Too much lost potential

Rating: 5/10 (7 May 2018)

The movie as a whole was not terrible and had potential, but I was certainly never on the edge of my seat and overall the movie left things to be desired.
To start, the character development was especially lacking. I never felt any particular connection to any of the characters, and they were all fairly un-relatable and very serious. A large portion of the movie was spent actually getting the team together, and there was little focus on defeating the actual villain. Too many characters were introduced all at once, with no time to develop their characters sufficiently.
This series as a whole could have benefited from one (maybe 2) more movies focusing on individuals before the release of this one. They essentially shoved Cyborg's whole back story in this movie in brief flashbacks and story telling, whereas he would have especially benefitted from his own movie before this one. His back story is exciting, would develop his character more if they released a movie about it, and would have segued nicely into Justice League and the main struggle. In fact, his back story and his father's discoveries were crucial to the development of the main obstacles the heroes had to overcome in this movie. Having a movie mostly about Cyborg would have given them the opportunity to better set the stage for the plot and villain in this movie. They basically lost this opportunity because they gave the key points of his back story, rendering a movie about it unnecessary. Perhaps they'll have a separate movie about him in the future, but it would likely be after Justice League in the timeline, and not pursue his back story. I also think Poseidon could have benefitted from his own movie as well, but it's not too late for him.
My other big issue was the villain. He and his purpose was unconvincing, and the gravity of the situation felt understated. Never does he strike fear into the hearts of the audience, and no one is really ever convinced that he is going to even come close to winning. Unlike the Avengers movies, where the characters often endure personal struggles and both personal and public failures, these characters very predictably defeat the villain. Not that I am rooting for the deaths of characters or extras in the movie, but that may have helped emphasize the struggle and the gravity of the villain's goal. I don't believe the Justice League lost a single civilian throughout the entirety of the movie. Additionally, the villain's power seems to largely come from these boxes that produce this weird glowing/electric-looking vine-like growth (similar to what is emitted from the Enchantress in Suicide Squad). It shows the literal reach of his power, and it really doesn't reach that far, nor does it seem to do anything besides cover or knock down some stuff. And it glows. That's about it.
The movie also played a bit like a video game with a very direct path and storyline. I've read other reviews where people used this to mention CGI issues (I do not have the eye for that, so I won't comment there), but I mean this in the sense of the plot itself. The villain is really not very mobile, aside from making appearances here and there based on the location of the boxes. He lodges himself in one central lair, and the heroes have to work their way through various "levels" per se, to get to the Boss's fairly isolated lair, and defeat him in the one dungeon. The fight scene does not feel very dynamic, as this "lair" does not create an interesting enough or versatile enough environment for an exciting fight scene to occur.
As I said, largely due to the aforementioned complaints, I did not find the movie exciting, and felt there was a lot of lost potential with the lack of plot and character development. I was initially hopeful for this movie courtesy of Wonder Woman, which I quite enjoyed, but I suppose I'll have to hold on to that hope for whatever their next movie is.