For the second time in as many years, I thought to myself - “how did they screw this up?” after coming out of another DC comics-based film. ‘Batman V Superman’ was a colossal disappointment; ‘Suicide Squad’ was more of an in-depth guide on how “not” to make a film and ‘Justice League’ is simply just a magnanimous embarrassment. Now most comicbook films have their share of flaws and ‘JL’ has a ton but the fact that they made the most iconic superhero team in comic history just so-damn boring and pointless is a slap to the long, storied and beloved history behind these characters.

There was little reason to have high expectations for the film going in but with any straight sequel, you expect the story to have at least a little bit of continuity. Sadly, we get absolutely none of that here. Yes Superman is still dead (even though we saw the dust rise at the end of the last film) and suddenly the entire world is now mourning the loss. Right after that opening montage I started questioning the reason behind this. The entire point of this franchise’s Superman was that he’s a more divisive character from his comic-book counter-part. He questions his responsibilities, his place on earth and his place amongst humans. These were themes inspired by some of the best Superman comic book arcs ‘Birthright’ and ‘All Star Superman’. But has the film progresses, it throws away all those “radical” ideas and opts for a more... ‘Marvel-lite’ take.

This abrupt change of tone affects pretty much all the major characters - Batman in particular. Here he’s cracking one-liners, being overtly sarcastic and barely takes himself seriously in a team he helps form. Batman always knew he was the only member without real super powers but in no iteration of ‘Justice League’ did that fact ever diminish him. Yeah he’s not completely worthless here but this sudden attitude change adds another disservice in a film remorselessly piling them on.

Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman is the team’s sole birth-spot. Capitalizing on being the only member with an actual origin story, Gadot’s breezy, endearing charm brings a much needed weight to the role. She is also the only member to have her own establishing action sequence and even though it adds almost nothing to the overall plot it was nice to see our characters actually doing something heroic in a well-lit environment.

Getting to the plot - there is none. It revolves around this ancient artifact called the Mother Box, then there are three of them and then they need to be stopped. One is hidden with the Amazonians and by hidden I mean it’s actually kept in a big room with a spotlight on it. The other is kept underwater with the people of Atlantis (they are called Atlanteans - thanks Wikipedia!). The final one was left to us humans and we hid it in the most secure of locations - a hole in the middle of a forest somewhere in Britain I think? No seriously during the “exciting” backstory montage blandly read to us by Wonder Woman they show some medieval looking characters just throwing it into a hole they made. So what do these Mother Boxes actually do you might wonder - it just destroys the world by making weird tentacles sprout from the Earth or something like that.

At no point in the entire movie did the screen-writers ever bother making the audience care about what is going on and what implications any of this has on anyone. To call ‘Steppenwolf’, the villain behind all of this a ‘CGI-cartoony joke’ would be a damning insult to cartoons. He looks ridiculous, spouts horrendous one-liners at every opportunity and monologues unceremoniously. He’s easily the film’s lowest point and almost completely tanks the entire feature...almost.

The first hour stumbles and meanders around aimlessly. The introductions for the remaining members have almost nothing added to them beyond what you see in the numerous trailers for the movie. Their all stitched together from rewrites and reshoots and nothing feels authentic or polished. But right when you think the movie has sunk to ‘Suicide Squad’ levels of horrible - he comes back.

Superman officially returns and his resurrection scene alone highlights how good this movie could possibly be. The film then actually takes the time to explore the characters (some of them anyway) and right when you think it’s hitting a stride - the idiotic Mother Boxes come back. They never really go anywhere but I at least temporarily forgot about them.Steppenwolf and his gang of bugmen start their “evil-plan” of taking over the world (sigh) and it’s up to the team -the almighty ‘Justice League’ to stop him. I wish I was exaggerating how corny it sounds but the film actually makes it cornier.

It’s a decent final act that ends right after your brain cells start working again and you get your hearing back. The film clocks in right around the 2 hour mark but it feels much shorter - in a bad way. For all the criticism ‘Batman V Superman’ received - it still felt like a cohesive film. ‘Justice League’ feels cobbled together and rushed. The troubled production absolutely destroyed whatever potential the film had and if DC wanted their “cinematic universe” to takeoff - they needed this to be more than just good, they needed it to be epic. Unfortunately, it’s the exact opposite of epic. The film has a few moments of pure superhero imagery and elation I can’t help but love but the messy structure, mangled characters and dreadful plot cripple the movie along with any hopes I had for the future of this franchise.

By Aakash Bakaya