Putting the Band Back Together

It'd be really hard to find a way to call Justice League a very good movie. Depending on what you stacked it up against, it comes off as "pretty good" or maybe "not as bad as that," but that's about as far as you can go.

But it's probably the most fun of any DC Comics live-action movie since Michael Keaton and Jack Nicholson danced with the devil in the pale moonlight back in 1989. A wide-ranging team of directors, producers, post-producers and writers couldn't really hope to create a movie with a unified feel, but JL features some substantial stretches that demonstrate good directions in which to move this cinematic universe forward.

This strand of what's marketed as the "DC Extended Universe" began with 2013's Man of Steel, Zack Snyder's grim take on a mopey Superman. It continued with 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and this year's Wonder Woman. JL builds directly on the Dawn of Justice storyline, picking up in a world uncertain of its direction and anxious about its future after the death of Superman. Some people are even more anxious: Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) and Diana Prince (Gal Gadot), aka Batman and Wonder Woman, who have indications that some alien force is preparing to invade the Earth.

Wayne tries to recruit other metahumans to fight the coming menace, though he strikes out with Arthur Curry, the Aquaman (Jason Momoa) and Barry Allen, the Flash (Ezra Miller). Diana has about the same luck with Victor Stone, Cyborg (Ray Fisher). But when Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds, voicing a character whose CGI does not seem to have received enough of the $300 million budget) makes his move on the unearthly computers called Mother Boxes, the others join in. Together they can slow Steppenwolf, but not stop him, and Wayne hatches a desperate plan to bring back the man who can tip the scales -- the late, lamented Superman himself (Henry Cavill).

Stories about the production of JL suggest that it began with the same kind of dark tone that made its two predecessor movies such a chore to sit through. Some signs of that layer remain, but a lot of the movie was reworked following the "grimdark" backlash and the warm reception for Gal Gadot's brighter, more heroic turn in Wonder Woman. Diana and Bruce have a kind of buddy-cop movie vibe that hints a movie with the two of them could be a lot of fun. It leans heavily on Affleck's "Grumpy Old Batman" portrayal and Gadot's kick-ass charisma, which shows how strong portrayals help make JL more than it ought to be. Momoa's biker-jock turn as Aquaman and Miller's geeky kid brother vision of the Flash help a lot as well. As Cyborg, Fisher has an important role in the storyline but his character lacks the development of the others. He's also having to work against the fact that the Cyborg character is the least well-known of the historic Justice League members. And someone must have seen Cavill's turn in The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and told him to aim his Clark Kent more thataway, because gone is the Glowering Brow of Steel. As a friend said, "It was fun to see Supes be a hero again."

The tone switch, as incomplete as it is, offers some reasons to want to see where the DCEU goes next, which absolutely none of its movies to date have done. Wonder Woman took place far enough before this timeline to stay more or less separate from it, so I set it to one side. Suicide Squad I ignore completely.

Wither the League now? A post-credits scene suggests some possibilities, and they give an initial impression that the next steps might not be yet another "world in peril of destruction" scenario. There looks to be an immense load of DC movies in the development stage in the coming years, though, so there's no telling when that tale might be set before us. A less-than-robust box office didn't help. But if this is the only live-action Justice League we get, it'll be good enough.