Justice League
Directed by Zack Snyder
Starring Gal Gadot, Ben Affleck, Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa, Henry Cavill, Ray Fisher
Rated PG-13
The new DC superhero film “Justice League” falls somewhere in between the glorious “Wonder Woman” and the odorous “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.”
It’s watchable, so it has that going for it, and the dopey plot makes sense, though it’s lacking an antagonist with any real motive beyond “I’m evil.”
That villain is Steppenwolf (with a motion-capture performance from Ciarán Hinds), powerfully generic and wielding a big ax. He’s searching for three boxes, which is about as exciting as it sounds, and it’s up to Batman, Wonder Woman and friends to save the day.
As silly as that might be, there is a good deal to like in “Justice League.” Of course, that starts with everyone’s favorite Amazon (Gal Gadot). She continues to be a bright spot in the DC Extended Universe, and her action scenes are a work of beauty.
The Justice League is rounded out with The Flash (Ezra Miller), Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and Cyborg (Ray Fisher), not to mention, light spoiler here, Superman (Henry Cavill).
The Flash brings some much needed levity to the franchise. Awkward and goofy, he plays well against the tougher characters, like Batman and Aquaman.
“Justice League” had a troubled path to the big screen, with director Zack Snyder leaving the film early after the tragic death of his daughter. Joss Whedon — no stranger to superhero films, having directed two “Avengers” movies — had been brought in for reshoots, and was responsible for postproduction work and filming some new scenes.
The result doesn’t feel like a mashup, thankfully, in terms of the direction and tone of the movie. But there are some strange decisions, like focusing on a random family living at the foot of the villain’s lair. The film keeps cutting back to them, and you’re left wondering if they have some connection to things, but no, they’re just there to create false drama, a random group of people you’re supposed to care about for the heroes to save.
This just amplifies the major flaw with this film: the bland villain. The stakes here are high — he wants to turn the world into a fiery apocalypse, but there’s nothing to latch onto on a personal level.
A film shouldn’t need to produce a random family to generate some emotion. The “Wonder Woman” film also ended with a generic bad guy, but it kept it to the last minutes of the movie, and the journey there was a grand adventure.
Steppenwolf and his horde of Parademons are there from the get go, and then, like in a video game, the heroes face off against them in different places before the big showdown.
The heroes are a big draw for “Justice League.” Now they just need something interesting to do.
