What ever you do, don’t let the tall-tale-telling, naysayers put you off of seeing an overall enjoyable watch. If you’ve been keeping a keen eye on what the critics have to say you wouldn’t be blamed for thinking Zack Snyder’s Justice League is nothing more than a misogynistic, disjointed, mishmash of stories thrown together with an inconsequential villain, who couldn’t even raise the hairs off a toddler, let alone the defenders of planet earth. This, however, is not true, or at least not wholly true.
Let’s first address the fact that the Amazon warriors, who by the way are an incredible show of strength, power and selfless bravery, received backlash over their ‘skimpy’ outfits, or rather their costume designers did. To be honest how anyone had the time to focus on what they were wearing during the intense fight scene with inconsequential villain Steppenwolf is beyond imagination. Yet no complaints were made when Aquaman (Game of Thrones star Jason Momoa) rips off his shirt and Henry Cavill’s Superman somehow manages to keep his trousers on when raised from the dead but his shirt – which simply could not survive his reawakening – mysteriously vanishes, leaving us to contemplate his bulging muscles…but digression is upon us. Back to the main movie at hand.
A little mishmashed? Yes, but when Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) and Batman (Ben Affleck) assemble a team of heroes to defeat Steppenwolf and three-fifths of the team have yet to be established in the DC Extended Universe, you expect a few backstories to trickle in. Does this labour the plot? Of course but all can be forgiven because what you have is an action-packed movie that stays on track with each event driving the forward story. That is with the exception of Wonder Woman’s scuffle with the terrorist who pop up once at the beginning and fail to serve a purpose in the film other than to demonstrate her impressive abilities.
For the most part, however, the story does have some legs. Following the events of Batman VS Superman: Dawn of Justice our band of merry heroes are tasked with preventing Steppenwolf and his army of parademons from locating the three Mother Boxes (essentially pure, ultimate raw, power) which he hopes to use to conquer universes and bring about the end of civilization as we know it. Despite some of the negative press, Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds) is that kind of cocky, self-assured, ruthless villain that makes you almost salivate at the thought of his takedown.
Affleck’s Batman is more bearable to watch than in Batman Vs Superman with his willingness to accept fault adding a more humanised quality to make palatable his endless brooding.
Known as the more stilted hero movie franchises, DC takes a stab at being funny and while it doesn’t always hit the mark, there are moments when you can see screenplay writer Joss Whedons’ flare shine through. The Flash (Ezra Miller) was a great host for Whedon’s humour and again while he doesn’t always deliver on the one-liners, the character’s vibrant, youthful nature brings comic freshness to the team. It takes a little while for the story to get into full swing but once in motion you need only sit back and enjoy the ride.
NB. Hang around for the outtakes.