Justice League

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I watched Justice League last night...I learned a while ago to not trust professional critics so I read no reviews prior to seeing it.

Here is my unprofessional review...

Justice League in the end gave me everything that I wanted it to. There was a lot of story to pack into two hours and some may argue that Aquaman and Flash stand alone movies should have come first to further develop those characters prior to putting them all together on one screen. That may have been nice, but doing it this way in no way took away from either character as we clearly see their personalities and what kind of hero they are going to be in this movie and in many ways it sets up their stand alone movies better than their stand alone movies would have set this one up. Cyborg is fine but he is definitely the least interesting character in Justice League.

Gal Godot as Wonder Woman is still Awesome and Affleck as Batman is definitely growing on me, so much so that he may now be my second favorite overall Batman....behind Lego Batman of course.

Steppenwolf is a decent villain, but probably the weakest part of the movie. The movie has several humorous or out right funny moments without being goofy as Thor:Ragnarok was at times.

If you go stay for the two end credit scenes, one is just fun and the last one is a serious geek out moment if you are a serious DC Comic Book fan. I heard shouts throughout the theater when it became apparent what was going on in that scene.

I was wondering when you were going to post your review of it, I always wait to see you post for these kinds of things. When I didn't see you post yesterday I was worried. :lol2:

I think this is likely a different strokes type of thing because the movie hit me as frankly mediocre. The first third of the movie was TERRIBLE. The visuals were nowhere near what you'd think they would be for a movie of this magnitude. CGI was poor, green screens were poor (and obvious), and Steppenwolf in particular looked really bad. I don't understand how they could have messed those up so much. I'd compare the movie to Thor: The Dark World in terms of some of the plot elements.

The Flash was a bright spot for me, and I enjoyed Aquaman more than I thought I would. I thought Wonder Woman wasn't as fully formed as she was in her standalone movie. I thought Batman was great (as usual). But all in all, it was a 4/10 for me.

Having seen it myself there are some things I liked and some things I didn't like.

Villian was lacking in my mind, but that seems to be a problem in all the comic book movies currently. Really the only villians done well seem to be on the TV or Netflix series (outside of Loki in the first Avengers). Steppenwolf was pretty standard I thought, I liked the look of him but he didn't get much development or motivation. Only 1 mention of Darkseid the whole movie, but hey that's not terrible really.

I think this movie shows DC trying to rush to catch up to Marvel. The Avengers (2012) worked because they got time to set up each character first with their own films. With the rush to get to JL they really didn't get a chance to figure out where they were going with the thematic structure of the universe before they actually made JL. I think solo movies to flesh out the characters like we got with Wonder Woman (which was an exceptional movie in this genre) would have helped, especially since characters like Cyborg are not really well known like the others. Shoot even Aquaman is known mostly from the "Superfriends" show from the 70s which was a seriously toned down version of what the character really is and doesn't give you much background of him. Flash is better known, but even so I am not sure many people really get the details behind why Barry is so focused on getting his dad out of prison. There was definitely a lot left on the cutting room floor in this one, unlike BvS I think an extended version of this one would help a bit.

I felt that most of the superheros were really on point in much of their characterizations, I didn't have any issues with their choices. I will say that Superman finally felt like Superman. If they can build the future tone of the DCEU around what they have managed with WW, Supes, and Batman I think it can definitely be good. But if they keep putting out Suicide Squad and BvS type movies they will eventually hit diminishing returns. Flashy 'splosions and action only get you so far, eventually the premise wears thin.

It was watchable for sure. It wasn't painful, dreary, or trying to give you intro to philosophy lessons (::cough:: BvS ::cough:, and it managed to start to find itself. If they can use this as a jumping off point I will be happy with their future installments for sure.

It's no Wonder Woman, but it is definitely the 2nd best of the DCEU outings so far.

I think this is likely a different strokes type of thing because the movie hit me as frankly mediocre. The first third of the movie was TERRIBLE. The visuals were nowhere near what you'd think they would be for a movie of this magnitude. CGI was poor, green screens were poor (and obvious), and Steppenwolf in particular looked really bad. I don't understand how they could have messed those up so much. I'd compare the movie to Thor: The Dark World in terms of some of the plot elements.

 

The Flash was a bright spot for me, and I enjoyed Aquaman more than I thought I would. I thought Wonder Woman wasn't as fully formed as she was in her standalone movie. I thought Batman was great (as usual). But all in all, it was a 4/10 for me.

I think you summed it up more succinctly than I did.

I will say I did enjoy a nod to a founding JL member (of sorts) in the flashback scene. It was probably meant to be Abin Sur.

I think this movie shows DC trying to rush to catch up to Marvel. The Avengers (2012) worked because they got time to set up each character first with their own films. With the rush to get to JL they really didn't get a chance to figure out where they were going with the thematic structure of the universe before they actually made JL. I think solo movies to flesh out the characters like we got with Wonder Woman (which was an exceptional movie in this genre) would have helped, especially since characters like Cyborg are not really well known like the others. Shoot even Aquaman is known mostly from the "Superfriends" show from the 70s which was a seriously toned down version of what the character really is and doesn't give you much background of him. Flash is better known, but even so I am not sure many people really get the details behind why Barry is so focused on getting his dad out of prison. There was definitely a lot left on the cutting room floor in this one, unlike BvS I think an extended version of this one would help a bit.

Iron Man, Thor and Captain America had introductory movies prior to Avengers as did Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman here...not as rushed as it seems. Honestly though, to the majority of the world Marvel needed to do that as Thor and Iron Man especially were not very well known beyond deep comic readers. The DC characters are just much more well known and need less character development, because most of us have grown up with them. Cyborg does need more development and he has a stand alone movie coming...I didn't want this movie to get bogged down by character development for Characters that for the most part I've known my entire life. Just like I NEVER need to see Thomas and Martha Wayne ever get gunned down again, I don't need to be explained to why Flash is Fast or how Aquaman rules the oceans.

The Barry/Dad angle has been clearly played out on the current TV series and in the comics, but I agree that if all you know of characters is from the movies it leaves you wondering what the deal is. I'm sure that will be a big plot line in the Flash movie as it should be.

I think this is likely a different strokes type of thing because the movie hit me as frankly mediocre. The first third of the movie was TERRIBLE. The visuals were nowhere near what you'd think they would be for a movie of this magnitude. CGI was poor, green screens were poor (and obvious), and Steppenwolf in particular looked really bad. I don't understand how they could have messed those up so much. I'd compare the movie to Thor: The Dark World in terms of some of the plot elements.

 

The Flash was a bright spot for me, and I enjoyed Aquaman more than I thought I would. I thought Wonder Woman wasn't as fully formed as she was in her standalone movie. I thought Batman was great (as usual). But all in all, it was a 4/10 for me.

I go, first off, to be entertained and this movie entertained me. I agree on Steppenwolf looked bad but no worse than Red Skull did.

I go, first off, to be entertained and this movie entertained me. I agree on Steppenwolf looked bad but no worse than Red Skull did.

I'll admit that I tend to look at many movies with a critical eye. I go to be entertained, but I'm somewhat demanding about it. Some people have low expectations and that protects them from disappointment. I go in with high expectations, and I think when they are met or exceeded that I enjoy it more than the low expectation folks. A buddy and I argue about movies all the time because he really seems to just like everything.

As for the Red Skull comparison, I don't know that I agree, because those were prosthetics. Even a poor practical effect tends to look better than a fake one. But even allowing for that, it's been 8 years since First Avenger. That's like a lifetime in terms of Hollywood effects. A lot of the Thor movies heavily feature CGI, and I don't think this matched Ragnarok in that respect at all. The switcharounds in post production likely had a lot to do with it.

I honestly don't mean it to sound like I completely hated it or was not entertained. I just look at them critically, and I just don't find the DC movies to be on par with Marvel. A lot of that is because Marvel found a formula and has gone to that well over and over. That's a valid criticism of Marvel movies. But DC just hasn't found anything resembling that formula, which leads to most of their movies being adrift. Wonder Woman was fantastic. Man of Steel was passable. Batman v Superman was extremely mediocre. Suicide Squad was a crime against humanity. This is closer to Man of Steel than Batman v Superman.

I'll admit that I tend to look at many movies with a critical eye. I go to be entertained, but I'm somewhat demanding about it. Some people have low expectations and that protects them from disappointment. I go in with high expectations, and I think when they are met or exceeded that I enjoy it more than the low expectation folks. A buddy and I argue about movies all the time because he really seems to just like everything.

 

As for the Red Skull comparison, I don't know that I agree, because those were prosthetics. Even a poor practical effect tends to look better than a fake one. But even allowing for that, it's been 8 years since First Avenger. That's like a lifetime in terms of Hollywood effects. A lot of the Thor movies heavily feature CGI, and I don't think this matched Ragnarok in that respect at all. The switcharounds in post production likely had a lot to do with it.

 

I honestly don't mean it to sound like I completely hated it or was not entertained. I just look at them critically, and I just don't find the DC movies to be on par with Marvel. A lot of that is because Marvel found a formula and has gone to that well over and over. That's a valid criticism of Marvel movies. But DC just hasn't found anything resembling that formula, which leads to most of their movies being adrift. Wonder Woman was fantastic. Man of Steel was passable. Batman v Superman was extremely mediocre. Suicide Squad was a crime against humanity. This is closer to Man of Steel than Batman v Superman.

I am just going to go ahead and second everything you just said.

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I watched Justice League last night...I learned a while ago to not trust professional critics so I read no reviews prior to seeing it.

 

Here is my unprofessional review...

 

Justice League in the end gave me everything that I wanted it to. There was a lot of story to pack into two hours and some may argue that Aquaman and Flash stand alone movies should have come first to further develop those characters prior to putting them all together on one screen. That may have been nice, but doing it this way in no way took away from either character as we clearly see their personalities and what kind of hero they are going to be in this movie and in many ways it sets up their stand alone movies better than their stand alone movies would have set this one up. Cyborg is fine but he is definitely the least interesting character in Justice League.

 

Gal Godot as Wonder Woman is still Awesome and Affleck as Batman is definitely growing on me, so much so that he may now be my second favorite overall Batman....behind Lego Batman of course.

 

Steppenwolf is a decent villain, but probably the weakest part of the movie. The movie has several humorous or out right funny moments without being goofy as Thor:Ragnarok was at times.

 

If you go stay for the two end credit scenes, one is just fun and the last one is a serious geek out moment if you are a serious DC Comic Book fan. I heard shouts throughout the theater when it became apparent what was going on in that scene.

I will second everything you said. I went on Saturday with my son and we both came away pretty entertained. It gave me everything I want in a superhero movie.

Finally got to see this movie. I enjoyed it.

I recently listened to someone who thinks every movie should be Godfather quality nit pick over this movie. I finally saw it today. I thought it was very enjoyable and set the stage very for many hopeful future DCU movies.

Here’s a question though.

They can easily explain Superman coming back. How to they explain Clark Kent?