Justice League (2017) Review: A Rushed Dumpster Fire!

Abysmal Rotten Tomatoes scores for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad. Expensive and extensive re-shoots. Joss Whedon, taking over the directing job from Zack Snyder (after Snyder proactively left the production due to a tragic loss in his family) and a bizarre debate encasing around Henry Cavill’s (Superman) mustache (or Superstache).

Related: DCEU Films Ranked from Worst to Best!

Justice League had everything going against its favor except for Wonder Woman‘s (IMO, the best comic book film of the year) critical and commercial success. So, will this new entry into the DCEU (that we’ve been waiting for decades) deliver? And will it continue the momentum that Wonder Woman set earlier this year?

While the citizens of Metropolis are grieving the loss of their (our) beloved Superhero, Bruce Wayne/Batman (Ben Affleck) and Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) are busy bringing together a team of metahumans to stop a dangerous threat in the form of Steppenwolf and his army of Parademons. Will the mammoth team-up of the Justice League avoid Steppenwolf and his minions taking over the world?

Let’s discuss the positives first, the lead characters (Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, The Flash, and Cyborg) in the film and the chemistry between them were amazing to watch. If you’ve watched the promotional interviews that the cast did during their press tour, you can tell that they have a fantastic bond between them and that portrays in the film. They work incredibly well as a team, and you start to care more about these people because they’re given equal importance throughout the film, and the brief yet compelling introduction for the new characters makes us crave more from them in their upcoming standalone movies.

Speaking of the new characters, let’s start with The Flash first. If you’re one of the many people who complained about the lack of humor in the DCEU, then Justice League will impress by being lighter and more witty with its approach. The Flash steals the movie with his innocent and I’m-excited-to-be-here persona. He’s funny, has the best one-liners in the entire film and was pretty well handled by the writers.

Aquaman, however, is the rock star of the film. Jason Momoa’s portrayal of the bad-ass surfer was on-point, and I’m thrilled to watch his standalone film next December. IMO, Cyborg is the most underrated character in the movie, his backstory and personality had few new layers which are yet to be explored, and Ray Fisher had done a fantastic job interpreting a unique character who is quite robust to relish.

Wonder Woman is the stand-out star of the League, riding off the massive success of her standalone movie, the studio made sure that she is the focal point of the entire film. The dynamic between her and Bruce Wayne (or even the whole team) was established pretty well, and her role had the most impressive through-line throughout the run-time when compared to others. Being the leader of the League, Batman’s character is more matured coming off the events after Dawn of Justice. He also had few impactful one-liners and was overall a blast to watch.

On to the negatives, now with a runtime under two hours, the film feel rushed, and few scenes didn’t have the time to breathe. It felt like the movie went through some significant slicing in the editing room and that displays. The scenes didn’t feel interconnected which kept me out-of-the-experience for a bit. So, let’s discuss the elephant in the room, Steppenwolf.

Do I think he’s an awful villain? No, but he is indeed a forgettable one and felt more like a video game character. His backstory was not well-explained, and it felt like he was just present so that our heroes could unite, fight and save the world. I’ve heard many people bashing the CGI in the film, for what I observed it was overall serviceable during the action scenes except for the Superstache which is an obvious thing to point out when you heard the news months before the release of the film.

Also Read: ‘Man of Steel’ Movie Review

With all the controversies and the complications, the production went through. Justice League entertains as an overall film. Sure, it isn’t perfect and yes had significant plot-holes and an uninteresting antagonist. But, with the League carrying great chemistry between them and having a ton of fun throughout the entire runtime made me feel happy and delighted with the film. Watch ‘Justice League (2017)’ on Prime Video here.

My Rating – 2.75/5 | Grade – C+

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