Justice League: Trials, Tragedy and Triumph.

The superheroes (minus one) who make up the Justice League finally coming together.

The time has finally come, comic book fans. After what seemed like eons of waiting, the world's first live action Justice League feature film has arrived in theaters. When Zack Snyder rebooted the Superman legend back in 2013 with Man of Steel, none of us could have known that he'd be ushering us into the DC Universe as well as sowing the seeds for the introduction of the incredible heroes who'll come to form the Justice League. In four short years, we've witnessed several cinematic milestones from the DC Universe, chief among them the first ever onscreen meeting of Superman and Batman as well as the first ever big screen debut of Wonder Woman in last year's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. In addition to those epic moments, the film also gave us our first, albeit brief, glimpses of the three other members of the League: the Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg, thereby establishing them in the shared DC cinematic world. After BvS ended with Superman sacrificing his life to kill Doomsday, Bruce Wayne, with the somewhat reluctant help of Wonder Woman, set out to find and recruit these other exceptional beings into a team that could defend Earth in the event of an alien invasion.

For those who watched the Ultimate Edition of BvS, it was no secret that just such an invasion was imminent when Lex Luthor, in the moments after Superman died, was seen communicating with a holographic version of the well known DC villain Steppenwolf, uncle to the despotic ruler of Apokolips and legendary DC villain, Darkseid. When Lex hints at Darkseid's coming invasion when he's visited in prison by Batman at the end of BvS, Bruce decides he'll need reinforcements to fight the imminent attack. For comic book fans like myself, seeing the core members of the Justice League together onscreen has been a long held but often far fetched dream. For years, various directors tried to get a Justice League film off the ground, but never made it past the pre-production stage. The world only got the very first Wonder Woman film this past summer, more than 75 years after her comic book conception. Riding high off the critical and commercial success of that film and its overall lighter and more inspirational tone, the word on Justice League in the months leading up to its release was that it would continue DC's lighter, more optimistic path (although i argue passionately that Zack Snyder's first two films had optimistic moments), and show these heroes as the inspirational beacons of hope that many fans longed to see from the get go.

These shifts in tone and approach were signaled by a number of changes to the film in the months leading up to its release. Back in May, it was announced that Snyder would be stepping down from the film, then in post-production, to deal with the tragic suicide of his daughter and be with his family, turning over the duty of finishing the film to fellow director Joss Whedon, known, among other things, for directing both Avengers films. Right off the bat, rampant fan speculation circulated that Whedon was brought in to fix the film because WB execs weren't happy with Snyder's product, but the official story and one that myself and many other fans echoed was that Snyder personally brought Whedon in to simply put the finishing touches on his work. Either way, many saw Whedon's involvement as well as Chief Creative Officer of DC Comics Geoff John's more hands on role as producer as a sign of the film's lighter, more inspiring and humorous tone. Additionally, not long afterwards it was announced that the film's original composer, Junkie XL, who worked with Hans Zimmer on his epic score for BvS, including Wonder Woman's scathingly awesome theme song, had been replaced with veteran composer Danny Elfman. Although Elfman was no stranger to comic book films, having done the music for Tim Burton's Batman and Sam Raimi's Spiderman, news of his sudden addition sent waves of worry among those of us who loved Hans Zimmer's scores for MOS and BvS and hoped to hear them incorporated into Justice League.

The final omen of change was the revelation of the film's hotly debated runtime. Many fans, myself included, were still a bit cross with WB for cutting Snyder's original version of BvS down into the theatrical version which among other things, was criticized for its odd pacing and messy narrative. When the three hour, R-rated Ultimate Edition was released, we got to see the film as originally intended, one which delved deeper into the motives of the characters and helped to clear up some of the messiness. For weeks, fans went back and forth arguing the Justice League runtime, some claiming that it would be almost three hours long. It came as quite a shock then, when the official runtime was revealed to be just about two hours. Again, many fans were outraged to think that two hours was even close enough to accomplish the Herculean task of juggling six main characters, including three whose backstories and personalities had not been explored, getting them to put aside their differences and unite against an unfamiliar villain and also find a satisfying way to bring Superman back from the dead, get him reintegrated back into the world and join his teammates for the final battle. With so many aspects to cover, a scant two hours seemed nowhere close to enough time to successfully explore all these elements in an organic and satisfying way. If WB intended to follow up the huge success of Wonder Woman, which clocked in at 141 minutes and really had one main character, why the hell would they think they could tackle six main characters in barely two hours?

For fans such as myself, the film's runtime created some panic about the quality of the film. Even so, I remained optimistic that if there was a way to pull it all off in that time, they would find a way to do it. So finally, after all the months of wild speculation and near feverish anticipation, I finally got to see Justice League on the biggest big screen, IMAX and after the credits rolled and the lights finally came back to life, the one thought which kept circling around my frazzled brain was...I wish it was longer. There were so many satisfying and epic parts, but ultimately i felt that the film needed to breathe more, stretch its legs. One of the many highlights of the Snyder films for me is the emotional resonance of so many of his scenes and in Justice League there were many good moments which could've been spectacularly powerful and emotionally stirring moments if they'd been stretched out a bit. At times it felt as though the film was rushing to just get the League together so they could fight Steppenwolf. During the lead up to Justice League, I tried my hardest to avoid the trailers, but after seeing it, I watched several of them and noticed that there were several moments from the trailers that were conspicuously absent from the film. Most of these were smaller moments, but their absence still felt like a tease and their inclusion in the film might have helped to make the buildup to the League's formation feel more natural and thought out.

Given the short runtime, the film does the best it can to give some background on the League's three new members such as giving us a scene of Barry Allen visiting his father Henry who, as in the comics, is wrongly imprisoned for the death of Barry's mother and also showing us a few quick glimpses of Atlantis and Aquaman's wife Mera when he briefly visits with her. Aquaman's origins will of course be fully explored in next year's hotly anticipated Aquaman film, so i wasn't expecting a deep examination, but a little bit more about his exile from Atlantis would've helped to establish him more as a man without a place to call home. Cyborg was the one who's origin I felt could've used much more exploration, especially given that his cybernetic upgrade was the work of one of the Motherboxes which Steppenwolf seeks. We saw a brief video clip of the Motherbox fusing the cybernetics to his body in BvS, but i would've liked to see the initial accident which made the cybernetics necessary in the first place. I guess (and hope) we'll see more of his backstory in future films. Still, he does manage to come across sympathetic in the film.

No doubt one of the biggest questions of the film which kept fans rabidly speculating for months was the way in which Superman was going to return from the dead. Everyone knew he'd be returning, but how would they do it? Would it follow the story line from the original series? Would Superman's black regeneration suit or (in)famous long hair make an appearance? And how would he return and readjust to being alive again, not to mention join his teammates in time to stop Steppenwolf? Without giving any details away, I can say that the method by which he returns is reminiscent of the comics while incorporating some new elements, but ultimately his return is tremendously satisfying for fans who've followed his heroes journey from day one in Man of Steel. Despite the protests of certain folks that Cavill's Superman isn't true to the comics (he is in many ways), Snyder said often from the beginning that the plan was always to gradually develop the character into the legendary icon that most people know and love. That goal comes to fruition in Justice League and although i would've liked to have seen his return drawn out a bit more and explored in further detail, I'm still quite satisfied with the result. The bottom line is Superman's back and better than ever.

Since the premiere, it seems that some critics have been savagely attacking the film's villain, Steppenwolf as being a bland, generic and totally uninteresting adversary. While he's by no means a very interesting or compelling villain, he serves the same purpose in the film as he always does in the comics: as the leader of Darkseid's Parademon army, sent to conquer planets and turn them into hellish landscapes like his home world, Apokolips. He's a conqueror plain and simple, nothing more multi-faceted than that and in the film he does a hell of a job, taking down legions of Amazons and Atlanteans single-handed before coming up against the League, who have their own struggles with him. Additionally, any DC comic fan knows that Steppenwolf only serves as the lead in for Darkseid, the first wave of attack before the tyrant himself appears. If nothing else, this film is laying the groundwork for Darkseid to appear in the sequel. On these counts, Steppenwolf does exactly as he's meant to do.

The bottom line is that Justice League perfectly does what it was meant to do: bring these iconic characters together for the first time ever to save the planet from a dire threat. The characters all have great interplay with each other which is often very humorous without feeling too forced or out of character, even for Batman, who despite having a reputation as always serious and brooding, is known to crack a joke now and then. His interplay with Diana is both flirty and tensely charged, even hostile at moments, hinting at the obvious romantic tension between the two.

Aquaman is kind of the group's wildcard, reluctant to join and a combative outsider at first, but gradually his deep humanity shines through. Jason Momoa did a great job conveying both his gruff standoffishness and his underlying charm and humor. Flash is for lack of a better analogy, the Ringo of the group, the happy chap who's just so excited to be included. Barry Allen is essentially a nerdy and enthusiastic guy and Ezra Miller perfectly expresses his impossible to contain amazement at the opportunity he's been given and provides most of the film's funniest moments. I hope to see his character deepen and mature in future films, but for JL his giddiness and enthusiasm were a unique fit for the team. Ray Fisher as Cyborg was another genius casting decision and one of the reasons I longed to see more Cyborg in the film. In the limited time he's given, Fisher manages to convey the feeling that his newly developing "abilities" are much more curse than gift, one that not only makes him extremely reticent to join the team, but even to rejoin humanity. There's a sadness to Cyborg which Fisher conveys beautifully. Of course Gal continues to shine as Wonder Woman, dispensing pearls of hard earned wisdom and tender compassion to the team as only Diana can, not to mention kicking some serious Parademon and Steppenwolf ass when shit gets real. Affleck's Batman more often than not feels like he's ripped right from the comics; he's got the moves, the gadgets and in this film, the attitude that makes Batman who he is. I enjoyed watching Bruce struggle with his dark night of the soul in BvS, but it's nice to see him step back into the light a bit in this film and act more like the traditional Batman.

All in all, Justice League achieves what it set out to achieve, namely providing a fun, dazzling and action packed superhero adventure which often looks like it's ripped right from the pages of Justice League comics, particularly Justice League: Origin. Unlike Snyder's two previous films, JL is a more straight-forward and flat out fun film which one doesn't need to overthink. Having said that, there are still a few burning questions which the film doesn't take the time to answer, chief among them how Clark Kent is able to return to society after being pronounced dead, and it would've been great to delve deeper into Cyborg, Flash and Aquaman's backstories in addition to having a bit more foreshadowing for Darkseid, but my hopes are still up that we'll get an extended ultimate cut like we did with BvS. From what rumblings I've heard, it seems that about fifty minutes of scenes were cut from the theatrical cut, scenes which most likely clear up much of the lingering mysteries and perhaps deepen the story. Still, the Justice League we got is a wonderful introduction to the team, one which makes me even more excited to see what the DC cinematic universe has in store for us in the coming years. We're still in the early stages of exploring this vast universe and now with so many of the key players in place, there's no telling where we might go next.