Is it a bird!? Is it a plane!? No it's...it's Henry Cavill's moustache?

Rating: 5/10 (28 November 2017)

Justice League, starring Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa and Ray Fisher finds DC's greatest heroes uniting in the face of apokolips to defeat their greatest enemy yet, one that they can only defeat as a team.
This film has been a long time coming. Since the cancellation of George Miller's 2009 'Justice League: Mortal' fans have been eagerly awaiting seeing their favourite heroes unite on the big screen. Now after many years and the conception of Zack Snyder's new DC cinematic universe, the wishes of the fans have finally come true. But can this eagerly anticipated team up ever possibly satisfy the hunger of an audience with such high expectations?
In short: no. Unfortunately for fans a combination of studio meddling, a lack of understanding of the characters at play, and some of the worst CGI I've ever seen has lead to a sloppy, sub-par superhero film rivalling the mediocrity of 'Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice'. The film isn't completely without merit and the most dedicated fans will likely find a lot to love, yet most will likely be very disappointed by this outing.
Some of the characters here are handled fairly well, yet all in all the majority of the characters are plagued by poor writing, shallow characterisation and poorly timed quips: a desperate attempt to address the DCEU's tonal critics, leading to an uneven infrequent tone throughout. The high calibre of actors work with that they have, but what they have isn't much. I found the characters of Fisher's Cyborg and Affleck's Batman simply quite infuriating. Cyborg is portrayed as a hollow straight-faced version of his vibrant comic counterpart: why is one of the youngest most vibrant members of the team with the most potential for natural comedy being turned into something (no pun intended) robotic? As well as Batman being incredibly poorly written with seemingly no inner development as a character or inner turmoil of any kind: All further emphasising the idea that these filmmakers don't know what makes the characters that they are working with so endearing.
Furthermore the film's villain is painfully weak, appearing as if the studio didn't even try. Steppenwolf is the absolute genre stereotype of what a supervillain is: big, dumb and ugly. Except that should be a template, a starting point, not the actual character. However it clearly is here. If a film is only as strong as its villain, Justice League is an outright failure.
There are definitely some redeeming factors in the film however. Every scene in which the League sits down and converses is very entertaining to watch; The actors all have clear natural chemistry making their interactions a joy to experience on screen. Furthermore, some of the action sequences are fairly exciting and engaging, serving to keep your interest, and as previously mentioned some of the characters do shine at points throughout the film such as Cavill's Superman, who here is the best incarnation of the character as portrayed by Cavill that we've received yet. However again the film shoots itself in the foot, as every time Cavill comes on screen WB's abysmal attempt to remove his moustache is a complete failure and consequently a distraction that instantaneously removes you from the film: it's infuriating.
All in all, Justice League for me is highly disappointing. It could have taken hugely beloved characters by me and many others, and made something that truly felt like a film crafted for the fans. Yet instead, corporate meddling with Zack Snyder's vision as well as the film effectively being directed by two different people (Joss Whedon) has lead to what seems like a pure mess. It has its positive qualities and for the most hardcore fans what they receive here will likely be enough. However, for the rest of us we'll have to keep on hoping that one day this property will fall in to the hands of someone with cares about the fans more than they do money, that can make something truly living up to our expectations, the worth of such rich characters, and the greats of DC comics.