It is a let-down, but still judged a bit too harshly

Rating: 7/10 (21 November 2017)

Justice League is the 5th DCEU movie and all four of the previous ones were building up to this one (and it should have been more). So much set-up in the previous movies and did it pay off? No, it didn't. But is it bad? Definitely not.
First, let's talk a bit about the history of DCEU. Unpopular opinion here, I liked all DCEU movies so far (yes, even Suicide Squad, I'm gonna get so much hate for this), but I do realize it's very flawed and could have been done a lot better. Almost every movie was a missed potential, including this one. The main problem is that Warner Bros. worries too much and listens to criticisms more than it should. There's nothing wrong with listening criticisms, actually it can be a great thing, but WB gets very confused about them. Man of Steel worked okay, aside from some lack of development and a bit awkward pacing, I thought it worked. BvS was damaged by the editing. Of course there were more flaws like an overstuffed script with too much set-up and some scenes that had good ideas, but poorly executed. Maybe it could have been glossed over easily if they didn't cut it down so much. The extended version isn't perfect, but it's an improvement (even though the theatrical version wasn't as horrible as everyone was saying, it had style, it had ideas, it was different and was a spectacle). But that was supposed to be the movie to release. Then they panicked and listened to some really unfair criticisms about it being too dark. Not every movie has to be an action comedy, we have Marvel for that. And that led to crippling Suicide Squad. I still think it's entertaining and I like it for all it's flashy fun. I just had such an amazing time with it, I just couldn't hate it. Even though I see its flaws, but they didn't ruin it for me. Wonder Woman was finally, a success, so there was a lot of hope here. Aaand it feel a bit flat on its face.
It's not bad, just slightly above average. It provides some epic moments, but it falls into mediocrity, because WB got afraid of making risks. They cut it down, so it's not overlong, but it only ended up feeling incomplete. Long doesn't necessarily make for overlong. So it all feels very rushed and at times like you missed a few scenes, even though you didn't. Humor was hit-and-miss (miss more often than hit), so injecting that much humor and copying Marvel was a really, really bad idea. Some is okay, sure, but don't make it feel so forced. The characters are very underdeveloped, if they didn't want to introduce them in their own movies, then give them more time in this one. These are just some really bad creative decisions. Another thing DCEU surprisingly doesn't nail at all is the villains (even though I'm in the minority who liked Jared Leto's Joker), as much as DC usually does. And Steppenwolf is the worst of them all. He's a CGI abomination who looks like he wandered in here from some PS3 game. He looks as bad as Incubus, but he's an even lamer character. There's barely a motivation, just a typical power- hungry alien and actually, you barely notice him. There's not one redeemable quality. Not one.
Now let's get to the positives. It's very fun and has some really epic moments that show what could have been. The actors fit their roles, the characters as underdeveloped as they may sometimes seem, are okay presented and each one has something to do or some unique quality to them. The plot is a lot more clear and cohesive than BvS and only so slightly less thin than The Avengers. And has some gorgeously shot moments with beautiful cinematography (Gotham City looks amazing). The score by Danny Elfman is a bit forgettable, but has some surprising nods to some older DC scores.
So, all in all, there are a lot of cons, but I think the pros outweigh them. Once again, a DC movie is judged to harshly. It's not great, and it's definitely ruined by the studio, but it's entertaining and considering how production went, it could have been worse.