to team up to bring back Superman, that is gold but instead we get 10 maybe 15 mins and then its back to the plot about the boxes.
On the technical side of this film is where I seriously got frustrated with the film. It appears that everything about this film is wrong from a cinematography stand point. So the first Justice League film ever made, a budget of $300 million and we open on... cameraphone footage of Superman. I can't think of a worse way of opening your tent-pole blockbuster of the year, it set the tone for the rest of the film. The aspect ratio was something I noticed from the trailers and the cynic in me immediately knew why the film was in 1.85:1 and that is because the Avengers was shot like this but the aspect ratio really does affect the look of the film. Most scenes feel empty with the characters having huge amounts of space between them, this choice is odd. The decision to adjust the colour in post is jarring and makes everyone stick out, again this was a way of making the film be more "fun" but it does not work in the slightest.
Overall Justice League is awful and I don't recommend seeing it, the film is an unfinished mess which was rushed to meet its release date even though it needed a lot more time. Boring story, bland action, annoying characters and whole chunks missing make Justice League unworthy of its title and budget.
4/10
Written by
Ashley Harvey
