Mr. Movie review: ‘Justice League’ dark, stylish and super good

Justice League is a terrific movie. Here’s how you know it’s good. Ben Affleck’s deadly dull interpretation of Batman and Henry Cavill’s sorry Superman didn’t ruin the film. Wonder Woman aside, and going back to Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins and way back to Joel Schumacher’s Batman, this is the best D.C. comics adventure of them all.

Batman is worried about demons who are terrorizing the city and kidnapping people. He senses some sort of invasion is coming. Batman elicits the help of Wonder Woman to put together a team of super heroes to stop the coming carnage.

All hell breaks loose when the demon head — Steppenwolf — grabs three boxes that give him ultimate power. They were separated and hidden thousands of years ago by humans, citizens of Atlantis and the Amazons after they defeated and imprisoned Steppenwolf.

Now he’s back.

To stop him, Batman and Wonder Woman form the Justice League and team with Aquaman, The Flash and Cyborg. Batman thinks they don’t have enough power to take care of Steppenwolf. They need to find a way to bring Superman back to life. As you remember, he died in Batman v Superman.

Affleck and Cavill star with Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman. Jason Momoa, Ray Fisher and Ezra Miller reprise their roles as Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash. Miller’s task in Chris Terrio and Joss Whedon’s plot is to provide comic relief. Ironically, Whedon has switched super hero sides. As many of you know, he did scripts for Marvel’s original Avengers and the sequel.

Whedon is a good writer, and it is probably what separates this film from the other D.C. comic movie disasters. Zack Snyder — who has his fingerprints on all things D.C. these days — directs. He crafted the Wonder Woman story and produced the film, and produced Suicide Squad, directed Batman v Superman and now this one.

Snyder brings his dark style of filmmaking to Whedon and Terrio’s story — a story that is slim on all counts. The villain is so-so and the tension non-existent. What works is Snyder’s ability to do effects and that he doesn’t drag this one out. It is short and to the point. Whedon and Terrio’s liberal dose of humor — humor rarely seen in DC comic films — also doesn’t hurt.

Justice League is a DC Comics movie that finally does justice to the comic book’s creators and characters.

This story was originally published November 16, 2017 at 4:50 PM with the headline "Mr. Movie review: ‘Justice League’ dark, stylish and super good."