You can’t save the DCEU alone – Justice League review

Justice League, the culmination of kind of, sort of, maybe, but not really phase one of the DC Extended Universe – who knows what way DC are structuring their movies?! They certainly don’t seem to! Apparently it turns out the term “DC Extended Universe” was never even actually an official designation. Hmmm…! But I digress – however you want to label it, Justice League has finally descended upon theatres and, just like Batman V Superman and Suicide Squad before it, I found Zack Snyder’s (/Joss Whedon’s?) highly-anticipated superhero ensemble movie to be a distinctly imperfect but largely enjoyable addition to DC’s burgeoning big screen canon.
Picking up at an unspecified point after the end of Dawn of Justice, the film follows Bruce Wayne and Diana Prince as they embark on a mission to amass a team of metahumans in an attempt to thwart an ancient entity that has the potential to destroy all life on Earth.
The ensuing narrative is considerably less convoluted and a lot more focused than that of Dawn of Justice, which works well for the first two acts or so. While Batman and Wonder Woman obviously don’t require detailed introductions at this stage, whichever director you want to credit (I’m just going to go with Snyder seeing as the extent of Whedon’s reshoots remains unclear) succeeds in ensuring the audience is adequately acquainted with the abilities and backgrounds of Aquaman, The Flash and Cyborg without getting too bogged down in an overabundance of exposition to account for their presence here.
This means that all of the League members, whether they’ve played a pivotal part in a previous movie or not, slot seamlessly into the plot and feel sufficiently fleshed-out and familiar upon each of their respective first appearances on screen. The story also stays admirably on point and streamlined as a result, making for a slick and enthralling set-up during the opening hour of the movie.
However, as commendable as this is to begin with, the expeditiousness of the plot’s pace ends up being detrimental to the movie’s climactic set-piece. After ninety minutes of engrossing set-up and compelling character-building, everything seems to reach a peak and get wrapped up very quickly, meaning that the final act unfortunately falls fairly flat and the decisive showdown doesn’t make much of an impact.

That being said, there are still several exhilarating action sequences scattered throughout the first two acts, with an early confrontation in a facility beneath the docks of Gotham being an enlivening learning experience for the League members, while a flashback exhibiting a battle between the armies of Atlantis, the warriors of Themiscyra, the early tribes of man and the movie’s main villain stuns with its scale and aesthetic. The latter set-piece also teased the existence of an organisation that made my inner fanboy go gaga with glee.

By far my favourite action sequence, though, was one that I regrettably can’t elaborate too much upon without revealing significant spoilers. All I’ll say is that the set-piece in question takes place in Metropolis during the second act and involves what is probably my favourite, and certainly the funniest, moment of the entire movie when Barry Allen realises that his speed doesn’t give him an advantage over every potential adversary that exists in the DCEU.
While the excitement of these early set-pieces somewhat compensates for the shortcomings of the final act, what really keeps Justice League captivating, even in its weakest moments, is how likable and well-performed its six key characters are. One thing I definitely can’t fault about this film is its core cast.

Ben Affleck is believable again as a battle-weary Bruce Wayne whose determination to do whatever it takes to save the world occasionally comes into conflict with the tolls that age and twenty years of fighting crime in Gotham have taken on his physicality. Affleck brings an appropriate amount of intensity to the table when the situation calls for it, but there’s also a lighter side to this Batman that wasn’t as apparent in Dawn of Justice and which adds an endearing new dimension to the character. Given what he’s accomplished here and how firmly entrenched he now feels in the role, I for one think it would be a shame if there turns out to be any truth to the rumours that the Academy Award winning actor/director is considering hanging up the cape and cowl in the near future.

He may have been mostly left out of the marketing material, but I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that Henry Cavill returns for a third outing as Superman and while I won’t comment on the specifics of his comeback, I will say that The Tudors star facilitates some fun moments and, just like Affleck as Batman, he seems very much at home in the role of the iconic man of steel.

Unsurprisingly, Gal Gadot is once more impeccable as Diana of Themyscira/Wonder Woman. This may not be a direct sequel to the superheroine’s inaugural solo outing, but there are moments when the movie touches upon the mental anguish that Diana still feels about what she went through in World War 1 and Gadot conveys the character’s pent-up emotion perfectly. At the same time, Wonder Woman also arguably serves as the most inspiring and optimistic member of the team and it’s easy to see why DC would want to keep Gadot’s take on Diana Prince front and centre in their cinematic universe moving forward from here.

Of the newcomers to the DCEU, I think it’s Ezra Miller who manages to shine the brightest. I’m a big fan of The Flash TV show and, to be honest, I was extremely sceptical of someone else stepping into Barry Allen’s shoes while Grant Gustin is doing such an irreproachable job as the scarlet speedster on the small screen. But, even though I still prefer Gustin, I don’t have a bad word to say about Miller’s performance as The Flash here. Charming, witty and a lot more relatable than the rest of the team, Barry Allen was a definite highlight of the proceedings and I look forward to seeing what Miller can do if and when The Flash gets his own standalone film.

When most people hear the name Jason Momoa, it seems they associate it with Games of Thrones and the character of Khal Drogo. However, whenever I hear Momoa’s name, it immediately calls to mind my second favourite TV show of all-time, Stargate: Atlantis (my very favourite being its parent show, SG-1), and Satedan badass Ronan Dex, who Momoa spent four seasons portraying between 2005 and 2009. It feels rather apt in my mind then that the Hawaiian actor is back defending the legendary lost city of Atlantis, this time as the fabled Arthur Curry/Aquaman, whose characterisation here is actually strikingly similar to that of Ronan Dex and that’s absolutely fine with me! Momoa oozes intensity and charisma whenever he’s onscreen and delivers some of the movie’s best one-liners, all of which bodes very well for Aquaman’s upcoming solo movie when it hits cinemas in December of 2018.

The sixth and final member of the League is also probably the least well-developed, but that doesn’t mean that he isn’t extremely intriguing. Despite some shaky CGI, Ray Fisher adeptly balances the human and robotic sides of Cyborg’s existence and, even though the character didn’t resonate with me as much as his peers, I’m interested to see what direction DC chooses to take him in post-Justice League.

It’s a pity that the antagonist of the piece isn’t anywhere near as entrancing as the members of the titular team. Acting as little more than a catalyst for bringing the Justice League together, Ciarán Hinds’ Steppenwolf is about as two dimensional as two dimensional characters come and fails to leave any kind of lasting impression. Aside from inspiring the heroes to unite, the best thing about him is that his inclusion allows for a fascinating glimpse into the untold history of the DCEU by way of the aforementioned flashback sequence.

Other than that, Amy Adams, Jeremy Irons, Diane Lane and Connie Nielson reprise their roles as Lois Lane, Alfred Pennyworth, Martha Kent and Hippolyta, respectively, while JK Simmons, Amber Heard and Billy Crudup make their debuts as Jim Gordon, Mera and Henry Allen, but none of them really do enough to warrant any further comment.
Something else that failed to impress was Danny Elfman’s disappointingly dull score. Beyond the barest hints of the themes from Batman ‘89 and Wonder Woman, the soundtrack is remarkably uninspiring all the way through. Considering it came from the mind of the man responsible for writing some of the most well-known and riveting superhero scores of all time, I was expecting the movie’s music to be a lot more thrilling.
In general though, Justice League is a predominantly entertaining film. Its pacing may be problematic, its villain is exceptionally vapid, its soundtrack doesn’t excite and it could probably have done with being about twenty minutes longer, but strong performances from its six key actors, a selection of absorbing set-pieces in the first two acts and an affluence of awesome visual effects ensure that there are enough positives to outweigh the negatives and make it worth watching.

Rating: 7/10.

Oh, and be sure to stick around until the end of the credits for two additional scenes, the second of which presents an idea that I personally hope DC capitalises upon in future films.

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