Thomas Storai 
It’s time to go “ALL IN” with Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman for the ultimate superhero team up!
Justice League is now playing around the world and as a big fan of DC Comics and the DCEU I just had to see it on opening day! Since I was a kid I’ve wanted my favorite superheroes to be gathered on the big screen and it finally happened, the Justice League movie has arrived and it’s all thanks to Zack Snyder. By far, he is one of my favorite directors, the man is a genius! This movie was everything I wanted it to be and more! There was plenty of surprises, many of which left me speechless!
The casting is the first thing I want to talk about. It was top notch! Snyder really picked the right actors to portray The Flash, Aquaman, Cyborg, Gordon and Mera. It felt like they had been plucked from the pages of the comic books, just like the other characters from previous DCEU movies. Visually and in terms of personality, they were incredibly accurate and perfectly preserved from their comic incarnations. The cast played their characters wonderfully, I only have good things to say about it! There were a few scenes I really want to mention in terms of acting because they stood out even more than the others. The first scene was when Barry Allen visited his father Henry in prison at the beginning, it was poignant, the interactions between the two characters were short but quite emotional! The second scene was when Lois came to see Clark just after his return. A lot of things were said by the eyes, there was dialogue too but the look in their eyes just said everything!
In Batman v Superman, we were introduced to the Batman from Dark Knight Returns, this time it was a more traditional Batman, whose hope had been restored, and this is character development. On par with her counterpart, Diana got some great character development as well, it was a nice continuation of what we had seen in Batman v Superman and Wonder Woman, you could feel that she was still struggling with Steve Trevor’s death and how she could fit into this world. The characters were at the center of this movie and I loved that each one was complex and all had their own struggles. If you want to identify to the characters, you need them to be as complex as people are in real life, they can’t be perfect, and both Snyder and Terrio got that exactly right.
At the beginning of the movie, each of the main heroes had their introduction scene, starting with Superman, it was a video of him recorded on a phone after he’d rescued some civilians, long before his death. With the tone set, it was up to Batman with the actual opening scene. That scene brought a lot of nerd-gasm, it was so comic-book like! I’ve said it before but I want to say it again, Ben Affleck is the ultimate Batman and I just can’t wait to see him put the cowl on again, I need a second Justice League movie! Seeing Batman interacting with Gordon and Alfred and seeing him in Gotham got me even more excited for The Batman movie! Then it was up to Wonder Woman to have her introduction and then Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash. The last three were briefly seen in Batman v Superman amongst Lex Luthor’s files giving us a little peek at the characters and the introduction scenes in Justice League completed that presentation. We got just enough of a presentation to know who they were and to forge an emotional attachment to them. They may have superpowers but they’re humans too, they’re characters we care about! The characters that really stood out in this movie were Batman and Wonder Woman for me, I loved their chemistry and simply all their scenes!
Batman was majestic!
About the opening, there is also one thing I wanted to add. There was an opening title sequence in which the song Everybody Knows covered by Sigrid was used. It was one of my favorite sequences of the movie. It was the perfect song for the scene. That scene revealed a world without Superman and how Martha Kent and Lois Lane had dealt with his death. It was so emotional and powerful at the same time! The song conveyed all the needed emotions!
So now about the plot, it was a simple but efficient superhero movie plot. It was a team of superheroes having to come together to defeat the villain Steppenwolf and his intergalactic army. Putting the team together wasn’t easy. Aquaman refused at the beginning and Cyborg was reluctant to help whilst struggling to come to terms with his physical and emotional enhancements. But in the end, both Aquaman and Cyborg got reasons to join the Justice League and help the world. The movie was really well balanced between scenes of dialogue and emotions and intense action-packed set pieces, giving us a great movie! And in the final fight against Steppenwolf, each hero had their moment of glory. This was a superhero team-up movie and it really took the time to focus on each character, despite its drastically reduced two hour running time.
Steppenwolf was a good villain. He played his part and he was a real menace for our superheroes. He was imposing and badass for sure! The flashback sequence in which he fought the Amazons, the Green Lanterns, the Humans, the Atlanteans and the Gods was epic! He was a villain to be feared! His eventual downfall was ironic and I thought this was a perfect end for him! Speaking of the Amazons, they were just as badass as in the Wonder Woman movie and I was so happy to see Hippolyta having some screen time again!
What many fans were eager to learn was how Superman came back. And I have to say it was a fantastic comeback! Superman was resurrected by the human Mother Box. It was Batman who plotted his return after discovering the team were desperately outmatched without him. However, when Clark returned he wasn’t exactly himself and he attacked the league, defeating them all. There was an awesome callback to Batman v Superman with Clark returning the phrase “Do you bleed?” before besting the Dark Knight! At the end of day, what really brought Clark/Superman back from the brink was Lois Lane because she was the one who knew him best. Speaking of Lois, she had some really emotional and beautiful scenes. The sequences at the Kent family farm being her best and also the final scene with her returning to her true calling for the first time since Superman’s tragic demise. Even if Superman wasn’t involved for the whole movie, his presence and absence was felt the whole time, he was the center of it all and having the movie starting with him and ending with him said it all. Man of Steel, Batman v Superman and Justice League form a trilogy about him and seeing it finally complete was beautiful!
The score was composed by Danny Elfman who did an amazing job! It felt very comic like! I also loved when he used the Batman (1989) theme and the classic Superman theme composed by John Williams. And, this was accentuated further when he used Hans Zimmer’s “Kryptonian” theme from Man of Steel during the resurrection sequence.
An important tip, stay until the very very end of the movie, there were two scenes in the credits. One in the middle and one at the end. The first scene was Superman and The Flash racing, it was a fun scene, and a nice tease for things to come. The second scene was deliciously evil! We learned that Lex Luthor escaped Arkham Asylum and he is ready to build a team of villains with Deathstroke (played by Joe Manganiello) – the Legion Of Doom! It just makes me want to see Justice League 2 right now, the sequel can’t come soon enough!
VERDICT: 9/10 Snyder just slayed it again with another brilliant DCEU movie, it was visually mind-blowing with amazing characters! The very essence of the ultimate superhero team-up movie!
HOPE NEVER DIES
Collectables Editor at Future Of The Force.
Star Wars and Marvel specialist, anime expert
