A long awaited movie that went greatly underappreciated. The Justice League marks a milestone in the DC cinematic universe and set the bar high for the rest of the DC universe movies. I present to you the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of DC's Justice League.
The Good
The overall message was remarkable, whether it was intentional or not: a world without God is a world without hope. And a world without hope is a world full of chaos and hatred. Everyone is fending for his or her self and it is a survival of the fittest kind of universe.
I get this from the theme that Superman is dead and people have plunged into a worldwide depression. As a result, the evil Steppenwolf (an extraterrestrial) has found an opportunity to conquer earth while it was vulnerable, reclaim the three mother boxes that have been hidden on earth, and redeem himself into the good graces of (I'm guessing) Darkseid. The DC heroes unite to combat this threat, but quickly discover that their power is not enough to fight off this formidable threat. This leads to another good point of Justice League.
We get a glimpse of Superman's true power in Justice League. If you have not seen Justice League, Superman returns in a very bizarre way. On that note, I think it is possible that they might have explained the Lazarus Pit (used by Ra's Al Ghul) through Superman's resurrection, but that is pure speculation. Superman is resurrected by the ship that Zod crashed onto earth and Luthor used to create Doomsday. Superman wakes up confused and is confronted by the Justice League, in hopes that they can tame him if he goes off the deep end. Superman freaks and takes on the whole league by himself. It is discovered that Superman is way stronger than Wonder Woman, has better firepower than Cyborg, is a better swimmer than Aquaman (well, probably), and is darn near as fast as the Flash. The only thing that saved the League from total destruction was Batman's forethought in having Lois Lane escorted to the scene of the battle. It's pretty awesome. At the climax of the movie, Superman unites with the League to offer up an epic beat down of Steppenwolf.
The hero's stories are summarized well in the brief amount of time the writers devoted to each one. Fortunately, we already knew Batman's and Wonder Woman's histories, but most are unfamiliar with Flash, Cyborg, and a little bit with Aquaman. You learn that everyone in this league of heroes is seeking redemption in one way or another and that saving the world was the perfect way to bring healing to their situations.
Affleck did great as Batman, Gadot did great as Wonder Woman, the others did a bang up job with their characters; particularly Ezra Miller with his awkward portrayal of the Flash. All of the actors worked together in a way that I believe will go down as memorable performances. The addition of comic relief was welcome, as well, after the dark and serious Batman v Superman.
Regardless of what the critics have said about this movie, and the many fans who have ripped it to shreds, Bravo! Zach Snyder and his team of writers delivered in a powerful way with this movie. It met my expectations and even surpassed them in some ways.
The Bad
The opening sequence with Batman baiting the parademon with another man's fear was cool, but made no sense. Who was this person that Batman was terrorizing? Why did he feel like he deserved to be used as live bait to fulfill this risky mission? Who was the guy? I assumed he was a criminal of some sort, but he seemed hardly worthy of Batman's time and it was never really explained (I think) who this guy was. I can't remember specifics, but the other flaws with this movie were along these lines. But to me, plot holes in a movie about comic book heroes is a non-issue up to a certain point. I was just glad that sexuality and swearing were not an issue in this movie like it was in Batman v Superman.
The Ugly
The people in Hollywood are clueless when it comes to the issues of Islamophobia and illegal immigration. I personally do not have a problem with this movie including scenes where a Muslim family's business is being robbed by a white racist. There were other scenes in this movie along these lines, but the people in Hollywood reveal their ignorance of these issues by making it seem like those who suggest that we need to have a certain awareness of radical Islamic terrorists and that we need to secure our borders against illegal immigration are always racists.
Not much else about this movie was controversial. I just wish that Hollywood would knock it off with their preachiness on issues like these.
Conclusion
You have to compare this movie to the Avengers movies that have been released. The Avengers have set a high bar and I don't know if Justice League quite hit the mark. I guess I will go as far as to say I enjoyed it as much as The Age of Ultron, but the first Avengers movie is kind of in a league of its own. That being said, I would need to watch Justice League again before I conclude that, for sure, but where Avengers had virtually no flaws, Justice League did have some minor hiccups. Overall, I think that DC excels in the solo films (i.e. The Dark Knight trilogy, Man of Steel, and Wonder Woman). I am excited to see what the future of the DC universe holds for Batman, Flash, and Cyborg...and (God willing) Green Lantern.
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