Pretty Good!!

Rating: 8/10 (25 November 2017)

Was Justice League everything I was hoping for? Nope! There are some things I would've wanted done differently, but I could say that about a lot of movies, so I am trying to judge this by the content we got and not the content I wanted.
So I gave it 8 stars, and that seems pretty high considering all the hate the movie is getting. It definitely doesn't deserve higher in my opinion, but I don't really see it deserving less than a 5 either. My favorite thing about this movie was the cast, by far. Henry Cavill and Gal Gadot are fantastic. Ben Affleck is really good too. I've always been kind of on the edge with his portrayal of Batman. It is not always my cup of tea, but I enjoyed him in this movie. Ray Fisher did okay as Cyborg. I'll expand on my opinion of Cyborg later in the review. Jason Momoa as Aquaman was interesting (he will also come up again later in the review). And lastly Ezra Miller was fine as the Flash. I did have a hard time adjusting to Miller's version of the Flash, as I am a very bug fan of Grant Gustin's version in the CW TV show. That being said, he did a good job! It just took some adjusting since his character seems particularly socially awkward compared to Gustin's portrayal which seems very extroverted by comparison. So Miller did not do bad at all, and I did like it!
So for anyone who hasn't guessed, I have severely limited comic knowledge. My full knowledge is based on the CW shows (which I understand is not a good source for comic relevance) and some of the post-New 52 Batman comics. As such, I know basically nothing about Aquaman or Cyborg coming into this movie. I know that Aquaman is from Atlantis and that he can survive underwater, and that is the extent of my knowledge. Cyborg...I have absolutely no knowledge of ahead of time, aside from his appearance in the original Teen Titans animated series. Characters such as Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman are easy to follow because (for the men at least) their stories are iconic, and everyone has some inkling of an idea of who they are, what happened to them, and what they can do (and for Wonder Woman, her standalone movie obviously does a fantastic job informing everyone of her story). I felt the same with the Flash, since I have knowledge from the CW show, which seems to share a vaguely similar origin story with the version seen in the movie. This leaves us with Aquaman and Cyborg as our outliers. I enjoyed their portrayals, and I was interested in their characters, but I had no real attachment to either of them. That is one of my biggest complaints. As much as the public seems to be against superhero origin movies anymore, I feel like these two deserved to have one. Their histories are not widely known by people who are not faithful comic readers, and as such, some more information regarding them would have been nice going into this movie. Just something extra so that I have more reason to care about what happens to them.
My other main gripe with Justice League is the main villain. And lets be clear, I actually liked Steppenwolf as the villain, I found him kind of interesting overall. However, he was, overall, forgettable. He did not receive enough screen time for me to really get to understand or care about his motivations. I feel like the best kind of villain is one that is either coherent enough that I understand why they are doing what they are doing (maybe I'm even rooting for them in a way), or crazy enough that they are frightening and need to be taken down. Steppenwolf wasn't crazy really, nor did I really follow his plan too well. But he was kind of scary, so I was alright with him overall. What I did not like was his disposable army. But, I feel anyone who complains about it in this movie and not in Marvel's The Avengers is hypocritical. Both movies have the same fault that there is this army helping the main villain, yet they are not helpful to him in the least, and our heroes pretty much don't even really struggle against them. This is something that many movies like this do, so I'm trying not to be too harsh on it. The CGI isn't top notch either, but it did end up being better than I expected.
All things considered - this movie is fun. For the most part, the jokes land well, the characters are interesting, and the story is still enjoyable. Aside from one or two odd lines of dialogue and two extremely goofy Batman reactions to something happening, I think the movie was great. It had a decent plot and a fun cast. It wasn't perfect, but it set up the future of DC movies pretty well, and I left the theatre pleasantly surprised. I don't mean to compare it to Marvel, as it is indeed different, but I'd say it was *at least* as good Avengers: Age of Ultron. Probably a little better. So, in that comparison: there was a lot that could be improved, but in no way would I ever say this movie was bad. It was good, and even though it didn't completely blow me away, I still feel comfortable saying that I 100% recommend it, because it was still fun, different, and a positive direction for the DCEU.