Justice League Improves Upon Similar DC Efforts and Continues to Take the DC Universe in a More Positive Direction

Rating: 7/10 (19 November 2017)

All of Zack Snyder's movies share strengths and weaknesses and when you talk about what he does well, action scenes/set pieces are always at the top of the list. This movie adds upon that, they deliver what you want from this type of movie. Two scenes stuck out to me, the first fight between our heroes and Steppenwolf and of course in the finale. They add new wrinkles for some of our returning heroes and they highlight what each member can do pretty well. The CGI is good and it never felt overloaded (at least for this genre). They also go to new locations that despite the fact that they're entirely CGI, I thought they looked interesting and relatively believable.
I want to touch upon the return of Superman (its not a spoiler, they show it in the trailers). I really enjoyed how they decided to handle the impact of his demise (even though Bruce Wayne has a crazy 180 degree turn in his attitude that seemed to skirt around the entire point of BvS) and we get some quiet and understated scenes with Lois Lane and Martha Kent grieving and bonding together. Even when they decide to get gooey sweet with his reunion with Lois, I thought they sold it. Instead of coming across as unemotional and distant, Clark has a lot of emotion in this and he even made me chuckle with some of his lines. He played off his Justice League teammates really well and although he seemed to be playing on a different level than his teammates, they utilize his full power set and I applaud Snyder and his team for changing up their approach.
The biggest surprise of the movie was how much I enjoyed the new members in the Justice League. Cyborg was a grounded character (at least in temperament) and even though he was full of angst, his abilities were interesting and I thought his relationship with his dad was emotional without being overbearing. Aquaman benefited from casting Jason Momoa but they are very tongue-in-cheek about his abilities and yet there was never a point I was about to start laughing at his inclusion. The Flash wasn't nearly as funny as the creative team thought he was but Ezra Miller shone through it as an actor and I liked how they decided to use him as a character. Add in that commissioner Gordon had a nice cameo and that smaller returning characters like Lois Lane, Martha Kent and Alfred Pennyworth were all nicely sprinkled in, they did a good job handling so many characters.
This is a big cast and while I can't give each of them their own paragraph, I'll do my best to give my thoughts on the performances. I already talked about Henry Cavill, he improved across the board. Ben Affleck isn't bad here but he suffers from the fact Batman is written a little more bland. Gal Gadot was also stronger in her solo effort but she's still good. Ezra Miller actually succeeds despite the material, Ray Fisher is surprisingly strong as Cyborg and even though Arthur Curry is Jason Momoa doing his thing, he's a charming guy and his charisma makes his character memorable. Lois Lane and Diane Lane are both really good with what they're given. Amber Heard was decent in her small bit and I really liked Joe Morton as Silas Stone.
The negatives of this film are pronounced but they weren't deal breakers. The first and most notable for me was the cringe inducing dialogue carries over from BvS. There are so many awkward lines and when the movie tries to be funny, I thought it fell on its face about 80-90% of the time. To be fair, there were some good lines too but I thought they were lacklustre for the most part. Some of my favourite characters from previous DC properties felt underutilized or shoved to the background. Batman comes off as a self-centred jerk for large portions of the movie and other than the action scenes, Wonder Woman's part is either to lecture the other members of the team or brood over the loss of Steve Trevor (the movie also doesn't do a great job explaining why she didn't help in other conflicts over the last century). Steppenwolf also made for a pretty underwhelming villain. I've seen worse (Malekith from Thor: The Dark World comes to mind) but this movie is built more around the heroes and the villain isn't the focal point.
People either rail against the DC Universe or they love it completely. I've been down the middle on it for the most part (I gave Man of Steel, Suicide Squad and Wonder Woman 8s or 9s, Batman v Superman was a disappointment but I still gave it a 6) and despite its flaws, this is still a solid movie. I might not be popular for saying this but I thought some of the players in BvS took some notes on what worked and what didn't and applied that to this movie, which I congratulate them for. They do a decent job setting up the new members of the team, the action scenes are good from beginning to end and I liked what they decided to do with Superman. Depending on the direction WB studios and DC decide to go, there's material and momentum to build off of in Justice League. We'll just have to see what happens, if you're a DC fan or you're craving some big action with superheroes, this will fill that spot. I would actually give this a 7.5/10 but I can't go a full 8 on it so I'm rounding down to a 7/10.