#2,407: Justice League

Roman J. Israel, Esq. - ★★★☆☆
Feels a little like Denzel’s Monster, he's out to win some prizes. I kind of wouldn’t’ve minded seeing the ‘before’ picture, where Roman Israel just does a lot of skillful lawyering.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri - ★★★½☆
I think this is a movie that wants to remind us to imagine others complexly, and that's a reminder we could really use right now. Maybe all the time, but also right now.

Sometimes, I think I review the advertising instead of the picture. After all, I've probably logged more time watching the trailer for Three Billboards this year than I did watching the film. I'm really glad there was more substance to the movie than what was on display, and that kind of sums up the whole thing.

Justice League - ★★☆☆☆
I try to be an optimist, but DC doesn’t make it easy.

Diana: I like that she spams her finishing move all over the place. It's like the ‘why not start with the giant robot’ problem. But she seems dumber now–like I know we have to keep referring to ‘a pilot she once knew’ because someone in a meeting gave a note that JL should tie into the other movies more, but from her perspective he died a hundred years ago. They only spent a week together. I think it's fair for her to move on.

Superman: Some of the whedonisms were even more jarring than in Avengers because we’ve already established these characters, and Zach Snyder’s Superman isn’t particularly jokey. There’s room for all kinds of supermen, but please pick one.

Most of the time in a Superman movie, there’s never a sense of just how strong he is. Is it difficult to catch a space shuttle? Or to lift an island into space? It's great that we see him casually flying that building around just before doing something he finds difficult.

Also, raising the dead is surprisingly simple!

Flash: He's the fun thing in the movie, much more appropriate as a Whedon-y character. I liked when they did that super-speed scene from X-Men, and the race scene. The first time, at least. Why would you put it in the movie twice?

Cyborg: in the interest of brevity, he sucks.

GL: I was wrong. I thought this movie was going to pull an Iron Man Three-style double bluff where *obviously* Superman comes back, but that distracts all the nerds from the real reveal - The introduction of one of the space heroes halfway through the movie. Preferably a Green Lantern whose interest is piqued by Darkseid’s bad behavior. We had a GL in a flashback, but that’s not the same. I bet he was in an earlier script though. Otherwise, unite the seven what? It's not seas. This is not a movie about the sea. Aquaman, while present, didn't even have a character.