Review | Justice League (2017 / 120 minutes / US)
Close to half a dozen of superhero movies, where the who’s who of comic-based good guys unite to resist threats of cosmic proportions, the playbook becomes strikingly clear: assemble a team of specially gifted individuals, get everyone to work together, and fight as a cohesive force to save the world. It’s the perennial and almost solely the central theme which the DC Extended Universe’s (DCEU) Justice League gladly abides by.
But having come late into the superhero ‘all-star’ sub-genre which shot to prominence with the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s (MCU) The Avengers in 2012, Justice League has a lot to catch up with. The film’s at times frenetic pace hints at this urgency as it speeds through a checklist of ‘must-haves’: a showcase of super abilities, vastly destructive battles, team friction between heroic personalities and even the sporadic repartee? All checked.
Dutifully meeting the necessities, however, is not what makes superhero flicks great. And to start with, Justice League’s plot is in no certain manner, exhilarating.
The bad guy for this latest DCEU outing is alien warlord Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds) who is drawn by the death of Superman (in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice) to subjugate the world. To realise his ambition, Steppenwolf must retrieve and join together a trio of ancient artefacts known as Mother Boxes; think of these as the equivalents to the MCU’s Infinity Stones.
So Bruce Wayne/Batman (Ben Affleck) did the only thing as someone with just efficient combat skills, high-tech equipment and wealth (“I’m rich,” when remarking about his only superpower) would do: Call into service a motley crew of people with real powers.
As the de facto second-in-command of the group, Diana Prince/Wonder Woman continues to channel her steely Amazonian resolve played to near perfection by the lovely Gal Gadot. Barry Allen aka the Flash (Ezra Miller) is a mirror of Tom Holland’s Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Homecoming — another wide-eyed, fanboyish chap but charmingly goofier and, frankly, more likeable. The traditionally mocked Aquaman is jacked up from cultural laughingstock into a sea prince with a Fabioesque surfer dude appeal, portrayed with sturdy conviction by Jason Momoa. Ray Fisher’s Victor Stone, otherwise known as the half-man/half-machine Cyborg, is mostly stoic and glum with a Frankenstein’s Monster complex.
Oddly, at this point of the DCEU saga, Batman appears fatigued and slightly check out in face of a coming apocalypse despite, of course, leading the newly-formed ensemble. The Dark Knight is more reliant than before on souped-up vehicles, gadgets and, at one point, energy guns (gasp! The Bats’ using guns!) to combat more powerful foes in the form of Steppenwolf and his army of flying Parademons. Granted, Affleck’s older and more worn-out Batman is past his prime, but when he could fight with the sort of barroom-brawl ferocity seen in Batman V Superman, it’s a little let-down why it’s not much the case in Justice League. No doubt, we see a wiser, even more humane, disposition of the Caped Crusader — even if it comes across as kind of boring.
Thankfully, while Batman mellows, Henry Cavill’s Superman is… well… still the upright Superman everyone loves. And that is if Clark Kent doesn’t start losing himself in the lengthy introspection that Man of Steel and Batman V Superman are notorious for. Justice League director Zack Synder — who also helmed those two films — wisely opted not to allow again Supes’ tendency for rumination overdrive as the DCEU badly needs a firm and virtuous Superman without the excessive contemplation.
In a way, Justice League is a process of redemption for Synder, who has struggled to achieve a narrative equilibrium for the past two DCEU films. There are clear efforts to cut down the series’ worst sins, perhaps as a result of Joss Whedon (who also co-wrote the screenplay) stepping in as replacement when Synder had to leave the production prematurely because of his daughter’s death. The final battle scene, for instance, is better restrained from the uninhibited, chaotic extremes that scarred the final acts of Man of Steel and Batman V Superman.
In tone, otherwise, Justice League hesitates in shedding off its gloom, managing at least some light-hearted banters when the heroes get together. Miller’s Flash should be lauded for being the jester of the team as he breaks the bleakness that still persists in the film. Yet, that performance was so well-played out, it almost feels like a Flash movie with his super-buddies tagging along.
What Justice League still can’t save itself from are the inherited problems of Synder’s creative direction. The CGI — dated in some scenes — soaks in crimson over-saturation for a doomsday showdown between the heroes and Steppenwolf. Pacing is rugged for a two-hour film which attempts to bring in Aquaman, Flash and Cyborg’s individual stories piecemeal. The formulaic plot, for the best of it, is lacklustre, with the new characters barely getting enough time to flesh out — Steppenwolf, especially, the sort of cardboard villain with a world-ending agenda but whose most interesting trait is ominously saying “Mother” (the Mother Boxes, that is).
Whatever you may think about the extent of Whedon’s intervention, it is very much contingent as one wonders how much Synder tapped into the former’s experience of deftly orchestrating the acclaimed Avengers. No matter; that Justice League is sub-par in comparison to that Marvel property is painfully evident. Virtually anything in the film is a obligation to assuage DC Entertainment’s owner, Warner Bros., that it has something similar to launch and compete with Disney (which owns Marvel) on equal terms.
However, a franchise film — regardless its illustrious line-up of comic book heroes — which yearns not to break new grounds at a time when superhero flicks are produced and proliferated on a year-by-year regularity, will simply be a run-of-the-mill fare; worse, inevitably, when it is underdeveloped.
Justice League is a fast-forward of everything we need to know, feel and react towards a heroes ensemble flick but what’s the point of making a hasty, abridged cut of a major world-building tentpole? There are little signs of love, inspiration or reinvigoration in this fifth, 120-minute DCEU film, while Warner Bros. does not seem prepared to part ways with Synder, whose unwieldy story crafting is gradually revealed by each release.
With Justice League hardly something to cheer for the fandom, the DC Extended Universe is far from securing a real foothold.
