Liga da Justiça

When an alien invasion, led by the sinister Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds in a motion capture performance), seems imminent, Batman (Ben Affleck) recruits the world's heroes to stop it. He seeks out Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), The Flash (Ezra Miller), and Cyborg (Ray Fisher), but their combined power may not be enough, and they realize the one missing factor that could turn the tide of battle: the recently deceased Superman (Henry Cavill).

This was another tortured production, with director Zack Snyder leaving the project either due to a death in the family or by the studio's insistence, depending on the source. Joss Whedon was brought on to finish the movie and ended up reshooting some earlier scenes. The final product seems rushed, under cooked, and dreadfully overloaded with too much unnecessary CGI effects. The common weakness in many of these superhero movies is the villain, and this is yet another example of that. The character is fully CGI and looks it, and it's difficult to feel menace from a cartoon in a non-animated movie. And the worst part is, it wasn't even needed, as the character was a normal human-looking person in the comic books, and the actor hired to basically just provide the voice, Ciaran Hinds, is a very good actor and would have been fine without the CGI embellishment. Another glaring visual flaw lies in Superman's mouth. Since the shoot ran over, Superman actor Henry Cavill was contractually obligated to start his filming on the upcoming Mission: Impossible film, a role that requires him to grow a bushy mustache. When he had to come back for reshoots on Justice League, the producers decided to just CGI out his mustache, with the end result a laughable, often deformed upper lip.

On the plus side, Ezra Miller is amusing as The Flash, Gal Gadot continues to look great as Wonder Woman, and Momoa makes for an interesting twist on Aquaman, who is nothing like his comic book counterpart. Many of the acting heavy-hitters, including Amy Adams, Diane Lane, and Jeremy Irons, are just cameo window dressing.

This film tells the story of Batman and Wonder Woman putting a team together to fight against evil forces who try to bring the fragments of the mother box back together.

The visual effects are very impressive, and the story is very fast paced. In fact, it is so fast that it sacrifices the story telling. The main backbone of the story is there, but there's no cohesion, engagement and no captivation. The plethora of characters also mean that each of them get little screen time, hence there's little developer of characters. I thought I was just being fed some fragmented scenes. The socially awkward young guy tries too hard to provide comedic relief, that it makes the heroic efforts of the league less credible. Unfortunately I did not enjoy this film as much as I thought I would.

Why is it still listed as Directer by Zack Snyder , when all world knows that Joss Whedon directed it.

Please pls give credit to him. Snyder shows that he is far better then him.

I'm not sure how a movie starring so many iconic characters can be so limited. It's not that it's specially bad, it's just basic, extremely basic. Basically the story anyone could have written when thinking about putting the Justice League together.

You have to feel sorry for DC Comics.

Sure they've made more than a bucket load of cash with many of their releases, including of course this year's box office behemoth and critical darling Wonder Woman, but overall the company has been living in the shadows of Marvel for a number of years now and have been late to the party when it comes to superhero team-up events until now.

Suffering a troubled production that saw original director Zack Snyder depart the project late in the piece due to a family tragedy and replaced by Avenger's mastermind Joss Whedon, Justice League has had a far from smooth run to cinemas, that includes the fact we've never truly been properly introduced to its new main players, Aquaman, The Flash and Cyborg, with DC keen to get this ensemble together as quickly as possible.

Considering all of this, Justice League is not what I'd call a "bad" movie, in the sense that I'd warn everyone against seeing it, but this often jumbled and sometimes just not that interesting blockbuster is still far from the all-round winner DC would've been hoping for with Snyder and Whedon's film lacking both a genuinely good story arc (new villain Steppenwolf is just generic baddie 101 or even worse) and any true memorable set-pieces or set-ups.

At what feels like a fairly brisk 120 minute runtime, Justice League is always on the move as we initially get to witness the first meetings between this collection of new friends (the highlight of which is probably Ezra Miller's pizza eating Barry Allen/The Flash) but with so many people, so many different arcs to play out, Snyder and Whedon struggle to bring it all home and action scenes often feel haphazard, some scenes feel rushed or unwanted (a Russian family is given far too much screen time), while all the films colourful characters don't get the airtime they perhaps needed.

After the middling response so far to his take on Batman, Affleck won't be gaining or losing too many supporters here, the verdict is well and truly still out on Cavill's take on Superman, while Gadot is once again great as Wonder Woman. Of the new cast Miller is a fine addition as the awkward Allen, Jason Momoa gives fans hope that his standalone Aquaman will be a lot of fun, while it's surprising just how affecting Ray Fisher is as Cyborg even if his character doesn't seem cut out to get his own standalone feature.

It's a shame then that we don't ever feel like this team is given the scenarios they needed to really gel together. There's chemistry to be found here, even Cavill and Affleck benefit from the likes of Gadot and the new additions, their rather tiresome portrayals enlivened by the fresh, energetic nature of their co-stars but overall the film lacks an energy or pizazz that would've been the kicker to elevate this genuine middle of the road experience to something else entirely.

Final Say –

All in all huge fans of DC will be kept happy with this sometimes enjoyable, sometimes downright bad big screen culmination of hero's and one badly CGI'd and generic villain.

Devoid of anything of true note and without a memorable set-piece, Justice League is unquestionably the poor cousin of The Avenger's but with the talented cast involved, there is enough hope here to suggest that this band of hero's have some room to grow into something special if all the stars align.

2 1/2 terrorised Russian families out of 5