What Is This Injustice?

A review of the Zack Snyder’s Justice League

Justice League, directed by Zack Snyder, starring Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Henry Cavill, Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa and Ray Fisher, was released November 17, to many people’s anticipation. I was excited for this movie, as I am a fan of the characters in it, and I was hoping that it would be good, despite DC’s track record of making a mess of highly anticipated movies such as Batman v. Superman and Suicide Squad.

Sadly, this movie did not meet my expectations, and I left the theater a bit disappointed. This movie should have been a surefire hit, coming from the critical and financial success of Wonder Woman. The movie also contains many well known characters like Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman, which should have ensured success. Unfortunately, DC botched their third movie in two years.

Even if this movie doesn’t meet expectations, it has its moments. My favorite part of the movie was a scene in which all the characters were fighting together, and as the Flash was running up the steps, Superman slowly turned and looked at him. I can’t describe the scene further without going into spoiler territory, but the scene was really well done.

My favorites were Cyborg and Superman. Ray Fisher played a more serious Cyborg in the film, one which was slightly out of place due to the film’s lighter tone but was nice nonetheless. The way he portrayed the struggle between the man and machine of his character was really cool. I also liked Superman in the movie not because of his character or his action scenes, but because of his interactions with other characters. His dealings with the Flash were really funny, as both of them have speed-based superpowers. His dialogue with Batman was also really good, such as a line he had right after he was brought back to life that I felt was extremely well written. Though Superman was not in the movie that much, he was still a nice addition to the cast.

As for the other characters in this movie, none of them were really good or bad (except for Steppenwolf but I’ll get to him later). Jason Momoa’s Aquaman and Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman had their moments, but neither was really utilized in the film. Aquaman lacked screen time, his introduction was rushed, and he was underused in action sequences. Wonder Woman was used a lot in the movie, but seemed stripped of her powers. In the entire movie, she never used the lightning powers she had in her own movie.

Though it is fashionable to be critical of Batfleck, I do think that Ben Affleck was a good Dark Knight in this movie. His guilt–related to the events of Batman V. Superman, specifically his wanting to kill Superman–was portrayed well by Affleck. In addition, Batman’s mortality was especially highlighted as he is shown with major injuries over the course of the movie. Unfortunately, that is part of what makes his character feel out of place in this movie. Batman has no powers, so he feels out of place fighting flying aliens from another planet. Lastly, some of the shots Batman is in are truly callbacks to the comics, and as a comic reader myself, I especially appreciated those.

One character I was excited to see in the movie was the Flash, as Ezra Miller seemed really funny in the trailers. However, in this movie I found his character grating, as most of his jokes were awkward and not funny. I understood the movie was trying to portray him as a kid with no experience, but his character just did not fit in. Despite the pros and cons of these characters, it was still pretty cool to see all of them in one movie working together. Having read the comics for a while now, seeing the Justice League come together gave me the same feeling that seeing the Avengers come together in their movie did.

Probably the most egregious misstep in this movie was the action scenes, which were lackluster. In this day and age, where superhero movies with amazing action are released every year, it is crucial that any big budget superhero film has good action. However, Justice League severely missed the mark here. The final battle between the team and Steppenwolf was terrible because of its length, as well as having a contrived finish. In addition, most of the action scenes were too short, probably to clip the movie’s run time.

The climax of the movie’s third act, as the league raced to get to Steppenwolf’s lair, was anticlimactic. The movie barely shows the league killing parademons, and instead focuses on other things. Another reason why the action scenes were not good is because the powers of all the heroes were not utilized very well. Batman uses a gun as his tool of choice to kill parademons, which is a cardinal sin. Wonder Woman never uses her “goddess” powers from her solo movie. The Flash constantly trips over things while Aquaman barely uses his aquakinetic powers. Cyborg barely does anything, and to finish it off, Superman is barely in the movie.

The other inexcusable flaw with this movie was the villain, Steppenwolf. All throughout the movie, Steppenwolf was said to be as a godlike being with incredible power. Yet his character was barely developed, uncompelling, and most of the time was flat out boring. Although the characters in the movie constantly remarked that Steppenwolf was incredibly powerful, he was never given any onscreen feats. Sure, there were scenes in which he and his army defeat large groups of enemies with ease, but he himself was never actually doing much of the fighting, as it was mainly his army of parademons that did the job for him. Worse, biggest problem with Steppenwolf was the fact that he was a CGI mess. With barely any dialogue or fight scenes, him being CGI made it impossible to actually care about what his character was doing.

The last major flaw in this movie is the fact that this movie’s run time was restricted to two hours. Warner Bros. told the creative team to cap the run time in order to prevent it from feeling too long like BvS. However, in this case, an extra thirty minutes would not be a bad thing. The reason this movie feels crammed into its two-hour run time was because of the rushed character introductions, specifically for Aquaman, the Flash and Steppenwolf. When watching the movie, it feels like the audience should already know a thing or two about the characters in the movie before entering the theater, which should never be the case. Adding an extra thirty minutes would really help, because some of that time could be used to further flesh out those characters. Another thing that could happen in those extra minutes would be the lengthening of the action sequences. If the movie had longer action, it could show a little bit more of the heroes actually fighting, which would be amazing for this movie.

Despite all of these flaws, Justice League was not a bad movie. Although it had some inexcusable problems, it did have some really cool moments along the way. However, I went into this movie with really high expectations, and left a bit disappointed. I just hope that in the future, DC and Warner Brothers can find a new and unique direction to take the DC Extended Universe, because I really do like the characters on display here. If you are a fan of superheroes or comic book movies in general, go and see this movie, because it most definitely has its moments. Overall, I would give this movie a 6 out of 10.