Justice League (2017) - Written Review

After the doom-and-gloom of last year's 'Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice', this soft-reboot of DC's cinematic shared universe of characters (that apparently isn't called the DC Extended Universe) balances Zack Snyder visuals with Joss Whedon humour in a slightly uneven, but ultimately fun action blockbuster. Gone is the narrative and character complexity of 'Wonder Woman', but gone too is the dour humourlessness of 'Man of Steel'. This is a film built on entertaining the audience, not challenging them, and in many ways lacks the artistic integrity of Snyder's previous entries.

There's a more pleasing colour palette to this film, although the visual effects feel rough and uneven in many places. The film's main antagonist Steppenwolf looks awkwardly placed into scenes, while Snyder's over-emphasis on CG landscapes and creatures causes particularly the final act to feel lacking in terms of geography. Where Batman and co. are at different points is difficult to determine, because its clear no one is actually in the location. It's a little odd.

In a film built around action set-pieces, character motivations. development and story are thin, and often explained in clunky exposition sequences. That being said, the characters are clearly defined, and when the final battle goes down, you look forward to seeing each one contribute in the fight against evil - and it's a pretty spectacular fight at that.

As a simple action flick, 'Justice League' excels, keeping a steady pace with clear characters fighting a stock villain in an admittedly dull story. If that sounds awful to you, 'Justice League' probably isn't your cup of tea. It lacks the nuance of Marvel's 'Avengers Assemble' or its sequel 'Avengers: Age of Ultron', but Snyder's visual flair often gives the action sequences a bizarre sense of cartoon-ish epic scale - which, for a comic book film, works.

The cast are pretty good all-round, although Henry Cavill's Superman and Jason Mamoa's Aquaman feel short-changed, adding little to the film. Ezra Miller is a lot of fun as Barry Allen, Ray Fisher brings gravitas to Victor Stone and Ben Affleck continues his stone-faced aged Batman performance. Jeremy Irons has some really fun one-liners in the film, while the MVP of this whole franchise is Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman: a hero for all, who gets a wonderful crowd-pleasing entrance.

Regrettably, Junkie XL doesn't return to score the film, and neither does Hans Zimmer, leaving us with Danny Elfman's bland orchestral soundtrack, which is often drowned-out as nothing more than white noise. That being said, Elfman subtly incorporates motifs from 'Wonder Woman', 'Man of Steel', 'Superman' and 'Batman', reminding you of how great those pieces were, and how dull his own are.

'Justice League' is a crowd-pleasing movie that aims to give you a fun two hours and nothing more. There's this theme about hope buried somewhere in there, and it's nothing too special to be honest, but I really enjoyed it. It's nothing fantastic, but a lot of fun. People in my screening were laughing and at the end I felt a good vibe coming from everyone - a far cry from the universal sighing at the end of 'Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice' last March. Noticeably imperfect, but a fun time at the cinema.

That opening scene is lovely though. 7/10