So much exposition and a wildly fluctuating tone

Rating: 7/10 (25 April 2020)

This movie had so much to do, so it ended up cramming in a bunch of exposition and only halfway explained crucial details about the main plot device and undeveloped villain. "Mother-boxes" sounds like a lame ripoff of the Infinity Stones in a post-MCU era regardless of source material, and "Steppenwolf" is a vaguely defined character with the goofy name of a famous rock band.
Those issues aside, it's clear the crew tried very hard to pull everything together, so it's a shame the effort comes across as half-baked and dull. The producers are probably at fault for rushing this series to align with releases from the MCU.
The film hinges itself on its heroes, but Ezra Miller as Flash either can't deliver the emotional depth required for his scenes with Billy Crudup as his father, or the director dropped the ball for those crucial scenes. These moments stick out in a bad way due to Miller's bad acting. The rest of the cast does a great job.
There are some great fight scenes, but most of the film is exposition. It's like watching characters read the plot summary with intermittent action scenes, interrupted by brief emotional beats and Ezra Miller's clumsy line delivery.
I gave this a 7 because despite obvious flaws, I recognize the source material was written for children. This dark film seems to be intended for adults. Glaring issues: the tone fluctuating wildly from scene to scene, bad CGI for certain elements including the villain, and on-the-nose, mechanical sounding expository dialogue.