Film Review - Justice League (12A)

Don't engage alone. We'll do this together.

I made it to see Justice League a few days after its international release, by which time numerous critics had pummeled it and DC Comics fans had counterpunched in its defence. This, it seemed, was a film playing gratuitously to its base, while alienating everyone else. A Donald Trump of a film, if you will. Well I devoted two hours of my life to it... and it turns out I lean more to the fans than the critics. Call me the glass-half-full reviewer.

Justice League follows on directly from Batman Versus Superman (another DC adaptation that got beaten like a bat-shaped pinata by critics). It also follows up on Wonder Woman from earlier this year, Gal Gadot reprising her role as the arse-kicking Amazon. As the film begins, Earth has lost its mightiest protector and with it all hope. Gotham's own caped crusader (Ben Affleck all scowl and cowl as Batman) feels compelled to round up a team in order to combat a huge new global threat, enlisting Diana Prince/Wonder Woman to help him. The recruits they have in mind are a a DC fanboy dream - The Flash (he's fast), Aquaman (he may or may not be able to talk to fish) and Cyborg (half-human, half high-tech machine). Together they will inevitably form the Justice League.

Something to bear in mind here. Warner Brothers gave the film-makers the brief of making a two-hour film, during which limited time they had to set up one villain, three new heroes and still have time to tell a story. Considering that, it's a small miracle that the movie succeeds in being entertaining at all. 

Because entertain it certainly does, playing to its strengths from the start (though not always sticking to them). The urban locations are stern and imposing, the sense of doom tangible. Gal Gadot, who owned the Wonder Woman title role, capitalises here. Hair flailing in slo-mo, she combines grace and ferocity with every stunning move she makes. And that's before the team has come together. 

If Affleck is a tad grim as Bruce Wayne, the mood is lifted by the newcomers. Jason Mamoa (Game of Thrones' still-lamented Khal Drogo) has a gruff charisma as reluctant league-member Aquaman, while Ezra Miller comes close to stealing the whole show as the Flash. Consigned to the dark side in films like Fantastic Beasts and We Need to Talk about Kevin, here he is all geeky enthusiasm and tentative heroics, deftly delivering most of the movie's funniest lines. (Was it just me, or was he channelling Flash-fan Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory?) His bond with Ray Fisher's Cyborg as the two 'mistakes' of the group is touching, even if both back-stories are no more than sketched due to time constraints. 

And the twist - the one for which DC fans will no doubt have been salivating in anticipation, but that I won't of course spoil - is dealt with in one particularly satisfying sequence.

Yes there are super-flaws to address. When the villain shows up he's a big ranting CGI creation, all noise and no personality; he and his cohorts are solely there so the League will have someone to fight. His masterplan is pseudo-mythic nonsense, explained in dafter-than-usual chunks of exposition. And some of the big effects sequences have an uncomfortable video-game feel to them, at odds with the enjoyably solid feel of our heroes' interactions. 

For ultimately it's the group dynamic that sells this. The Justice League members knit quickly, providing all the wit and verve absent from past DC titles. (Get a sense of humour, Man of Steel!) These characters are a likeable combo, who at their best rival Marvel's Avengers for a sense of fun. Their most heroic feat of all is to overcome the film's ropier aspects to provide an enjoyable night out.

Gut Reaction: Fun, quite a few laughs and a surprising degree of investment in this League.

Ed's Verdict: Worth it for the poise and punch of Wonder Woman alone, this is much better than most critics would have you believe. And give the Flash a movie of his own.