One For The Geeks

Conditions: Damp

Film Review: Justice League

I've never really liked what little I've seen of the Justice League stuff.  It's normally about some powerful alien coming to earth with an army and the various superheros team up to defeat them with much punching and smashing.  The new film didn't look too appealing to me, with the main drama being exactly how angry Superman was going to be when they finally woke him up from the last film where he "died".  However, Wonder Woman is in it, and that is something of a breath of fresh air, so we decided to give it a chance.

It's mostly Batman's film, and Affleck's portrayal of the gritty dark warrior is one of a weary and aged man, who has both seen it all and is trying to adapt to something new.  He's doing a good job here, but it's obvious even to me that punching freaks and bad guys in the dark alleyways of Gotham suddenly seems small fry in comparison to what appears to be coming ...from space.  Yes, it's an alien, and Bruce needs to recruit Diana first to his tag team of reluctant Superheroes.  She then helps with the recruiting of the Flash and Aquaman.  I'm laughing, but if I can be objective for a moment, these characters are entirely appropriate for this kind of film.  Aquaman is a drunk, and the Flash is a geeky kid.

Together they resurrect Superman, and it's a pretty good sequence.  Once that's done the team then confronts the alien bad guy and his army, as you would expect.  The film was initially directed by Zach Snyder, before being finished by Joss Whedon, and you can really see in some places the different attitudes both men had.  In places bombastic, in others quirky, the film despite it all somehow works.  The chemistry between the team is good, and the lead actors (especially Cavil) are actually doing a great job.  The finale is your usual CGI soup, but it's an interesting and charismatic trip to get there at least.  I'm pretty sure there won't be any sequels anytime soon, but I think we can all agree the film worked out better than we thought it would.  Three innocent civilian moppets out of five.