"I'm putting together a team of people with special abilities."

Justice League

Mini Review

[16th of November, 2017]

If you noticed the difference of how the ticket was photographed, it is because I used my scanner instead of my handphone's camera since it is finally broken after years of use and constant damage by me being careless during jogging and slipup on the bike. Nevertheless, even though it was quite boring without songs and podcasts to keep me company in my trip yesterday and not being able to take pictures of the standins (there was even a Deadpool! A cosplay! That's a first seeing one with my own eyes and of course it was when I don't have my smartphone for the first time in years!), I enjoyed the movie thoroughly from the start until the end. Of course no movie is perfect and this in particular have its own problems behind the camera as well as in the finished product.

For the uninitiated who doesn't really follow all of the drama surrounding the filming of the film, let me inform you it is normal for any big budgeted movies by the big studios to schedule a reshoot after the principal photography is done after seeing the initial rough cut and what initially works and what does not and have to be replaced. In this specific instance, the original director, Zack Snyder decided to tend to a family tragedy (that happened during production but decided to finish the job nonetheless) and left the job vacant for Joss Whedon to drop in and direct the reshoots. After the wonderful reception of Wonder Woman (pun intended) and constant feedback on the quite dark tone of the DC Universe, Warner Bros. decided to take this chance to redo a few scenes and change slightly the trajectory of the ensemble throughout the movie and into the future.

Among the changes are how much time the sole female superhero have in the limelight especially after Patty Jenkins' successful outing and using the expertise that Joss bring with him as evidenced in the highly entertaining the Avengers, providing much more levity and fun interactions between the eclectic super beings. The resulting final product is a (mostly) cohesive journey of the assembly of the League in order to fight a larger than life alien threat that bring all of them together. On paper, it is similar to Marvel's the Avengers with the premise and storyline with superheroes fighting a villain with box-shaped MacGuffin that's used to open a portal to another dimension/planet and/or alter the world around it. The execution though left something to be desired in the villain department and his main motivation as the threat he imposed is touched upon as much as they had to without further fleshing out and character development in Steppenwolf. This in turns also limit how much time Batman and Wonder Woman have to further their journey after Dawn of Justice and her own solo movie respectively as ample time is given to the other three new characters being introduced for the first time.

The mandate from the studio to limit the runtime from exceeding the two hour marks in the end backfired that although it does makes financial sense (a shorter movie means a lot more slots in a day to run it hence higher returns), it handicapped the storytelling aspect with some scenes that would make it more cohesive from one scene to another are missing along with understandably some fat of entertaining yet unnecessary bits. Not to mention the different approach between the two directors could be felt between certain scenes, between darker tone and more upbeat, jovial tone. If you're used to how Marvel made its ensemble movie after the character's solo movies are out first, some of the audiences might be not as attached to the three new heroes with their own baggage and personality that have to be introduced here while at the same time connect it to the main throughline here. The gruff, laidback Aquaman and the quirky, fidgety the Flash got the short end of the stick here as the serious, determined Cyborg got the main spotlight and excel in that role in Justice League. The one thing that stand out is the chemistry between all five(?) members of the League (especially when a certain someone return at the turn of the hour) as they bounce off of each other tremendously, just like between the cast of the Avengers. Even though how the film ended could've been much more clearer (in telling how the threat is extinguished and what would come of it in terms of Darkseid), this at least left me wanting more from these superheroes and makes me look forward to each solo movie especially James Wan's Aquaman coming next December (not this year though!). Being reactionary instead of sticking to the formula certainly serves WB and DC differently than Disney and Marvel.

wiki - IMDb

P.S. There are two after credit scenes, one in the middle and one at the end. The former is a nice callback to the history in the comics between the two super individuals while the latter is a tease of what's to come. Highlight below for spoilers!
That table means JLA would be established in the universe! And for that matter, Legion of Doom, baby! Oh, Joe Manganiello looks perfect as Deathstroke! I guess the Batman solo film should be the next one in line after Aquaman!