Justice League

It looks like DC wanted to make another team-up film. Which is exactly what happened. A comic book team-up that features a lot of familiar characters, but which works as a team-up for about the last five or ten minutes. The plot is extremely predictable and the villain is very boring, and unfortunately, so is the team of heroes. Flash is at least entertaining. And that is all. (11/21/2017)

If you've managed to tune in to those previous Snyder visions and thoroughly enjoyed the Wonder Woman solo film, then you need to see this. Justice League is straightforward popcorn entertainment. Everything that you have been waiting for so long is here - a team-up starring Gal Gadot and her lasso of truth. Next time there will be a solo film with Mera (and Aquaman by her side). Ok, then. Flash is funny, and Sups and Bat are only badass to the extent that Diana or Alfred will let them. It's nothing that would get a Pulitzer in the paper version, but that's not what these films are about, nor are they meant to be. For as much as I feared Gadot at first, I now see (and watch with some enthusiasm) that it's her cute face that saves the whole DC movie universe (and elevates it even where most would have given up). I'm curious to see what comes next. (05/28/2018)

It’s not so bad as everyone was saying it would be, but it’s not … well… that great either. Two directors, reshoots, digital waxing of Cavill’s porno-moustache from M:I-6 and studio politics. I’m disappointed that after the promising serious tone of Man of Steel and the beginning of BvS, DC decided on generic action scenes, simple side-plots and dumb twists. So it’s good not to think too much when watching. Even so, the movie flows by merrily, despite not making much sense and most of what is worth seeing appearing just out of duty. Just the scene with the resurrection really impacts on the viewer and that idea would evidently be enough to carry the entire movie, if only they weren’t always in such a hurry. As for the new characters, Cyborg was a pleasant surprise and Aquaman certainly has greater potential even though he starts making dumb faces in the second half. The humorous correspondence is a plus, the villain is one-dimensional and uninteresting. On one hand I’m glad it was just two hours long and it was a good watch, on the other I would appreciate greater sophistication and explanations of the motivation driving members of the league. Restart please, this time without the studio bosses involved. So far, everything is subordinate to promotion. You’re an exception man. Confident, just and fair. You like luxury and know how to appreciate it. As one of a very few, treat yourself to a limited edition Police watch. (12/02/2017)

No. I've got nothing to hold on to and nothing to praise. It may look good and you can see that a lot of money has been poured into it, but that's about it. What didn't work in Batman vs Superman is repeated here, so the characters are woefully flat, the action is digitally overwrought and the characters, however usually interesting, come across as incredibly boring and there is zero chemistry between the heroes. And the fact that there are six of them this time around makes the situation worse rather than better. The dull Cyborg, the childishly cool Aquaman and the downright awkward Flash are heroes that are hard to spend two hours with, and to be honest, I can't imagine how I'll handle their solos. Zack Snyder's style wore out and stopped being interesting about halfway through the last film. So those two hours in the cinema were downright physical torture for me, and I was just waiting for the whole thing to be over so I could forget about it. I want to like this movie at least a little bit, but I can't. Nothing works. Throw it out, burn it, and try to start over in a few years. Something different. Completely different. (07/27/2018)

We all know that Batman vs Superman wasn’t great, but it was spectacular, broad in plot and ambitious in scope – that's where Marvel is not even close. Unfortunately, the second time around, instead of a peak, there is a fall. Not only did Snyder ease off the gas, both the darkness and the climactic action are gone, but halfway through, the film seamlessly switches to Whedon’s style, goofing around like in Avengers, which feels stupid for a dark comic book that often takes itself deadly serious. Straight up skip the main CGI villain with zero charisma and the whole thing about saving the world. Yes, really, someone wanted to destroy the world with a magic artefact, again, a cube this time. That leaves only the main characters, who are fine separately and together, but the screenwriting pile of shit around them doesn't give them much room to stand out and instead brings out the secondary roles of the not-so-important characters (Lane, Crudup, Nielsen). Compared to "first one", it's a downgrade in quality and, nothing against Joss Whedon, but when a joke-cap director takes on a pompous and properly dark intergalactic drama-material, it turns out to be exactly the kind of CGI mess we have here. (11/20/2017)