The newest entry in the DC Cinematic Universe, “Justice League,” should be a culmination of everything viewers have learned from watching the previous movies. However, it just feels like a movie has been cobbled together using characters none of us have ever seen on the screen, leaving it a boring mess of a film. Characters are uninteresting and don’t have personality due to having no setup for characters, excluding Wonder Woman and Superman. The story is disappointing as well, and feels like three different films in one. The whole movie feels like it could have been much better in every area, and it wasn’t very enjoyable to watch.
The main problem with “Justice League,” as well as the whole DC Cinematic Universe, is the characters. “Justice League” brings together a group of characters people don’t know about, and that’s a problem. It spends the first half of the movie setting up these characters, which I didn’t like at all. Instead of using separate movies to set up a character and their personality, the viewers learn about them for the first time in “Justice League.” Wonder Woman and Superman have had separate films, but the other characters haven’t.
This problem is especially evident in Aquaman’s character, played by Jason Momoa. He has an argument with a character that I feel like I should already know in a city that feels important. I hate not knowing what is happening, and the DC movies are filled with this, but “Justice League” has this problem more than the others.
The Flash is one of the only redeemable parts of the movie, but he also has a problem. The characters joke about how he acquired his powers, and they all laugh. It didn’t make me laugh, though – it just made me angry because I didn’t know what they were talking about.
The story’s problems are directly affected by the character problems. Due to the need to setup four or five brand new characters, the first half of the film is all about learning these new characters. The movie is just under two hours, and one hour of that is developing at these characters.
This might have been good, but the way that it is done isn’t interesting, and makes the characters look worse than they actually end up being. This whole setup section leads right into the end of the movie, as there isn’t really a good middle area. “Justice League” goes straight from setup to final battle, and it is jarring to see this complete change in tone.
When it gets to the final battle, it feels like every other final battle in a comic book movie. Waves and waves of enemies the heroes easily defeat except for the bad guy. Something happens at the end of this battle, and then one character’s inclusion becomes the worst part of the movie. The battle is basically over when this character shows up, so I legitimately hate this single part in the movie. People who have seen the movie probably know what I’m talking about; it is terrible and makes the whole battle, and movie, feel trivial.
This movie does not sink as low as other DC movies like “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” or “Suicide Squad.” It still has a couple redeemable qualities, such as The Flash, but it also isn’t good altogether. I disliked being talked to like I’m supposed to know what’s going on with characters sometimes, and then at other parts given loose background. I also hated the end fight and how it made me feel about the rest of the battle. This is one of the better DC movies, but that isn’t saying much, or anything at all. It’s like saying it’s the cleanest garbage can. That’s how I feel about this movie.
Both Marvel and DC are trying to do the same things, with one succeeding and the other completely failing. I don’t think that it is difficult to see which is which.
