Synopsis:
Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat. But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes–Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash–it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.

-Warner Bros. Pictures

Film Review:

There is the more inferior quality of visual and effects compared to the Marvel franchise. However, this film was better than the last one (Batman VS Superman). A somewhat lighter approach to what DC does typically, Justice League came out a bit unexpected. Picking up from where it left off in the previous film, Batman VS Superman- there’s grief. And with Superman’s death, there are more threats to humanity-fear and uncertainty builds up. Therefore Batman (Ben Affleck) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) had to recruit new members namely Ezra Miller as The Flash, Ray Fisher as Cyborg and Jason Momoa as Aquaman, and form the Justice League.

It did not take long though, and the group was quick to announce their need for Superman ( Henry Cavill) to return after their encounter with Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds). There is a sense of disappointment when DC introduced their heroes but missed developing them into strong characters. They appeared weak and desperate as well as disconnected with each other. I also noticed the dark tone, and heavy feeling of a DC franchise seemed to have lightened up a little bit in this film. There was more humour injected into the movie in the presence of The Flash and was quite effective as comic relief.

Altogether, the film is not a complete letdown, but a lot of apparent details with the editing, storytelling and visuals contribute to a not so good movie. There were a few weak scenes like the lack of extras to play as civilians being saved by Superman. There was only one family consistently shown- hence made it hard to believe the alien invasion and relate to the film. Once again, DC needs to up their game and focus more on their heroes’ strengths, individuality and make everyone equally important despite the different levels of abilities.

NZ Rating: M for Violence