Justice League (2017)

Live action DCEU (DC extended universe)

PG-13    one hour 59 minutes

I went in with low expectations. While I was entertained, the plot was perfunctory while the characters were great. I appreciated the addition of some humorous/ironic lines. The sound track was good. especially emphasizing action scenes. An astute fan of superhero audio will recognize several snippets of famous music. It was enjoyable seeing comic book images come alive with characters in costume as character was impressive I enjoyed the characters of Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Flash (Ezra Miller) and Cyborg (Ray Fisher). Aquaman (Jason Momoa) was wasted, I think that some of his scenes were cut. However the worst written were Superman and Batman. Superman's re-appearance should have been rousing, epic, but it almost felt like he had been just out of town, not out of our reality. Again I suspect that scenes were cut due to Warner's edict that the move be no more than 2 hours. I was also disappointed in Steppenwolf (voiced by Ciaran Hinds). This villain's level of stupidity seemed to be right up there with his lack of a coherent plan. I kept expecting him to say , "Steppenwolf smash" (and yes I know that is a Marvel reference). Perhaps if his appearance had been in practical effects, not 100% CGI, might have resulted in a more emotionally powerful villain. For a menacing villain that uses good acting paired with practice effects see the 1985 movie Legend, with the character "Darkness". Steppenwolf not the brightest bulb in the room, was concerned making Earth a twin to his home planet (a place that sounds dark, dirty and dead), however he really had no coherent plan. I liked the heroic characters in Justice League, but never discovered its story or its soul.

There are two extra scenes. The first occurs in the first 2 minutes of the closing credits with an additional scene at the conclusion of the closing credits. While I initially thought the first scene was kind of random, I later discovered that this is a nod to a classic comic book cover page. The second scene may be giving some hints as to where the DCEU is headed.

This movie makes me wish that Ben Affleck was still directing, co-writing and appearing (??) in a future Batman standalone movie.

While I do enjoy more Marvel films than DC, I want both to live and prosper. I did like Justice League (because of the characters, excluding Steppenwolf, and their interactions). This genre may be slightly less "hot" now, but it is still a genre that will be kept on the table of contents listing types of movies. The more studios producing comic book films, the more opportunity for fan choice. Forbes is primarily a financial magazine (their site kicked me off due to Adblock) their "profit/loss projections" are not to be construed as to the quality level of this movie While I did not read the article, from what I hear from Roth and Dan, the future has not yet been written.

Can we use the Justice League movie in any monetary comparison without multiple asterisks? This was a super expensive movie in its birthing process. It went through a change of directors at a critical point. The studio came in with a change of tone (probably before Snyder left). This same studio issued a 2 hour movie length edit (again probably late in the filming process). Another studio while releasing a major actor needed for reshoots, would not allow "their" actor to shave. The result resembles a Bermuda Triangle phenomenon tripled!