Getting rid of past mistakes and embracing a lighter tone

Rating: 5/10 (15 November 2017)

DC is cleaning up its past mistakes. This is the filmmakers going away from the gritty modern style established in "Man of Steel" and going back to the classic light feel reminiscent of Rich Donner's "Superman" from '78. If you thought "Batman v Superman" was disappointing, then have no fear. Joss Whedon is here to make things more.. hopeful.. Yeah, that would be word. Hopeful, lighthearted and more like the old classic superhero stories. All the bad decisions made in previous movies are now starting to get undone. And that's really good. They should have started out this way, but at least they now know what the right direction is. We owe a lot to "Wonder Woman" for that. Too bad the studio told them to not go over two hours with the run-time. Because that's what ultimately hurt the movie the most. There's a strange rushed feeling throughout it. Lots of new characters are introduced within a short time and before you notice you are already watching the final fight. That's the real issue here. It brushes over things quickly and you don't get much out of it. It's entertaining, but there's no weight or a good enough connection to what's going on. Everything is just decent. But, hey! This is the Justice League! It should be more than just fine... Right? Well, this is what we got. And it could have been way worse. You can watch it and not be too bothered.
I liked the characters. They are all performed well. Flash is the one that I think could have been a little stronger. This is an interpretation of him being awkward and an outcast. He had his moments of being somewhat too weird, but I did laugh at most of it. Aquaman didn't get enough time, but I'm fine with the direction they went with. It was fun to see the League interact. At times I forgot about the actors and just saw the comic book heroes instead. And that's a good sign. Still, this movie is messing with me with conflicting thoughts. I liked the characters and many visuals, but the story and overall pacing is rushing instead of being effective. I didn't feel the important impacts of major scenes. I wish I did. By the way, Hans Zimmer is out and Danny Elfman comes back to the genre as a composer. He re-uses his own "Batman" theme from the '89 film as well as using John Williams classic "Superman" score. It's always nice to hear these themes, but it's really distracting. It would have been better with some new original music. The action is fine, but it doesn't get that exciting. It's just watchable with little impact. The best fight is actually the one during the beginning bank heist scene. It never got that good again. In the end I'll say that it isn't bad. It's a decent popcorn movie that for once would have benefited having a longer run-time. Just so that we could feel the importance of the Justice League forming for the first time. The good news are that the future of the DCEU might be in good hands now. We'll see, but I hope so.