(Spoilers will be included since the Man of Steel ending curse is upon us!) Well, this is the film that we’ve been waiting for since it was first announced. It’s based off of the first Justice League arc in the New 52, but with many significant changes to adapt it for the modern audience. We’ve already had some pretty strong Justice League films in the past, so it would be interesting to see how it stood up to those!

First of all, you must ignore the cover. The cover hints that the animation is the worst that we’ve ever seen from DC and luckily that is not the case. I’m not sure why they decided to use a cover that looks like Kingdom Come style of art, but the live action approach was not necessary and hopefully it won’t affect ticket sales. The plot is pretty simple for the film since it involves a classic alien invasion. These aliens seem like they want to take over the planet and the Justice League members must learn to team up and work with one another. Will they be able to stop these villains!?

I always like to see team origin stories. If DC were to announce that their next film was another case of the Justice League banding together to stop a common threat, I’d still be pretty psyched. The concept doesn’t get old and it’s always fun to see the members meet for the first time since fights will usually ensue. It’s why I enjoyed the recent Avengers film and Ultimate Avengers film so much and why I don’t believe that future installments can pass them. It’s always possible of course, but it’s rare to beat that initial team up!

Since I’m a huge Justice League fan, I will definitely be breaking the film down more than I would for say….A Hulk and Iron Man team up film! (Although the latter should have enough negatives to make for a solid review!) This film is easily one of the best that DC has whipped up and you can expect a pretty high rating, but there were also several areas where I thought that they could improve. I’ll likely alternate between goods and negatives as the review goes on. Let’s talk about one of the most important parts of the film…the characters!

Batman is one of the first fighters to appear and he’s a very good character as you may have expected. There are several scenes that may make you nervous like his first battle against the Parademon. He was actually on the losing side of the battle and that can be a little hard to accept. With a lot of help from Green Lantern, the two heroes manage to subdue the creature. That being said, it may have taken a little more effort than it should have.

Batman got some pretty good props when he managed to steal GL’s Power Ring and we also got to see him take on Darkseid. The big thing that fans were looking forward to was the Batman vs Superman fight and we actually got a rematch as well! Batman looked all right in the 2nd fight and he was clearly outmatched in the first one, but I can live with that. If anyone can overwhelm Batman like that…it’s Superman. He is the strongest comic book character of all time, so it’s only fair. Batman ended up being the best character in the film and he even beat Superman for me in this film, but it may have been due to Superman’s lack of screen time. He basically missed out on the whole climax! A +1 for Batman’s depiction in this film.

Green Lantern is definitely one of the more iffy parts of the film and I’m afraid that it’s one of the film’s biggest negatives. The writers wanted to show us that Hal Jordan is basically a joke who cannot fight for beans. One Parademon is easily overpowering him and nearly destroys him several times. His constructs fall apart far too easily. This is supposed to be funny since he’s constantly talking big, but I can’t say that I liked that. I’m actually a big Hal Jordan fan, so seeing him look so bad was pretty sad.

I actually liked his characterization in the film, but I don’t like the fact that he’s so weak. When Darkseid shows up, Green Lantern is the first one to charge in and fight, but he looks extremely bad. I’m not completely sure who I would choose in a straight fight, (No composite) but either way it would be a very close battle and not as one sided as the film would have you believe. Hal actually gets one of the biggest roles from all of the characters in the film so his scenes can be a little tough to watch for his fans.

Superman is back with his new personality in this film. In the New 52, they tried to make him a little more like Batman. He’s definitely not quite as intense as he was in the DCAU, but he’s all right. I can’t say that I liked many of his lines during the second half of the film, but he started out as a pretty cool character. I still liked him by the end, but his lines about how almost nobody understands him felt a little out of place. It was good to see his skills being used a lot as he beat Batman and Green Lantern without much effort.

Unfortunately, that’s one of the changes that I think the film should not have made. Flash doesn’t get to fight with Superman in this version like he did in the comic. That’s a pretty bad change since I wanted to see Superman’s complete victory! After Superman’s impressive performance in the beginning, he looks pretty bad during the Darkseid fight. He can’t outrun the Omega Lasers and they also knock him out in a single hit. The film also shows that his will power is not enough to stop him from being mind controlled and letting his morals be corrupted. Finally, he gets a chance to change everything and defeat Darkseid, but he epicly fails in that regard. His portrayal isn’t as bad as Green Lantern’s, but he just looked too weak when it counted and I have to say that I do not like his costume/character design. It just doesn’t look right in this film.

Wonder Woman is also sporting a new outfit in this film. As with Superman’s, it definitely does not work as well as her classic costume. I even prefer the Diana Prince superhero uniform that she used during the early 2000s. Ignoring that, she mainly uses her sword to fight in this version and she’s able to use it to beat many Parademons.

Now, I may or may not have mentioned this in the past, but I don’t like when Wonder Woman has a weapon. It would be like Superman drawing a sword…I just don’t get the purpose. Wonder Woman was raised with the Amazons, so they likely had her train with a blade, but it undermines her strength. She fights without the sword briefly, but I wouldn’t have minded if they cut it out altogether. Weapons are only all right if their unique designs help to compliment the hero’s ability or if they lack any ability like the Punisher.

They ended up cutting out Wonder Woman’s most iconic line in the arc from the movie and that was a little disappointing, but she still gets to defeat many Parademons. Wonder Woman also does pretty good against Darkseid and she lands many hits against him. Aside from her appearances with Superman, she’s a good character in the film. Aside from her very inaccurate fight against Cyborg, they did a good job of showing that she is one of the stronger members of the JL.

The Flash is in the movie, but you can easily forget that at times. He definitely has the smallest role in the film since they cut out his most important scene. Sure…he’s there for the final battle and he beats some Parademons along the way, but he doesn’t really do anything important. I still like him more than some of the other members like Cyborg and Shazam, but it would have been nice to see him do more. His super speed is definitely critical to success and he should definitely be able to take care of the alien invasion without breaking a sweat. His portrayal was essentially dead on and the only one that I can say was just about perfect aside from Batman.

Cyborg is in this film since this was during DC’s big push to make him a Justice Leaguer. I wish that they would just give up on that already since I’ll never accept him as anything other than a Teen Titan. His subplot is the only part of the film that you can maybe find a little dragged out. The process of turning into Cyborg definitely took a while and while it was easy to sympathize with him, I wouldn’t have minded if they had just fast blasted through his origin. I actually liked his teammates, but his father was very unlikable. Mocking the sport of Football is simply not done! He definitely should have attended the game and he wouldn’t have missed anything since the action didn’t happen until after the game. It was a decision that the father may regret! (Did I mention that Steve Trevor gets a pair of cameos along with Lois and Jimmy? Well, they look like decent characters, which is good!)

Unfortunately, to “prove” that he can be a member of the Justice League, the film makers hype him up a lot. He defeats Wonder Woman in one hit and while she is not completely passed out, it did enough damage to let the league know that he was serious. He also defeated her in the Doom film. They’re giving him wayyyyy too many props lately and he also gets to save Flash’s life. I definitely don’t mind the character, but they just shouldn’t add him into the films if it will make everyone else look worse. Aside from that, Cyborg is still a good addition to the roster.

Shazam was added instead of good ole Aquaman and it was definitely a mistake. He’s just not a good character and he looks really bad. He is completely missing his power and his attacks seem like they don’t really deal any damage. Instead of using his physical abilities to defeat his opponents, Shazam uses a lot of thunder abilities. As with the whole weapons issue, I don’t like this. If the thunder abilities actually looked good, then that would be okay. Unfortunately, the blasts look weak and it just makes his whole character look weak. Shazam is also mean to the other kids who are around and it’s hard to be sympathetic with him. He’s easily the worst hero in this film. He’s so much weaker than Superman that a Trinity War film will not make any sense if it comes out.

The Parademons get a significant power upgrade in this film and we see them match up against opponents like Green Lantern! They have a good amount of super strength and at first, Batman can barely make them budge with his punches. Later on, they seem to grow weaker and Batman is able to take several of them out. Perhaps their life points are directly linked to Darkseid’s…..or the first Parademon was the leader. That would make the most sense since he was easily the most impressive villain. It’s easy to root for the Parademons and they’re fun villains, but the origin story was a little unneeded.

Darkseid is the big boss of the film and he’s a decent villain. He feels more like a mindless monster than anything, but he does have a mechanical voice. It may help you question whether he is truly alive or merely a cyborg at this point. He is very large in this film and he completely towers over everyone in this film. Unfortunately, like with Cyborg, the producers try too hard to show off how powerful he is. This makes heavy hitters like Shazam and Green Lantern look terrible in the process and Wonder Woman/Superman don’t look as good as they should.

Darkseid constantly takes hits from Shazam and Green Lantern without actually taking any damage and he also proceeds to overwhelm Wonder Woman and Superman. The latter two do all right overall, but it’s because Darkseid is outnumbered and forced to deal with them all. They make sure to show that he could easily defeat them all if it were a one on one fight. He looked very strange when it was crawling on all fours when going after the Flash and it felt like a horror movie. Darkseid is still a cool villain like always, but this is easily his worst incarnation. He comes across like Galactus from the EMH show…less of a character and more of an object. Still, it’s always good to see him take on the League!

The Animation for this film is solid as expected from DC. It’s definitely a lot better than what Marvel is dishing out and I hope that DC continues to use this style for the rest of their films. One problem that I had was with the special effects. The characters all seemed pretty weak during the fight scenes and it was because they took out the shockwaves. Usually when a Strong character shows up, they’ll add a little shockwave effect next to the punch so that you can tell that the character is strong. If you don’t get a shockwave, then you’re not usually a fighter. That’s how the DC films have typically went. Unfortunately, in this film…nobody got that extra effect so most of the hits didn’t really feel like they connected.

I have to say that it is why I was not terribly impressed with the fight scenes. They are definitely a few hundred steps up from Marvel and just about any American superhero dvd that you can find, but at the same time, it’s still not quite as good as Crisis on Two Earths, Public Enemies, or Secret Origins’s fight scenes. They’re very flashy in this film, but you can’t really feel the blows for the most part. I would actually compare it to the new DBZ film. The fight scenes were definitely very high budget, but at the same time, you didn’t really feel the blows like the Broly, Bojack, or Cooler films. I’d say that the film uses speed over power, which is all right in theory, but I just missed the power element to an extent. The fight scenes are definitely still solid.

One area where the film suffers a little is with unnecessary violence. Superman actually destroys one of the villains in the same way that he took out Zod. He may have been mindcontrolled, but it was a very obvious way to recreate what happened in Man of Steel and try to make Superman a little more “hardcore” I also didn’t like the fact that they decided to take out Darkseid by aiming for the eyes. I’ve never liked that tactic since it means that the fight scenes will be a lot more violent than they need too. The heroes also act “edgy” since they throw in more than a few casual swear words. It’s nothing serious for the most part, but it can get a little grating on the ears. You wouldn’t catch that back in the DCAU days! One scene that was not needed either was the origin of the Parademons. It’s pretty gruesome and there were many other ways that we could have learned their origin instead. Superman’s scene didn’t seem to be as graphic as in the comic, which was definitely a plus, but the film definitely had more violence than was necessary.

One last part that could be a little worrisome is how weak the Justice League is. Batman is technically still a human, but it’s the others who don’t look so impressive. Green Lantern definitely can’t fight with the big guns. Wonder Woman and Superman are tough, but they were already outclassed by Darkseid. Cyborg is basically just a human with metal and a cannon and the Flash usually has to deal with plot hax to inhibit his abilities. Shazam is just downright weak. (Which seems to be the latest trend for him. Check out Young Justice) This will mainly just be a worry for Trinity War, but it’ll be interesting to see how they look in the next film. If Ocean Master takes them out…then things could get dicey!

Overall, this was a solid DC film. It’s a really big film (Not by runtime, but by content) so I tried to get in all of my thoughts, but I probably just got most of them in. This is one of those films where you’ll always have extra thoughts and that’s always a good thing. I would’t say that it was quite as good as the original Justice League (Secret Origins and Starcrossed) films or as good as Crisis on Two Earths, but it was definitely one of DC’s best films. I’m confident that it will easily defeat the Throne of Atlantis film as well since we got so much action in this one and we also got to see Batman fight with Superman. It was good to see how the new Justice League are portrayed and while some characters can definitely use some improvement, they got Batman’s character down correctly. That’s always the important part. I’m hoping that they do not continue the Superman and Wonder Woman subplot and that they improve the character portrayal for Green Lantern in particular. I definitely recommend this film for DC fans and you should enjoy it as long as you don’t mind changes to the personalities for the heroes. DC continues to hit us with epic films! (Time to wait for Son of Batman, which I’m guessing will get a 6-7)

Overall 8/10