My Review of Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021) - SPOILERS INCLUDED

 

Written by Chris Terrio And Zack Snyder And Will Beall

Directed by Zack Snyder

Batman (re Steppenwolf): "I don't care how many demons he's fought in how many hells. He's never fought us together. Not us united."

This movie has created a lot of division over the years. For years, many were sceptical of it's existence, then sceptical of it ever getting a release but now that it's finally here, courtesy of HBO Max,  two questions need to be asked. Was it worth it and just how different is it to the 2017 theatrical version that was released instead?

The answer to the first question is a resounding yes. This definitely was worth the wait and the release is more than justified. As for the second question, well the core mechanics are the same here. Both Batman (Ben Affleck) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) recruit Aquaman (Jason Momoa), the Flash (Ezra Miller) and Cyborg (Ray Fisher), form a certain group, revive Superman (Henry Cavill) and try to stop Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds) from joining the Mother Boxes in order to take over the world for his tyrant of a nephew, also known as Darkseid (Ray Porter). Some beats are very familiar but a lot are different.

Steppenwolf in particular is better served by this movie. He's actually far more menacing and brutal in his ongoing mission to atone for a previous slight he had done to Darkseid while chief torturer DeSaad (Peter Guiness) seems to take a bit too much pleasure in the conflict between nephew and uncle. Steppenwolf's fight scenes alone with the League look better, his defeat is far more humiliating and while Darkseid only appears in a handful of scenes, he's an excellent looming threat for the newly formed Justice League. Add a tantalising history lesson featuring various groups working together, including one Green Lantern, the Anti Life Equation set up and a CGI Granny Goodness and everything related to Apokolips is promising.

Then there's our heroes themselves. The best for me was of course the Flash and if you had doubts about whether Ezra Miller can carry a solo movie, this will put you at ease. Again he's trying to help his father, Henry Allen (Billy Crudup) get out of prison but he also has a brief encounter with future love interest, Iris West (Kiersey Clemons) and his humour feels more organic here. Not to mention his powers are showcased in one of my favourite scenes in the whole movie.

Then there's Cyborg. A lot of fans felt he was short changed in the theatrical movie and after seeing this movie, I definitely get why. A lot of his emotional scenes were needlessly cut and watching the heart breaking losses he suffers with losing both Elinore (Karen Bryson) and Silas Stone (Joe Morton) does make you realise how fantastic this character can be. The idea of Cyborg as a digital god is too interesting not to run with and it's a pity that we might not see more of him in the DCEU. I do hope something can be sorted behind the scenes.

Wonder Woman on the other hand is also someone better served here than in the theatrical version as well. Here we get to see a certain robbery play out far differently while her stance on reviving Superman is vastly different as well. She's also the one to deliver the killer blow to Steppenwolf and there's a poignant scene where she mourns the loss of her sisters. For those who prefer the warrior aspect of the character, this movie has you covered.

As for the Batman segment of the movie, it's also strong stuff. For me, this is easily Ben Affleck's best performance in the role and it's great seeing this Batman step up throughout the entire movie in order to connect with his new friends and take out Steppenwolf with them. As for the big hero cameo, it's none other than Martian Manhunter (Harry Lennix) and he's here to warn that Darkseid is on the way and that he'll be there to help. I think most would've already guessed the cameo before watching this but it's a great way to end the movie. Alfred (Jeremy Irons) also gets some nice moments to shine here too.

As for Superman - well, I'm glad he's back, but it takes a long time within the movie in order to get him back in the game. A certain fight scene is played somewhat differently but there are some beautiful and emotional moments between the newly revived Kryptonian as well as with Lois Lane (Amy Adams) and Martha Kent (Diane Lane), the use of the Black Suit and a nice second flight scene. I do have one other question: is Lois pregnant? Will an upcoming movie shed any light on that?

Arguably the weakest of the main hero stuff would be the Aquaman bits. There's nothing inherently bad, except for Amber Heard's diabolical take on a British accent for Mera but it's more that his scenes somewhat contradict the continuity to Arthur's own movie. Vulko (Willem Dafoe) doesn't really add much to proceedings either but it's a minor quibble though.

I do imagine that the highlight for a lot of people watching this movie would be the infamous Knightmare sequence and I gotta admit, as someone who didn't particularly care for Jared Leto's Joker, he does an excellent job when forced to team with a few certain survivors in Bruce's dream. There's also a better written version of the boat scene between Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) and Deathstroke (Joe Manganiello) to enjoy here as well.

- The movie is dedicated to Autumn Snyder, who passed away during production of this movie. Zack Snyder talks about the fan campaign for AFSP at the start of the movie.

- For those who might find a four hour movie hard to sit through, breaking it into six chapters and an epilogue was a smart move.

- Ryan Choi (Ryan Zheng) taking over STAR Labs should set him up for a return in another upcoming movie.

- A physical release is due in summer for those who don't get to see it on streaming as well as black and white version later in the year.

- Standout music: Junkie XL's score was exceptional along with a stunning version of Hallelujah by Allison Crowe at the end credits.

- Chronology: Several months since the events of Batman V. Superman.

Zack Snyder's Justice League is a triumph. Yes, I had my doubts but I was genuinely surprised with how incredible this movie really is. Every main hero gets their moment to shine, Steppenwolf is a better realised baddie with Darkseid nicely set up for hopefully a future outing. Tonally, it hits all the right spots in all the right places. This is far superior to the theatrical version and while I don't know if Snyder's vision can be continued in the DCEU going forward, there's a lot to admire here.

Rating: 9 out of 10

My Review of Justice League: Throne Of Atlantis (2015)

Written by Heath Corson
Directed by Ethan Spaulding

Orm (re Atlanna's murder): "I am your king...! I did this for YOU!"
Aquaman: "Is this the king you want, Atlanteans? A coward who lies to you? You need a light to guide you in the darkness, people of Atlantis. My people."

Following the events of Justice League: War, it was time for the Super Seven to get a name change and a new member and with this movie, both of those things happened without too much resistance. Based on the comic with the same title, this would be a rather suitable origin story for Arthur Curry (Matt Lanter).

In the present day we see Arthur get into a bar fight over a lobster while Mera (Sumalee Montano) observed from afar at the behest of Queen Atlanna (Sirena Irwin) as the latter decides that her estranged son is ready to rule Atlantis over her more volatile other son, Prince Orm (Sam Witwer) who has formed an alliance with Black Manta (Harry Lennix) to declare war on the surface world.

Orm and Manta's union seems to be more on an equal footing compared to the 2018 live action Aquaman movie, at least until the final reveal that Manta was pulling the strings all along, manipulating Orm into going to war as well as putting Stephen Shin into Arthur's sight before Shin himself was killed.

Arthur's journey here isn't quite as compelling as the DCEU equivalent but it's still executed rather well as Mera introduced him to his homeworld before the League members themselves made their presence known to aid Arthur and Mera in taking out Orm and Manta, which naturally happens as Arthur then becomes King of Atlantis while Orm finds himself encountering Lex Luthor (Steven Blum) at his prison in Belle Reve, clearly setting a further movie down the line.

The Aquaman storyline is the main focus of the movie but there are still other moments for the League themselves. Shazam and Cyborg's friendship is still rather endearing to watch as well as the latter getting a love interest with STAR Labs scientist Sarah while Superman and Wonder Woman also get romantically involved, which I was a little keen on. Then there was Batman and Green Lantern who spent most of the time bickering while Flash didn't do too much but was still entertaining enough to watch.

- Nice cameo from Steel as a steel worker during the big battle sequence. Lois also managed to get in a sneaky comment about Clark and Diana's date.
- Atlanna was not a part of the comic this movie is based on but the movie also excluded several characters who were.
- There was also a brief cameo from the Scarecrow during the first scene with Batman and Green Lantern but that story was abandoned as well.
- Chronology: Not too long since the events of the last movie.

Justice League: Throne Of Atlantis is a solid opening for Aquaman and his underwater world. While some League members could've gotten some better storylines, they're all reasonably utilised and both Orm and Manta are satisfying villains in this one. Not my favourite of the animated movies but still a good one though.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of Justice League: War (2014)

Written by Heath Corson
Directed by Jay Oliva

Shazam (to the US President): "That's right. You can call us the Super Seven."
Superman: "Please don't call us that."
Cyborg: "The Super Seven?"
Shazam: "What, you don't like it?"

Eh, it's not a bad title but considering that you would have more members, it might be a bit limiting though. Based on the Justice League: Origin comic, this one is a pretty simple adaptation as we see seven of our heroes take on Darkseid (Steve Blum) and do their best to stop him from taking over the planet and so on.

Things break off into some interesting rapport. First of all, there's Batman (Jason O'Mara), Green Lantern (Justin Kirk) and Superman (Alan Tudyk) who quarrel for a bit while intially fighting Parademons who are stealing people for Darkseid. One of the ongoing jokes in this movie is other heroes being surprised with Batman's existence, which I kind of found a little odd but fortunately, it's a joke that doesn't wear too thin though.

Of course while those three are getting to know each, Wonder Woman (Michelle Monaghan) has a meeting with the President and a group of protesters not happy with her attire to contend with as well. I'll admit that bit of the movie (along with the confession of one of the protesters being a cross dresser) did throw me off a little, but I did enjoy her brief scenes with Steve Trevor (George Newbern) and a little girl over an ice cream.

Then there was Victor Stone (Shemar Moore) and Billy Batson (Sean Astin). Their scenes were a highlight of the movie and it was nice to see a bit more of a friendly comrade as some of the other pairings were a bit too competitive at times. We got a good origin story for Victor as Cyborg along with his relationship with his father, Silas (Rocky Carroll) while Billy was more hostile with Freddy and Darla as well as being reluctant to tell the other team members that he was in fact, Shazam.

As for The Flash (Christopher Gorham), he kind of popped up towards the second half of the movie, seemed a little surprised too with Batman's existence and also clashed somewhat with Green Lantern but all seven of our heroes were instrumental in taking down Darkseid nonetheless by sending him back to Apokolips and breaking the hold he tried to have on Superman.

In terms of baddies, this was a solid use of Darkseid along with his Parademons and the sadistic, Desaad (Bruce Thomas) as all of them proved to be strong threats for the Seven before they were respectively defeated. The end scene with them all getting thanks for their heroics was a nice touch as the group reluctantly came together. They might need another name though.

- The post-credit scene showed Ocean Master with a dead King, setting up Justice League: Throne Of Atlantis.
- Really hated that loud mouthed protester calling Wonder Woman a whore.  I also noticed the Titans reference for Victor's football team.
- Thomas Morrow also briefly popped up in the movie, though his role was fairly small here.
- Chronology: Seems to be set in the present day for our main heroes.

Justice League: War isn't the strongest of the DCAU movies but it's a rather decent one nonetheless with some nice character moments and a good use of Darkseid. It does feel a little small scale, despite Darkseid being the main threat of the movie but that's not a bad thing and I did like the set up for the next movie.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of Justice League (2017)

Written by Zack Snyder & Chris Terrio & Joss Whedon
Directed by Zack Snyder

Superman: "I'm a big fan of of the truth. I'm also a big fan of justice!"

The world needs Superman. No, really, it does and not just because of who a certain country has as president but also because this movie goes out it's way to remind viewers that Superman is needed by everyone and especially because of the impending war that was hinted during Batman V. Superman after the latter's heroic sacrifice to save the world.

For those in the dark, yes this is a movie about Batman (Ben Affleck) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) assembling a team of meta humans - The Flash (Ezra Miller), Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and Cyborg (Ray Fisher) in order to defeat the rather powerful alien Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds) and stop his plans to use three mother boxes from destroying the world but the only way they can do that is with Superman's (Henry Cavill) help and he's currently dead.

The first half of the movie succeeds in portraying a miopic world without the man of steel as Lois Lane (Amy Adams) and Martha Kent (Diane Lane) struggle without Clark and both Bruce and Diana are determined to honour his memory by making their team work but when Steppenwolf proved to be more of a bother than anticipated, the plan to revive Superman suddenly became viable and needed for the second half of the movie.

I was surprised with how quick it seemed that Superman re-entered the fray and delighted that he was in more of this movie than the trailers would let you believe he'd be. Pithy comments about Cavill's moustache to one side, Superman's return is actually pretty glorious as his initial past tensions with Batman are dealt with swiftly, his reunions with Lois and Martha beautifully poignant and his assault on Steppenwolf glorious.

The team are fantastic to watch but once Superman is added into the mix during the final act, it feels complete. Until then, it's mostly forming with both Aquaman and Cyborg being somewhat reluctant to join the team to counteract with The Flash's boyish enthusiasm while Batman and Wonder Woman, despite some of their own conflict and exorcising their own demons are the ring leaders of this new gang of friends.

Steppenwolf on the other hand, is probably one of the movie's problems. He's given a decent amount of screen time, has a simple motive, proves himself to be pretty dangerous as a baddie and is voice well enough but he's not the most charismatic or engaging of villains. He's admittedly better utilised than Doomsday but he's definitely not going to go down as a classic cinematic villain. The Parademons on the other hand are pretty effective, feeding on fear and also playing their role into Steppenwolf's eventual defeat.

On the other hand, Steppenwolf is successful at connecting the characters together though. For instance, his mission to retrieve the mother boxes gives us looks into both Themyscira and Atlantis with the likes of Hippolyta (Connie Nielson) and Mera (Amber Heard) getting some screen time while Silas Stone (James Morton) also returns, playing his role into Victor's backstory and being one of the few civilians willing to stand up to the baddie of the piece before being rescued by the League.

The personal stakes are done pretty well. There is insight given into each hero as Arthur's issues with his mother are hinted along with Barry's determined to exonerate his father, Henry Allen (Billy Crudup) along with Victor's own anger towards his own father for saving and cursing him at the same time. The one thing the movie completely succeeds in is that it gives every single member of the team the perfect amount of screen time. No one character dominated the other, all of them complimented each other and we're given a good look into all of their distinctive personalities and traits,

As for the humour, this is definitely where Joss Whedon's rewrites over Zack Snyder come into play and while my opinion of the former has soured in recent times, most of the humour does work in the movie's favour and helps to make the team more joyful. I'll admit there are some bits that seem forced but overall, it adds a lot of levity to proceedings and after critics going after previous movies for not having enough humour, it's a tad hypocritical of them to pick the movie apart for injecting some lighter moments into proceedings.

In a lot of ways though, this movie does feel like the ending of a chapter though. If rumours are to be believed, we might be getting a new Caped Crusader in later installments of the franchise and even this movie hinted at Bruce struggling a little bit over the alien threat at times. However, Affleck acquits himself well in this movie but it's really Gadot, Miller and Cavill that are the standouts of the team though both Momoa and Fisher are also on fine form.

Regardless of critical bashing, this is a movie that justifies it's existence as well as a potential sequel to boot. I want to see more of this team along with hinted other members joining up as well. This movie blended both humour and the danger well and made me root for each team member as well. There needs to be another outing for them.

- Post Credit 1: Superman and The Flash having a race, which is played for laughs. We don't get to see who wins though.
- Post Credit 2: Lex Luthor escaping prison and meeting up with Deathstroke (Joe Manganiello) to set up his own little Injustice League.
- While Iris (Kiersey Clemons) was cut from the movie in order to make the thing two hours, JK Simmons appeared as Commissioner Gordon. We also got some great snarky humour counrtesy of Alfred in a few scenes.
- There's a few Easter Eggs in this movie, including Green Lanterns and Shazam parts, which should nicely set up some future movies.
- Standout music: Sigrid's Everybody Knows, Junkie XL's Come Together, Danny Elfman's Batman theme, John Williams Superman theme, most of the score music was pretty on point to be honest.
- Chronology: I think a year has passed since Batman V. Superman. We had a lot of the action in Gotham, Metropolis, Central City, Iceland and Russia as well as Paris too for scenes.

I'm not going to pretend that Justice League is the best superhero movie ever made or that it's even the DCEU's best effort either. It has it's flaws, which I've already pointed out but the good far outweighs the bad and for me, it's a successful attempt of bringing some of the franchise major's heroes together and it's deserving of a fair chance and a sequel in my opinion. It also feels like the end of one chapter for the DCEU but not the end in itself. This movie might be far from perfect but it's nowhere near as deserving of the bile it's unfortunately generated and this movie itself did display that it's taken previous criticism on board and is trying to find a compromise without losing it's identity for the most part. That in itself deserves credit.

Rating: 8 out of 10