Justice League (2017)

When it comes to DC, disappointment is often around the corner. The brilliant Wonder Woman (which I thought was going to be another disappointment, but wasn't) restored my faith in them and, in spite of what critics have been saying these days, I was pretty excited about Justice League. But how could I be not? I grew up watching that Justice League cartoon and I absolutely loved it. Same goes for this movie. For the first time, I can say I loved, truly loved a Zack Snyder film.

After the events of Doomsday, Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) asks for the help of Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) to assemble a team of meta-humans consisting of Barry Allen (Ezra Miller), Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa) and Victor Stone (Ray Fisher) to face a new threat, Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds) and his army of Parademons who wants to conquer the Earth.

The plot is very simple, basically like that of every single Marvel movie that has been made, it isn't particularly strong and it's predictable, but you know what, it works. In spite of its simplicity, the plot development manages to grab your attention and keep it. The result is a story that's engaging and thrilling from start to finish, beautifully paced, and doesn't have a dead moment. The running time (it could/should have been a bit longer though) flies. Or should I say runs like the Flash?

And it's him I want to talk about now, Ezra Miller's Barry Allen/The Flash. While there's very little character development (this applies to everyone), the Flash is the most characterized and Miller arguably gives the best performance in the movie. He is socially awkward, nerdy and neurotic but also fun and lovable,  and provides the film with a lot of humour. He simply steals the show, and now I can't wait for his solo movie. Also, I'm happy I didn't have to sit through 2 hours of Grant Gustin's terrible acting (he plays the Flash on the CW series, just in case you don't know it).

Warner Bros. Pictures

As for the others, Victor Stone/Cyborg is given a proper debut and his introduction, considering how short the film is, was very good. I was disappointed with Aquaman, though. I have no complaint about Jason Momoa, after all he does a good job and, although they only share a scene, the chemistry he has with Amber Heard is already beautiful; the thing is that he's barely in the movie. If you have seen the trailer, you basically have already seen all of him. However, no one compares to the weak villain. Steppenwolf isn't' that threatening and he is completely forgettable, so forgettable that I couldn't even remember his name as I walked out of the movie theater.

On the other hand, there's the return of Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman, Ben Affleck's Batman and Henry Cavill's Superman. Gadot is given a good amount of screen time and she uses it well. She has a great scene at the beginning (it gave me goosebumps) and she's got such a presence, it's impossible to look elsewhere when she is on screen. Affleck, and I can't believe I'm saying this, is great as Batman. Along with Miller, he was the film's comic relief. I'm still not very fond of Henry Cavill, but I enjoyed his Superman more than I did in the past.

And now it's time to speak about Zack Snyder's direction. Simply amazing. Like I said above, the pacing is beautiful, there's the perfect balance between drama and comedy, and the action is pretty good too. Snyder's slow-motion/sped-up finally has a purpose and it's used well. At some point, he had to step down because of a family tragedy and Joss Whedon took his place. He rewrote some scenes and shot some extra, but I didn't really like what he did. Also, the CGI looks pretty cheap considering the film's budget.