Justice League

Since a lot of comic book fans worldwide, are enjoying the film adaptations of Marvel characters, we have seen examples where DC Comics have tried to make film adaptations of classic comic book characters. Batman have proved to delivered some really good films in the past, and Superman with Christopher Reeve ( talking about the first and the second film ) is still today Cinema magic. Then we have Green Lantern with Ryan Reynolds, a film that most DC Comic fans don´t want to remember, and there is a good reason why you don´t want to remember this film. Well, if you want to have a good laugh, then i guess Green Lantern could work. Even though Green Lantern failed in so many ways, it was clear that DC Comic characters were still going to be made into feature films. One of the films that many DC Comic fans were excited about, was of course the film Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice. I was actually hoping that director Zack Snyder would deliver something tasteful with this film, since the cast did look good. It turned out to be a film that did not live up to the high expectations. The film should have been epic, and very enjoyable. But the final result was far from good. Ben Affleck as Batman was at leas surprisingly good, but Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor was beyond awful. Who ever came up with the idea to cast him as this legendary character, should have been fired. The only positive thing about Batman v Superman was that we were introduced to actor Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. She clearly seemed to be the right choice for this character. So, when we got a movie with Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, it turned out to be one of the best DC Comics film ever made. Wonder Woman managed to combine comedy and action in a very positive way. Gal Gadot proved that she knew exactly how to portrait this legendary comic book character. So after the rumors that Ben Affleck would return as Batman again, together with a cast of DC Comic superheroes including Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, in the new film Justice League, fans were both excited and skeptical. Perhaps because a lot of fans were disappointed with Batman v Superman, and did not have any high expectations on Justice League. I still decided to give Justice League a chance, to see if director Zack Snyder could deliver a solid superhero movie. Is the new film Justice League one of the highlights of this year, or is this as bad as Green Lantern ?

Thousands of years ago, Steppenwolf and his army of Parademons attemt to conquer the Earth through the combines energies of three Mother Boxes. The Mother Boxes are seperated and hidden in locations around the planet. Steppenwolf needs all three Motherboxes to complete his vision. In present day, the world is in mourning over Superman, whose death triggers the Mother Boxes to reactivate and Steppenwolf´s return to Earth in an effort to regain favor with his master Darkseid. Bruce Wayne " Batman " ( Ben Affleck ) and Diana Prince " Wonder Woman " ( Gal Gadot ), joins together to unite other metahumans to stop Steppenwolf. The team finally becomes complete with Aquaman ( Jason Momoa ), Flash ( Ezra Miller ) and Cyborg ( Ray Fisher ). United they are known as Justice League. 

Let me be honest and say, Justice League have some big problems. I like the idea of gathering many of the Iconic comic book characters into the same film, but this film does not have the right tone for the source material. This film tries to be funny, and in some scenes it becomes too obvious this is just a method used to fill in empty spots. And this is such a shame, because with so many classic characters all gathered, you could have had a great time. Ben Affleck´s comic timing does at least work in some scenes, and he is not so bad as Batman. Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman is the strength of this film. Her performance as Wonder Woman is what keeps the film Justice League a bit more enjoyable. But then we get to the character known as Flash, played by actor Ezra Miller. And he is really annoying, especially the comedy attempts. I don´t mind if you make joke about different situations, especially in the world of comic books. But the comedy material has to work, and in the case of Flash, it falls pretty bad. Maybe they thought that Flash would need to be the character who is supposed to be funny, it seems that way. Nice to see actor Jason Momoa as Aquaman. I am actually looking forward to see him do a film based on the character of Aquaman. I would say that Jason Momoa is a fresh breathe of air in here, while some problems become obvious later on in the film. Let´s mention one of these problems, the CGI effects of the evil Steppenwolf. The character is cool, no doubt about that. But the look of Steppenwolf does not come out very effective. The action scenes have some fun moments, but between all the dialogue we get a lot of slow moments. A film like this would have needed some really heavy action scenes. We do get a few, but not until the end of the film. I do think within these 2 hours, we could have had a lot more fun fights between these characters and the army of Steppenwolf. Director Zack Snyder did manage to bring back Superman to a good track with Man Of Steel, but he clearly seems to have problems making films with more than one superhero. Batman v Superman proved this point, and with Justice League we see this happening again. At least Aquaman and Wonder Woman was a good choice. Director Zack Snyder rely too much on making this film too simple, in the sense that you don´t really care about the characters. To make characters interesting is very important, especially in the world of comic books. Justice League will probably be enjoyed mostly of younger teens, who might enjoy the comedy references. I would have liked a more serious film, with heavier action scenes. Then we might have had a worthy Justice League, then what we have here.

Rating: DD