Movie Review – Justice League: War (2014)

By Manofyesterday

Director: Jay Oliva

Stars: Sean Astin, Zach Collison, Christopher Gorham, Justin Kirk, Michelle Monaghan, Shemar Moore, Jason O’Mara, Alan Tudyk, Steve Blum

The world’s finest heroes form the Justice League as the world is under threat from a powerful enemy.

I think this takes some cues from the New 52, although I haven’t read anything from that line. But there’s an edge to these characters that hasn’t been there in some of the other films, this is especially apparent with Superman. The line-up is what you’d come to expect from the JLA but Shazam (the superhero formerly known as Captain Marvel) is there in place of Martian Manhunter, and Cyborg gets a LOT of attention.

The heroes are mostly split into pairs at first, and I enjoyed some of these, the most notable being Batman and Green Lantern, who had an amusing dynamic. The action was good, although pretty standard apocalyptic scenario. Darkseid was basically just a reason for the JLA to get together, and in this sense it reminded me of Avengers Assemble.

I liked some of the concepts, like how in this world vigilantes aren’t trusted at first, but there’s not much depth to the story so although it’s pretty enough to watch, I wasn’t moved by it and I didn’t immerse myself in it. So it’s a fun movie but it’s on the lower-end of the scale.