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| "Man of Steel"/Warner Bros./DC Comics |
I had very low expectations for this movie going in. There were a variety of reasons for this - Warner Bros. restraining the runtime of the movie, the general quality of previous movies with some of these characters. It was Superman, however, that I disliked the idea of seeing the most. I could almost visualize the big twist of the movie. The battle with Steppenwolf cracking open the Earth around Superman's grave, a handy beam of sunlight giving him the Sunny D he needs to show up as the ultimate deus ex machina. I was disappointed by Superman before he ever hit the screen, almost certain that the big twist was plastered across all the posters in a manner similar to how Doomsday was spoiled in the trailers for Batman V Superman.
I am more than happy to admit that I underestimated how they would use Superman and was rather impressed. Just because they handled him better than I thought, however, does not mean that he was handled well. In many ways I found Superman to be both the weakest part of the movie and the part that could have been fixed the easiest.
Our first glimpse of Superman is at the very beginning of the film. It's a clip set before his death where a pair of small children run up to him, using the camera on their phone to interview him for their podcast. It's a pretty lighthearted scene that lasts for about a minute. It ends with the children asking Superman what his favorite thing about Earth is before cutting to black. This was an interesting opener I enjoyed; after all, with the fate of the world at stake, it raises a question that each member of the Justice League must ask themselves as they go to battle against swarms of evil insects. Unfortunately it doesn't really pay off in this manner as it's a question that Superman answers personally but we'll get to that in a moment.
The death of Superman hangs over the film. The army of evil insects - technically called Parademons - feed off of fear. The world lapsed into a state of fear powerful enough after his death that Steppenwolf was able to return from his exile and try to use the three Motherboxes to obliterate all life on Earth. We also see it affect Bruce Wayne, whose faith in humanity has been restored after Superman's sacrifice, but also feels guilt over his death. But while Superman's death is always present throughout the beginning, it lacks any meaning because we know he's coming back.
I don't necessarily disagree with bringing Superman back to life. After all, the only comic book character who can stay dead is Uncle Ben, but it was spoiled horribly. At the end of the very movie he died in we were shown that's he's still 'alive' and he was advertised to be in the movie, removing the impact his death could have had since we know that he'll be back. This is where they went wrong with bringing Superman back. It's a mistake similar to showing Doomsday in the trailers for Batman V Superman. A plot twist loses all meaning if it's not a surprise.
The way he came back surprised me in a good way. Steppenwolf's world-ending plan is to assemble the three Motherboxes, cubes that are sadly described as being just power, but when combined form the Unity that transforms a planet into a hellish mirror of Steppenwolf's home planet. He steals two of the three boxes, one from the Amazons and one from the Atlantians. The Justice League finds the third box in their possession. Bruce realizes that the boxes have the energy to destroy a planet, but what if you were stronger than a planet? If your cells weren't decomposing? He hatches a plan to take Superman's body back to the Kryptonian ship currently in Star Labs (something that DC has certainly used to death in all their movies) and use the incubation chamber Luthor grew Doomsday in to resurrect Superman. This creates conflict amid the team as they find themselves split on whether or not they should do this. It gives Steppenwolf an opening to steal the final Motherbox and gives us one of the best fight scenes in the movie: Superman versus the Justice League.
After coming back to life, Superman is understandably confused. When the Justice League - minus Batman because the League decided that they didn't want to first thing Superman saw to be the guy who tried to kill him - shows up, he scans them. Aquaman's adrenaline starts pumping, setting the Man of Steel on edge, when Cyborg's automatic defense system fires a missile at Superman against his will, starting the battle. It mostly serves to show how much stronger Superman is than anybody else. He tosses most of the members around with ease and is able to stand his ground when Wonder Woman, Cyborg, and Aquaman are all pushing against him. When the Flash tries to get around Superman to gain an advantage, the Man of Steel keeps up. In this scene the Flash is faster, but Superman poses a real danger. This was a highlight of the scene, with a close up of the Flash's look of disbelief as Superman's eye follows him - likely the first time he's ever met somebody who could keep up with him.
When Batman does show up to the fight, he's the first person Superman recognizes. He grabs Bruce by the face and lifts him into the air, pissed at him for "not letting him live and not letting him die." He also asks Bruce if he bleeds, a throwback to Batman V Superman that I really enjoyed. During this scene we get a close up of both Batman and Superman's faces and you'll notice something...strange about Superman's face. While I was watching I thought that the camera was just focusing on Henry Cavill's mouth for some reason, but the friend I went to see the movie with kindly informed me that Henry had some facial hair for another role he was in. When he was called to do the reshoots he couldn't shave his face so they used CGI to remove the facial hair. Because of this, most shots of his face are quite strange.
Batman ends the fight by calling in his big guns: Having Alfred drive Louis Lane to their location in a limo. Superman discards Batman and goes to Louis, then flying up and taking her to his home where he slowly regains his sense of self before joining the final battle. I didn't mind this, because these scenes at his home answer that question proposed back at the beginning of the film: Louis and his mother Martha, are the best things are Earth, what makes him eventually go to fight Steppenwolf. And this fight is his greatest failure.
In the anime My Hero Academia, there's a scene where a bunch of high school students training to become superheroes get attacked by a group of professional villains. All Might, the world's greatest hero and basically its Superman, shows up in the nick of time to pummel away the villains and save the students. It works in the context of MHA. After all, these are kids learning to become heroes. They aren't heroes yet and wouldn't be able to realistically defeat the villains on their own.
Superman shows up in much the same banner, appearing at the last moment and tossing Steppenwolf around in much the same way he threw Batman - a man with no superpowers beside being rich - around in his brief battle with the JL. He departs from the battle for a moment to help Barry evacuate the civilians, and then shows back up at the final moments. How does the battle with Steppenwolf end? Superman uses his breath to freeze the magical axe that Steppenwolf has been wielding for the entire movie and Wonder Woman shatters the axe. For the first time in his life Steppenwolf is overcome with terror and his army of Parademons turn on him, consuming him. I rather liked this way of ending things, but I had some issues with this final fight.
First and foremost, Superman feels like a total deus ex machina in the way that he shows up and tosses Steppenwolf around. In the above example with All Might, it worked because it was a bunch of students being protected. But, for the most part these characters are supposed to be able to stand on their own as heroes. While Cyborg and the Flash don't have complete control over their powers - we see Cyborg constantly discovering new facets of his power during the movie and the Flash frequently tripping at superspeeed, Wonder Woman has been a hero for a century now and Batman's been during this for twenty years - both facts that are mentioned multiple times throughout the film. So why did they need Superman to save them? It could have been much better to split the fight; if Batman and Wonder Woman were fighting Steppenwolf Cyborg and the Flash could be fighting the Parademon army with Superman's support - creating less of a deus ex machina moment and more of an experienced hero coming to aid and inspire a new generation of heroes.
But wait! There's more! If you read my spoiler-free review, you'll have noticed I mentioned a character whose CGI was utter crap. That was Superman. I might be a little unfair on Supes here because he certainly wasn't the only instance of bad CGI, but he certainly got the worse of it. While he was punching Steppenwolf around, he looked horrible. Here's a video of the DC opening animation:
Superman was ultimately disappointing, but I think he could have been handled far better in a variety of ways. I really was pleasantly surprised by how they brought him back. It was really his showing up at the final fight that I found disappointing, and I think the best way this could have happened would have been for Superman to not appear at all. After all, Justice League isn't really a stand alone movie; Warner Bros. and DC are using it as a piece in crafting an entire universe. If Superman never showed up at the final fight, it would have created a massive amount of intrigue with Superman going forward and create a brilliant story for his next solo film. It also would have helped show how powerful the other members of the JL can be; I don't think Steppenwolf would have been significantly less scared if Wonder Woman was able to break his axe if Superman wasn't around, meaning that he would have still been eaten by the Parademons.
Superman was the aspect of Justice League that I was the least excited to see. It was the part of the movie I expected to disappoint the most and it sadly met that. But it was still better than I thought. Overall Justice League was not a stunning movie, but it was decent. Certainly better than it could have been. While the movie's most powerful character was its greatest flaw, it did manage to give a shred of hope for the future of the DCEU.
*BONUS PARAGRAPH*
While I'm sure that you're tired of seeing my written words by now, there is one more scene in the movie I want to talk about. It doesn't have anything to do with Superman, but it was too much of a spoiler to put in my review and I've already spoiled enough of the movie I figured I could safely stick it here. The scene in question happens just before the final battle. While the JL is flying in the Batjet to the battleground, Aquaman - who has been a rather stoic character up to this point - starts talking in depth about his feelings, about how he's enjoyed his time with the league and also giving some harsh criticism about most members. Then he realizes that he accidentally sat on the Lasso of Truth, compelling him to...well, tell the truth. I liked how much work this scene did. It was a great way to get some insight into Aquaman's character without actually breaking it. By giving us a bit of humor before the climatic battle, it loosened the tension and made that fight all the more exciting. And it was a subtle throwback to a similar scene in Wonder Woman where Steve grabbed the Lasso to prove to Diana he would take her to the front, then started to talk about how stupid the plan was. This scene did a lot of work for the movie and was probably my favorite scene overall.
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