Justice League (film): Not a copy of Avengers... well, ok yeah it is

So I live a bit out of touch with films. Unless I go out of my way to check the app for my local cinema I am never exposed to what upcoming films (or upcoming most anything else) is actually going to be. Therefore, when this popped up on Netflix a few days ago I thought it was a Netflix exclusive and had no idea that it actually already had a global cinema run in 2017.

It ended up being the most expensive film to "bomb" in the history of all films.

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I put "bomb" in quotes because the movie, on a budget of $300 million pulled in nearly $700 million globally, but as has become tradition with films like these it had such a massive advertising push that the film needed to gross $750 million before it ever made a single cent for the studios.

The plot is just ever so slightly familiar: A group of heroes, some of which are reluctant to even be heroes, have to be brought together to defeat a common enemy and the army that said enemy has produced in order to take over the world. This enemy, who is named "Steppenwolf" (I was hoping they'd name him "Supertramp") needs to collect a few key items from the world in order to gain his ultimate power. At least he didn't hold said items in a glove that he wore.

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Now I was never a fan of DC comics even as a kid and their films, aside from the Nolan Batman movies, never really appealed to me either. I suppose Wonder Woman was decent.

Steppenwolf is definitely a badass but even with their massive CGI budget, he manages to look extremely fake every time he is on the screen. I was unaware of the fact that his character is a well-established part of the DC universe and his backstory is not very well laid out in this film, so as far as I, and I would guess most other people are concerned, we are completely unfamiliar with this person.

The action sequences are decent, but not without their absurd moments such as when Aquaman surfs from the sky on the back of a flying baddie, through a building, and calmly walks out the front. It's just corny.

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It was something like this

For me I think the biggest problem with this film was the fact that it was released too soon as an obvious competition for the Avengers films. I say "too soon" because several of the members of the cast haven't had their own films yet, they have no introduction outside of this film. We don't know their backstory and have no attachment to them. I say this especially in relation to "Cyborg," who aside from a brief cameo in an unpopular Superman film, is probably an unknown to anyone who isn't a comic-book nerd. I know he is his own character and does have a comic-book background, but he's an uncool copy of Iron Man... honestly.

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I take that back... he's not at all like Iron Man

By the time the Avengers films became the massive success that they were, almost all of the major characters already had been introduced with major films featuring, for the most part, only them. Therefore the audience had a strong attachment to each player in the game. Also, since Batman is now kind of in a different category completely devoid of humor (thanks Christopher Nolan!) he almost feels as though he doesn't belong with the others in the story, especially once they start wise-cracking.


from the official Warner Bros channel

Mostly, I found this film to be average but that isn't entirely their fault. Even though I wouldn't say I was ever an Avengers film franchise fan either, those films are certainly better than this one for a lot of reasons.

They did have those sequences in the credits that set up the sequel (2 separate "secret bits" instead of just one BTW) and I certainly hope they can do a better job on subsequent installments. I would be willing to bet that if they are made, Warner Bros is going to be a bit more cautious with their budget since this one lost them around $60 million or so.

Overall the film is still exciting and entertaining, but since the market has been completely saturated with super-hero films over the past 5 years or so, this one kind of just falls a bit short.

My overall rating! 6.5 / 10
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That was an awesome review which I thank you for as I have never seen this one! Now, I think I will probably pass! :)

Thanks for the heads up!

!tip

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especially if you are not a fan of super hero films there really isn't much reason to watch this.

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haha.. that last meme always makes me chuckle. 300M invest then raked in 700M!? wow.. pretty good investment i would say. Can't say I've seen any of these films. Am I a weirdo or smart? hmmm.. I am always thinking I'll go see them and never do. :-/ I guess with your rating of 6.5, I guess I am not really missing anything.

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Somehow I am not sure you can tie the Nolan Batman's into this. In fact, I just heard the other day they are making yet another Batman movie where Twilight Vampire Robert Pattinson is going to be Batman and Collin Farrel is going to be the Penguin. Can't they do anything original? I think the TV show Flash is pretty decent, but it was disappointing they didn't pull that character over for the movie. I think one thing Marvel did right was keep everything pretty consistent even down to Agents of Shield. The DC stuff is just too disjointed for any of it to make any sense. I watched Man of Steel and I thought it was pretty decent. I have Batman vs. Superman in my queue as well as Wonder Woman. I think I need to watch those two before I tackle Justice League. I am hoping that way even a modicum of continuity will be established. Who knows though...

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