JUSTICE LEAGUE (2017) MOVIE NEWS & REVIEW

justice league (2017) movie

Genre               |   Action Sci-Fi
Classification   |   M
Running time   |   120 minutes
Released         |   16 November 2017

cast

Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne
Gal Gadot as Diana Prince
Jason Momoa as Arthur Curry
Ezra Miller as Barry Allen
​Ray Fisher as Victor Stone

director

​Zack Snyder

writer

​Chris Terrio ... (screenplay) and
Joss Whedon ... (screenplay)
 
Zack Snyder ... (story by) and
Chris Terrio ... (story by)

cinematographer

music

Danny Elfman

film editor

box office result

Worldwide              $​​657,416,472  
Australia                  $​​15,000,000
North America        $​​228,616,472

the best dialogue

Barry Allen: What are your superpowers again?
Bruce Wayne: I'm rich.
Arthur Curry: You tell anyone about this, I will bring every piranha I know after you!
[the Kent farm was repossessed, but Clark gets it back]
Clark Kent: How did you get the house from the bank?
Bruce Wayne: I bought the bank. All of it.

things to spend money on ...

JUSTICE LEAGUE (2017) IMAGES

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JUSTICE LEAGUE (2017) STORY SYNOPSIS

​​​Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman's selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat. But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes-Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash-it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.

JUSTICE LEAGUE (2017) MOVIE REVIEW

Reviewed by Mark Geraghty   |   Review date 19 November 2017
Pop ​Movie Rating ⭐⭐⭐

​There is a very large elephant sitting somewhere in the corner of the Bat Cave! The elephant goes by the name of Joss Whedon and he’s been responsible for some of the biggest Comic Book movies of this decade. The reason for Whedon wearing the “Elephant” tag is due to a very real tragedy that befell Zack and Deborah Snyder. Snyder’s need to step back from the post-production process of Justice League resulted in Warner Bros being able to take control of the production and charge Wheddon with the task of retro-engineering the film to have it exist more as a companion to Patty Jenkins’s critical and financially successful Wonder Woman. DC fans have mixed feelings about Snyder’s Man Of Steel and Batman v Superman, but, one thing is certain, both productions are distinctive. Both are extensions of Snyder’s visually-driven action approach to movie making. For want of a better description, they are Snyderesque! Justice League, on the other hand, does not feel or look “Snyderesque”. For a movie that reportedly cost $300 million, it is lacking the whiplash, kinetic approach that has been the hallmark of the aforementioned two films, where style mixes with grim reality and the dangers of the world become a ballet of death. This is what Snyder has shown audiences time and again. Justice League does not do this. In terms of cinema, it is something of a Camel. There are flashes of Snyder’s visual flair. There are segments where Whedon’s strength - his writing - helps humanise the characters more so than before; especially Ben Affleck’s Bruce Wayne. The problem is that nothing feels cohesive or fully formed. Coupled with a villain (Steppenwolf) who is as vanilla as they come and what you get with Justice League is a diverting two hour superhero movie that feels like it’s marking time for a bigger and better story to tell.

What does this mean for the greater DC universe? Surely, it’s time to rethink the storytelling strategy. Does DC really need to emulate their Marvel colleagues and provide audiences with a connected universe of characters and stories? The answer is “No”, they don’t. Each DC character who has been deemed worthy enough to feature in the Justice League line-up has years of comic book material behind them to warrant a dozen stand-alone movies. The real reason “Shared Universes” exist in the first place is that hey help film studios hedge their investment by appealing to a broader fan base who aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive, but different demographics respond to different characters. If audiences respond to all of those characters at once, as evidenced by The Avengers in 2012, the result is commercial nirvana for the studio financing and distributing the movie. Where DC have not been nearly as successful as Marvel has been delivering stand-alone movies for their main characters that compel audiences to check back in every couple of years to see what’s going on. Henry Cavill seems like he could be a lot of fun when you see him in movies like The Man From UNCLE, but as Superman, he’s so stolid and ramrod that it hurts watching him. Cavill needs to be allowed to relax and make the character is his own. Ben Affleck ditto. Sure Bruce Wayne has a tragic backstory, but for goodness sakes, let the tragedy by the starting point, not the ongoing driver. Fortunately, Affleck’s Justice League Batman is much more humane than the Batman v Superman version. Perhaps it was a studio directive. Perhaps it was the introduction of Whedon. That question may never be answered, but the new film is a step in the right direction after four Batman movies (if you include the Christopher Nolan trilogy) where Bruce’s emotional pain was the out-and-out driver. The only film to get the balance right has been Patty Jenkins’s Wonder Woman. So much of the success of that film is down to Gal Gadot and Chris Pine that the plot is almost secondary to the story of their relationship. There’s a definite clue in this, especially in writing the ongoing romance between Cavill’s Clark and Amy Adams’s Lois, for Warner Bros moving ahead with future DC films. Marvel has not really developed stories built around real human relationships and the success of Wonder Woman demonstrates audiences are prepared to accept a Superhero romance if it’s well done. Those who were around in 1978 will remember it was not just a delight to see that a man could fly, it was also a joy that, despite his superhuman powers, he was just as prone as the next person to feel both the elation and pain that is love…

So, what about The Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg? Justice League’s commercial performance will dictate what happens with these characters over the next couple of years. Jason Momoa’s Aquaman will hit cinemas this time next year. The character may not have the same fan-base as Batman or Superman, but Momoa could do the same thing Gadot did with Wonder Woman. He’s got a relaxed screen presence and he seems well matched to the “Surfer Dude” approach the movie universe is taking the character. Aquaman’s smaller fan-base also means the film’s Director, the talented James Wan, can play with the character a bit more, not unlike Taika Waititi has just done with Chris Hemsworth’s Thor in his third solo outing, “Ragnarok”. Not to suggest Aquaman be a “Comedy”, but, at least, show that it has a sense of self-awareness that taps into to the strength of its leading man. Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen a.k.a. The Flash is more problematic. The television series of The Flash is a good show and has developed a large following. Now in its fourth season, the show delivers fans twenty plus episodes a year of adventures featuring The Flash as the primary character, not one who has to share screen time with four other “Meta beings” and Batman! Miller does his best to make Barry memorable in Justice League, but he seems to be quirky for quirky’s sake as the film’s producers worked to find a way to differentiate each main hero from the other. Barry Allen’s story is certainly compelling enough, but after four seasons on the small screen and nearly one hundred hours of story, there’s no creative need to have The Flash remain anything other than light relief for any future Justice League outings. One interesting option may be to leave Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman out of the equation and utilize Aquaman, The Flash and Cyborg in their own joint venture. Justice League does demonstrate that this trio don’t need the “Big Three” around to hold their hand when it comes to pure action. Perhaps, it may even be a way to ease Green Lantern back into the DC movie universe… Comic books are a wonderful breeding ground for outrageous, unexpected stories, so it’s no long stretch to reframe the DC movies in a manner that is less reliant on marquee character line-ups that, in reality, can only save Earth in so many different ways. If Marvel’s Age Of Ultron has taught comic book movie makers one thing it’s that less is more when it comes to corralling characters together once every three years for the “All In” 150+ minute mega movie. Fans spend the next three years wondering why the stand-alone movies for characters don’t feature more characters from the mega movie? Marvel, with varying degrees of success, has managed this by expanding its roster of stand-alone character movies, but it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy because the more stand-alone characters that are added, the greater the expectation that they will appear in the mega movie. The success of that approach will be borne out in a few months when audiences have their chance to be dazzled by Avengers: Infinity War, featuring the biggest roster of Marvel characters ever put together for a feature film. It could be the greatest comic book movie ever or it could be a complete disaster, for no other reason than it simply lacks a coherent approach and, like Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War, buckles under the weight of too many characters vying for audience attention.

The way forward for the DC movie universe is no clearer with the release of Justice League than it was with Batman v Superman. Wonder Woman seems, now, to be a creative anomaly. This is as bad for DC fans as it is Warner Bros. If the studio scales back its investment, there will be less movies for fans. Given the wealth of characters in the DC comic book universe, it would be a shame for those cinematic storytelling opportunities to go to waste. An alternative for the studio may be to put the brakes on mega movies with mega budgets. Ryan Reynolds and Tim Miller sent a genuine message to the industry with Deadpool that a tighter budget and an economical use of characters can also lead to both creative and commercial success. Hugh Jackman and James Mangold proved with Logan there’s an audience who are prepared to invest in genuine drama based on comic book material and there’s no doubt the movie will feature in the Awards season not just for its technical exploits. Interestingly, both of these movies come from the 20th Century Fox Marvel line-up, which has been built around the X-Men universe of characters since 2000. There is something for Warner Bros to consider when looking the recent success of both those movies, along with their own Wonder Woman, to chart the path forward for their DC movies. Perhaps, a genre-based approach is a consideration. When Marvel announced that Scott Derrickson was directing the Doctor Strange movie, there was some commentary that the film would be a genuine “Supernatural Thriller”. It turned out not to be the case, but it was exciting to consider for just a moment that Marvel might go down that path. Perhaps, it’s time for the DC characters to break from their “Comic Book” mould and be completely redefined for their cinematic adventures. Many of the characters already operate within the “Science Fiction” genre by default of their origin story, but there’s no reason to look at “Genre” more broadly and utilize the likes of Horror, Noir, Thriller, Western, Mystery or Disaster as a framing device. Let’s face it, Wonder Woman is set against the backdrop of World War One and her exploits during the second half of the film are about stopping Germany from winning the war. If that’s not a sign that “Genre” is a means to help provide clarity for the DC story team and the Warner Bros senior management, then perhaps it’s time to get off the comic book movie treadmill before the weight of mediocre output and poor box office business leads not to better health but a fatal cardiac arrest!

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