Movie Review #1 - Justice League (2017)

Today I will be reviewing the 2017 movie "Justice League" in my very first movie review on this blog!

Yeah, I review movies too sometimes, wanna fight about it? Hip Hop & Other Things, I keep reminding y'all.

A TL;DR of this review: Justice League deserved more justice. 

Why do I say that? Well...

LET'S START FROM THE BEGINNING...

It was the day after Thanksgiving (11/24/17) and my friend really wanted to go see Justice League...

But as an aside, a little about my friend, he's a HUGGEEEE (or as the orange cheeto would say 'YUGGGGGGGEEEE') fan of comic book movies. Like, to an unhealthy degree almost. And he was absolutely determined to see Justice League. 

As a result of my car leaking oil (I probably could've drove to the movie theater, and came back and probably nothing would've happened, but I wasn't about to take that risk on the freeway, plus it's not like he was offering gas money OR oil money, so why should I risk it just to see a movie that *spoiler alert* ended up being mediocre anyway!)

Anyway, he decides to uber us there and it was actually one of 3 ubers I would end up being in that day. (Might I add, I've never taken uber prior to this day and it was a pleasant experience, nothing bad happened, but uber, I feel, is something you should use if you absolutely have to, cause you know, uber doesn't do any extensive background checks, you could essentially be riding with a John Wayne Gacy type and not even know.)

Gacy as "Pogo the Clown" (I linked his wikipedia page here, if you feel like having a disturbing read on a serial killer's life)

But as I said before, the uber rides went decently. Everybody was safe and got to their destination.

So my friend and I get to the landmark (the movie theater where we saw Justice League at) and although we are 2 hours early (we got there at 5 p.m., the movie started at 7:30 p.m.) nearly all of the seats are reserved (granted, it was a small theater, but still) so I'm like "wow, people are still pretty interested in Justice League, maybe the reviews I've seen are just stuffy "this is not le art" critics"

So we get some seats that are in the last row of the front most section of the theater. I MUST emphasize that the theater was more of a smaller, more casual seating theater, instead of individual seats, there are couches and "love seats" like this

The type of seating arrangement we were in for our viewing of 'Justice League'

To put it simply, the view wasn't bad from where we were sitting even though I do prefer to sit near the very back of the theater, in the center. 

After killing two hours walking to a 7-Eleven that was mad far away for some reason (usually 7-Eleven's are within 5 minutes walking distance in major cities, but not in this neighborhood for some reason) we finally arrive in the theater and sit down in our seats. 

The theater usher was a little bit too pushy for my taste. The people in front of us were talking so low that I couldn't hear them and they were a mere foot away from me. The usher walked up and told them to keep it down, which I appreciate, if the movie had started, and if they were actually talking loud enough to warrant a 'keep it down', but I digress, I'm sure whoever is reading this is like "where was this guy when I was in MY theater and some douche-nozzle wouldn't shut up?"

Now I'm going to list what I liked about "Justice League" and what I didn't like.

Good & Bad

The Good (yay):

• The actors are fully committed to their roles as these superheroes, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Ben Affleck as Batman, Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Ray Fisher as Cyborg, Ezra Miller as The Flash, and Henry Cavill as Superman do their best to try and bring these comic book characters to life, and they do too!

• You get to see superheroes doing superhero $h!t and in all honestly, that's what everyone wants out of these types of films, just a bunch of their favorite childhood icons, whoopin' @$$, takin' names, and working together. That's exactly what they did in this film. It did truly feel like a superhero movie.

• Superman's return was pretty cool.

The Bad (uh oh):

• Whole plot felt wayyyyyyyy too rushed (I understand that there were major production issues during the making of this film such as the original director Zack Snyder's daughter committing suicide and him having to quit directing the movie in the middle of production. Then another director, Joss Whedon, taking over and reshooting scenes in the movie. Also, Warner Brothers {the film studio that has their name on the "Justice League" movie} issuing a mandate that said the film had to be under 2 hours in runtime, but the final product is what it is, which is, a rushed final product)

• The villain is lame, super lame. He's really just a CGI generic villain henchmen with more screen time. His setup was there, but I didn't care, it was (once again) rushed, and his backstory and motivation is lost on the casual movie goer like myself, it feels like he's just there to get beat up by the good guys.

• They (Joss Whedon) try painfully hard to cram in as many comedic one-liners and "Hey, [batman] what's your super power anyway?" *batman glares at flash as his mercedes doors close* "I'm rich" type dialogue sequences as possible. There were some hits, but definitely more misses, and the misses hung around the theater with an awkwardness that only comedians who have bombed multiple times can comprehend. Humor in this movie felt cheap, and akin to a cheap rip-off of Marvel's "The Avengers"

Overall though...

My reaction to "Justice League" in gif form...

"Justice League" deserved more justice. Point blank, period. When you have characters with such a rich history, characters that are so well known and are idolized by so many people all over the world, all in one movie, you're almost destined to have a great movie. 

But unfortunately, due to the nature of Hollywood, schedules and budgets are more important than making sure "Justice League" works as a movie in and of itself, and not just seen as "yet another movie about strong dudes in tights". Instead, they knew the name "Justice League" would attract people to come see it, so they just put it out. Which is a shame, but with all the exposing going on in Hollywood regarding powerful men being inappropriate with women, something tells me they don't care too much about the art aspect of a film like this. 

I don't blame Whedon, I don't blame Snyder, I blame the greedy, meddling orders of Warner Brothers for this movie that could've been great, but instead came out as "Meh, not terrible, but definitely could've went better". 

In fact, salute to Wheadon, he did what he could, and I read that he fought battles to make certain changes to the movie, but those changes were overruled by Warner Brothers. If only people were allowed to do their job and make art without a blood-sucking, capitalistic machine breathing down their neck.

Closing Words:

One day, DC will make a great "The Avengers" type movie, but Justice League, is just not that movie. It's not terrible, you can see the potential, but it's like play-dough, you can see what it can be shaped into, but it still needs to be shaped, and right now "Justice League" is just that play-dough, sitting in a container, waiting to be shaped. All the tools are there, but the tools aren't being used to the best of their ability and the final product suffers as a result.  

So here's the million dollar question...

Do I go see this movie or not?

If you're kind of interested in seeing this movie, I'd say go see it, but see it during discounted matinee hours where movie tickets are cheaper because it's 11:00 a.m. on a Tuesday or whenever your theater has matinee hours. 

You do NOT want to pay the full 8 p.m.-on-a-Saturday-night price for this film. It's simply not worth it. Even my friend, who really wanted to see "Justice League", couldn't really justify the movie as being worth the full price movie ticket. 

If you have no interest in seeing this movie. Don't. Just don't. You'll be confused and when it ends you'll be like "What was that? I'm so confused."

If you're definitely interested in seeing it, you've probably already saw the movie, but I'd say go see it anyway if you're definitely interested. There are redeemable qualities, but that's only if you follow the comics, if you're like me and haven't read a single comic book page and just know the movies, then you'll see way more flaws like I did. 

Annnnnnnnnnd that's all folks!

Written by Joseph Sanker II on 11/27/17

I don't know what's next for this blog, just trying to post as much as I can!  Chris Rock show review next!

~Written by Joseph Sanker II on 11/27/17

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