Warner Bros. Pictures Justice League Movie Blu-Ray and Digital Release

Review of Justice League Movie by Paul Godbold

I sat down in the cinema with my wife and she could tell I had mixed emotions. As someone who hasn’t been to the cinema for many years, the general muffled chatting and close proximity to so many people made me feel somewhat nervous in conjunction with my feelings of anticipation and excitement.

The film started off with a sombre mood recapping the death of Superman and I thought to myself “Oh-No” – another dark and broody film in the Batman movie vain. We then switched to some footage of a very-odd looking Henry Cavil as Superman. By odd-looking, what I mean is his mouth, particularly his teeth and lips didn’t look natural. According to the internet, this was due to Mr Cavil having a moustache during filming and the studio needed to hide this using CGI. Whatever the true reason, it was very odd to watch and didn’t inspire confidence in what might be forthcoming.

However, from this point onwards, the film started to gather pace and the weak start to the movie was soon forgotten. The film was action-packed and fast-paced, exactly what you need in a blockbuster movie. Ben Affleck, Ezra Miller, and Ray Miller stole the show with strong performances, mixing action, humour and emotion perfectly. In a change to some previous superhero films based on DC Comic characters, the film offered some amusing and light-hearted moments which overall helped with the flow of the story.

The most powerful characters in the Justice League – Superman, Aquaman and Wonder Woman, were somewhat of a disappointment. As majestic as Gal Gadot is, her acting came across to me as wooden and the Wonder Woman character was watered-down somewhat from the immensely powerful warrior seen in the comics

On the other hand, Henry Cavil as Superman, had his power levels elevated to what we expect from the character in the comics showing off some truly mind-boggling feats of strength. But, during his time on screen, I was more focused on whether his mouth was created by CGI and ignoring much of the on-screen action.

And Jason Mamoa as Aquaman? Well, the hero was light-years away from the character I knew in the comics and although played very well by Mamoa, why the writers didn’t make him more regal and less ‘surfer-dude’ is beyond me?

Justice League Positives

As mentioned the Batman, Cyborg and Flash characters stole the show and without the strong lead from Ben Affleck, this film could have been an absolute disaster – which it wasn’t. The introduction of humour into the story at strategic times helped to break up the apocalyptic and morose feeling.

The overall storyline was easy to follow and fast-paced and aside from a couple of minor moments which raised questions (comic book-related), it was overall, most enjoyable. The Justice League movie is certainly a step closer to what true superhero fans like myself want/expect and this is a positive sign for the future development of the Justice League franchise.

Justice League Negatives

As mentioned at the start, one of the stand out negatives was the poor CGI used on Superman. While on the subject of CGI, allow me to address the Steppenwolf character.

Having Ciarán Hinds as the voice of the films main antagonist was one of the biggest problems for me. The Irish accent is regarded by many as one of the most beautiful and melodic in the world so using this as the voice of the epitome of evil is confusing. The Irish accent is so recognisable and difficult to disguise that whenever Steppenwolf spoke, I was reminded of a friendly character in Hellboy II: The Golden Army. If you’ve watched this film, you’ll know exactly what I am referring to.

Given that the Justice League movie had the joint second largest budget of all-time, I would have expected it to be perfect, but it wasn’t. It was a good film, but not a great or iconic superhero film.

However, there was a lot of positive foundations laid down by Justice League for the future and with the right storylines. I am confident that the Warner Bros. offerings will get a closer to replicating the success Marvel Studios has thus far achieved.

Overall Score for Justice League

By pure coincidence, while writing this review, the most iconic of all superhero-based films, Superman the Movie is being broadcast on UK terrestrial television. This film was regarded by many as the definitive superhero movie and 40+ years later is still looked upon with fondness, something that all modern day actors playing the role of a superhero would give their ‘I’ teeth for.

It’s hard to imagine that many of the more recent superhero movies will be looked upon in the same vein, given the wide number of platforms movies are available on and the reduction of effort and excitement build-up found a few decades ago when you queued outside of a cinema.

Should you purchase a copy of Justice League when it comes out on Blu-ray and digital? If you’re a true superhero fan and want some good entertainment, I would say yes.