Justice League

Starring: Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Ray Fisher, Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa, Ciarán Hinds, Jeremy Irons, Amy Adams, Diane Lane, J.K. Simmons, Connie Nielsen & Henry Cavill

Directed by: Zack Snyder

Rating: ★★★½

After already paying money to see Batman vs Superman, Wonder Woman and even the terrible Man of Steel, how could I not go and see Justice League, a film that finally crowbars DC's biggest heroes together?

The Justice League finally get together...

And although I did not have high hopes for the movie, I was pleasantly surprised: Justice Leagueis a fun, action packed B-movie that, if not taken seriously, is actually a pretty good superhero spectacular.

Reunited and it feels so good?

Set after Batman vs Superman, the film still tries to make us care about the fact that Superman is 'dead', even though we know he isn't and, even when he comes back to life, his acting is worse than a lifeless zombie anyway. 

No Superman- no one missed you are cared that you were gone...

The ridiculously simple and farfetched plot is all about an alien called Steppenwolf (Hinds) who wants to retrieve three boxes in order to take over the world. Sound familiar? Well it is, but even though it is ludicrous, it's different enough to still be interesting and it’s silly enough to be exciting. 

Will the Justice League prevail?

Batman (Affleck) and Wonder Woman (Gadot) pair up to recruit others to stop Steppenwolf. Some of the members of the newly formed team are good, some are awful and one doesn't really do anything, but regardless of their strengths and weaknesses, the Justice League is born.

Cyborg saves the day! Kind of...

Although Cyborg (Fisher) is a cyborg, he’s actually an important part of the team and is played surprisingly well. Ironically, Cyborg is also one of the least robotic members of the team. Not only does he have a personality, he is also intelligent and helps save the day. 

No one is laughing...

The Flash (Miller), on the other hand, tries his best to have a personality and to be funny, but it just completely falls flat. Now I don’t know where they dragged Ezra Miller out from, but they need to put him back, because he is a terrible, terrible actor and just isn’t funny in the slightest. 

Aquaman is most definitely a fish out of water...

Now Aquaman may not really do anything to help the team- except for make sassy comments and hurl himself at aliens- but he’s cool and funny and adds some character to the film. Batman seems to have lost some of his mojo from Batman vs Superman, which is sadly also the case for Wonder Woman, neither of whom do very much. The additional member of the Justice League is Gadot’s derriere, which appears in every shot possible- something that was strangely missing from Wonder Woman. I wonder why? 

Wonder Woman is back and as badass as ever

And then there’s Superman. Oh dear. If someone scraped a load of muscles out of the sea and stuffed them into a Superman suit, you would get a better performance from this sea dwelling entity than from Henry Cavill. He's just so, so awful words can't quite describe it.

But regardless of the various abilities of the rag-tag team of virtually unstoppable superheroes, the supporting star cast are good, and a special shout out goes to Amy Adams who is amazing and once again tried to squeeze blood from a stone when performing opposite Stuporman.

You can do better, Amy!

The action scenes are fun, and the banter between the characters mainly works. I also really enjoyed the weird ending battle which is a super silly rip-off of The Avengers finale. 

Batman and Wonder Woman work together to save the world

Now, the critics hated Justice League for the exact reason why I liked it- because it abandons the whole faux 'dark' Nolan-esque Dark Knight rip-off and is instead an enjoyable child friendly comic book romp. There’s no depth to this film- it’s just big strong men and women beating the crap out of one another- but when it’s packaged up in such an enjoyable way, whats wrong with that anyway?

Tensions are running high in the Justice League...

Although Justice League has become one of the most expensive films ever made, it is essentially a B-Movie. It's a good B-movie, but it's a B-movie. It doesn't feel like The Avengers or any of the Nolan Batman films, because it is a fun and disposable action flick. Does it stand up as 'the greatest' anything ever made? No. But I would happily watch again. 

Batman!

So if you want to see what is probably the most expensive B-movie ever made, with silly superheroes in skin-tight costumes beating up CGI aliens, then watch the Justice League. It’s more fun than you think it will be.