MOVIE REVIEW: JUSTICE LEAGUE

 

The very first scene of JUSTICE LEAGUE pretty much sums up the film in a way.

Superman had just finished a rescue mission, and kids are doing an interview with him for their blog. The point of view is from a shaky phone camera. The kids giddily ask the polite hero what's his favourite thing about Earth. 

He turns his head and thinks for a few seconds. He frowns. The answer should be easy, but it's not. He then smiles and turns back to the camera. He starts to speak and his words are cut short as the scene brutally ends.

It's probably my favourite scene of the film, showing a certain sense of poignancy in Henry Cavill's acting, and in the symbolic way the scene is cut short, the same way his life was in the unjustly maligned BATMAN V SUPERMAN. It has a charming sense of ''reality'' that has been lacking in a lot of the DC Films and translate well the inherent goodness of the Man of Steel as well as the admiration children may have for such a being.

It also demonstrates one of the movie's failings. A sense that something good may occur, but we are unable to reach that point exactly. We are left wanting more in the form of emotional involvement with the characters.

The following scene is a throwback to the last scene of BVS, where the world mourns its alien saviour, played beautifully to a Leonard Cohen song performed by Sigrid. While it is stylish and gorgeous, I am still unable to really feel the right amount of sympathy for Superman as he is portrayed in this latest incarnation. While I believe Cavill's turn as the Man of Steel is perfect casting, the way the character was handled was awkward at best, and the ending of MAN OF STEEL was apocalyptic enough that I can't understand how people would really miss the man who levelled a whole city during one of his battles. It just seems that he hasn't earned the worship that is thrown his way by the time BATMAN V SUPERMAN comes along. While the destruction of Metropolis is a good fodder for what transpires in BVS, giving Bruce Wayne reasons to see Superman as a threat, it also makes his status as a saviour a bit difficult to fathom.

But I digress. How is the JUSTICE LEAGUE movie?

I'm on the fence about it. You may have gotten from this blog that I am a good public for that type of film. Ever since I was watching the Batman TV show as a child, and was flabbergasted by the Donner SUPERMAN movie when I was 13 years old, I've had a soft spot for superhero films. They are just inherently perfect for the medium of film, offering clear heroes and villains, obvious obstacles to conquer, and if it fails dramatically, then there is the added bonus of seeing grown ups running around in goofy costumes. 

And while the Marvel movies have managed to capture lighting in a bottle, managing over and over again to find the right tone to treat those characters successfully in movies (to varying degrees of success, of course), with the exception of WONDER WOMAN, DC have been struggling steadily ever since they rebooted Superman with MAN OF STEEL. The tonally grim series didn't seem to gel with the audience, and while director Zach Snyder has an undeniable talent for some strong visuals and effective moments in films, as well as translating comic books to the screen with an insane amount of reverence  for the source material (one has to think of his exceptional 300 or WATCHMEN) he sometimes has a hard time tying all those moments together adequately in an effective and engaging narrative. 

So there were no small amounts of hope that when Snyder got replaced with Joss Whedon (who had done such an amazing job bringing the Marvel characters together in the wildly entertaining THE AVENGERS) to finish JUSTICE LEAGUE that maybe his magic touch may help out what could have been another dreary tale of superheroics. 

The results are unconvincing to say the least. The film ends up feeling like a Frankenstein monster, made up of ill-connecting parts. At times gloomy, and at times light hearted, it seems to have a hard time finding its proper footing, and truly engaging the viewer. 

Remember how awkward that scene in CIVIL WAR (an otherwise very fine movie) was, when Tony Stark ends up at Peter Parker's room to hire him in his vendetta against Captain America? How forced it felt, so that Spider-Man could finally be part of the Cinematic Marvel Universe? The whole first half of the film, as Batman and Wonder Woman goes around trying to recruit heroes for their mission in defeating Steppenwolf, a CGI MacGuffin that will unite them all in their quest, feels equally as forced. Not unpleasant, but forced. 

CGI MacGuffin STEPPENWOLF, looking very different from Kirby's original inception.

The rest of the story line moves  along at a fast pace, leaving little time to spend on characterization. And some developments are downright absurd, in that comic book kind of way. We all know that Superman HAS TO come back from the dead. And when he does, we are treated to a proper superhero fight that is undeniably a staple of the genre by now. The reasoning that leads to the resurrection, and the means to the end in itself, never rang true to me. It's one of those things you can't think too much about, or it will drive you mad. The verisimilitude proned by Richard Donner when he made SUPERMAN in 1978 is pretty much out the window.

As for the characters themselves, well, let's take them one at a time.

CYBORG, who sports a rather garish exoskeleton robotic body, has plenty of pathos, and there is a lot of potential to develop his troubled personae, where his human mind is overtaken at times by his mechanized self, but actor Ray Fisher doesn't have much opportunities to stretch his thespian muscles in this film. At the very least, a scene near the end of the film seem to imply a change of armour that will look closer to the more streamlined one viewed in the comics. As for exploring his pathos further, we are promised a movie somewhere down the line.

AQUAMAN, as portrayed with gusto by the robust Jason Momoa, is a striking departure from the oft mocked source material, whose essence was rather lame. In the film, he is closer in character to Marvel's Sub-Mariner, who shared with Aquaman a very similar origin. His exuberance is a stark contrast to Cyborg's grim self-hatred, but he seldom gets to use his water driven power in the film. I wish I would have seen him ''Talk to fishes'', something that will also be kept for his solo movie, no doubt.

THE FLASH is a curious mixed bag, as the interpretation by young Ezra Miller is dynamic and quirky, not unlike Tom Holland's Spider-Man. He steals most of his scenes, but certainly not with his costume, which is a certified eyesore. One can hope that, as Tony Stark did for Spidey, Bruce Wayne will help him upgrade his garment for something a bit more graceful. His relationship with his convict father is reminiscent of the one explored in the recent TV show, and it's safe to assume that his solo movie will deal with absolving his father's guilt . Rumour has it that it would be the FLASHPOINT storyline, (Already adapted in animation form in a fantastic straight to video DC film.) in which his attempts at travelling through time to prevent his mother's murder will create a series of paradox, including one where Bruce Wayne is the one who is murdered in that fateful alley, and the father takes on the mantle of Batman. Judging from the beginning of BVS, I look forward to Jeffrey Dean Morgan as Batman. 

As far as the depiction of his powers, they pale in comparison to the outstanding way super speed was portrayed in the latest two X-Men movies, where the scenes involving Quicksilver were spectacular showstoppers. 

WONDER WOMAN still benefits from the considerable charm and strength Gal Gadot managed to convey in her phenomenal solo movie earlier this year, and her scene stealing debut in BVS. Gadot has managed to stun the naysayers who doubted she had the physical attributes to play a comic book hero  and become a Wonder Woman every bit as memorable as Lynda Carter was in her own way.

Ben Affleck's BATMAN continues to impress, and still manages to stand out as one of the best movie Dark Knight out there. They have tried providing him with a lighter attitude, which is not always convincing. Rumours around states he may be replaced by Jake Gyllenhal in future films. Can't say I am enthusiastic about the prospect, but we'll see.

As stated before, Henry Cavill's SUPERMAN does return, and once again, there seems to have been an effort to lighten this character too, and in his case, it feels more natural. It seems a bit more like MY Superman, and I feel a bit more confident about his further adventures.

But will there be more adventures? As it stands now, the film hasn't made a killing at the box office, and after the dismal critical performances of SUICIDE SQUAD, MAN OF STEEL and BATMAN V SUPERMAN, one can imagine how nervous the producers must be at this point, trying to build a series in the mold of Marvel. There are already plans for films to be made out of this particular continuity.

But Marvel teamed up its characters in an organic way, introducing all of them in their own movies first, so that he viewer is already involved with them and the interactions just flow easier. In this case, half of the characters are brand new, and struggle to find their place in an especially busy story line ripped out straight from Jack Kirby's highly imaginative Fourth World saga.

Speaking of which, it's nice to see the King have his own isolated credit at the end of the film. A nice way to celebrate his 100 birthday. His touch in the film is not as visual as in THOR RAGNAROK, but more in his concepts pertaining to Darkseid, Apokolips, Steppenwof, the Mother Boxes, Boom Tubes and the Parademons. I'm still dreaming to see the actual New Gods up on the screen.

One last thing to mention is the score by Danny Elfman, who has travelled the roads alongside superhuman beings many times before. He does a serviceable job, whose highlights are mainly the use of leitmotivs from his own score to the 1989 BATMAN and John Williams' SUPERMAN. Can't say that there is much of a hummable theme to carry out of the theatre with me.

And that's the case pretty much of this JUSTICE LEAGUE. I didn't find the film offensively bad as some critics imply. I even liked some parts of it very much. I am curious to see more adventures with those characters, but not particularly eager. I need a bit more emotional attachment to the characters, which has yet to be build upon. I need more scenes like the reunion between Clark, Lois and Martha in a field, which felt warm and real, while a lot of the film feels a bit cold and artificial.

Like the heroes in the movie, DC Films are trying to break through the creeping gloominess that pervades that series, like the tendrils of Apokolips ravaging through the countryside. Unlike the Justice League, they succeed only partly.