It’s probably fair to say that your expectations going into something
can affect your enjoyment of it. I had
super-high expectations of Warner Bros’-DC’s previous tentpole event movie, Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn Of Justice,
and despite several viewings and multiple chances given I still find it dull,
incoherent, with undersold drama and poor CGI.
It seemed to exist not to tell a story on its own, but to foreshadow
something bigger, and that left it hugely unsatisfying. As I mentioned in my review at the time,
Marvel had earned their right to a crossover with several smaller films to
introduce characters, featuring knowing nods to the camera. Marvel were taking their time with foreplay;
DC were rushing in dry.
That said, BvS had
its moments; admittedly not too many of them for a long film, but enough to stop
me from completing hating it
completely. Warner-DC’s endgame was Justice League. After the clusterfuck of Suicide Squad (although I did enjoy Wonder Woman) I was going
in with rock bottom expectations, but a decent spark of excitement. I mean, how could a geek like not be excited
for a film featuring Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash and Aquaman fighting together? And I suppose world’s dullest superhero,
Superman, would be in it, too.
My rock bottom expectations had been informed by the curse
of knowing too much. Firstly, the
previous films DC hadn’t exactly been brilliant; Chris Nolan’s high benchmark
in terms of drama and tone had not been matched. They could surprise, while even Wonder Woman was very ‘stock’, fun as it
was. Secondly, a notoriously difficult
shoot with rumours of almost daily script revisions, extensive reshoots (I
tried ever so hard not to mention Henry Cavill’s moustache, but here we are…)
and the tragic circumstances behind Zack Snyder’s departure and
replacement. These things don’t exactly
scream cohesion. Thirdly, the dangers of
giving new characters short shrift, best demonstrated by most of the X-Men
films, in which major characters are briefly introduced and given too little to
do. DC clearly have big plans for major
players like Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg but the rush to their moneyshot has
meant the only introduction we’ve had was Bruce Wayne watching some secret YouTube
videos of them. Justice League has a lot of work to do before it even gets
entertaining.
I can’t honestly say that I enjoyed it. I certainly didn’t hate it; like the
predecessors, there were moments, but there were far more problems than there
were moments. I’ll start with the
villain. Who could DC put in the way of
a team consisting of six super powered people?
Darkseid is being saved for the future, so Lex Luthor, Bizarro, Metallo,
Brainiac? They went with Steppenwolf.
No, me neither. A poorly-rendered CGI Ciaran
Hinds as a dull megalomaniac with a big axe and an army of humanoid insects who
feed on fear. His motivations are
sketchy, his dialogue is sub-Bond villain scenery chewing. He’s stronger than 5 of the 6 members (no
prizes for guessing which one can take him) and he looks awful. Counting Doomsday,
Ares, and whatever that thing was in Suicide
Squad, he’s now the 4th consecutive characterless CGI armoured monster
(with horns) to be thrown up by the DC villain machine.
Then there are the heroes.
The most interesting character, Batman, unites the team but is (perhaps
rightly) left behind during much of the action as the actual super heroes do their thing. He’s pleasingly battle-scarred and knows he’s
outgunned. Wonder Woman is the pick of
the bunch; both the most interesting character, bringing Themyscerian vengeance
to Steppenwolf, and enjoying the best of the set piece action. Ezra Miler does well enough with The Flash,
although his best bits are all in the trailers.
He’s fun, wide eyed and here are some touching moments between him and
his father (Billy Crudup). Jason Momoa’s
Aquaman is terrible. There is a
character in pointless spoof Not Another
Teen Movie who identifies only as “token black guy”, whose only job is to stand
in the background and say things like “damn”, and “that shit is whack”. That is all
of Aquaman’s dialogue. Cyborg, whose
proximity to the silly-sounding ‘Mother Box’ Macguffins should have made him
the heart of the film, is dull at best and so poorly-rendered he makes The Phantom Menace look like Terminator 2.
The dynamic between them doesn’t feel complete, either. Mostly reluctant to join Batman’s super-team,
they all fall into place where required and bicker over nothing much before
falling into place just as the story requires.
A fight with the newly resurrected Superman is fun but still overstates
his power set and ends with a predictable move.
Plot-wise, there is nothing you haven’t seen before
here. The drama is undersold and we
never get a sense of threat.
Steppenwolf, we are told via flashback, is trying to unite three Ark-Of-The-Covenant
boxes whose combined power will… do something bad to Earth, presumably
involving the exponential spread of purple crystalline worm things. He mentions Darkseid at one point. In fact, I only know what he’s attempting to
do because I read up on it before seeing the film. The climactic battle is an anti-climax which
fizzles where it should explode.
So as one might expect, a troubled shoot in a rushed overall
project, two different directorial approaches (although I think Joss Whedon’s
input as director has been overstated), and some very strange choices do not
make for a cohesive film. I tip my hat
to the film giving Superman some decent one liners and keeping Wonder Woman
front and centre, but there just isn’t enough here to carry what should have
been the film event of this or most other years. My low expectations have probably sullied by
enjoyment, but being so low to begin with, Justice
League didn’t even come close. It’s
an opportunity fumbled, made worse by poor choices in previous films and the lack
of a singular vision at studio level.
And one last thing: Henry Cavill’s moustache, for fuck’s sake…
