If there’s one thing that all of us at Gabbing Geek agree on, it is that the movie we not-so-affectionately call Batsoup was, to put it as mildly as possible, a colossal disappointment.
Now we have Justice League with the same credited director behind the camera and a good portion of the same cast. How did it turn out?
You know, maybe it’s just me and comparing it to the disjointed mess that is Batsoup, but I really liked this. I didn’t love it. The movie has some flaws. It’s still a bit disjointed. The bad guy Steppenwolf is about on par with your average MCU villains in terms of how memorable he was. Some things are left unexplained, like how characters who are missing from briefings know how to go where they are needed most. But, for the most part, I liked this movie. And while he isn’t given a directorial credit, certain scenes have Joss Whedon’s fingerprints all over them. The action sequences are certainly Snyder’s. The quieter moments look more like Whedon’s. Finally, introducing new characters in an ensemble piece rather than solo movies like the MCU has mostly done does mean these characters in this incarnation are less familiar, and as such, they don’t carry the same relevance to me as the first time the Avengers assembled.
So, why did I like this one?
For starters, I think Henry Cavil is finally playing Superman. And let’s just say, despite an ad campaign that played up Superman as being dead, it really isn’t much of a secret in the movie itself that Superman is there. Cavil’s name appears second after Ben Affleck’s in the opening credits. It’s not a surprise. But after two movies where he was either figuring things out or moping around while Batman plotted how to kill him, it was nice to see a Superman that behaved like Superman.
Plus, for all the faults of the DCEU, even the Snyder ends of it, they have made some really good casting choices. Gal Gadot may have been the break-out highlight of Batsoup, and her Wonder Woman continues to get some major screen time, but there weren’t many complaints about Affleck’s Batman either. We can add Ezra Miller as a scared rookie Barry Allen (no one calls him the Flash here) and Jason Momoa as the surly bro Aquaman, and you have some more promise. About the only drawback on the main team was Ray Fisher’s Cyborg through no fault of his own as the script was bound to give someone the short shift in an ensemble like this. The one dramatic scene he has with Cyborg’s father is fine, and Fisher has an interesting walk suggesting a mechanical man, but Justice League seems more interested in establishing Miller’s Flash and Momoa’s Aquaman than Cyborg. Beyond that, J.K. Simmons was a nice touch as Commissioner Gordon, and returning cast members Amy Adams, Connie Nielsen, Jeremy Irons, and Diane Lane are fine in their roles. As I said, casting has never been an issue in the DCEU. It’s always come down to disjointed movies and bad scripts.
So, overall, I liked this. It wasn’t the best superhero movie I’ve ever seen. Heck, of the six I’ve seen this year, I’d still rank it as tied for fifth with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 just behind Spider-Man: Homecoming something I say after somehow forgetting I saw Guardians over the summer, and I really dug that one, too.  Still, after the dire mess that was Batsoup, seeing a fun DC movie that wasn’t Wonder Woman was just nice.  Eight and a half parademon kidnappings out of ten.
And yes, I may be grading on a curve.
I guess I am the only one who HATED Ezra Miller. I don’t think I’ve even heard Jenny complain. His whole characterization was awful.
Gadot was sensational as usual, and it shocks me to say, but I think that Aquaman was the 2nd most interesting person in the movie.
I’ve been saying for a while now I have hope for Aquaman.
As for Miller, I just didn’t think of him as “the Flash” so much as “that dumb kid hanging out with the others with severe ADD”.
The WB mandate to keep this movie under two hours hurt the flow of the entire movie. It’s not just about bits from the trailers that are no longer in the movie. I’m talking about how the movie seems to herk-and-jerk from various scenes. The WB executive who came up with that idea has no “real” idea about the audience for this type of film. Two and a half hours is *not* uncommon in genre movies…especially with this many different players/characters.
That said, I will not be buying a copy of the blu-ray (+ digital copy) until I know when/if an Extended/Directors Cut will be available…and I watch it.
I was not pleased with the UNNECESSARY butt shots of Gal Gadot. Snyder needs to stop that shit. We got [kinda] one for each of the guys (except for Supes, but we got him shirtless for quite a bit) when everyone jumped down from the Crawler…but it wasn’t quite the same.
Also, the differences in the Amazons armor. Three different time periods. The flashback to the Age of Heroes and the story of Steppenwolf and the Mother Boxes. I don’t think many of the Amazons had on any armor — just looked like leather. And from what I can remember (I’ve seen it twice and it’s all so fast) most of the Amazons in that battle had more coverage and it was only a few to had bare mid-drifts. The same can be said for the current Amazons on Themyscria. The majority of the Amazons had on full leather/armor and a few had the bare mid-drift look.
Lots of people are talking about when Barry saved Diana from falling rubble but landed on top of her as super awkward for “her”. Umm, I think the only one who was embarrassed was Barry. Personally, if someone were to save my ass by pushing me out of the way and ended up on top of me once we were clear…I don’t think I’d be upset if they got up right after. To all those folks calling “foul” over that — get over yourselves.
There was a lot of “show and tell” with Cyborg — when Diana was going through the video footage for one. That didn’t really work but it’s not like we did didn’t “know” anything about him. I don’t think we were meant to.
The issue with #SupermansMustache didn’t really bother me — or take me out of the movie. I had to look up online to see what type of scenes to look for and even then…I decided it was “okay”. For others, if you’re that picky or that’s part of your job to pick out things like that. But it wasn’t a big deal for me.
I liked it — a lot. I enjoyed the growth for Diana, Bruce and Clark — I agree with Tom in that it finally feels like Cavil is finally comfortable in “being” Superman. I look forward to Aquaman so we can see more Mera and Arthur and of Atlantis because we didn’t get a whole lot about Arthur at all.
I could say more but that’s enough for now.
My rating: 8.5 Chairs out of 10 for the Justice League Table.
Tom, why haven’t you recruited Bianca to write for your website yet? 🙂
I lack that authority.
I’m only passionate about a couple of things in my Neek (Nerd + Geek) life: Star Wars, Wonder Woman (and DC Comics) are the top two.
Writing on the regular (for fun) is beyond my abilities/attention span these days. 😉
No Green Lantern. That’s all I have to say. Which is ridiculously fanboy-ish, but I want that crap sorted. They need to make amends for that rubbish movie. This would have been an opportunity to introduce Abin Sur.
Oh, but there was that one guy with a ring…
But is Abin Sur THAT long lived? That battle was a long, long time ago…and I’m sure not all Green Lanterns are long lived.
Also, if that was the GL for Earth’s sector….we have no idea if it was (he could have been near by and come to assist)…
I think it was just some other Lantern. Abin Sur was a bald guy with pink skin.