Unimpressive and uninteresting

Rating: 5/10 (7 May 2018)

Yet again, we threatened by an alien with God-like powers and a team of superheros must overcome their differences and commit to the cause. The plot revolves around the celestial villain "Steppenwolf" and his search for three magical MacGuffins that will ensure his conquest of Earth. Habitual loner and inadequate diplomat Batman assembles a team of 'enhanced humans' and the rest of the film, when the team isn't bickering amongst themselves, is essentially a fight between heroic CGI and evil CGI. As lead villain, "Steppenwolf" is an uninteresting, poorly-rendered, pseudo-classical character who wields a magical ax and has an army of flying 'parademons' at his beck-and-call. Other than the aforementioned Caped Crusader, the League includes a resurrected Superman (with a digitally-enhanced lip that has been the subject of much on-line discussion), Wonder Women (the gorgeous Gal Godot, who alone is worth an extra rating point), Aquaman (a grumpy, hard-drinking merman), The Flash (an awkward teenager somewhere on the spectrum), and Cyborg (a flying interface with half a face). Other than Wonder Women, none of the heroes are very engaging and the film is full of tedious filler, such as the constantly threatened Russian family, who's purposes seem to be 1) putting a 'human face' to the victims, and 2) generating debate as to why parademons, who smell fear and can tear the miniguns off the bat-tank with their bare hands, can't overwhelm a wooden farm house protected by one man with a shotgun. We also have to put up with Superman waking up from the dead in a grumpy mood, requiring the rest of the team to take shots at him to bring him around (Cyborg's armor conveniently, and temporarily, develops a mind of its own and fires the first shot in this silly internecine scuffle). On the topic of "Cyborg": isn't building a massive, armoured hybrid topped off with half of a 'flesh and blood' face like leaving a womp-rat sized hole in your Death Star? The ending and 'ironic' demise of the lead malefactor is right out of a Saturday morning cartoon. Not much in this movie works: there is little that is novel or imaginative in the story or in the imagery, the inter-hero 'banter' is forced and predictable, and the CGI is unconvincing and unimpressive. Watchable if you like this sort of thing, but even then, "Justice League" is in the 'view once, criticise often' category of CGI extravaganzas.