‘Justice League’ is out and movie critics have nothing but ‘nice’ things to say about the much-anticipated movie. Overall, it’s ranked quite okay-ish despite the criticism of it being ‘dull’ and ‘a disappointment’.
The story follows Bruce (Ben Affleck) trying to form a group resembling the power of Superman to beat the villain Steppenwolf, who is in a quest to find all the mother boxes (which ‘do not contain power but are the power’) to avenge himself and bring back darkness to the world.
The storyline is a typical superhero story, where a villain wants to destroy the world and the superheroes try to stop him and, while there’s nothing wrong with this storyline, something went really wrong with the movie. The expectations were not set high due to the previous Superman v Batman (criticized as an ‘interminable slog’ by Manohla Dagis) and, while it was watchable, it left a lot of viewers disappointed.
Critic David Edelstein stated that ‘the new superheroes backstories go by too quickly’: ‘The uninitiated won’t know what’s going on and the initiated will find the introductions of Aquaman, Cyborg, and the Flash all too perfunctory.’
Firstly, comes Batman. When it comes to character development critics were quite profound that Batman (Ben Affleck) was a ‘yawn’. As Manohla Dagis put it ‘the little bit of bat brooding in “Justice League” feels unmotivated and unearned, and lacks the shading of the character in the “Dark Knight” or even in the Lego movies.’ Peter Bradshaw blames Affleck for the whole dullness expressing that he ‘doesn’t have the implacable, steely ferocity and conviction that Christian Bale had; he seems to have a faint sheen of sweat, as if the Batcave thermostat is up too high’ but is it really Affleck that has to be blamed or the writing of his character?
Flash has been criticized for having quite the resemblance to Spider-Man, must be his geeky nature, un-comfortability around people and his lack pausing for breath while talking. While watching the movie you get the feeling that Batman and Flash are another version of Iron Man and Spider-Man. However, Flash taking the role of ‘Comic Relief’ is an enjoyable character throughout the movie.
Aquaman and Cyborg, while being entertaining characters, both lack in substance in their character development. Their characters were not developed well enough even though they tried to humanize them, with Aquaman expressing his humorous affection towards Wonder Woman and Cyborg’s understandable pain in being turned into half-robot. Critic Dan Jolin said that Aquaman came across ‘as little more than a brash, occasionally lechy lunk who shouts “Dayum” and “My maaan!”’ (ouch, that’s harsh!).
Wonder Woman, unlike her fellow mates, has taken positive reviews despite the fact her character has not developed that much from her stand-alone film. She has been described as the most probable reason why this movie was ‘measurably brighter and more fun than the last outing’ (critic Michael O’Sullivan). In contrast, her connection with Bruce has been more than awkward since ‘despite a couple moments of goo-goo eyes’ they had below zero chemistry.
With the movie’s focus being a failed attempt on successfully introducing the characters and showing how they came together to build the renowned ‘Justice League’ resulted in a punitive criticism about the whole production.
The villain Steppenwolf has been criticised as ‘bland’ and is ‘a sternly old-school CGI medieval warrior with devil-ram horns and an electro-bass Vader voice’ (Owen Glieberman). Critic Richard Lawson cold-heartedly described that ‘the lighting is not good’ most probably due to Snyder incorporating the opera element, which did not work well in the movie.
‘The script is not interesting. The costumes are not fun. The film is, plainly stated, terrible, and I’m sorry that everyone wasted their time and money making it’. Critic Manohla Dargis expressed her feelings about ‘Mr. Snyder remaining regrettably committed to a dark, desaturated palette that borders on the murky, and this movie’s chaotic, unimaginative action scenes can drag on forever’. However, she also says that ‘the touches of humor in “Justice League” lighten the whole thing tonally and are a relief after the dirgelike “Batman v Superman”’. Indeed, multiple critics praised the film for diverting into a lighter and more humorous tone. As Mark Hughes put it the film was ‘fast paced and with its eye always on moving the story forward, Justice League balances frequent humor with equally frequent character exchanges and development to maintain dramatic tension’.
While the movie has received a lot of criticism, you would argue that at least it made money right? Well, not exactly; even though it had a $96 million opening weekend, the highly anticipated movie grossed way less than Batman v Superman ($160 million), Suicide Squad ($133 million) and Wonder Woman ($103 million) and way less than Marvel’s Avengers ($207 million). It is about time DC learned a thing or two from its long-time opponent if it wants to maintain its glory.
Edited By Niamh Perry
Sources:
http://www.vulture.com/2017/11/justice-league-review.html
https://www.empireonline.com/movies/justice-league/review/
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/nov/15/justice-league-ben-affleck-dc-comics
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-justice-league-review-20171115-story.html
http://variety.com/2017/film/news/justice-league-review-roundup-1202615747/