Justice League (12A)
Directed by Zack Synder.
Starring Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Jason Momoa, Ezra Miller, Ray Fisher and Jeremy Irons. 121 mins.
What is happening when a Thor film is one of the year's most anticipated releases, drumming up unheard of amounts of noise for what had previously been one of Marvel's least heralded characters, while this DC gathering of the clan, their equivalent of the Avengers Assembling, has advanced towards cinemas in a campaign marked by silence and stealth? The publicity campaign for Batman vs Superman seemed to last for years but the first posters for its sequel didn't appear on the side of buses until a couple of weeks ago. You'd have thought that the success of Wonder Woman might have put the spring back into Warner's attempt to build a superhero universe of its very own, but the Bros still seem stricken by the hubris of their Batman Vs Superman and Suicide Squad fiascos.
So, is this still supposed to be a big deal or not? I think the answer is probably not. Rather than some culminating epic, Justice League feels like a chore, a contractual obligation. Having set it all up by killing off Superman at the end of BvS, they couldn't really get out of doing it, but the attitude is definitely let's get this over and done with as quickly, and as cheaply, as possible. "Visionary" director Synder's gifts are limited but, given time and money, he can usually come up with a pretty picture or two for the audience to take home with them. There isn't a striking or memorable image in this whole film. Everything is shot in CGM, Computer Generated Mush – (spoiler) what the film lacks in Green Lanterns it makes up for in green screen shots, and not the most expensive kind either.
Not that lessons haven't been learned. It is much lighter than the previous Superman films though you may stop short of calling it fun. (The lazy observation here would be to credit this to the influence of Josh Whedon who finished up the film when Synder stepped down due to a personal tragedy, but I suspect that is too simplistic.) Superman is brought back from the dead but we are spared the divine resurrection of Superman Returns. His comeback is so nondescript you wonder why they bothered killing him off in the first place. The script seems to be pushing some kind of Trump analogy; that the Man of Steel represented a higher quality that we have misplaced. For no real reason a thug is seen threatening an immigrant shopkeeper at the start of the film; Alfred (Irons) says that he doesn't recognise the world today while Martha comments, “I can hardly bear to read the news; so much bitterness.”
The main fun bringer is The Flash, played by Miller in the style of Jimmy Fallon. He's nerdy, brash and uncertain and will probably be the breakout performer. The other new additions, Aquaman (Momoa) and Cyborg (Fisher), make less of an impression. The big hope-sinking moment in BvS came right at the start when it went about going through the Batman origins again but this time we learn next nothing about how these fellows came to be.
The real problem here is that everybody is stepping on each other's toes. Superhero overkill is beginning to creep into all of these movies but it is that bit more blatant in the ensemble pieces where everybody seems to have more or less identical powers. Flash, being able to run very fast, would seem to have the most distinctive powers in the group but when we see him in action, the world in slow motion while he moves a normal speed, the impact is lessened by the fact that we have seen Wonder Woman perform something very similar at the start of this film. Not to mention the two incarnations of Quicksilver over in the rival Marvel films
The superhero world is getting to be much like Monty Python's Whicker Island, with endless incarnations of more or less identical figures playing out more or less identical storylines. The big baddy this time is born-to-be-mild Steppenwolf, an all-conquering, all CGI villain much like all the other all-conquering, all CGI villains. (He's played by Ciarán Hinds but not so as you would notice.) To get his power he has to collect a series of magic boxes, just like the Infinity Stones that are going to round off things over in the Wonderful World of Marvel's Avengers series.
I believe fans might find some satisfaction here but if this is Justice, I'm a banana.
Directed by Zack Synder.
Starring Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Jason Momoa, Ezra Miller, Ray Fisher and Jeremy Irons. 121 mins.
What is happening when a Thor film is one of the year's most anticipated releases, drumming up unheard of amounts of noise for what had previously been one of Marvel's least heralded characters, while this DC gathering of the clan, their equivalent of the Avengers Assembling, has advanced towards cinemas in a campaign marked by silence and stealth? The publicity campaign for Batman vs Superman seemed to last for years but the first posters for its sequel didn't appear on the side of buses until a couple of weeks ago. You'd have thought that the success of Wonder Woman might have put the spring back into Warner's attempt to build a superhero universe of its very own, but the Bros still seem stricken by the hubris of their Batman Vs Superman and Suicide Squad fiascos.
So, is this still supposed to be a big deal or not? I think the answer is probably not. Rather than some culminating epic, Justice League feels like a chore, a contractual obligation. Having set it all up by killing off Superman at the end of BvS, they couldn't really get out of doing it, but the attitude is definitely let's get this over and done with as quickly, and as cheaply, as possible. "Visionary" director Synder's gifts are limited but, given time and money, he can usually come up with a pretty picture or two for the audience to take home with them. There isn't a striking or memorable image in this whole film. Everything is shot in CGM, Computer Generated Mush – (spoiler) what the film lacks in Green Lanterns it makes up for in green screen shots, and not the most expensive kind either.
Not that lessons haven't been learned. It is much lighter than the previous Superman films though you may stop short of calling it fun. (The lazy observation here would be to credit this to the influence of Josh Whedon who finished up the film when Synder stepped down due to a personal tragedy, but I suspect that is too simplistic.) Superman is brought back from the dead but we are spared the divine resurrection of Superman Returns. His comeback is so nondescript you wonder why they bothered killing him off in the first place. The script seems to be pushing some kind of Trump analogy; that the Man of Steel represented a higher quality that we have misplaced. For no real reason a thug is seen threatening an immigrant shopkeeper at the start of the film; Alfred (Irons) says that he doesn't recognise the world today while Martha comments, “I can hardly bear to read the news; so much bitterness.”
The main fun bringer is The Flash, played by Miller in the style of Jimmy Fallon. He's nerdy, brash and uncertain and will probably be the breakout performer. The other new additions, Aquaman (Momoa) and Cyborg (Fisher), make less of an impression. The big hope-sinking moment in BvS came right at the start when it went about going through the Batman origins again but this time we learn next nothing about how these fellows came to be.
The real problem here is that everybody is stepping on each other's toes. Superhero overkill is beginning to creep into all of these movies but it is that bit more blatant in the ensemble pieces where everybody seems to have more or less identical powers. Flash, being able to run very fast, would seem to have the most distinctive powers in the group but when we see him in action, the world in slow motion while he moves a normal speed, the impact is lessened by the fact that we have seen Wonder Woman perform something very similar at the start of this film. Not to mention the two incarnations of Quicksilver over in the rival Marvel films
The superhero world is getting to be much like Monty Python's Whicker Island, with endless incarnations of more or less identical figures playing out more or less identical storylines. The big baddy this time is born-to-be-mild Steppenwolf, an all-conquering, all CGI villain much like all the other all-conquering, all CGI villains. (He's played by Ciarán Hinds but not so as you would notice.) To get his power he has to collect a series of magic boxes, just like the Infinity Stones that are going to round off things over in the Wonderful World of Marvel's Avengers series.
I believe fans might find some satisfaction here but if this is Justice, I'm a banana.
