Going to the Movies with Jeff & Drew: “Justice League”

Justice League picks up in the aftermath of 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.  Bathed in the shadow of Superman’s death, crime has been on the rise and an early rooftop skirmish with a flying alien bug creature leads Batman to suspect bigger troubles may be on the way. So he sets out to reconnect with Wonder Woman, hoping the two of them can recruit a more expansive team.

“DC has learned from the mistakes of Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad as well as the things that worked from Wonder Woman to make a perfectly adequate ensemble movie. While the plot is very thin in this movie it manages to stay free of distractions and filler that deviates from the main theme. This is a big fix from past DC movies. There is no time spent trying to set up other movies in the franchise.” – Jeff

“For a big tent pole film, some of the CGI looks a little cheap. Justice League does not lack in terms of budget any way so I can only speculate that it was due to a difficult production schedule as all the action taking place in a digital space. Whatever the reason may be, DC and Warner Bros really needs to sort it out the problem. But in spite of flawed CGI, the action scenes are really fun in Justice League. My favorite is the battle of Themyscira in which the Justice League fights the armies of Steppenwolf. Wonder Woman’s intro scene comes to a close second despite that almost all of it is in slow motion. The final battle is a little disappointing due to once Superman arrives it’s game over Steppenwolf. He is outmatched and the other heroes become utterly useless but is still entertaining to see these heroes in action together.”-Drew

“Technically, this movie has Director Zack Snyder’s style fingerprints all over it. His signature slow motion sequences are so abundant that the entire runtime could be shorted by over thirty minutes if they were played at normal speed. They are also used in completely unnecessary points in the movie that add nothing other than to try to look cool. This whole movie, while able to be enjoyed by someone who knows nothing about the Justice League can enjoy this movie, it really is a big fan service film.” – Jeff

“The Flash is the easy the best part of Justice League for me. It’s due in large part due to a script which hands him the majority of the film’s funniest moments. He’s a great voice for the audience in the movie and his action scenes do account for some of the film’s most memorable moments. Also Jason Momoa nails Aquaman, both in the physically imposing requirements of the role and the wise-cracking tendencies.” – Drew

“The ensemble cast all gets equal screen time and play to their strengths. Each hero has special abilities that shine through. The Flash is the comedic relief, Cyborg who has the least flushed out back story uses his connection to electronics to provide information, Wonder woman is the voice of reason and humanity, Aquaman is the muscle, literally, and Batman is the money and toys. There is even a joke that Batman’s superpower is that he is rich.” – Jeff

“Justice League does not suffer from the endless brooding like in Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad, but its long list of priorities and tasks does result in a disappointing average result. It’s not going to push the superhero genre like Winter Solider or Logan. This film does make all of its fans happy by giving them what they enjoy, but it’s missing the level of quality other movie goers have become a custom to by other superhero movies.” -Drew

“Justice League is a perfectly average movie. Within the DC universe of films it stands out as being much better than most previous offerings. As a stand-alone movie it has funny moments, has some conflict, and wraps up nicely.

Rated: PG-13

Stars Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa, Ray Fisher, Jeremy Irons, Diane Lane, Connie Nielsen, J. K. Simmons

Score:  3 out of 5