A Jumbled Mess that Still Kept Me Smiling (For the Most Part)

Rating: 7/10 (17 November 2017)

I've waited years for Justice League. I've been wanting to see the greatest superheroes take the big screen together for as long as I can remember. Sadly, the biggest takeaway I had after stepping out of the theater was that we could and should have waited longer. The production of this film, and really the PR for the DC Universe as a whole, was an absolute mess. I don't think we'll ever get to see Zack Snyder's initial vision for this film, and that's unfortunate. But what we got is a jumbled mess of a film visually and thematically, with some undeniably fun moments mixed in. (FULL SPOILERS FOLLOW).
It's hard to review a film like that, which is why I waited until after I saw the film a second time, but even now I'm not exactly sure how I feel about the finished** product. Because in reality, this film is so far from finished it's honestly sad that it was put in theaters. So I guess that's where I'll start, the visuals. Coming off visually stunning films like Man of Steel and even Batman v Superman to an extent, Snyder's visual aesthetic is beginning to fade on my taste. That's not all his fault, as he didn't have anything to do with the film for the last 8 months, after suffering a personal tragedy. The people at fault here are the executives at Warner Bros who allowed this film to be released now instead of waiting until the visual effects are finished. You know something is wrong when almost every scene involves the background shots to be in soft focus (a dead ringer that the CGI/green screen effects are far from finished, and that's not even mentioning the completely muddled 3rd act final fight.
But let's talk about the good before we get too deep with the issues. The tea itself is fun, and they worked better together than I expected. I won't even say that half of the jokes/inner play works because a lot of it feels forced and re-shot a mere month or two ago, but I was definitely smiling watching the league together for the first time. Aside from the fact that he's 100% not returning after JL, Ben Affleck was serviceable as Batman. Ezra Miller certainly provided the most comedic relief. Jason Momoa showed me enough to get me intrigued for Aquaman. Cavill was of course great as Superman. Ray Fisher was leaps and bounds better than i thought he would be as Cyborg. And Gal Gadot was expectedly the best part of the film as Wonder Woman.
The other good comes from the runtime and pace of the film. And I mean that strictly in terms of the fact that there isn't an hour of that passes in between action sequences (BvS). The film flies by. Now does it actually flow from one scene to the next? No, not really. You can't really tell what scenes Whedon added in, but you can tell that this film was still a work in progress all the way up until its release, which is why nothing seems to flow for a good portion of the film.
Briefly, I would like to touch upon Danny Elfman's score, which is utterly forgettable. With all the fuss about him using old Batman and Superman themes, it's not even used in a memorable way. I wouldn't even be able to tell you what his JL theme sounds like because it was absent from the film in every way. He did not at all use the themes Hans Zimmer provided this universe to the best of his abilities.
The villain, Steppenwolf, played by brilliant Game of Thrones alum Ciaran Hinds, was like a Marvel villain in that he served his purpose, but failed to be memorable. There are a few scenes that are quite impressive with him, including an epic one on Themiscyra, but I'm not coming out of the film buzzing about Steppenwolf.
But I can say I enjoyed the team as a whole and individually. It's a lot easier to see that upon second viewing. And with that said, I'm definitely still wanting to see more with the universe going forward. Yes, the film looks pretty bad compared to other big superhero films. Yes, the action isn't fluid and is often times a CGI/video-game looking mess. Yes, they still haven't completely figured out the tone of these films. Yes, it seems Affleck is going to step-down as Batman. Yes the film does leave you with an after credits scene of Jesse Eisenberg (the worst thing this universe has ever put to screen, but more on that another time). And yes, I do actually believe this is a step down from Batman V Superman (in terms of being a film that moved me to have real emotions no matter what emotion that is). But I'm STILL on board for this universe, if they do some restructuring here and there. Why? Well, in the words of Wonder Woman, I'm a believer.
7.6/10