‘Justice League’: An Absolute Disgrace
*loud sigh*
Here we go, I guess.
‘Justice League’ came out two weeks ago. I won’t not lie to you, I wasn’t expecting much: too many characters in one film, two different directors working on the same project (one of whom is Zack Snyder, which automatically makes me think the film is going to suck), and, judging by the trailers, I was expecting ‘Justice League’ to be shallow and meaningless. But don’t get me wrong: I root for DCEU! Unlike most people, I didn’t absolutely dislike ‘BvS’ and I still think ‘Suicide Squad’ got more hate than it deserved. And no, I’m not a Marvel fanboy. I can think of numerous thing I dislike about the MCU; I can also think of many reasons why the DCEU has, or had, more potential than the MCU.
Not after ‘Justice League’ though. I’ve been rooting for this franchize, I really have. But not anymore. It’s going to take a lot to actually make me excited for a new DCEU film. ‘Justice League’ is a disgrace, a film that shouldn’t exist, a film that gives us absolutely nothing, and a film that is just low quality.
Plot.
I must say again that, unlike most people, I actually found a few good things in both ‘BvS’ and ‘Suicide Squad’. So far I have been a strong defender of the DCEU, constantly repeating to my friends ‘There is hope! ‘Wonder Woman’ was amazing!’ and hoping that the studio has more to offer. Now that ‘Justice League’ has come out, I stand proud with my unpopular opinion once again. Unlike many critics, I honestly believe ‘Justice League’ is far worse that ‘BvS’ or ‘Suicide Squad’ and that it is in fact the worst DCEU film.
‘Justice League’ is completely shallow. The plot moves forward extremely fast without leaving any mark on the viewer; hell, it doesn’t even try. There is no payoff at the end simply because no one cares about what happens to the characters or, as a matter of fact, the world. There are no actual stakes, nothing to make you interested, nothing to make you excited. That, and a number of other factors, as the awful direction and flat characters, make the film extremely boring. It’s also predictable; no risks are taken and there is absolutely nothing original or unexpected throughout the story.
You should have seen my face while watching ‘Justice League’: I looked like a freaking Persian cat on a rainy autumn day. The film doesn’t affect or provoke; it has absolutely no sense of self-reflection or self-consciousness. It strived too much to be a decent production (something in which it obviously failed) that it forgot to care about, well, anything really.
I must mention some specific things about the plot to make my point. The bulleted list is spoilers, so read with caution.
- There is an entire subplot dedicated to a random family in a random Russian city.
- The first thing ‘Wonder Woman’ says to a bad guy is something of the sorts of ‘This is a magical lasso. It compels you to tell the truth.’
- First scene with Superman: ‘I must destroy everyone, I don’t know who I am.’ Second scene with Superman: ‘I love you Lois, I’m off to save the world.’
- When ‘the villain’ steals the last cube the squad is literally like ‘Ops, meh, damn it…’
I can go on and on. You get the point.
Last thing I have to say about the plot is this: after the film ended, I, legitimately, not rhetorically, asked my friend whether he could think of anything he liked about the movie we just saw. After a 30-minute conversation, the only things we came up with were that it was ‘entertaining-ish and funny sometimes‘.
That’s just sad.
Characters.
Oh, my favorite bit.
I am honestly shocked: ‘The Room’ has better characters. It would be hard to create these ‘people’ on purpose; I mean, it would surely take a lot of time to create a story that can go on with characters who have literally absolutely nothing to them. I mean that: there is absolutely nothing to them. The heroes we know from previous films (Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman) get no development whatsoever in this film; they don’t change and the story doesn’t impact them in any way. The Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg are just total disappointments. They have no qualities at all, no development, no character arcs, and absolutely nothing interesting to them. Hell, I don’t even need them to be interesting; just give me something!
You know what, I dare you to tell me something about the Flash, based on the film, mind you, except that he is funny and light-hearted. I dare you to say anything about Aquaman, again based on the film, besides the fact that he is a badass. I dare you to say anything about Cyborg except the fact that he doesn’t like himself and that he is confused about who he is. Honestly. Comment below if you can, really. I will apologize if I’m wrong. I’ve led numerous discussions with people and we couldn’t come up with anything. It would make no difference if these three characters were simply black silhouettes that moved.
And what makes it even worse is that they are all written so badly. None of them seem to genuinely care about what is happening. Sure, they act as if they do, but the viewer definitely doesn’t feel it.
And don’t even get me started on ‘the villain’. ‘All he wants to do is conquer and rule’ is not a good enough motive for a villain in a production this massive. Oh, and, you guessed it, there is nothing to him except that. Enchantress is a better villain. I mean that.
Direction.
Dear DCEU,
Please get rid of Zack Snyder. He’s going to ruin what left of your franchize.
Kind regards,
90% of film viewers in the world.
Honestly. Fire. This. Guy. Once again he makes a terrible film. Even worse than ‘BvS’, might I add. ‘Justice League’ is extremely choppy and terribly fast. The actions and development move so quickly that the viewer gets absolutely no chance to get invested in what’s happening (not that it’s interesting, but hey, at least give us a chance!). Due to ‘Justice League”s extremely fast pacing, the movie also gets profoundly superficial. It’s not a story worth telling and it’s not anything that even has chance to impact me.
I guess some of this may be due to the change of directors. But, if I have to be honest, Joss Weadon actually did a pretty good job keeping the tone of ‘Justice League’ coherent. Yes, the movie is awful, but at least it’s the same amount of awful from start to finish. I couldn’t notice any sudden tone shifts or changes in the narrative. I guess that’s a good thing?… Joss Weadon managed to finish the movie the same way Zack would have finished it. To be honest though, I can’t imagine a worst version of ‘Justice League’ than the one we got, so I don’t know what would’ve happened if Weadon changed it up a bit.
This film cost 300 million dollars. Where, the f**k, did that go!? How is the CGI this bad for a movie this expensive? I really don’t know. The villain looks like a character from a 2004 video game. The first ‘Iron Man’ movie has better CGI than this… that film is from 2008… The cinematography is ‘Justice League’ is barely okay and the editing is, you guessed it, awful. Where did that money go?
Acting.
The acting is not bad. It’s not amazing either.
Ben Afleck and Henry Cavill are just as good as they were in ‘BvS’. I, personally, like both actors in their roles, so I had no problems with them. Gal Gadot also changes nothing and I loved her in ‘Wonder Woman’, so the same thing applies to her. Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa, and Ray Fisher all embody their characters well. I would love to see more of Aquaman and the Flash, as long as their films are actually good for once.
All six actors are good and portray they characters adequately, but there is nothing special in their performances. That, however, is in no way their fault: it’s just the sh*tty writing. If they had better material to work with, they certainly would have knocked it out of the park. For now, however, they remain just okay.
Conclusion.
If you didn’t get it by now, I absolutely hated ‘Justice League’. Not only was I disappointed because it’s a big superhero movie and I’m a fan of those, but I’m also enraged simply as a person who appreciates cinema. I find very few good things about this film. Usually when my opinion differs from that of the crowd, I know why. I love ‘Power Rangers’, but I completely get why most people don’t. I hate ‘Spotlight’, but I absolutely understand why many people adore it.
With ‘Justice League’, I genuinely don’t get it. Many people are calling this DCEU’s best film after ‘Wonder Woman’ and I keep wondering: why? With a meaningless and superficial plot, blank characters, awful direction, and terrible CGI, I find almost nothing good about ‘Justice League’. In my opinion, it’s a disgrace. It’s a complete disappointment and a failure. It’s what’s wrong with Hollywood. It really is the worst film I’ve seen in 2017.
I haven’t seen ‘The Emoji Movie’ yet though. But hey, how bad can it be?
- Plot: 0.5/4
- Characters: 0.5/3.5
- Directing: 1.5/3.5
- Technical parts: 1.5/3
- Acting: 2.5/4
- Does it know what it is?: 0/1
- Did I overall like it?: 0/1
Total: 3.2/10
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Did you see ‘Justice League’? Do you agree with me? Or did you like it? Share your thoughts in the comments section below! Don’t forget to LIKE and SHARE this article if you enjoyed it and also to SUBSCRIBE to Our Movie Life!
As always, thank you so much for reading,
Pouty Boy