‘Justice League’ Five Harshest Reviews

Justice League, one of the most anticipated films this year, opens in theaters this week and while fans are excited to see Wonder Woman come together with other DC Comics heroes in latest installment of the DC Extended Universe, the one thing everyone wants to know is if the film is any good.

While early reactions to Justice League have been largely positive, some other responses to the film have been less than stellar. Both Justice League‘s Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes scores aren’t particularly inspiring and now the film looks like it’s going to fall short of Thor: Ragnarok‘s opening box office take as well. And that’s not the only less than awesome buzz about the film. Critical reviews are out and some of them are downright harsh.

But you don’t have to take our word for it. See for yourself how some of the critics are reacting to Justice League.

“Ponderous and cumbersome”

While the stars of Justice League have spoken about how the movie is fun and not quite as dark as expected, The Guardian didn’t see evidence of that, saying that the movie had a “tendency to shapelessness” with the whole movie feeling demoralized and heavy — including the post-credits scene.

“In the end, though, there is something ponderous and cumbersome about Justice League; the great revelation is very laborious and solemn and the tiresome post-credits sting is a microcosm of the film’s disappointment. Some rough justice is needed with the casting of this franchise.”

“Super zeroes”

Justice League is supposed to be a superhero team up movie, but the Chicago Tribune felt it was more a gathering of super zeroes with a weird combination of Zack Snyder’s darkness and Joss Whedon’s quip-laden dialogue. But that’s not the only thing bringing the heroes down. The effects are almost unwatchable, according to the review.

“But it’s not the quips that truly offend, but the blur of horrible CGI that starts from minute one and never lets up — including Cavill’s bewildering upper lip. The action is insane and impossible to follow, geographically. After a while you just give up trying to understand anything as the Justice League batters away at the alien warriors.”

“Big, Ugly Mess”

Variety pulls no punches. Their assessment is so blunt that the review apologizes for the money and time spent making the film.

“But once in awhile, there comes along something so egregiously bad that trying to find something good to say about it is its own kind of cruelty; such an obvious act of reaching only highlights the production’s garish dimensions, its abject failures. And, worse still, it can encourage more. In these instances, pure and unadorned honesty is really the only way to go, difficult as it may be to deliver. And so, dear Justice League, I must say that no, the lighting is not good. The script is not interesting. The costumes are not fun. The film is, plainly stated, terrible, and I’m sorry that everyone wasted their time and money making it—and that people are being asked to waste their time and money seeing it. I hate to be so blunt, but it simply must be said this time.”

“Embarrassment beyond saving”

A movie about heroes saving the world should have the element of hope, but according to The Telegraph there is none to be found in Justice League. In their estimation the movie is an embarrassment of bad CGI and mayhem.

“But for whatever combination of reasons, the end result is a broken film, swimming in bad CGI and forgettable mayhem, that you can’t imagine any number of rewrites or reshoots could have saved. It can’t even decide how to start, and offers up no less than five introductory scenes, including Bruce Wayne pony-trekking in Iceland, Wonder Woman thwarting a terrorist attack in London, and yet another instance of that DC franchise staple, the slow-motion funeral.”

At least it’s not as bad as ‘Batman v Superman’

While Entertainment Weekly echoes much of the other harsh reviews of Justice League — namely that the CGI is bad and that the film doesn’t live up to the hopeful hype — it wasn’t all bad. Justice League was at least better than Batman v Superman even if the efforts to make things lighter and funnier were very obvious.

“It’s obvious to anyone watching Justice League next to the other DC films that the studio brass handed down a mandate to lighten the mood and make things funnier and more Marvel-y. And, to an extent, Justice League accomplishes that. But it also feels like so much attention was paid to the smaller, fizzier character moments that the bigger picture of the film’s overarching plot was a second or third priority. Some day, hopefully soon, DC will get the recipe right again and duplicate Wonder Woman’s storytelling magic. But today isn’t that day, and Justice League unfortunately isn’t that film.”

Justice League opens in theaters on November 17th.

The film will be followed in the DC Extended Universe by Aquaman on December 21, 2018,Wonder Woman 2 on November 1, 2019, Shazam on April 5, 2019, Cyborg in 2020, and Green Lantern Corps in 2020.

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