DCEU Review Series
Justice League aka Josstice League
2017
Director: Joss Whedon/Zack Snyder
The film opens with Batman fighting some monsters from the planet Apokalips and Commissioner Gordon saying this is happening because Superman is dead. Then there’s a montage of people being bummed out because Superman is dead. Wonder Woman stops a bank robbery. Then we’re subjected to introductions of all the other league members since less than half the team got their own films prior to this film.
There’s a truckload of exposition. We learn Steppenwolf is the villain. Sadly not the iconic 60s/70s rock band. This Steppenwolf is truly the lamest DC villain someone could choose for a Justice League film. He’s barely tolerable as a bad guy in the comic and this dude is supposed to unite the most powerful heroes in DC to form a team to stop him. There was a cool reference to the Green Lantern Corp in a flashback sequence.
The costume design of the heroes is lackluster at best. Batman and Wonder Woman’s costumes are okay. Flash is dressed in pieces of red cardboard boxes. Cyborg is just half a face and the rest is a robot. The robot sections looks like a silver version of Flash, cardboard boxes wrapped in tin foil. Also, he should not be considered a cyborg when only half his face is human. Cyborg should just be called a robot since he only has half a human face. It’s a horrible design. The best Cyborg design was in Young Justice where he was actually half human/half robot. All these complaints are Snyder related and Whedon had to use with them. Aquaman’s costume is all shiny for no reason whatsoever.
We have the “everyone meets the big villain in the middle of the movie battle” which literally happens in the middle of the movie. The gag that got Whedon in hot water between Gadot and WB executives lasted less than a second and isn’t funny. Flash saves Wonder Woman but trips and lands on her boob then makes a weird face. The dude ruined his career over a boob joke about a woman who doesn't even have big boobs. He kept inserting little gags that Flash has a crush on Wonder Woman throughout the movie. It wasn’t endearing and was more creepy. Also given Ezra Miller’s horrible conduct off camera after this film, it really doesn’t resonate well at all. Gail Gadot had every right to avoid physical contact with Ezra Miller.
The entire film is obsessed with the motherboxes. They’re a big deal in DC. It serves as the equivalent of the teserack or infinity stones via the Marvel universe. It’s derivative and boring. They decide to use the motherbox to bring Superman back to life and that’s a good 15 minutes of predictable plot. Superman wakes up but he’s all wonky so a fight breaks out. There’s like one cop there with his gun drawn during the fight. Lois Lane shows up and Superman stops fighting and just takes off with her.
They decide to launch their big attack without Superman and that’s basically the last thirty minutes of the film. Antics ensue, Superman shows up toward the end of the battle. He helps them win the day. The film wraps up with Ma Kent’s farm being saved because Bruce Wayne Bought the bank and gave it back to her. Everyone goes back to their lives a little happier. There’s a boring ass voiceover from Lois Lane summing up the film. The coda cuts back to Lex Luthor escaping from prison. That breakout never has a payoff in the DCEU. He hints at starting the Injustice League. It’s actually the coolest part of the film because we see Deathstroke and are actually interested in what those possibilities could be.
The film is boring. The characters aren’t fleshed out enough but you can tell Whedon tries. He’s big on character development in his work. The action isn’t particularly spectacular. The villain is so terrible and lame.
The person who might have actually fixed this film is Michael Bay. He has a similar film style to Zach Snyder and would have added the right balance of cheesy generic audience jokes. And if he didn’t save it, no one would have cared because all his movies suck anyway.
Written by
Joseph Ammendolea
Owner/President
“I Like To Play With Toys” Productions®
ILikeToPlayWithToysProductions@Yahoo.com
