Justice League

Were I to really, honestly think about it, I’d probably say that my favorite comic series of all time is Marvels.  Debuting in 1994 and spanning a few decades within the pages, the series (sorry, mini-series, as there’s only four issues here (and a semi-promotional issue #0)) follows a reporter who witnesses the coming of a new set of gods, superhuman heroes and villains popping up all over the place.  You might know these beings as the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, Spider-Man, the Avengers, and so forth.  Writer Kurt Busiek and artist Alex Ross show us the Marvel Universe from the ground level, from the perspective of a normal guy getting caught in the crossfire of beings more powerful than he could ever hope to be.  It’s a slightly sobering view of the cataclysmic clashes we normally see from the top in other comics, yet there’s a decided reverence and awe present at all times, showing our surrogate Phil Sheldon fully taking in the scope of the events unfolding before and above him.  It was a fascinating take on the genre, and Ross’s phenomenal paint work underlined the emotion and action with the skill and aplomb he is famous for.

Interestingly enough, my likely favorite DC work is another effort from Ross exploring the nature of superheroes lensed at least partially from the public-at-large’s perspective, Kingdom Come.  Penned by Mark Waid and sporting the same fantastic painting that Ross employed in Marvels two years prior, Kingdom Come tells the story of the DC Universe years into a future where our recognizable heroes have been pushed aside by a grittier, more violent, more anti-heroic ilk that is more than willing to shed some blood to get the job done.  Superman is coerced out of retirement to get things back on track, only to face a massive war between the newer metahumans (many of which are the spawn of the older generation) and the old guard.  This series not only explores the superhero concept from the ground level, as Superman finds himself forced to deal with terrestrial governments to get his way, but it also examines the comic industry itself, particularly the shift toward grim-and-gritty stories about bulked-up and hyper-violent “heroes”, a symptom of which led to the “Death of Superman” storyline, among other epochal tales.  It’s a great series, but a life-long Marvel fanboy like me (I only recently delved into other publishers for seminal runs like Watchmen and V for Vendetta, as well as Dark Horse’s serialization of Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club 2) found some obstacles, primarily background.  I had no idea what the hell was going on.

This isn’t to say the plot was confusing on its own, but rather that I had no background on any of the characters or worlds beyond the basics, like Batman, Superman, part of Wonder Woman, and so forth.  And, honestly, my main source of information on those has consisted of movies and animated series, so any knowledge of canon continuity was completely lacking.  As such, when certain characters made certain actions, I couldn’t tell you if it was in character or an extension of this wild could-be reality.

I bring all of this up, because the same deficiency plagued me throughout Justice League, and that helped contribute to its less-than-stellar reception in my brain.

Let me state outright that the above ignorance regarding DC heroes was not my only issue with the film, but it’s one that has to be dealt with.  I just plain didn’t know enough about these characters before going in to fully grasp their respective roles.  But notice how I made this one of the film’s issues, not one of mine.  Yeah, that was intentional.

Say what you will about the cinematic universe Marvel has built for its characters, it has a tendency to set up said characters so that we understand who they are and what they’re about, at least generally speaking.  Sure, Thanos, who’s barely shown up but has been hinted at plenty, is still something of a mystery, but we understand he is bad news and that we’re gonna hear from him sooner rather than later.  Beyond that, though, we’re provided enough backstory and enough external information to deal with the characters appearing before us with little to no confusion.  Justice League, on the other hand, comes across as more of a rushed attempt to duplicate the power and scope of The Avengers (not to mention that film’s international grosses) without actually establishing much of anything.  We were given a film and a half of this new Superman incarnation in Man of Steel and Batman v Superman, an eponymous film for Wonder Woman, and a half of BvS to learn about our new Batman, but this is the first time we’re seeing big screen versions of the Flash, Cyborg, and Aquaman.  And, boy-howdy, we’re not given much to go on for them.  We see quick origins/backstory ideas for each, but nowhere near enough time is devoted to them.  From what I’m told by the film, the Flash is some nerdy kid with a jailed father who somehow taps into some kind of energy to move fast, Cyborg was the subject of some shady experiment by his father, and Aquaman is some sort of possibly immortal dude from Atlantis who can – by proxy – speak to fish.  That’s about it.  I have no idea just how accurate these impressions are, and it doesn’t really matter:  If DC wants to build its own cinematic universe, we’re stuck with what they communicate to us via the constituent films, so this is what we know about these characters.  You know, our main fucking characters in a supergroup that’s meant to underpin the rest of the universe.  Not off to a good start, sad to say.

Continuing on this train of thought, the film suffers from a lack of exposition regarding the villain, his objectives, and the trio of McGuffins, the “Mother Boxes” (are they meant to be capitalized…?).  Steppenwolf, so named because he just enjoys “Magic Carpet Ride” and Herman Hesse novels, is so vague and empty that I made up those interests just to give him some identity.  He’s pretty much totally CGI, meaning he has no weight on the screen, and his motivation seems to be that he wants the Mother Boxes (…yeah, I’m just gonna go ahead and capitalize them) so that he can terraform the Earth into some hellish disparate version he prefers.  Dunno why, dunno where he comes from, dunno anything else about the boxes, we’re just told this is bad, the boxes are here, and Steppenwolf’s back from who-knows-where to start some shit.  Sound the alarm, apparently.

So, yeah, the plot of the film suffers from the same malady of under-explanation and ’cause-the-script-says-so feel.  Not sure why we’re meant to give a damn about any of it, but they all seem worried, so, sure, why not?

Whether or not this is another symptom of the re-shoots and whatnot is unknown to me, but it’s just as glaring as the rushed special effects (from Cavill’s infamously botched ‘stache removal (and, yes, it’s exactly as obvious as you’ve been told) to the overwrought bits around Cyborg’s body, Steppenwolf’s everything, and most of the action sequences).  There’s an overabundance of slow-mo shots tossed in for no real reason than to seemingly replicate Snyder’s trademark from 300, and Batman’s CG-enhanced cape just doesn’t look real enough to work.  Everything is either really fake or rushed and haphazardly tossed together to get the end product out in time.  Perhaps a bit longer in the oven would have allowed the film to gel a bit.

Even if it had, there’s the problem of the script and the acting.  The clash between Joss Whedon and Zack Snyder is palpable, and the poor attempts at humor tossed in here and there, though less often than in Thor: Ragnarok, work so much worse than in that film.  Whole sight gags and quips just don’t fit with the surrounding action, and it looks like the Flash’s entire character is built around some sort of levity.  Unfortunately, Ezra Miller doesn’t pull it off, instead forcing the Flash down our throats as an obnoxious twit who has no business near the rest of the team.  Ray Fisher’s Cyborg is similarly out of place, but he’s made integral to the plot (for some reason), so his woodenness and emptiness are made all the more apparent throughout.  (I would go even further and question why Cyborg was chosen at all, given the other possibilities to round out the team, like Green Lantern, Captain Marvel, Martian Manhunter, and others.)  Amy Adams once again finds herself wasted as the flimsiest Lois Lane I have ever seen, Ciaran Hinds is unrecognizable as Steppenwolf (I swear, the digital face model they gave him looked more like Liam Neeson), and J.K. Simmons shows up in a glorified cameo as the new Commissioner Gordon.  Worst of all is Amber Heard, who shows up as a sidenote in Aquaman’s tributary tale with an appallingly uneven vocal affectation and a visceral lack of presence and purpose.  Sure, we’re probably gonna get her bit in the Aquaman movie, but it doesn’t help us now, does it?  You can’t expect me to care about a character if I’m not told who they are, no matter who’s playing them.

On the positive side, Jeremy Irons continues to show me that he is the best depiction of Alfred of all time (sorry, Michael Gough and Efrem Zimbalist), Ben Affleck is a fun version of an older-than-usual Batman, Gal Godot is perfect for Wonder Woman, and Jason Momoa brings some understandable fun and snark to Aquaman.  Most surprising was Superman, who’s allowed to actually smile for once while he does his thing to save the world.  If only we got some of that in his previous outings…

Basically, this movie boils down to trying to do too much without the requisite foundational work and time to let things properly form.  Because they wanted to rush out a team flick to prod some fangasms, they didn’t bother to establish half of their main characters or the entire plot, leaving those of us with relatively little knowledge of comic canon to only wonder about things at best and get bored and/or uncaring otherwise.  I will say that it wasn’t a truly bad movie, and it was a definite step up from BvS and looked to have taken some lessons from Wonder Woman, but it’s also not very good.  What we’re left with is a general failure of story-telling and world-building, a lame pile of CGI and shells of characters that looks to leave all but die-hard fans wanting so much more, especially in the something-to-care-about department.  It’s true mediocrity at its absolute worst, ’cause there’s so much talent and so much potential involved.  If this is how Warner Bros. and DC wanna do things, then it’s not worth it to us to indulge them and support such a haphazard and lame series.  For those without attachment to the characters or those questioning the film because of its deserved critical reception, I’d say wait to rent the thing or just pass.