Review 421: Justice League
Justice League is a ginormous mess of a superhero film, one that you can clearly tell has been taken apart and then hurriedly thrown back together in post-production - and one that must surly put a long overdue end to the DCCU.
Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman's (Henry Cavill) selfless act, Bruce Wayne/Batman (Ben Affleck) enlists newfound ally Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) to face an even greater threat. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to recruit a team to stand against this newly awakened threat. But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes - Batman, Wonder Woman along with Arthur Curry/Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Barry Allen/The Flash (Ezra Miller) & Victor Stone/Cyborg (Ray Fisher) - it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.
The plot is an abysmal array of exposition scenes, junky action scenes and lifeless character interactions. The narrative is virtually devoid of coherence, logic or sense.
The story bearly has a flow, if any - stuff just happens with no sense of pacing.
The storytelling is just all over the place. It's as though the film never stops to develop its characters or any tension. Its entire attitude seems to be "Here are the heroes, here's the Big Bad, here's the "disposable CGI army, here are the FX & action scenes. Lets get on with this. Come on, move it!" You never get the sense that there's any real stakes or tension to the plot.
Because Warner Bros./DC haven't bothered to do any hard work whatsoever in giving each member of the League their own solo film, this film feels unearned with no sense of build up and as a result it has to dedicate a lot of its runtime to introducing new characters and building them, these character introductions are pretty clunky and go on for a solid hour and they kill the pacing stone dead.
The film was originally shot from April to October 2016, however Zack Snyder stepped down from post-production back in May 2017 because his daughter tragically committed suicide two months prior and Joss Whedon was hired in his place for re-writes and reshoots and it shows, virtually every shot in the film, save for 2-3 at the minimum feels like it was footage that was reshot by Joss Whedon. This creates a film that is direction wise tonely muddled and jumbled failing to balance Snyder's tough bombast with Whedon's lighter, quipier style.
Almost every scene featuring the League is laced with Whedon's trademark witty banter and dialogue, all in a desperate attempt to liven up a film because fans complained that prior DCCU films were "too dark and grim".
But what Warner Bros./DC are missing and fail to grasp is that this works in Marvel's The Avengers because all the characters were pre-established in their own solo films as opposed to being shoehorned in with little to no prior development and it helps make the characters feel more relatable and helps to take the weight off of what is an Earth Shattering situation with High Stakes which then works when you have something that's close to a relatable situation.
And nobody, absolutely NOBODY would ever be able to relate with these characters, the situation they're in, or there choices!
Just in the overall way this film is directed, Joss Whedon isn't even trying here. In terms of his trademark witty banter, it's both dim and dull witted and delivered with so little soul and energy for the actors. The rewrites are also evident, certain scenes, plot points and characterisations don't line up with what was established or teased at the end of Batman v Superman.
The reshoots are also easily to spot as CGI is blatantly used to erase Henry Cavill’s moustache in what few scenes he’s in.
The way the League’s so-called “Heroics” are handled is in such a heavy handed, cheesy, and downright silly way that feels sooooooooo behind the times and lacks any subtlety that it comes across as eye rolling.
There is a scene in the film that pertains to Superman's inevitable resurrection which feels like a casualty of the films Whedon-directed reshoots just the methods that the League use to bring the Man of Steel back to life, not only do they not match up with what was teased at the end of Batman v Superman but it feels eerily similar to Vision's birth scene in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Then again, if Whedon wanted to rip-off himself when reshooting this film I can hardly blame him - but nevertheless it's a clear example of laziness. I also just expected Supes' resurrection to be more of an ironic twist: Something Batsy and the others couldn't have seen coming or given the intelligence levels of our hero's in this Universe something so obvious but they would be to stupid to realise it.
During a rather haphazardly told, edited and rather rushed prologue, two combatants appear who are unmistakably members of the Green Lantern Corps. I wonder what other purpose their inclusion served other than to set up the planned Green Lantern Corps movie scheduled for 2020?
Other examples of how this film was fiercely shredded in post is that several characters, some returning like Robin Wright as General Antiope and Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor and some new like Willem Dafoe as Nuidis Vulko, Aquaman's advisor & Kiersey Clemons as Iris West, Barry Allen's love interest, were cut from the final film.
Visually this film is just ugly and hideous to look at, the visual aesthetics look like (as Mark Kermode put it rather eloquently) outakes from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings & Hobbit trilogies, everything is garish, murky, brown, burgundy & maroon with no sense of flair or flash whatsoever! The effects for Batty's Nightcrawler seems to have been bought to life by leftover stop motion effects used for the Walkers from The Empire Strikes Back & Return of the Jedi.
Added to that, the special effects for the Boom Tubes look like leftover outtakes of the Bifrost effects from the MCU Thor movies and the deigns for the Parademons look horridly ugly and not at all scary. Despite Warner Bros. reportedly spending $300 million on reshoots, this films looks and feels like an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series.
The action scenes are dull, generic, junky and just plain forgettable, the whole time I just thought to myself, I'm just staring at special effects, I never had the illusion that was happening onscreen was truly happening. I just thought this essentially bad computer animation. They're just so lifeless & stagnant. It's stuff we've seen before and done so much better. There's NO sense of urgency or tension to any of them.
Ever since fans complained that there was too much destruction in Man of Steel, there have been a true lack of genuinely exciting, thrilling action scenes in the DCCU mainly because most of them take place in such boring & bland environments.
In Batman v Supermans case it was a port - very exciting.
In this film, the League's fist encounter with Steppenwolf takes place in sewer - even more exciting!
You see what you've done haters!
What's also not working in the actions favour is that you just don't care about any of the characters - you have sense of emotional attachment to these heroes and when you can't feel worried for them, you can't find the action compelling plain and simple.
The editing is an utter mess or Epic proportions, not only does this film feel rushed with stuff just happening automatically with no sense of pacing or simply because the script says so, but a pretty good example of this is, as previously mentioned, the prologue showing Steppenwolf's First Invasion of Earth looks and feels edited in such a slapdash, hurried manor, that it fails to convey a sense of danger and scope and set the stakes in a genuine way. Normally in films like this, the prologue is shown at the beginning, to set the stakes, so that audiences are aware ahead of time and to eastblish the films scope and epic feel. Instead it's edited in a ADD style while Diana exposits to Bruce what happened.
The cinematography is colourless and lacking in any texture or depth, the scenery is painstakingly bland, the costumes look crude, shoddily put together and like they were made using some of Arnold Schwarzenegger's melted down dumbbells i.e. The Flash's suit looks like something that was thrown together using random pieces of scrap-metal, the make up is messy, even the score by Danny Elfman is dull, uninspired and lacks punch.
The acting ranges from passable at best to monotonous at worst, it's an ensemble cast of way too many characters that are given to little to do and giving us little to no reason to care or engage with them whatsoever.
These Leaguers share no chemistry together whatsoever and they're anything but Super they come across as more like 6 random schmucks with superpowers, they also have a tendency to behave rather stupidly at times.
There's no sense of comradely between any of these characters, there is virtually not a single interesting about them, you don't get to know a thing about them. There's suspension of disbelief and then there's suspension of just not giving a cr*p! I know this sounds cliched but these "Heroes" have NO individual personalities whatsoever. They lend NO individual voices for them to work off of.
It's overall just astonishing that for a Comic Book publisher with such iconic characters, that in this film they're reduced to such bland and colourless toothpicks add to that they're played by a bunch of subpar & questionable actors.
Ben Affleck just comes off as tired and bored with the film, there are hints that he's grieving over his harsh actions in Batman v Superman and that Supe's "heroic sacrifice" is what motivates him to form the League as well as honor him but all of that is dropped because the film seem's desperate to get on with it. There are also times when the writer(s) of this film tries waaaaaaaay to hard to make him funny and a lot of how he delivers his wisecracks seems off.
While I didn't really care for him in Batman v Superman, Superman at the very least was one of that films main characters, he amounts to little more than a superfluous afterthought in this film. He essentially plays the Coulson of this film, serving as the catalyst/inspiration for the formation of the Justice League.
The details behind his resurrection are entirely contrived. Certain details surrounding his resurrection don't add up with what teased at the end of Batman v Superman and they defy all logic which is likely another casualty of the reshoots.
He's in this film for what amounts to an extended cameo and whenever he is onscreen he is essentially reduced to an endgame fighting machine, giving little room for Henry Cavill to properly shine or standout amongst this cluttered cast of characters. For the most part, he sleepwalks through the role whenever he's on screen. Cavill plays him as hopeful, positive and optimistic and the films just pretends that’s the way he’s always been which doesn't gell at all with characterisation from the previous two movies.
On a side note, just resurrecting him in this follow-up makes his death in BvS completely pointless.
How is it possible to take one of the worlds most iconic superheroes and find nothing interesting for him to do?
Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman's (Henry Cavill) selfless act, Bruce Wayne/Batman (Ben Affleck) enlists newfound ally Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) to face an even greater threat. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to recruit a team to stand against this newly awakened threat. But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes - Batman, Wonder Woman along with Arthur Curry/Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Barry Allen/The Flash (Ezra Miller) & Victor Stone/Cyborg (Ray Fisher) - it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.
The plot is an abysmal array of exposition scenes, junky action scenes and lifeless character interactions. The narrative is virtually devoid of coherence, logic or sense.
The story bearly has a flow, if any - stuff just happens with no sense of pacing.
The storytelling is just all over the place. It's as though the film never stops to develop its characters or any tension. Its entire attitude seems to be "Here are the heroes, here's the Big Bad, here's the "disposable CGI army, here are the FX & action scenes. Lets get on with this. Come on, move it!" You never get the sense that there's any real stakes or tension to the plot.
Because Warner Bros./DC haven't bothered to do any hard work whatsoever in giving each member of the League their own solo film, this film feels unearned with no sense of build up and as a result it has to dedicate a lot of its runtime to introducing new characters and building them, these character introductions are pretty clunky and go on for a solid hour and they kill the pacing stone dead.
The film was originally shot from April to October 2016, however Zack Snyder stepped down from post-production back in May 2017 because his daughter tragically committed suicide two months prior and Joss Whedon was hired in his place for re-writes and reshoots and it shows, virtually every shot in the film, save for 2-3 at the minimum feels like it was footage that was reshot by Joss Whedon. This creates a film that is direction wise tonely muddled and jumbled failing to balance Snyder's tough bombast with Whedon's lighter, quipier style.
Almost every scene featuring the League is laced with Whedon's trademark witty banter and dialogue, all in a desperate attempt to liven up a film because fans complained that prior DCCU films were "too dark and grim".
But what Warner Bros./DC are missing and fail to grasp is that this works in Marvel's The Avengers because all the characters were pre-established in their own solo films as opposed to being shoehorned in with little to no prior development and it helps make the characters feel more relatable and helps to take the weight off of what is an Earth Shattering situation with High Stakes which then works when you have something that's close to a relatable situation.
And nobody, absolutely NOBODY would ever be able to relate with these characters, the situation they're in, or there choices!
Just in the overall way this film is directed, Joss Whedon isn't even trying here. In terms of his trademark witty banter, it's both dim and dull witted and delivered with so little soul and energy for the actors. The rewrites are also evident, certain scenes, plot points and characterisations don't line up with what was established or teased at the end of Batman v Superman.
The reshoots are also easily to spot as CGI is blatantly used to erase Henry Cavill’s moustache in what few scenes he’s in.
The way the League’s so-called “Heroics” are handled is in such a heavy handed, cheesy, and downright silly way that feels sooooooooo behind the times and lacks any subtlety that it comes across as eye rolling.
There is a scene in the film that pertains to Superman's inevitable resurrection which feels like a casualty of the films Whedon-directed reshoots just the methods that the League use to bring the Man of Steel back to life, not only do they not match up with what was teased at the end of Batman v Superman but it feels eerily similar to Vision's birth scene in Avengers: Age of Ultron.
Then again, if Whedon wanted to rip-off himself when reshooting this film I can hardly blame him - but nevertheless it's a clear example of laziness. I also just expected Supes' resurrection to be more of an ironic twist: Something Batsy and the others couldn't have seen coming or given the intelligence levels of our hero's in this Universe something so obvious but they would be to stupid to realise it.
During a rather haphazardly told, edited and rather rushed prologue, two combatants appear who are unmistakably members of the Green Lantern Corps. I wonder what other purpose their inclusion served other than to set up the planned Green Lantern Corps movie scheduled for 2020?
Other examples of how this film was fiercely shredded in post is that several characters, some returning like Robin Wright as General Antiope and Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor and some new like Willem Dafoe as Nuidis Vulko, Aquaman's advisor & Kiersey Clemons as Iris West, Barry Allen's love interest, were cut from the final film.
Visually this film is just ugly and hideous to look at, the visual aesthetics look like (as Mark Kermode put it rather eloquently) outakes from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings & Hobbit trilogies, everything is garish, murky, brown, burgundy & maroon with no sense of flair or flash whatsoever! The effects for Batty's Nightcrawler seems to have been bought to life by leftover stop motion effects used for the Walkers from The Empire Strikes Back & Return of the Jedi.
Added to that, the special effects for the Boom Tubes look like leftover outtakes of the Bifrost effects from the MCU Thor movies and the deigns for the Parademons look horridly ugly and not at all scary. Despite Warner Bros. reportedly spending $300 million on reshoots, this films looks and feels like an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series.
The action scenes are dull, generic, junky and just plain forgettable, the whole time I just thought to myself, I'm just staring at special effects, I never had the illusion that was happening onscreen was truly happening. I just thought this essentially bad computer animation. They're just so lifeless & stagnant. It's stuff we've seen before and done so much better. There's NO sense of urgency or tension to any of them.
Ever since fans complained that there was too much destruction in Man of Steel, there have been a true lack of genuinely exciting, thrilling action scenes in the DCCU mainly because most of them take place in such boring & bland environments.
In Batman v Supermans case it was a port - very exciting.
In this film, the League's fist encounter with Steppenwolf takes place in sewer - even more exciting!
You see what you've done haters!
What's also not working in the actions favour is that you just don't care about any of the characters - you have sense of emotional attachment to these heroes and when you can't feel worried for them, you can't find the action compelling plain and simple.
The editing is an utter mess or Epic proportions, not only does this film feel rushed with stuff just happening automatically with no sense of pacing or simply because the script says so, but a pretty good example of this is, as previously mentioned, the prologue showing Steppenwolf's First Invasion of Earth looks and feels edited in such a slapdash, hurried manor, that it fails to convey a sense of danger and scope and set the stakes in a genuine way. Normally in films like this, the prologue is shown at the beginning, to set the stakes, so that audiences are aware ahead of time and to eastblish the films scope and epic feel. Instead it's edited in a ADD style while Diana exposits to Bruce what happened.
The cinematography is colourless and lacking in any texture or depth, the scenery is painstakingly bland, the costumes look crude, shoddily put together and like they were made using some of Arnold Schwarzenegger's melted down dumbbells i.e. The Flash's suit looks like something that was thrown together using random pieces of scrap-metal, the make up is messy, even the score by Danny Elfman is dull, uninspired and lacks punch.
The acting ranges from passable at best to monotonous at worst, it's an ensemble cast of way too many characters that are given to little to do and giving us little to no reason to care or engage with them whatsoever.
These Leaguers share no chemistry together whatsoever and they're anything but Super they come across as more like 6 random schmucks with superpowers, they also have a tendency to behave rather stupidly at times.
There's no sense of comradely between any of these characters, there is virtually not a single interesting about them, you don't get to know a thing about them. There's suspension of disbelief and then there's suspension of just not giving a cr*p! I know this sounds cliched but these "Heroes" have NO individual personalities whatsoever. They lend NO individual voices for them to work off of.
It's overall just astonishing that for a Comic Book publisher with such iconic characters, that in this film they're reduced to such bland and colourless toothpicks add to that they're played by a bunch of subpar & questionable actors.
Ben Affleck just comes off as tired and bored with the film, there are hints that he's grieving over his harsh actions in Batman v Superman and that Supe's "heroic sacrifice" is what motivates him to form the League as well as honor him but all of that is dropped because the film seem's desperate to get on with it. There are also times when the writer(s) of this film tries waaaaaaaay to hard to make him funny and a lot of how he delivers his wisecracks seems off.
While I didn't really care for him in Batman v Superman, Superman at the very least was one of that films main characters, he amounts to little more than a superfluous afterthought in this film. He essentially plays the Coulson of this film, serving as the catalyst/inspiration for the formation of the Justice League.
The details behind his resurrection are entirely contrived. Certain details surrounding his resurrection don't add up with what teased at the end of Batman v Superman and they defy all logic which is likely another casualty of the reshoots.
He's in this film for what amounts to an extended cameo and whenever he is onscreen he is essentially reduced to an endgame fighting machine, giving little room for Henry Cavill to properly shine or standout amongst this cluttered cast of characters. For the most part, he sleepwalks through the role whenever he's on screen. Cavill plays him as hopeful, positive and optimistic and the films just pretends that’s the way he’s always been which doesn't gell at all with characterisation from the previous two movies.
On a side note, just resurrecting him in this follow-up makes his death in BvS completely pointless.
How is it possible to take one of the worlds most iconic superheroes and find nothing interesting for him to do?
Gal Gadot is just as wooden as ever as Wonder Woman, she is just completely and unholy unconvincing the Leagues voice of reason and the glue that holds this team together.
Gadot just doesn't have the commanding presence required to make this character come to life in a convincing way. I’ve honestly gotten to the point where I’m practically indifferent to her in the role.
Time to sharpen the wooden stake.
As Aquaman, Jason Momoa basically plays himself. Have you ever wondered what Khal Drogo would be like as a merman? Of course you haven't. But the film feels the need to force this character on you regardless. For the most part, throughout the film, he's used for only 1 or 2 things: Muscle & jokes. He cracks one-liners and punches things and his watery powers are extremely downplayed in the "action scenes" making .
Lastly, he's irritatingly used to state the painfully obvious to us as an audience. I.E. telling us Superman is “not alright” after being “revived” like we couldn’t tell from the confused expressions on his face.
As The Flash, Ezra Miller shows some comedic talent, but it feels like he's just trying waaaaay too hard to be funny and played up his awkwardness a little too much. Much like the rest of the humor in this film, I was confused by his one-liners or just fall completely flat.
I also can't help but feel at this moment, it's not really the priority. I mean I'd gladly trade my DCCU, thinly sketched version of The Flash for a fully fledged, well rounded Arrowverse version of the The Flash played by Grant Gustin. Ultimately he just blends in with the rest of these expendable characters. His youthful optimism also reek of Tom Holland's Whereas in the comics & the show, Barry Allen was a forensic scientist working for the Central City Police Department, in this film, they made him a collage student and he idolises Bruce/Batman in the way Peter idolises Tony.
I'm just gonna come out and say it: Cyborg is lame! Ray Fisher gives a performance so robotic that it failed to leave even the smallest of impacts on me - Cyborg also winds up being the least developed in an ensemble of underdeveloped characters. Whats mildly intriguing is how his robotic implants serve as a metaphor for a disability but thats never given any time to develop - what a wasted opportunity.
Jeremy Irons for the most part sleepwalks through the film as Alfred, for the most part just looking similarly as disinterested as Affleck and looking as though he wishes to be anywhere else but here. His chemistry with Affleck seems to have worn off after two rounds.
Amy Adams, Diane Lane & Connie Nielsen return as Lois Lane, Martha Kent & Queen Hippolyta respectively - they have virtually nothing to do in this film at all - they are three extras, I have no idea why they were even in this movie, they were pointless, they didn't do or add anything to main narrative of this film - Hippolyta fought off Steppenwolf and his army of Parademons but that's pretty much it. Meanwhile all Lane gets to do is mourn the death of Supes. They presumably had more to do in Zack Snyder's cut, but we'll probably never know.
From we see of Hippolyta & Lois specifically they're more of plot points than actual characters who serve purposes in the story. Also, the spark chemistry between Cavill and Adams has completely evaporated by this point. Much like Cavill, Adams & Lane are in this film for what amounts to extended cameos.
Amber Heard, Billy Crudup & J. K. Simmons have little more than pointless cameos as Mera, Aquaman's love interest & Dr. Henry Allen, Barry Allen's father & Commissioner James Gordon that could have easily been cut from the film and you'd never notice the difference, with their roles amounting to little more than set up for solo Flash, Aquaman & Batman solo films.
In regards to Crudup in particular, given that he previously stared in Zack Snyder's Watchman, he probably agreed to cameo in this film as a favour to Snyder who had him Skype his lines as he only appears in two short scenes. One at the beginning, the other at the end.
The film also shamelessly and unforgivably wastes Michael “Roose Bolton” McElhatton on a thankless bit part as a no name thug whom Wonder easily dispatches early in the film in a pointless scene.
As Steppenwolf, Ciaran Hinds provides a new low for DC's smorgasbord of one-note villains.
Not only are the motion capture effects used to create him, hideous and look like something from a Warcraft video game, he doesn't come across as the least bit menacing, intimidating, or threatening and there's just no dimension to him whatsoever. I also couldn't help but feel that they might have digitally altered his voice in post-production, because whenever he speaks I could tell it was not Hinds' actual voice.
He is such a blank slate it's like a modern version of a Tolkien villain which doesn't amount to much. He ultimately amounts to little more than just a Saturday Morning Cartoon villain done horribly wrong. He's also clearly there, because DC are holding back on Darkseid which is a let-down considering we may never see him on film.
Someone get me The Avengers!
The Anonymous Critic.
Gadot just doesn't have the commanding presence required to make this character come to life in a convincing way. I’ve honestly gotten to the point where I’m practically indifferent to her in the role.
Time to sharpen the wooden stake.
As Aquaman, Jason Momoa basically plays himself. Have you ever wondered what Khal Drogo would be like as a merman? Of course you haven't. But the film feels the need to force this character on you regardless. For the most part, throughout the film, he's used for only 1 or 2 things: Muscle & jokes. He cracks one-liners and punches things and his watery powers are extremely downplayed in the "action scenes" making .
Lastly, he's irritatingly used to state the painfully obvious to us as an audience. I.E. telling us Superman is “not alright” after being “revived” like we couldn’t tell from the confused expressions on his face.
As The Flash, Ezra Miller shows some comedic talent, but it feels like he's just trying waaaaay too hard to be funny and played up his awkwardness a little too much. Much like the rest of the humor in this film, I was confused by his one-liners or just fall completely flat.
I also can't help but feel at this moment, it's not really the priority. I mean I'd gladly trade my DCCU, thinly sketched version of The Flash for a fully fledged, well rounded Arrowverse version of the The Flash played by Grant Gustin. Ultimately he just blends in with the rest of these expendable characters. His youthful optimism also reek of Tom Holland's Whereas in the comics & the show, Barry Allen was a forensic scientist working for the Central City Police Department, in this film, they made him a collage student and he idolises Bruce/Batman in the way Peter idolises Tony.
I'm just gonna come out and say it: Cyborg is lame! Ray Fisher gives a performance so robotic that it failed to leave even the smallest of impacts on me - Cyborg also winds up being the least developed in an ensemble of underdeveloped characters. Whats mildly intriguing is how his robotic implants serve as a metaphor for a disability but thats never given any time to develop - what a wasted opportunity.
Jeremy Irons for the most part sleepwalks through the film as Alfred, for the most part just looking similarly as disinterested as Affleck and looking as though he wishes to be anywhere else but here. His chemistry with Affleck seems to have worn off after two rounds.
Amy Adams, Diane Lane & Connie Nielsen return as Lois Lane, Martha Kent & Queen Hippolyta respectively - they have virtually nothing to do in this film at all - they are three extras, I have no idea why they were even in this movie, they were pointless, they didn't do or add anything to main narrative of this film - Hippolyta fought off Steppenwolf and his army of Parademons but that's pretty much it. Meanwhile all Lane gets to do is mourn the death of Supes. They presumably had more to do in Zack Snyder's cut, but we'll probably never know.
From we see of Hippolyta & Lois specifically they're more of plot points than actual characters who serve purposes in the story. Also, the spark chemistry between Cavill and Adams has completely evaporated by this point. Much like Cavill, Adams & Lane are in this film for what amounts to extended cameos.
Amber Heard, Billy Crudup & J. K. Simmons have little more than pointless cameos as Mera, Aquaman's love interest & Dr. Henry Allen, Barry Allen's father & Commissioner James Gordon that could have easily been cut from the film and you'd never notice the difference, with their roles amounting to little more than set up for solo Flash, Aquaman & Batman solo films.
In regards to Crudup in particular, given that he previously stared in Zack Snyder's Watchman, he probably agreed to cameo in this film as a favour to Snyder who had him Skype his lines as he only appears in two short scenes. One at the beginning, the other at the end.
The film also shamelessly and unforgivably wastes Michael “Roose Bolton” McElhatton on a thankless bit part as a no name thug whom Wonder easily dispatches early in the film in a pointless scene.
As Steppenwolf, Ciaran Hinds provides a new low for DC's smorgasbord of one-note villains.
Not only are the motion capture effects used to create him, hideous and look like something from a Warcraft video game, he doesn't come across as the least bit menacing, intimidating, or threatening and there's just no dimension to him whatsoever. I also couldn't help but feel that they might have digitally altered his voice in post-production, because whenever he speaks I could tell it was not Hinds' actual voice.
He is such a blank slate it's like a modern version of a Tolkien villain which doesn't amount to much. He ultimately amounts to little more than just a Saturday Morning Cartoon villain done horribly wrong. He's also clearly there, because DC are holding back on Darkseid which is a let-down considering we may never see him on film.
Someone get me The Avengers!
The Anonymous Critic.
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