I had low expectations for this movie. The trailers did not do it for me, and seeing DC/WB track record I was very hesitant and worried. Seeing the movie last night my low expectations and worry came true. I really wanted to love this movie, but just as with BvS I got out of the theater feeling I had wasted my money and lost 2hrs of my life. This is better than BvS, but then again: what isn't?
Not sure where to put this movie. It is, at times, sort of messy "fun" as Suicide squad was, and it is not as dumb as BvS. JL tries to follow the Marvel formula a bit, throwing in a few one liners and the movie have a few fun moments, and although those funnies mostly work they also feel too forced in there.
Personally I still think Man of Steel is the best movie from DC so far, too bad they messed up the start and ending of that movie, otherwise MoS would have been a great movie. Personally I did not like WW, although it had its moments.
So where does this belong?
Well, let us start with the negative:
The CGi is actually really bad, just as bad as in Wonder Woman, or even worse. I see better CGi on TV nowadays, and I am not sure why DC and WB cannot do it better. Where did the money go? Affleck's salary? TVs Smallville had better effects, or look at Agents of Shield of today; they do great things with a fraction of the budget.
The story is way too rushed. That apparent WB corporate directive of keeping the movie shorter then 2h seem to have done a lot of damage. Not that 30min more would make that big of a difference, but I will assume that a director's cut will be slightly better. This is especially sad for me since in the comics DC usually have great very well written stories. Here, not so much
Probably due to being too rushed the movie has a pace issue. Either it moves too slow, or too fast. When you see the movie you'll probably understand what I mean.
Cyborg does not work. Partly it is the bad CGi, but the actor is not very good in this role either.
The villain does not work. Sure if you've read the comics you do, sort of, have an idea and know a bit of backstory, but in the movie none of that comes out – we are not clearly told who he is (except for some "historical" exposition), we do not know what motivates him, why he is there. The little we do get to know is not enough for the general movie goer. The Villain is also very, very generic. Probably the most generic villain we've seen in any superhero movie. He shows up, with bad CGi, they fight for a bit, and well, you can guess the rest. One of the worst villains I've seen in a movie like this.
A lot of critics have praised The Flash in this movie, personally I do not really see it. Sure he has a few fun moments, but it feels a bit forced and too much "let's copy Marvel" funnies about it.
There are a few major plot holes, and a few convoluted moments that ruins the experience and as a critic those moments are very hard to avoid. You can see them as plot devices (at best), OR: only forced upon badly written moments if you want to be more direct. I will update this part with detailed spoilers once I've seen the movie again.
Positive: It is decently entertaining, at times... and it is not BvS bad. Wonder woman is pretty good in this movie, even better then in her own movie I would say, and the side-characters work very well. Aquaman is good. The acting okay and well that is pretty much it.
Summery: Nothing fantastic nor great, JL is not a good movie. As a superhero movie this is okayish entertainment and Justice League is better than crap like Fan4stic or the horrible BvS, but is that really the comparison you want to make with a JL movie? As a Superhero movie I would give this a 3, but as a movie this is really bad and about a 1, so I ended up giving this a 2 in total. Not worth the ticket price unless you are very young. Or: if you do not mind seeing dumb story-lines and you just came to see some bad CGi action, then this may work.... For the normal movie-goer and for us looking for quality, this is not for us.
If this had come out 20y ago, it would have been pretty great, nowadays we expect more, want more, deserve more, and with this talent and all the money spent they should have produced a lot better movie.
A bad movie, but almost okayish Superhero movie.
Edit: Saw it again yesterday (pirated - do not watch this at the cinema!! Do not waste your money!!) and I need to lower my score. Horrible movie and seeing it again, more focused, I see so much crap I do not know what to do. Worst movie of 2017, and that is saying something.
Not sure where to put this movie. It is, at times, sort of messy "fun" as Suicide squad was, and it is not as dumb as BvS. JL tries to follow the Marvel formula a bit, throwing in a few one liners and the movie have a few fun moments, and although those funnies mostly work they also feel too forced in there.
Personally I still think Man of Steel is the best movie from DC so far, too bad they messed up the start and ending of that movie, otherwise MoS would have been a great movie. Personally I did not like WW, although it had its moments.
So where does this belong?
Well, let us start with the negative:
The CGi is actually really bad, just as bad as in Wonder Woman, or even worse. I see better CGi on TV nowadays, and I am not sure why DC and WB cannot do it better. Where did the money go? Affleck's salary? TVs Smallville had better effects, or look at Agents of Shield of today; they do great things with a fraction of the budget.
The story is way too rushed. That apparent WB corporate directive of keeping the movie shorter then 2h seem to have done a lot of damage. Not that 30min more would make that big of a difference, but I will assume that a director's cut will be slightly better. This is especially sad for me since in the comics DC usually have great very well written stories. Here, not so much
Probably due to being too rushed the movie has a pace issue. Either it moves too slow, or too fast. When you see the movie you'll probably understand what I mean.
Cyborg does not work. Partly it is the bad CGi, but the actor is not very good in this role either.
The villain does not work. Sure if you've read the comics you do, sort of, have an idea and know a bit of backstory, but in the movie none of that comes out – we are not clearly told who he is (except for some "historical" exposition), we do not know what motivates him, why he is there. The little we do get to know is not enough for the general movie goer. The Villain is also very, very generic. Probably the most generic villain we've seen in any superhero movie. He shows up, with bad CGi, they fight for a bit, and well, you can guess the rest. One of the worst villains I've seen in a movie like this.
A lot of critics have praised The Flash in this movie, personally I do not really see it. Sure he has a few fun moments, but it feels a bit forced and too much "let's copy Marvel" funnies about it.
There are a few major plot holes, and a few convoluted moments that ruins the experience and as a critic those moments are very hard to avoid. You can see them as plot devices (at best), OR: only forced upon badly written moments if you want to be more direct. I will update this part with detailed spoilers once I've seen the movie again.
Positive: It is decently entertaining, at times... and it is not BvS bad. Wonder woman is pretty good in this movie, even better then in her own movie I would say, and the side-characters work very well. Aquaman is good. The acting okay and well that is pretty much it.
Summery: Nothing fantastic nor great, JL is not a good movie. As a superhero movie this is okayish entertainment and Justice League is better than crap like Fan4stic or the horrible BvS, but is that really the comparison you want to make with a JL movie? As a Superhero movie I would give this a 3, but as a movie this is really bad and about a 1, so I ended up giving this a 2 in total. Not worth the ticket price unless you are very young. Or: if you do not mind seeing dumb story-lines and you just came to see some bad CGi action, then this may work.... For the normal movie-goer and for us looking for quality, this is not for us.
If this had come out 20y ago, it would have been pretty great, nowadays we expect more, want more, deserve more, and with this talent and all the money spent they should have produced a lot better movie.
A bad movie, but almost okayish Superhero movie.
Edit: Saw it again yesterday (pirated - do not watch this at the cinema!! Do not waste your money!!) and I need to lower my score. Horrible movie and seeing it again, more focused, I see so much crap I do not know what to do. Worst movie of 2017, and that is saying something.