Justice League is a failure on pretty much every level.
That basically sums the take of movie critics around the country.
In short, the film is terrible.
This probably doesn’t come as a major shock to anyone who has seen the Justice League trailer or followed the behind-the-scenes problems that have plagued production.
But you should still scroll down to see just how negative the reviews actually are…
The Ringer:
Justice League is another attempt to course-correct what some believe were [Zach] Snyder’s botched early entries in the DC universe… The movie wants to be grand, it wants to be fun, but in the end, it’s just another loud, lifeless, high-tech bore
Us Weekly:
If a D.C. universe movie is truly going to triumph, it needs to add something fresh to the genre. The sight of well-muscled, costumed superheroes standing in a line ready to take charge doesn’t have the same oomph as it did five years ago. Bring on the excitement and the death-defying thrills and kooky humor for the sequel. After all, nothing is more frustrating than a big-budget extravaganza that just flies by night.
New York Times:
The movie shows a series that’s still finding its footing as well as characters who, though perhaps not yet as ostensibly multidimensional as Marvel’s, may be more enduring (and golden). It has justice, and it has banter. And while it could have used more hanging out, more breeziness, it is a start.
Vanity Fair:
I could be projecting, but boy does poor Gal Gadot look so sad in Justice League, watching this lumbering and witless movie lay waste to the nice thing she just got finished making. It really is a shame. What a dumb irony, to end this movie, of all movies, on a note of bitter injustice like that.
The Verge:
On a moment-to-moment basis, though, Justice League often feels fractured. Whedon’s reshoots are sometimes painfully obvious, as when Flash and Cyborg share a brief personal moment in a graveyard that looks as cheap as a first-season Buffy the Vampire Slayer set. While those scenes can seem roughly interpolated and out-of-place, though, they often offer the film’s most meaningful character moments and flashes of humor and humanity. A quick gag involving Aquaman reveals more about him than the entire rest of the film’s two-hour runtime.
Chicago Tribune:
The dialogue is painful. [Ezra] Miller’s neurotic routine is initially quite charming, until his one-liners become incredibly cheesy and tired. Aquaman peppers his speech with many dude-brah phrases, while Cyborg, regrettably, utters “boo-yah” at one point.
The Telegraph
It’s consistently embarrassing to watch, and features plot holes so yawningly vast they have a kind of Grand Canyon-like splendour: part of you wants to hang around to see what they look like at sunset.
Uproxx:
Seriously, I’m sitting here just stewing about this because a Justice League of America movie is something I’ve been waiting my whole life to see and this is it? We finally see all of these characters together in a live-action movie and they immediately start fighting an endless army of CGI Parademons (Batman’s role is to drive around and shoot Parademons with his Batmobile machine gun), under a CGI sky, inside some sort of CGI warehouse, in CGI Russia. My gosh, there’s CGI corn in this movie. CGI corn!
Collider
I feel bad for Justice League.
Polygon:
Batman is boring.
Business Insider:
Justice League’ is agonizing to watch — and Zack Snyder is to blame. (And that’s just the headline!)
The Atlantic:
Justice League feels like a pilot episode—it’s half-formed, overstuffed, and narratively a chore—but at least its gotten all those annoying introductions out of the way. And it only took five movies to get there.
The Independent:
This is surely the most infantile of recent superhero yarns – a film that squanders the talents of an impressive ensemble cast and eschews any meaningful characterisation in favour of ever more overblown special effects. It’s a grievous disappointment.
The Guardian:
There is something ponderous and cumbersome about Justice League […] Affleck spreads a pall of dullness over the film […] his attempts at droll humour and older-generation wisdom make his Batman look stately and marginal. Maybe we should get George Clooney back for the role.
Variety:
The film is the definition of an adequate high-spirited studio lark: no more, no less. If fans get excited about it, that may mostly be because they’re excited about getting excited. Yet the movie is no cheat. It’s a tasty franchise delivery system […] It’s light and clean and simple (at times almost too simple), with razory repartee and combat duels that make a point of not going on for too long.
IGN:
This first big screen union of DC Comics’ top-tier superheroes is ultimately just an adequate adventure flick. It’s marred by a very choppy story, a run-of-the-mill villain, some shoddy visual effects, and an overall haphazard execution.