Justice League might have been a lot better without the reshoots and revisions

Major League: DC's superheroes unite to take on a new cosmic threat

Justice League (2017)
Director: Zack Snyder
Starring: Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Henry Cavill
Running time: 2hrs

There's a scene early on in Justice League which came close to convincing me the omens of doom and gloom that had surrounded the picture might, after all, turn out to be about as accurate as a newspaper horoscope.

Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds), the movie's bad guy, had just crashed in on the Amazons of Themyscira (Wonder Women's place of birth) and tried to steal a super-powerful device called a "Mother Box". The Amazons swiftly absconded with the McGuffin as the cosmic villain gave furious chase, the fast-moving sequence soon turning into something approximating a super-powered game of rugby, as the women, some on horseback, switched the box from one to the other, Steppenwolf gaining all the time. It's actually quite thrilling, but over too soon and, ultimately, a false dawn, as nothing else in this latest superhero slugfest comes anywhere near matching it.

In fact, the plot is so thin for the fifth movie in DC's embattled Extended Universe, it could have a successful career on the catwalk. After Superman (Henry Cavill) died at the end of Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice, Earth is suddenly vulnerable to attack from all manner of cosmic ne'er-do-well. One of these, the aforementioned Steppenwolf, wants to unite three Mother Boxes which will give him immense power to conquer planets, subjugate peoples and presumably jump the queue at Legoland. Batman (Ben Affleck) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) put together a team to combat the threat, which includes king of the oceans Aquaman (Jason Momoa), super-speedster The Flash (Ezra Miller), and half-man/half-robot Cyborg (Ray Fisher), but it seems they might have to find a way of bringing back a certain fallen comrade to stand a chance of victory in the coming conflagration.

As we know, director Zack Snyder had to leave the project unfinished after suffering a personal tragedy, with The Avengers' Joss Whedon drafted in to handle the post-production and a number of reshoots deemed necessary to lighten the mood of the film. Despite taking $873million at the worldwide box-office and making a perfectly reputable profit of over $100m, apparently Snyder's dark vision for Dawn Of Justice scared the horses (snooty critics, internet big mouths) too much, and what Warner Bros now wanted instead was something a little more quippy, a bit more "Avengersy". So they've got Whedon to add a few scenes of light-hearted bantz here and there, like one where Aquaman pours out his heart to the rest of the group, only to discover he's been sitting on Wonder Woman's "lasso of truth" all along. Oh, my sides!

The film's problems run deeper than an uneven tone and some weak gags though. The villain Steppenwolf is, for want of a better word, rubbish. An entirely CG creation, he's just another dull, all-powerful rotter who spews clichéd dialogue about conquering and destroying. On the best day of his life, he's a villain of the week on Supergirl, a Poundland version of Wonder Woman bad-guy Ares. Jesse Eisenberg's annoying but at least intriguing Lex Luthor was deemed beyond the pale for this Dawn Of Justice sequel, but what he's been replaced with is a lot worse – Steppenwolf is bland, even with an army of weird insect people (Parademons) to command. 

Joss-tice League: Whedon plus Snyder is not a good fit

And say what you like about BVS but at least it felt big, bold and epic. Yes, it was all over the place and absurd at times. But its free-wheeling messiness, and throw-enough-mud-at-the-wall philosophy, just added to its appeal. Here, everything is very linear, straightforward, and settled inside two hours, with a certain clarity but little to no vision. Instead of a $200m blockbuster, it felt for all the world like an episode of Green Arrow or Legends Of Tomorrow – its startlingly so-so CG effects were certainly of a similar quality.

I don't understand Warner Bros' insistence on a 120-minute running time either (although Snyder's intended 2hr 50 magnum opus would have been taking the piss). Has there been some internet clamour I'm not aware of to make blockbusters shorter? If so, no one has been listening – Wonder Woman comes in at 2hr 21, Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol.2 at 2hr 16, Thor: Ragnarok at 2hr 10, and Logan at 2hr 17. If you have more story to tell – and Justice League clearly did – what's the problem with a few extra minutes, especially when this film's intended audience is well used to binge-watching entire series on Netflix in one or two sittings?

More positively, Affleck continues to grow into his role as Bruce Wayne/Batman (his gruff Bat-voice isn't half as silly as Christian Bale's for a start) and Gadot remains perfectly cast as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman. There are some nice bits with Superman Cavill, too, as we finally see him channelling Christopher Reeve's note-perfect take on the character. Meanwhile, Ezra Miller's Barry Allen/The Flash, a super-fast Sheldon Cooper, is easily the pick of the newcomers. Apart from looking butch, Momoa's Arthur Curry/Aquaman doesn't have much to do, although he's more interesting than brooding bore Victor Stone/Cyborg (Ray Fisher). It's right and proper there's an African-American character on the team, but DC comics are full of so many more interesting people of colour they could have chosen instead, including the Green Lantern John Stewart, Vixen, and Black Lightning.

Justice League isn't a total write off (I certainly enjoyed it more than I did Suicide Squad or Man Of Steel), but I wish Warner Bros would have had the courage of Snyder's convictions. For all his faults, they should have stuck by the director's vision for the film because what they've got now the dust has settled is a clumsy compromise (a "Frankenstein", according to one insider) that feels small, truncated and unnecessarily mucked about with (the saga of Cavill's moustache is a whole other blog entry on its own). The critics have still been brutal and the box office hasn't been great – can anyone say with any certainty the reaction would have been any worse had Whedon not been involved?

Rating: WW

Justice League is in UK cinemas now

Ratings guide

WWWW - Wonderful

WWW - Worthwhile

WW - Watchable

W - Woeful

A clunky finale comes close to derailing Patty Jenkins' otherwise impressive Wonder Woman

Prince valiant: Gal Gadot goes to war in Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman

This review contains major spoilers - see the film and come back once you have. Look out for regular column Your Week In Film here tomorrow...

Ratings guide: WWWW - Wonderful  WWW - Worthwhile  WW - Watchable  W - Woeful

Wonder Woman

Director: Patty Jenkins

Starring: Gal Gadot, Chris Pine, David Thewlis

Running time: 2hrs 21mins

Whilst Wonder Woman is a substantially better film than Man Of Steel or Suicide Squad, and a far more focused one than Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice, it comes close to falling off a cliff in its final half-hour. Inventing compelling, genuinely different finales for superhero movies can't be easy (there always has to be a big CGI fight, right?) and there are few which truly deliver. Marvel's Ant-Man and Doctor Strange are hardly masterpieces but at least their endings try to think outside the box. Wonder Woman – the fourth live-action DC film since the Zack Snyder reboot – chucks in a couple of decent twists (including a surprise death), but still stumbles badly down the final straight.

When the movie's big bad – Ares, God of War – is finally revealed, it's almost as if no one knows quite what to do with him. Our Amazonian heroine Diana Prince (the words 'Wonder Woman' aren't uttered once here) and her antagonist exchange blows and throw stuff at each other for a bit in a fairly uninspiring procession of CGI time-filling. The UK film critic Mark Kermode often talks about how modern movie special effects often appear "weightless", a criticism he most recently levelled at X-Men: Apocalypse but it's certainly the case here too. It's all a bit video gamey. All a bit insubstantial.

Worse still, just when it looks like Ares has her on the ropes, Diana has an epiphany: she realises how noble and self-sacrificing mankind is (exemplified by Chris Pine's love-interest airman) and as a result gets to harness her inner goddess – lightning bolts and all – to take down her foe and win the day. Yes, it's one of those trite and awful 'power of love' endings just like we've seen a thousand times before in other films, TV shows and comic-books. It's a shame because, up until that point, Wonder Woman is pretty impressive.

Unlike those other DC movies, Wonder Woman isn't set in the present day. In fact, it's a standalone affair which only hints at a wider continuity in a framing sequence at the beginning and end. During the dark days of World War I, United States airman Captain Steve Trevor (Pine) crash lands on the shores of a hidden island – Themiscyra. There he encounters a race of Amazon warrior women including Diana (Gal Gadot), the daughter of Zeus and Queen Hippolyta (Connie Nielsen). Fascinated by Trevor (she's never seen a man before) and keen to hunt down and kill Ares, who she suspects is behind the conflict, Diana accompanies the soldier back to 'man's world'. Fish-out-of-water antics and much punching of Germans ensues before Diana and her quarry come face to face in final battle...

Amazon prime: Wonder Woman takes on the Germans

Despite a lengthy running time, Wonder Woman never drags (even that problematic final act flies by). It's pacy and punchy, nicely combines melodrama and action with amusing interludes, and Gadot and Pine have good chemistry (their characters' obvious feelings for each other aren't layered on thick either). It would have been the easiest thing in the world to appease the fanboys by casting some younger, big-bosomed actress in the role but 32-year-old Gadot (Lynda Carter was 24 when she took the role) turns out to be a brave and ultimately perfect choice. Building on her impressive debut in BvS, not only can the former model act – she radiates innocence, decency and inner strength – she also has a wiry athleticism about her that almost makes you believe she could deflect bullets and bench-press a couple of tons without working up a sweat.

Gadot is clearly beautiful and her costume is skimpy and yet you never once feel she's being sexualised or exploited. Of all the things I liked about Patty Jenkins' film, I think this is its most impressive component. The male gaze is entirely absent and it's worth comparing and contrasting that with the way Scarlett Johansson's bum and boobs are on almost constant display in her Black Widow jumpsuit in The Avengers and Captain America films. Finally, girls and women have a heroine who feels like she's entirely theirs, someone who isn't there to make up the numbers or provide nerds with a few cheap thrills.

In interviews, Gadot has discussed how the film attempts to pay homage to Christopher Reeve's Superman films from the late '70s and early '80s (the revolving door scene in WW is apparently a tiny tip of the hat to the one in Richard Donner's original movie) and how, inspired by the late actor, Jenkins was keen to explore Diana's "goodness". I think that's problematic, mainly because Diana kills quite a few people in the course of the film, including running one of the villains right through with an enormous sword ('The Godkiller'). In fact, she has rather more in common with the Superman of Man Of Steel than she ever does Reeves' big blue boy scout. To be fair, a sword-wielding warrior woman that doesn't kill may well have seemed absurd anyway, especially in a war film.

I've argued before that one of my big problems with superhero movies – both Marvel and DC – is often the quality of the bad-guys. But the evildoers here are a cut above the likes of Ultron or The Enchantress. Danny Huston always gives good villain. His turn as the vampire leader Marlow in the underrated 30 Days Of Night was terrifying and he brings a little of that menace to bear here as Erich Ludendorff, a warmongering German general plotting to sabotage an attempted armistice. His sidekick, a brilliant but deranged scientist called Doctor Maru (Elena Anaya), aka Doctor Poison, is a little underused by comparison but is nevertheless an intriguing mix of sinister and tragic. In fact, the only weakness is Ares himself and that has nothing to do with actor David Thewlis and everything to do with the aforementioned CGI and the fact he's shoved centre stage at the end like the boss in a video game rather than a fully-formed character in his own right.

Air America: Star Trek's Chris Pine plays Captain Steve Trevor

Apart from Pine (a generous actor equally at home as a lead or, in this case, little more than a love interest-cum-plot device), the supporting cast is a disappointing collection of country-specific clichés. Oh look, there's Trainspotting's Ewen Bremner playing a drunken Scotsman, and there's The Office's Lucy Davis as a scatty English lady, and here comes Eugene Brave Rock as a Native American called, um, The Chief. In a film well over two hours in length there should have been a tiny bit more wriggle room for character development.

Jenkins – whose last big-screen movie was Monster way back in 2003 – isn't known for being an action director, but she takes on that mantle most impressively. There's a terrific extended scene that sees Diana smack-bang in the heat of battle – the trenches of Belgium's Western Front. In an attempt to reach an occupied village, she ventures out into No Man's Land and immediately comes under heavy bombardment from bullets and bombs, with only her sword, shield and magic bracelets to protect her.

It's the first time we see Diana really cut loose as she smashes the German armaments to bits before liberating the village and its people. In many ways it's the movie's pivotal sequence, not just because it's a bravura action set-piece but also for its symbolism. One of the world's most powerful feminine icons walloping the bejeebus out of her would-be male oppressors. No Man's Land, indeed.

Rating: WW½