“Unite” (I guess)
Directed by: Zack Snyder
Written by: Chris Terrio, Joss Whedon, Zack Snyder
Cast: Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, Ray Fisher, Ezra Miller, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Ciarán Hinds
The Josh Chop: *Big Sigh* I was pretty let down by this film. After my last DC review of Wonder Woman, I had some high hopes that we’d meet some new characters and kick some ass. I really believed that bringing together all the forces for this League would be BADASS! Turns out it was just… bad.
The films begins at the point where Batman vs. Superman left off. Not exactly after but soon enough. Batman (Affleck) is out catching a cat burglar when he lures a moth looking yet human creature and captures it. What it is, is unknown but it sets in motion his task of banding together other “protectors.”
Soon Batman is traveling all over recruiting these folks for help. Ever since Superman died, these moth looking creatures have been showing up and they seem to be scouts for a much larger threat. Possibly an invasion!
The recruiting scenes go about the same way you saw in the trailers or the short snippets we saw from comic-con videos. We’ve been seeing these for almost a year now, and at this point I was over it. The scenes don’t really have much else going on that is new and exciting. Which brings me to the new characters.
First up Aquaman (Momoa) is pretty much a guy who doesn’t really want to be involved with anyone. He does his own thing, and he’s not really interested in much else. The problem here is his character doesn’t really have anything interesting about him. Yes he’s Aquaman and he can swim fast, which is more like him zooming through the water. Apparently he can also manipulate water almost like an unseen force he has on water. Of course he can talk to fish, but you don’t see that. That being said, his extraordinary powers fell so flat it didn’t even bounce.
Next we have Cyborg. (Fisher) Somehow this guy was supposed to die in an accident, but his father saved him and turned him into a robot with basically just his face and brain keeping him going. He pretty much hates life. Cyborg can’t control his abilities all that well, but what he can do is pretty awesome when you think about it. Trouble is, you have to kind of think about it.
Finally The Flash (Miller) This guy is super quick and has the ability to move and run faster than anything anyone’s ever seen. Too bad he’s pretty much an awkward scaredy cat. I was literally shaking my head in the theater watching his character unfold. Turns out on top of his social awkwardness, he’s also afraid of a lot of things that he shouldn’t be. He kind of seems like Olaf from Frozen being thrown into the mix of mighty heroes like Wonder Woman (Gadot) and Batman. While I really enjoy Ezra Miller as an actor, I was disappointed by the director/writers choice to make him too nerdy.
Back to the story. There are three boxes which contain energy beyond anything anyone has ever seen. This energy also has the ability to shape and change whole planets. In comes Steppenwolf (Hinds) a demi-god? I don’t know, it’s never really explained. He seeks the boxes so that he can create a planet just like his home (which is…bad)? (Who knows what his home is like?) Doing so would ruin our planet in a matter of days, maybe even hours.
Batman forms his league comprising of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and others mentioned above, so that they can stop Steppenwolf from getting the boxes and destroying our planet. Can they learn to work together in time to stop the threat or will they fail? Will the team bring hope again? Seeing this may answer that for you.
Overall I was disappointed the most by the characters of this film. Aquaman wasn’t portrayed as King of Atlantis but more like just a dude who has special powers. While The Flash was funny, it was mostly by him being in the presence of superheroes and him showing us why he shouldn’t be there. The laughs were more about him being pretty much a coward. While I don’t know much about Cyborg, he was the most level headed one of the new characters. His character arc is probably the best option, yet his character seemed pretty mechanical. (No pun intended.)
The film’s most exciting part for me was a side scene where we see the Amazon’s defend one of the three boxes in question. The Amazons are just so fun to watch. I wish I could have said the same for the rest of the cast. I’m still feeling the disappointment.
Before I left the theater, I noticed the lady in front of me post on her Facebook that she thought the film was awesome and she would see it again. I on the other hand, wanted more and never got it.
