Justice League

Rating: 5/10 (30 November 2017)

The Marvel Universe is brilliantly successful, but the DC Extended Universe has been a mixed bag; Man of Steel was good, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was crap, Suicide Squad was alright, and Wonder Woman was fantastic, so expectations were high for this movie, bringing all the DC Comics heroes together, directed by Zack Snyder (300, Watchmen, Sucker Punch). Basically thousands of years ago, Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds) and his army of Parademons attempted to conquer the world using the power of the three Mother Boxes, but they were defeated by a unified army of the Olympian Gods, Amazons, Atlanteans, humans, and Green Lanterns, following this the Mother Boxes were separated and hidden in locations around Earth. In the present, the world is mourning the death of Superman (Henry Cavill), this has triggered the Mother Boxes to reactivate and Steppenwolf's return to Earth in an effort to regain favour with his master, Darkseid. Steppenwolf manages to retrieve the Mother Box from Themyscira, Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen) warns her daughter Diana Prince aka Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) of Steppenwolf'd by lighting the invasion fire. Meanwhile Bruce Wayne aka Batman (Ben Affleck) knows the world is under threat from an oncoming evil, he is attempting to unite other metahumans to a cause to stop it. Wayne goes after Arthur Curry aka Aquaman (Game of Thrones' Jason Momoa), who has superhuman strength, speed and aquatic capabilities, and Barry Allen aka The Flash (We Need to Talk About Kevin's Ezra Miller), who has immense superhuman speed and time and space manipulation capabilities. Prince looks for Victor Stone aka Cyborg (Ray Fisher), who has mechanical parts, giving him superhuman strength, electronic capabilities and flight. Stone joins when his father Silas (Joe Morton) is kidnapped, along with S.T.A.R. Labs (Scientific and Technological Advanced Research Labs) employees, by Steppenwolf looking for the Mother Boxes. Curry takes action and joins the cause, when Steppenwolf attacks Atlantis to retrieve the next Mother Box. Commissioner James Gordon (J.K. Simmons) tells the team the Steppenwolf's Army are based in an abandoned facility under Gotham Harbor, they are able to rescue the kidnapped employees, but the facility is flooded during the combat, the team escape when Curry delays the flood. Stone retrieves the last Mother Box, it was hidden from the group for analysis, Stone reveals that his father used the Mother Box to rebuild Stone's body after a life-threatening accident. Wayne decides that the Mother Box should be used to resurrect Superman, both to help defeat Steppenholf, and to restore hope to mankind, Prince and Curry are hesitant about the idea, but Wayne has a secret contingency plan in case Superman returns as a nemesis. Clark Kent's body is exhumed from his grave, he is placed in the waters of the Kryptonian ship alongside the Mother Box, it is successfully activated and Superman is resurrected, however his memories have not returned, he attacks the group after stone accidentally fires a projectile at him. On the verge of being killed, Batman enacts his contingency plan: Lois Lane (Amy Adams), Superman calms down seeing her, he leaves with her and returns to his family home in Smallville, there he recovers and tries to recover his memories. The final Mother Box is unguarded, allowing Steppenwolf to easily retrieve it, the five heroes, unaided by Superman, travel to a village in Russia where Steppenwolf plans to unite the boxes together and reshape the world. The team fights their way through the Parademons to reach Steppenwolf, but they are unable to distract him long enough for Stone to separate the boxes. Superman arrives, he aids Allen with the evacuation of the citizens, then assists Stone in the separation of the Mother Boxes, Steppenwolf is defeated by the group, as he is overcome with fear, and attacked by his own Parademons, before they are all teleported away. In the aftermath of the battle, Wayne and Prince agree to rebuild Wayne Manor as an operations base for the team, with additional space for more heroes; Prince steps out in public as a hero; Allen gets a job in Central City's police department, impressing his father Henry (Billy Crudup), serving time in prison; Stone continues to explore and enhance his abilities with his father; Curry returns to Atlantis; and Superman returns to the Daily Planet as Clark Kent. In the post-credits, Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) has escaped from Arkham Asylum and recruits Slade Wilson aka Deathstroke (Joe Manganiello) to form their own league. Also starring Jeremy Irons as Alfred, Amber Heard as Mera, Robin Wright as Antiope, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson as Mayor and Sergi Constance as Zeus. Affleck is better this time as the Dark Knight, Cavill makes a fairly welcome return as the Man of Steel, Gadot still kicks ass as the main heroine, and the other superhero recruits do their parts as well. To be honest, it is not the most original story, it is a very simple plot, villain wants to destroy and reform the Earth, the heroes band together and have to stop him, pretty simple, but at least the fight sequences and special effects are nothing to complain about, a predictable but alright superhero action movie. Worth watching!