It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
^ Back to Top
The MI6 Community is unofficial and in no way associated or linked with EON Productions, MGM, Sony Pictures, Activision or Ian Fleming Publications. Any views expressed on this website are of the individual members and do not necessarily reflect those of the Community owners. Any video or images displayed in topics on MI6 Community are embedded by users from third party sites and as such MI6 Community and its owners take no responsibility for this material.
James Bond News • James Bond Articles • James Bond Magazine
Comments
Justice League review – good, evil and dullness do battle.
A passionate spark of frenemy-bromance between the Man of Steel and the Caped Crusader was famously created in the last DC adventure, Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, when these two legends discovered their mums had the same first name: Martha. That somewhat anticlimactic coincidence was widely considered to be indicative of something unconvincing in the whole project. The problems are still evident.
This new film has had a troubled passage. Its original director, Zack Snyder, had to step aside after a family tragedy and Joss Whedon took over, reportedly reshooting between 15 and 20% of the film, a segment which may or may not have included the ending. It’s an unhappy state of affairs that may account for the film’s tendency to shapelessness. Or this may have been a function of the ensemble structure and an uncertain handling of Batman’s new, more respectable and collegial role within the League.
We are now a few months on from Superman’s awful fate and huge, sombre banners hang on public monuments all over the world, including Tower Bridge in London. People are everywhere thoroughly depressed and demoralised. Then it becomes very clear that a terrible new threat to Planet Earth is materialising: a grotesque force of evil and destruction in the form of Steppenwolf (played in digital motion capture by Ciarán Hinds).
Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) who in costume and mask is still being called that primitive prototypical name “the bat man” and still going into the deep voice, even in front of people who already know who he is, persuades Diana Prince, otherwise known as Wonder Woman – and enjoyably played by Gal Gadot – that a crack new supergroup should be assembled under their joint command. Metahumans need to be recruited. They will be the lightning-fast Barry Allen, or the Flash (Ezra Miller), the technohuman hybrid Victor Stone or Cyborg (Ray Fisher) and Arthur Curry, or Aquaman, played with muscular and humorous panache by Jason Momoa, from Game of Thrones. He is the kind of exotic undersea creature that David Attenborough might discover in Blue Planet II.
Meanwhile Lois Lane (Amy Adams) mopes listlessly about the Daily Planet newsroom doing dull human interest stories and Bruce’s manservant Alfred (Jeremy Irons) is even less the traditional below-stairs figure of old, now more a silver-fox computer whiz who says things like: “What the hell?” But everyone must put aside their differences and worries to fight together against the wicked invader – in honour of Superman.
Momoa brings some punch and humour to this film, especially with Aquaman’s inadvertent confession of a certain tendresse for Wonder Woman, and Ezra Miller does his best with the Flash, whose job it is to provide the nerdy, incredulous, alienated humour. Ray Fisher, too, does his best with a figure half-hidden in hi-tech armour.
But Ben Affleck is unrelaxed and ill-at-ease in the role of Batman/Bruce, unconvincing in both the bat armour and the three-piece suit of the wealthy plutocrat. “What’s your superpower?” asks The Flash and Bruce replies: “I’m rich.” It feels a bit late for this film to have cottoned on to a daringly heretical Batman joke that people have been making for years. Really, Affleck spreads a pall of dullness over the film. He doesn’t have the implacable, steely ferocity and conviction that Christian Bale had; he seems to have a faint sheen of sweat, as if the Batcave thermostat is up too high, and his attempts at droll humour and older-generation wisdom make his Batman look stately and marginal. Maybe we should get George Clooney back for the role.
It falls to Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman to cheer things up a little, especially early on, with her dramatic intervention in London against a bunch of self-declared “reactionary terrorists” who invade the Old Bailey and threaten an explosion with a bomb attached to a timer device with the traditional LCD countdown display. It will, they say, cause devastation for “four city-blocks”. (City blocks? What city are we in, again?) Wonder Woman winds up posing, with great aplomb, atop the justice statue. A nice touch. It is Wonder Woman who provides the link to the ancient world, and with it the surreality and exoticism.
In the end, though, there is something ponderous and cumbersome about Justice League; the great revelation is very laborious and solemn and the tiresome post-credits sting is a microcosm of the film’s disappointment. Some rough justice is needed with the casting of this franchise.
And only praising Gal Gadot while trashing the others (especially Affleck), sounds like somebody has made a political-agenda-driven critic out of that article than written an actual review. I thoroughly enjoyed the trailers and I'm looking forward to the film.
Having a great time with the movie!!! :-) Dark but enjoyable.
On to part two. :-)
I realize he has his fans as the Bat, but unfortunately he has completely failed to impress me to date, and I can't imagine I'm the only one who has that opinion. Furthermore, I have a feeling that someone as artistic and creative as Matt Reeves will want to start entirely from scratch for his reported trilogy.
Plus, as you note, his personal issues have been in the press and are proving to be a distraction. That includes some groping allegations, one of which he's fessed up to.
---
@barryt007, that review reflects the impressions I get from the trailer. I hope they aren't confirmed when I see the film in a few days.
Fingers crossed matey !!
I will wait until it comes onto Sky Cinema,next year.
You, your country, with your intermissions ;)
Sitting here, waiting for the movie start (without intermission, thank the maker!)
Edit: and I wasn't very impressed. It was better than BvS, but I guess I'm tired of these big end of the world superhero movies. Some cgi villain with horns wants to destroy the worl as we know it. Same ol, same ol. The team worked well, but I yearn more of the stand alone films, with a single hero and no doomsday machines or portals of destruction.
I'm still seeing this on Friday and surprisingly still feel excited to see it.
On another note...based on the reviews and based on numbers so far from territories this is released In, it's performing less than BvS and Suice Squad. It's crazy to me that Justice League is very unlikely to make it to a $Billion.
Same here.
No need at this point to make my comments too lengthy, so here's the short version, without spoilers:
1) I love the movie! Best of the JL bunch so far? You know, I might actually say that. (Yes, I know, the excitement of the moment can influence my decision.)
2) I've read 120 issues of the JLA comic series that Grant Morrison started long ago and this film plays well within my expectations of a good JLA adaptation.
3) All the key players share enough time on screen. The interactions between the characters feel like lifted from the comic book pages. Non-comic fans be warned: DC isn't Marvel.
4) The music worked very well for me. Elfman surprised me in a very positive way.
5) This isn't Age Of Ultron: no gigantic battles across superlarge cities literally lifted from the ground. Justice League keeps things balanced, spectacular but not out of control or outrageous. It's in many ways a smaller-scale film than the average Marvel output these days, so this isn't what Avengers was to Phase 1 of that series. Honestly though, that's a good thing in my book, a sigh of relief as it were. Superhero films have become synonymous with "epic wars". Well, perhaps that's why I gravitate more towards the X-Men and Batman. I profoundly respect the fact that they haven't exceeded their potential scope with this first JL film.
6) Want to know if there's an after-credits scene?
7) All the actors bring what they are expected to bring. Affleck, Gadot, ... they stick to what they did in previous films. Newcomers Momoa, Miller, Fisher, ... deliver fine performances too. I had a good time with them. They managed to get a few laughs out of me too.
8) Recommended?
Seriously? What do you expect me to say? Responses to MOS, BvS, SS and WW have all been very unpredictable, ranging from "great" to "obnoxiously bad". The only thing I can say in all fairness is that I wasn't bored once and I am frankly impressed with how well they have managed to capture the essence of the JLA comics. The general criticisms that I have heard after BvS seem irrelevant for this movie so that's probably a good thing. If you like DC comics and if you understand them, and if you're not by default going to go in hating Zack Snyder and literally everything they've done before in this series, you'll have a good time, like I did. For what it's worth, I've got tickets for the Friday showing and for next week too, so yes, I loved it. :)
9) Biggest mistake you can make?
To expect the same thing you've come to expect from Marvel. Avengers and JL are worlds apart, like Star Trek versus Star Wars. If Avengers is a rock 'n' roll concert, JL is a Greek Tragedy. And this isn't Disney, so play fair.
In conclusion
As a DC fan superfan, and speaking only for myself, I can safely say that JUSTICE LEAGUE is a film I can't wait to see again, that I have enjoyed from start to finish, that I see absolutely no problems with, that is a solid adventure and well made. The only thing that keeps me from going ecstatic here is the irrational backlash that BvS got back in 2015, which I have often read between the lines as suggesting that I'm somehow a lunatic for having had a reasonably good time with that film too. So you'll no doubt pardon my more defensive attitude. I give JL a 5/5, but that's just me. :)
@SharkBait
You're referring to the
They aren't explained, but they do exist in the comics.
I'll be seeing it this weekend.
And don't get me wrong. It was a fun film to watch. But nothing I haven't seen before. Well, except maybe in dceu.
I can only honestly communicate how I feel about the film, which is purely positive. But I was very positive about MOS, BvS and WW too, and that seemed unacceptable at the time. Now I'm reading these mixed reviews about JL online. The world has stopped making sense to me.
This is what I know: I've read 1000+ DC comics, including 100+ JLA comics, watched every single animated DC product out there, I've seen every single DC film, including some very obscure TV specials from decades ago, I've listened to every one of Kevin Smith's Fat-man On Batman podcasts multiple times, I've played the Arkham video games, I have posters of Batman comic covers on my walls, and I wear DC themed T-shirts in class when teaching. And I've been doing most of that for over two decades now. I think I know a thing or two about DC. I'm therefore surprised each time people try to get me convinced of the fact that anyone who enjoys, say, MOS, doesn't understand what DC is about. Perhaps I'm more forgiving, having gone through so many different iterations of the DC universe, when filmmakers put their own spin on the properties.
But I truly think that a lot of the negative criticism comes from people who treat Marvel as the ultimate template for superhero stuff. Marvel is its own thing, and a good thing at that, and I really love the Avengers and X-Men films too. But it's a bit like treating James Bond and M:I the say way. Imagine if someone would argue that since both are spy series, they're also essentially the same and we therefore need the masks in the next Bond film too or else it's not a good "spy" film. We'd all be very angry. Well, people who expect every superhero film from now on to have massive hour long battles with aliens falling from the sky, or talking trees or at least 20 lead character who more or less get along in a very jokey, high school kinda way, are not going to enjoy JL, I promise you that.
A very fair assessment, @SharkBait.
I guess I'm happy that we got a solid film which works well within its own universe. Maybe I'm easy to please. ;-)
That's ALL I needed to hear from you sir! Now I'm just waiting until I can see it here!
The studio actually demanded that. It's why it falls right under the 2 hour limit.
If a film is going to be 2 hours long then it's story needs to reflect that and from those that have seen the film the story is a jaded mess.
I'm expecting this film to at least be entertaining which I gather that it is and I'm especially excited for Superman; in fact he's the only reason why I want to see the film at all.
I think it's sad that the DCEU is largely crap and at this point I dont expect anything remotely competent about the movies to trulybrepredentvand do justice to these iconic DC characters but if I can have a fun enough time whichbis sure I will then so be it. I'm seeing this tomorrow afternoon.
I think WB realise with a lower run time they can fit more showings in on a day to day basis, there are few films that can get great box office with a 3 Hour running time.
Having just read some new reviews, I think I'm going crazy. I've read "visually ugly" for example. Well, we are still getting Snyder's specific colour palette but I wouldn't call that ugly. Neither would I call the other visual elements ugly. JL radiates a chromatic spectrum far different from the happy, feel-good colours we keep seeing in many modern blockbusters. JL feels more like what's on the printed page: not real, not from this world, belonging to Gotham and Metropolis and Central City.
I guess the DCEU is too niche. Maybe people find the style, the mythology and the stories difficult, strange, hard to get into. Maybe only those who also buy DC animated films and DC comics can appreciate the effort.
Judging from that 40% on RT, I think that whatever they do, the DCEU will forever be locked away in critical obscurity. For once I'm glad I belong to the secret underground "Court Of Owls" type of fan society. ;-)
Anyway, I'm getting ready for a lot of backlash. :)
Wonder Woman says otherwise.
Rumor: Matt Reeves is eyeing Jake Gyllenhaal to play Batman if Affleck does bail:
http://www.slashfilm.com/the-batman-actor/
Despite this, I truly hope JL does phenomenally well at the BO. Only so that other movies can continue to get made.