Let me put my cards on the table: I loved Man of Steel, I really loved Batman vs Superman, enjoyed Wonder Woman and thought Suicide Squad was a missed opportunity and the weakest of the DCEU films thus far. My favourite DCEU movie is currently Batman v Superman; I thought it was layered, had great themes and loved its tone.
Yet critics hated it and divided comic fan-dom and the big question was always will Zack Snyder and Warner Brothers stick to their guns or would they capitulate to the fans who said DCEU is too dark and needs to be more light like Marvel? Patty Jenkins kinda walked that thin line with Wonder Woman, but how does Snyder and Joss Whedon fair with Justice league? Lets dig in.
What works; Snyder and company have created a team movie in the vein of 7 Samurai, the Dirty Dozen and Inglorious Basterds. A group different personality and archetype banding together to go on a mission and somehow have to find how to work as a team.
Flash is the funny one, Aquaman the stereotyped uber-man with bottled up feelings, Wonder Woman the star who's hiding her light, etc.
Yet they do feel like a team . You see how each fits into the group. What their issues are. Their strengths and where they could possibly go beyond Justice League in their solo movies.
The beats work well. Anchoring the story on Batman resolving some of the character issues from BvS was also a great touch. It gave Batman real stake outside the big bad of Steppenwolf. I didn't even mind that the guys added more jokes in this one, most of the jokes past the 30 minute mark worked for me.
The issue is the CGI is not always consistent and I got a sense we really didn't get a fully realised Zack Snyder version of this movie. The imagery, themes and layering that Snyder build into MoS and BvS are not all here. It feels the imagery and themes are stripped just to keep the plot going - no mediation on meaning, that was there in the two movies.
Then there's stuff that was teased in the trailers especially early ones that were cut out. The decison that Warner Brothers took not to make Justice League a two parter with this introducing Steppenwolf setting up the big bad that would be Darkseid was cut out and Warner Brothers decided also to make the movie shorter so as to appease the critics of BvS who said it was too long and I felt that certain things were cut out. Hopefully the Blu Ray will give us the Snyder's original cut.
Yet its not all doom and gloom. The two post credit scenes hint at a very interesting development in the DCEU world that fans would love. The team works and has got me excited for the solo movies from Batman, Cybog, Aquaman, Flash and Superman. These guys have chemistry and even if the movie was just about the team getting to work togehter and know each other they are good together.
Yes the CG battles are not always polished, yes the first 30 minutes takes a while to settle and yes it does not feel like Snyder version fully realised. Yet the movie still has lots of heart, it has a coherent story, some very decent comedy gags and even a great message on regeneration and bringing good out of hard times.
For me it is not the best DCEU movie but its not the worst or second worst movie. I think the capitulaing of WB turned what could have been a great movie into a decent okay movie with a lot of redeeming features that I liked. But I'm crossing for Snyder's cut. I have a feeling my rating will bump up.
Rating
***
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* crap **meh *** good ****now we talking ***** Instant Classic