Justice League
Language: English
Director: Zack Snyder
Starring: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Gal Gadot and others
Showing at: Cinepolis, CityPride, E-Square, Inox, PVR
Rating:***

Coming so soon after the vastly superior Thor: Ragnarok, Zack Snyder’s Justice League looks amateurish by comparison, even with the contribution of Joss Whedon to the script and direction.

Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), who has her own money-spinning film earlier this year, joins the fatigued superheroes of the DC Comics gang in this film, and practically carries it on her capable shoulders.

Ben Affleck as Batman looks bored, as he were just waiting for Supeman (Henry Cavill), killed off in last year’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, to come back and do his bit to entertain the masses.

There is a new villain threatening the world, named Steppenwolf (voiced by Ciaran Hinds). So Bruce ‘Batman’ Wayne and Diana ‘Wonder Woman’ Prince must put together a new team to save the planet.
They get on their side, Arthur Curry/Aquaman (Jason Momoa), a half-human/half-underwater creature. Cyborg (Ray Fisher), and The Flash/Barry Allen (Ezra Miller), a fast-running, fast-talking teen who tries to provide comic relief, and mostly annoys.

There are scenes patched up from here and there, with the usual CGI-assisted slick action sequences. The superheroes get a whipping till Batman whines that they are not enough, “The world needs Superman.” So an amnesiac Superman wanders in, with Lois Lane (Amy Adams) to remind him of his powers, till he is ready to go. “I’m back now, and I’m gonna make things right.” Okay!

Justice League is competently made, in a paint-by-numbers way, even if the effects are not all that impressive; the film’s biggest problem is that it is instantly forgettable.

The plot, such as it is, seems half-baked, the humour is mostly lame. Worse, the big threat to Earth does not look or sound menacing enough. Wonder Woman could have tackled him all by herself with energy to spare.