It is no secret that the DC Extended Universe is lagging behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Not only that it feels like an afterthought after the success of MCU but it also failed to capture the audience with some heavily overused properties. The significant turnaround was Wonder Women, that took the world by “wonder”. Its success brought hope back to Warner Brothers and DC, but how does the latest entry Justice League stack up?
The events of Justice League happened after the events of Batman Vs Superman, the movie in many ways had only succeeded in creating a hype for Wonder Woman, but not critical success for its outing. Batman, acknowledging his mistake was trying to make it right. He acquired the files of Lux Luthor after the events of Suicide Squad and began assembling a team to deal with an alien invasion that he sensed is coming.
Justice League all of a sudden introduced 3 new characters and attempting to speed through their backstory become a necessity. Most of those backstories were told through conversation, which is quite smart, or just critical scenes to bring us up to date about these new characters’ life. However, once all the backstory stuff got dealt with it is time for actions. There are lots of them and they are all spectacular. Similar to Avengers, with so many superheroes on display there are a lot more superpower fanfare. However, for me the missed opportunity was the collaboration of powers among them. Sure, there were scenes they helped each other out, but what I was looking for was things what they did in the Avengers where superheroes complement each other with their superpowers. Like Steve Rogers launching Black Widow into the sky and Ant-man taking advantage of Hawkseye’s arrow. There are lots of group fighting in Justice League but it still feels like everyone was doing his / her own stuff.
Ezra Miller’s Flash was more interesting and fun than I expected. I was quite sceptical when they announced a different acting playing the same role while the Flash series is still doing well on the small screen. But Ezra Miller managed to craft the movie version of Flash into his own, making it a fun character to watch. In fact Flash is the major comic relief in the whole movie. The scene where he told Batman after he nearly threw up sawing those bug like enemies that he didn’t like bugs was hilarious. Cyborg, despite playing an important role in the plot didn’t really get much opportunity to shine. Most of the time in the first half he was angry then later it was all about the mission. Jason Momoa’s Aquaman, well, in my opinion, is what you saw in the trailers is what you get. Not that they are bad, but I was hoping for more surprises as he was hyped as the next major entry to the Universe. I like the fact that they acknowledged Batman’s aging in this movie but wonder whether that would mean Ben Affleck’s Batman would be phased out or playing a much smaller role in the future installments, if there are more. Strangely enough the story line of Lois Lane was the most moving for me, the lost and hope and determination was a remarkable journey in the film despite it was just one of the minor supporting arc. Amy Adams and Diane Lane without a doubt added a lot of meat to the bones for Justice League.
Justice League is a big budget movie and it was meant to be a major entrance to the DC Extended Universe. While it succeeded in bringing a number of superheroes together, I still felt like the movie was a rush out of the gate. Don’t get me wrong, it is extremely entertaining and I enjoyed it. But it didn’t have that solid foundation feel that I got when I saw the first Avengers movie. You can definitely sense that DC is trying to play catch up. Things didn’t fall apart but it was not solid story telling at this point. Maybe DC has some other tricks up their sleeves, but Justice League did not make me want for more in an anticipation sense. I will still see the next one if it comes out, but it was not like “I can’t wait for the next one”. It managed to entertain without a doubt, but it needs to do more to convince audience this is a universe that worth invested into.
Nonetheless, as a first entrance to one of the most recognised superhero conglomerates, Justice League in my opinion did not disappoint. Can it be better? Yes. But it is not redeemable, a definite No. One can only hope from this point onward Warner Brothers and DC will avoid further mis-steps to discredit what is already a shaky ground.
