Justice League (3/4): Review with SPOILERS | DC fans can rejoice, it's their answer to Marvel's Avengers, almost!

Justice League has been the dream DC fans since Avengers' success. With DC's Justice League releasing this Friday, that dream is about to become reality. The anticipation and excitement of comic book fans, movie fans and even non-fans is even higher for this film, since the success of DC's Wonder Woman this summer. The film was kind of a reboot, setting up a new (possible) tone for DC universe. And with Avenger's director Joss Whedon joining the team, the expectations became even higher. The good news is, the film does not completely disappoint. The bad news, it's still fully not what you may expect.

It does not have the same dark tones as 2 previous films (Man of Steel & Batman v Superman). It's funnier, slicker and sightly campier. It tries too hard to play some social justice angles, but for most part it has a decent story, with good execution. The multiple, heroes and multiple characters work, even with their own storylines, setting up followup films. All the actors are brilliant, writing is slick, action is entertaining, comedy is funny and has enough for all comic book & movie fans to rejoice and enjoy.

To summarize, Justice League, does justice to its fans. But does leave more to desire. 

***SPOILERS***

After the events of Batman v Superman, Superman is gone. The world is left in darkness and despair, causing the arrival of a new dark entity, Steppenwolf (this is your typical mega super bad-entity) and his army of Parademons. He wants to enslave the entire world, and he needs 3 cubes, called Mother Boxes (yep, there's always magical cubes involved) for that, which are hidden in Themyscira, Atlantis and somewhere on Earth. Batman has sensed this arrival, and is trying to put a team together, with the help of his new ally, Wonder Woman. His first potential recruit is Aquaman, who's not interested in being part of this, and wants to continue living his loner life on a small Island. Second is the "fast guy" Barry Allen (he's not called The Flash yet), who's a friendless young teenager, a super fan of batman, and super excited to be part of any team (your typical young teenager, who's excited to play with big boys, aka the new Spiderman). Third is half man, half machine - Cyborg, who's trying to understand his new existence, and find a purpose.

After the first box gets snatched away from Amzonians, Wonder Woman aka Diana Prince reaches out to Batman. She tries to persuade Cyborg to join the team, but he's not ready. Even after initial denials, both Cyborg and Aquaman (who also loses the second box from Atlantis) reluctantly join the team. But this new team's first encounter with Steppenwolf makes them realize that they are not really ready for this fight.

Batman suggests that they use the third cube to bring Superman back to life. Even though most other team members to do not agree to the plan, they decide to go along and give it a shot. The plan works, bringing Superman back to life, but he cannot remember much, and starts a fight with the team, assuming them to be his enemies. Superman leaves when Lois arrives, and takes her back to Smallville. The bad news - In this fight, they lose the third box to Steppenwolf as well. Steppenwolf has all the boxes, to destroy the world, and finish his evil plans!

Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and Barry locate the Steppenwolf, to fight him off and recover the boxes. In a grand battle at a nuclear plant location in Eastern Europe, every one seems lost and not capable of standing against Steppenwolf, until Superman arrives. The fight takes a turn as the Justice League is brought together, and fights together like a team!

Here's the breakdown of good, and not-so-good.

The good:

• The tone of the film is definitely different from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which is a relief. It's closer to Wonder Woman, and definitely has Joss Whedon's mark on it. It has comedy, humor and some campy fun tone. But it's still a very Zack Snyder film, with it's dark moments.
• Ben Affleck proves again, that he's a good choice for Batman. It sucks that he's almost ready to drop the mantle, and move on. Hopefully we get one BATMAN solo film with just him.
• Gal Gadot is back as the wonderful Wonder Woman. Not much needed to be said. She rocks!
• Ray Fisher as Cyborg is an unexpected treat. He really brings the complexity of the character, and plays an important role in the film. 
• Jason Momoa is truly digging the role of Aquaman. He's charming, he's hot, he's funny AF and he's just amazing. Let's hope his solo film can carry that tone.
• Even though there's already a FLASH on small screen, who's beloved, Ezra Miller's Barry Allen (he's not called THE FLASH yet) is quite good. He does remind you of the new Spiderman from Captain America: Civil War, but it works. He's excited, he's childish, he's naive, but he's truly FUN!
• The chemistry between Batman and Wonder Woman is impressive. Hopefully we see them in more films together!
• There is some interesting social commentary in the film. From immigration, to racism, to several other HOT social topics.
• The opening scene with Superman is quite a treat, better than Superman in 2 previous films, honestly!
• Great action sequences. It's a joy to watch our favorite Superheroes fight together. The dream of all DC fans, has come true!
• Even better is the Superman's battle with rest of the team. That battle just rocks. Superman against Justice League (kinda!).
• And even cuter, is the Superman's race with Flash. Yes, that's mid credit, so don't miss it!
• And do not miss post credit scene with Lex Luthor and Slade Wilson. Yep, it's pretty cool!!
• Additional mentions:
  • Amber Heard's Meera is really cool. Can't wait to see more!
  • Jeremy Irons is a good Alfred. Yes, he is!
  • Joe Morton as Dr Silas Stone, Cyborg's father. Just wonderful!
  • Ciaran his voice for Steppenwolf. Better than James Spader as Ultron.

Not so good:

• Henry Cavill's Superman still seems stuck in the tone of previous films. It's slightly better, but it's still not the Superman we have grown to love. Will it ever be?
• Lois is mostly wasted. The emotional drama between Clark and Lois is just not very convincing.
• Steppenwolf is not as menacing as you may expect it to be. He doesn't even look great. That's the best they could do. WTF?
• For some fans, the characters may not be developed enough, since we haven't seen all their solo films or know much about them. Specially Cyborg and Aquaman.
• The film seems to try too hard to make some social commentary. Some of it doesn't really fit with the tone of the film overall.
• We don't see result of the race between Superman and The Flash. Why??
• Why waste J.K. Simmons like that? He's such a great actor, and has almost nothing to do.

***SPOILERS END***

Overall, it's an enjoyable film, with great cast, good direction, amazing visuals and many of our favorite superheroes together on the big screen. And it works! Let's just hope that this is a sign of DC on a new path, and it continues in the right direction. And like Justice League, the upcoming films do justice to its fans.

"MUD BOUND" in theaters & on Netflix Nov 17

“Mudbound” is the perfect example of a well made, old-fashioned movie with every frame and everything in that frame taking it’s time and place to tell the story.  It’s like—I imagine—it would feel like to be a page in a book being turned, carefully by a caring and passionate reader.  

Directed by Dee Rees from a script she and co-writer Virgil Williams adapted from Hillary Jordan’s debut novel— “Mudbound” is remarkable in its ability to let us see a world through the eyes of different people, where the differences are as crystal clear as the very things that bind us together.  This story is set deep in the Mississippi Delta and it’s about two families, one white, the other African-American, who have tethered their very existence on the unforgiving fields.  

The screenwriters allow most of the key characters to voice their innermost thoughts and the 

screenplay captures the necessary details about this time period, blending the language into a mixture that’s so very easy for us to digest. It’s not an easy job because the narration is told between six different characters, three from each family. This is powerful writing.

On one hand, this is a time in American history when poor white men felt their standing threatened by their hard-working African-American neighbors, and laws were passed to keep blacks down — or mud-bound — and the cowardly Ku Klux Klan arose to enforce additional restrictions and to spread terror and unrest.  

The women in “Mudbound” have the most sense and are far-and-away stronger than the men.  

Carey Mulligan, who plays Laura McAllan, delivers a heartbreaking performance, as a woman who accepts her domestic servitude with the same unquestioning devotion as the hard-working sharecroppers is chilling.

Enter Henry’s flirtatious younger brother Jamie (Garrett Hedlund), who builds his sister-in-law an outside shower, a gesture that never would have occurred to her husband. When he’s shipped off to war — we pin for him. 

Just down the dusty road, lives the Jackson family who also sends their son Ronsel (Jason Mitchell) off to war where he joins the all-black 761st Tank Batallion.  The act of war destroyed many families before those young men ever left their hometowns.  The same thing occurred here, with the son leaving his father Hap (Rob Morgan) and his mother Florence (Mary J. Blige) to tend the cotton crop in his absence. For the first time, on the front lines of war, Ronsel feels as if the color of his skin isn’t a factor for the first time. He even starts a love affair with a white German woman that will come back to haunt him later.

Life is hard at war. Life is hard on the farm.  Rees makes that clear in her interesting structural choices, when she cross-cuts between Ronsel dismounting from his tank in Europe and Hap falling off a ladder back in Mississippi, causing a gory injury that forces him to borrow a donkey, erasing any hope the Jacksons may have had of rising above their debts that season. 

Eventually, both soldiers return home. Both lost and misunderstood. Despite that or perhaps because of it, Jamie and Ronsel do manage to forge a friendship which is based on mutual respect among veterans but not allowed in the still-segregated American South.

When Jamie offers Ronsel a lift from town one afternoon, he climbs into the back of the pickup truck, and later, when Jamie insists that he ride up front, Ronsel must duck anytime a car passes.

On the acting front, the male actors are strong especially Mitchell and Hedlund.  Mary J. Blige disappears into her role because she’s thoroughly convincing as a concerned mother. 

Dee Rees’s movie MUDBOUND benefits greatly from a talented crew. Tamar-kali’s Dolby-mixed score is perfectly blended with cinematographer Rachel Morrison’s magnificent imagery. The editing—delivered by Mako Kamitsuna—is spot on!

Every frame and everything in the frame, is telling a story. This allows for the dialogue in the screenplay to remain light. Coupled with the fine performances, layered into the music and the editing, what director Dee Rees and company, has produced is an old-fashioned movie. 

“Mudbound” is directed by Dee Rees. Screenplay: Rees, Virgil Williams, based on the novel by Hillary Jordan.

Struggling to survive, two families work the same land in the Mississippi Delta but live worlds apart. Directed by Dee Rees, Mudbound | A Netflix film, November 17.

Netflix will release “Mudbound” on its streaming service on Nov. 17.

“Last Flag Flying” (3/4), in select theaters

“War is the worst act of terrorism and among the greatest causes of human suffering and death and ecological degradation. Wars are declared by the rich and fought by the poor. There will be no real justice and protection of human rights and the rights of nature until a sustainable global peace has been achieved.” This quote by Brian J. Trautman is a warning, and one that I pray will be absorbed, understood and acted upon, one can hope…..

Richard Linklater’s new film “Last Flag Flying,” which opened the New York Film Festival 2017, cleverly blends a buddy comedy road movie into its rightful place which is a home-front war drama.  There is side-splitting laughter to be sure with brilliant performances by  Steve Carell,  Laurence Fishburne, Bryan Cranston but the film is also somber as it looks—closely—at the stupidity and brutality of war. 

There is an ongoing conversation about “why” war drawing parallels between Vietnam and Iraq and scratching down to the big questions, such as what is the nature of truth and heroism.

An Amazon/Lionsgate release of a screenplay that took twenty long years to get made. The journey of this particular incarnation of the story began in 2005 with novelist and co-screenwriter Darry Ponicsan a direct sequel to the author's debut, The Last Detail. 

The story is set on 2003 inside Sal's Bar & Grill (the "Grill" part went by the wayside) an empty Virginia local bar loosely run by Sal (Bryan Cranston) an ex-Marine. When an ex-Navy man Larry Shepherd (Carell), whom he remembers from their Vietnam days as Doc, wanders in out of the rain, the heart of the story starts to beat. 

It’s clear that the rain-soaked Doc is hurting but he doesn’t tell anything asking Sal to drive him to a surprise location, which turns out to be at a vibrant Baptist church, where the third member of their trio from 30 years earlier, "Mueller the Mauler," is now the Reverend Richard (Fishburne), preaching to his Sunday congregation.

After a traditional African-American, Southern Sunday dinner with Richard and his supportive wife Ruth (Deanna Reed-Foster), Doc reveals the real purpose of tracking down his two estranged Marine buddies. Doc's son Larry Jr., a 21-year-old Marine, was just killed in Baghdad, and his body is being flown home for a hero's burial at Arlington Cemetery. Having recently lost his wife to cancer, Doc asks them to accompany him for emotional support. The circumstances around Larry Jr.'s death are not as reported, causing Doc to refuse a military burial and insist on transporting his son's body back home to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to be buried alongside his mother. 

On the journey is Larry Jr.'s close friend Lance Corp. Washington (J. Quinton Johnson) assigned as the trio's official Marine escort, and the heart of the story opens, wider

There is a brotherhood re-forming.  And in an effort to heal their aching souls, the three war veterans make a detour to pay a long overdue call to the elderly mother (Cicely Tyson) of another buddy from their extended tour in Vietnam, whose death has weighed heavily on the three men over the decades. 

The visit has an amazing surprise which helps to amplify the emotional impact of the film.  

The acting is first-rate, starting with Carell's subdued performance as soft-spoken Doc, a man whose life is filled with disappointment and hurt yet, he remains a human with great integrity. Fishburne is on point and commanding as a man of the cloth whose wild past seemed to be buried but arises on the trip in the most amusing ways. Cranston's character is wonderfully complicated—paradoxical even—charmingly and abrasive. 

Although the critics might enjoy picking this film down to the bone, it’s the audiences that will find and embrace the joy of “Last Flag Flying.” 

Last Flag Flying - Official US Trailer - Former Navy Corps medic Richard "Doc" Shepherd (Steve Carell) re-unites with ex-Marines Sal (Bryan Cranston) and Mueller (Laurence Fishburne) on a different type of mission.

“Last Flag Flying” now playing.  Originally reviewed as part of the NYFF 55 Film Festival. 

“No justice, no peace” — Baltimore Rising — a new doc directed by “The Wire’s” Sonja Sohn premiering on HBO and HBO NOW on Nov. 20

“No justice, no peace”—these words are still echoing and falling, it seems, on the deaf ears of those charged to "protect and serve" and their indifference and homicidal deeds are repeatedly supported by United States political leaders with intolerance and hatred practiced at the highest level in the political structure of this country.  

Sitting inside the HBO's screening room, I wanted to cry, nay scream but the rising hairs on my arms and the back of my neck told me to hold study.  My heart wasn't just heavy, it was cracking, held together by the flimsy tape of hope—‘how long could this hold?” I pondered.  I could feel hands resting on my shoulder, whispering calming words in my ear. This is how I could watch and re-watch BALTIMORE RISING without howling like a mad woman. 

Directed by Sonja Sohn (one of the stars of the HBO series "The Wire"), BALTIMORE RISING follows activists, police officers, community leaders and gang affiliates, who struggle to hold Baltimore together, even as the homicide rate hits record levels. 

In the wake of the 2015 death of Freddie Gray in police custody, the city of Baltimore was tittering precariously, on the edge.  Despite the number of peaceful protests, the boiling pint was so high that riots erupted in the immediate aftermath of Gray's death, then the city waited to hear the fate of the six police officers involved in the incident.  It was agony felt across the country and it reflected the very deep divisions between authorities and the community - and underscoring the urgent need for reconciliation.

Reconciliation is that even possible? This dire situation has a very long and brutal history and Sohn’s BALTIMORE RISING chronicles the determined efforts of people on all sides who fight for justice and work to make their city better, sometimes coming together in unexpected ways, discovering a common humanity where before they often saw each other only as adversaries.

Among the key figures spotlighted in BALTIMORE RISING are:

Directed by The Wire actor Sonja Sohn, this thought-provoking documentary follows activists, police officers, community leaders and gang affiliates, who struggle to hold Baltimore together, in the wake of Freddie Gray's death, even as the homicide rate hits record levels, and explores how to make change when change is hard.

Commissioner Kevin Davis has led the Baltimore Police Department since 2015. Genard "Shadow" Barr (community leader, former gang member) is an addiction recovery specialist at the Penn-North Recovery Center, where he also helps organize a reentry jobs program for community members.  Adam Jackson (activist) is CEO of the grassroots think-tank Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle. Dayvon Love (activist), director of public policy for Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle. Lt. Colonel Melvin Russell, chief of the Community Partnership Division, Baltimore Police Department. Dawnyell Taylor (police detective) has been with the Baltimore City Police for more than 16 years. In 2015 and 2016, she was the lead investigator in the Freddie Gray homicide case and testified at the trial of Officer Caesar Goodson Jr., who was charged with Gray's murder. Taylor continues to serve in the police academy in Baltimore.

Amongst those interviewed in the documentary, two young people stood out — Makayla Gilliam-Price (activist) founded the youth justice organization City Bloc as a high school student and Kwame Rose (activist), an artist, writer, musician and public speaker.

Here is a brief excerpt from a chat with  Makayla Gilliam-Price and Kwame Rose.

Lapacazo Sandoval:  Kwame Rose as an activist you are also an artist, writer, musician and have added public speaking.  What has changed since the uprising that followed Freddie Gray's death?

Kwame Rose:  That’s a great question.  The answer is complicated and a bit long, but to sum it up I am learning about how things work from the inside.  I am currently working actually in the office of the Baltimore Mayor, Mayor Catherine Pugh.  

LS:  What about you Makayla Gilliam-Price?  In the documentary, your mother made mention that because of her activism in the community, that you grew up on the front lines of protest, offering that "No justice no peace was your lullaby.” 

Makayla Gilliam-Price: In a lot of ways that’s true.  In the years since filming the documentary, and now I’ve grown up.  I graduated high school and I am attending college.  I am also very involved in organizing the grassroots think-tank Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, and I am learning something new every single day. 

“Baltimore Rising” directed by Sonja Sohn premiering on HBO and HBO NOW on Nov. 20