Justice League review: Most tedious superhero movie yet
Batman v Superman was dour and mean-spirited, Suicide Squad was neon nonsense with dodgy gender politics. They were both terrible in their own way. But at least they were trying to do something.
Justice League is workman-like to the point of tedium, a movie made so clearly by committee that the entire runtime passes without troubling the audience with a single emotion. There's humour, but it isn't very funny, there are fights, but not an ounce of peril, and while all the new characters are introduced adequately, it's very difficult to care about a single one.
Okay, so it's better than BvS and SS. But in a way it's a bigger disappointment, a movie that sets up a bunch of other movies and ticks all its boxes with brightly colour-coded markers but takes no risks and delivers no thrills.
So to the action.
A pre-titles sequence shows a flashback of Superman – Henry Cavill doing his best Christopher Reeve (moustache removed by CGI very badly so his mouth looks weird) – reminding us that Supes wasn't all bad and showing us the lighter colours of his suit. A brighter superhero film, then? It's almost like they listened to the feedback for BvS and took it literally.
Then we see Batman (Ben Affleck) encountering a new non-human baddie who indicates the world is under attack. Superman's death has opened the door to a whole world of nasties and Bruce Wayne is going to need a hand. A team must be assembled. New characters must be introduced. A CGI villain must be defeated...
Backstories are built for Barry Allen (Ezra Miller as The Flash – the best of the new League), Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa as Aquaman, charismatic but redundant) and Victor Stone (Ray Wise, who has a good go as Cyborg but is hamstrung by being Basil Exposition), which hold intrigue for future films.
Meanwhile, Affleck's Batman flashes the cash, and Gal Gadot is Wonder-ful but you never get a sense the group like or even know each other. Held against the Avengers, this is a far-from-super team.
The big bad, Steppenwolf, is one of the worst villains in the DCEU or MCU, a CGI monster who looks like he's straight out of a computer game. Poor Ciarán Hinds (who plays him) might as well have not turned up he's so CGed. His motives are dubious and his weakness hilarious but on the plus side, he is at least IN the film from start to finish (unlike BvS end of level baddie Doomsday, for example).
Packing in the League complete with backstories, as well as their parents/wives/butlers, while giving Steppenwolf and his army of a kajillion para-demons ample screen time means there's virtually no room for any civilians (bar one family).
It means it's there's no real jeopardy at any point as meta-humans battle it out with gods and monsters towards an outcome we know before we walked it. It's reminiscent of Josh Trank's failed Fantastic Four movie, though that film at least felt like there was a good idea in there somewhere.
There are moments here too where a meatier sub-story seems bricked over – Superman's resurrection is the best sequence in the film and teases existential questions which are never developed, while Cyborg and his Dad could prove very interesting characters in a film less anodyne than this one.
This is a 'team assemble' movie, and for that it suffers most from the lack of chemistry within the group. None of the actors are bad, and spin-offs for The Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg may still work under the right leadership. But as a film to be enjoyed alone, it's dead behind the eyes.
Zack Snyder is credited as director – Joss Whedon took over later doors after a family tragedy – but it feels like it belongs to neither of them.
Justice League is remarkable in its unremarkableness. It's a holding film, the lift music of the DCEU. Let's hope it's going up.
Director: Zack Snyder; Screenplay: Chris Terrio, Joss Whedon; Starring: Ben Affleck, Jason Momoa, Gal Gadot, Ray Wise, Ezra Miller, Robin Wright, Amy Adams, Amber Heard; Running time: 120 minutes; Certificate: 12A
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