Adam’s Analysis: Justice League fails to meet expectations

Adam Staudinger, Assistant Web Editor-in-Chief

Warner Brothers studio released their newest superhero movie, Justice League, and received a mixed reaction from audiences worldwide.

The film debuted on Nov. 16, grossing $278.2 million opening week. This is more than 20 million less than the budget of 300 million. The film is the fifth movie to be set in the DC cinematic universe.

The plot follows Bruce Wayne (Batman) and Diana Prince (Wonder Woman) as they search for superheroes to fight the oncoming evil forces from another world. Together they find the Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg and assemble a team known as the Justice League.

Characters from the league will return to the big screen in the future for solo films, such as The Batman (2018), Aquaman (2018), Cyborg (2020), and the Flash in Flashpoint (2020).

Fans of DC comics have been waiting for a Justice League movie for years. Unfortunately, they will have to wait even longer for a good one.

Director Zack Snyder returned to direct this movie after producing not so acclaimed movies such as Man of Steel (2013) and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016). After the tragic death of his daughter, Snyder stepped down during post production to mourn, and gave the director’s position and post production responsibilities to friend Joss Whedon.

The star studded cast includes Ben Affleck (Batman), Henry Cavill (Superman), Gal Gadot (Wonder Woman), Jason Momoa (Aquaman), Ezra Miller (Flash), and Ray Fisher (Cyborg) as league members. With so many heroes, it is a shame they could not save this movie.

The antagonist of this movie was Steppenwolf, military leader of the evil world Apokolips. Steppenwolf may be the bad guy, but the real villains are the critics.

Critics blasted the movie for somewhat weak acting, overuse of computer-generated imagery (CGI), bad effects, lack of actual plot, and overall boring and bland tone. The film is like a knock off Avengers (2012) because it mimicked the film in many ways, yet did not achieve what Marvel did.

Many characters did not seem like themselves compared to their comic book counterparts. This is frustrating because the writers had years of source material producers had to go off.

For example, Batman in the comics is stoic, dark, and a man of few words. In Justice League, he is boring and not so dark. The film also tries to give him humor that just does not work.

Wonder Woman is portrayed as hot-headed, and a disappointment of a hero. Her arc in the film is to become a symbol of hope such as Superman, and show her heroism to the public. This sharply contrasts her portrayal in her title film Wonder Woman (2017).

Some changes are not so bad, such as making Flash awkward and eccentric and making Aquaman more relaxed instead of a royal king. These changes give the film much needed humor.

Popular movie review website Rotten Tomatoes has given the movie a final score of 41 percent, which is a very low approval rating. Although there were major issues with the film, it was not terrible. It was nice to finally see the Justice League on the big screen. It was neither good nor bad, just okay.