Justice League - Review

Right off the bat for all you DC fanboys reading this review, I wanted to like this movie. I really did. I never go into a movie wanting to hate it or wanting to be miserable while walking out of the theatre. Good thing for Justice League, none of those things happened. Unfortunately, I want to go to the movies to feel inspired, excited, entertained, intrigued or all of the above. A movie like Justice League has the power to make people remember the magic of movies. A movie with Batman, Superman, the Flash, Wonder Woman, Cyborg and Aquam... eh, maybe not Aquaman or Cyborg could be something special. And while I didn't hate this movie, the two words I can find to perfectly describe the Justice League experience for me are, "forgettable" and "lackluster". Batman has quickly become one of my favourite superheroes after going on a giant Batman marathon earlier this year and I honestly think if Ben Affleck had his own solo Batman film, it would be fantastic. Here, mixed in with the Amazons and giant alien bugs from another... planet? dimension? galaxy? (I'm still not really sure where these giant space insects came from) to me, that seems extremely out of place. Now I know what DC fans will say to me. "Oh Brandon, you are so uneducated about the source material! This happened in the comics and DC is made for the comic fans. Also, Iron Man is a billionaire superhero that is somewhat like Batman and he had to fight space creatures." To them, I say that any source material can work in a motion picture if you tell it in an interesting way. Wonder Woman is an Amazonian princess who fights the son of Zeus during World War I. Sounds crazy right? That's because it is, but people loved it because they liked the characters, and the story was told in a way that was funny, exciting and entertaining. Those three elements were lacking in Justice League. The jokes were much more prevalent here than in other DC films, but I could tell when I was supposed to be laughing, and I wasn't. Neither was the theatre I was in. As for excitement, I will admit there were some hints of excitement near the end when all the characters team up and start working together and helping each other defeat Steppenwolf. Although I have to say this now, Steppenwolf was one of the worst villains I have ever seen in a superhero movie. Not only was he extremely underdeveloped (you can't use the "well you need to read the comics" excuse here guys) but he looked like he was copied and pasted into this movie from a PlayStation 3 video game. He was just awful. When you have a bunch of characters who you aren't necessarily in love with fighting a guy who is just a downright awful villain with a super simple boring plot, why should I care? That's where the entertainment issue comes into play. You can have a generic plot with a generic bad guy work if it's entertaining. Hell, look at Guardians of the Galaxy for an example of that one. This movie is boring for the first hour and I thought to myself, "Wow, I shouldn't be this bored with a movie that has Batman and Wonder Woman in it." The Flash wasn't very funny, Aquaman tried to be hardcore and badass but I didn't buy it for one second, and Cyborg was just... there. The only really interesting part of the movie is when they attempt to bring back Superman from the dead, but by that point, the movie should have hooked me in. This film has a glimmer of hope for movies to come. By that I mean that it wasn't super depressing and the ending did give you a sense of satisfaction, even if it was a very small sense, but at the end of the day, I can't think of anything in this movie for me to say, "You have to see this movie!" Maybe a sequel could be better and I am definitely looking forward to anymore Batman or Wonder Woman solo films, but Justice League, unfortunately, falls flat. It kills me to say that DC fans, it really does.