Justice League: A Watchable Mess

Here we go again…

Before I pick this film apart, I want to inform everyone on the problems that this film went through. There was a director switch mid way through the movie, as Zack Snyder's tragic family incident caused him to step away from the project, resulting in Joss Whedon stepping in to finish directing the film. This movie also went through massive reshoots, as every DC movie does. The result of these issues is what I would call a watchable mess. Even though this movie is not good, (I would never call it a good movie), it was not awful. I got my hopes up a little too high. I absolutely loved Wonder Woman, so I was hoping that DC had gotten it together. This film shows me that they have it partially together, but there is still a lot of work to be done.

Let us talk about the good things. Wonder Woman, played marvelously by Gal Gadot, was the best part of this movie. You can always connect with her character and she is great to latch onto because she is just so likeable. Aquaman was very cool and well played by Jason Momoa. We do not have a standalone movie for him as of now, so we did not come into this movie caring about him like we did with Batman or Wonder Woman, but he acted well enough to garner the audience’s support. Batman was enjoyable: Ben Affleck has always played him well and Justice League is no exception. The pacing is also pretty good. This movie is just about 2 hours, which is short for any superhero movie, including DC. Though the plot suffers a bit from the shorter runtime, it is still fast moving enough to keep us entertained.

Now, onto what I did not like... Oh boy. The Flash. The Flash infuriated me throughout this movie. They shoved so much “comedy” into his character and most of it fell very flat. Every time things are going on and you are invested in the scene, The Flash chimes in with some stupid joke that makes you cringe more than laugh. Every once in awhile he had a funny, refreshing remark, but since his character is bogged down with forced comedy, it is hard to even enjoy him when he is being clever. Also, this movie feels choppy, and I blame the runtime for that. I feel like this movie was originally about 3 hours long, and they had to cut it down to 2 hours because of the studio’s demands. I felt like elements of the plot were missing and it confused me at times. Possibly my biggest issue was Superman. I have hated Henry Cavill’s portrayal of him in every movie he has been in, and his portrayal of Superman in this movie is no exception. Henry Cavill is not a great actor. I just do not understand it, and I do not know how he was cast in this role. I do not blame him entirely, though, because everytime he has portrayed Superman, the writing is awful, and his character is written-in terribly to this movie as well.

Another huge problem with Superman involves the reshoots. When the reshoots were taking place, Cavill had already begun filming another movie in which he had a moustache. Cavill was ordered by the other movie to keep the moustache, so they ended up having to remove his moustache digitally, and you can tell. It looks hilarious because his lip looks completely fake and it is a huge distraction from the film. The villain was also incredibly underdeveloped, he was just your average superhero villain who wants to destroy things. I genuinely barely remember anything he did that was noteworthy.

Overall this movie is watchable. It is not good, but it is entertaining enough to keep you interested, although I would assume that if you watched this movie 3 or 4 times you would start to hate it and not be able to forgive its glaring flaws. If you are not committed to seeing just about every movie that comes out like I am, you could skip this one and wait for the Blu-Ray to come out. Overall, I would give this film a 5.5/10.