Not bright enough, not big enough - better than feared, worse than hoped

Rating: 5/10 (17 November 2017)

As a superhero fan since about 1984, and a big-time collector of superhero comics (although - full disclosure - admittedly a Marvel fan primarily), I consider myself to be in a position to judge just how successful this live action Justice League movie is. Had this come out some ten or fifteen years ago, it would have been a pretty awesome JL movie. It would have looked expensive and edgy, and most things about it would have felt fresh. Sadly, it has come out in 2017, as a too little, too late, too rushed and too cheap wanna-be movie, enormously ruined by its association with the absolutely horrible train-wreck that men call "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice". Horrified by the negative reactions to "BvS", JL producers (or suits, more likely) scrambled to change the planned story of this movie, basically cutting it up and throwing away the dark second half (you can check out the leaked original plot in Youtube videos), to replace it with an ill-fitting brighter second half, in which we get a much brighter and "gooder" Superman than we saw in "BvS", courtesy of Joss Whedon's frantic but disappointing attempt to save the movie via damage control. And, while I think that all the changes have probably been for the better considering what we would have gotten from the original Snyder vision, that doesn't stop this movie from feeling choppy and terribly structured, with a plot (and villain) that isn't very interesting and just amounts to a lot of time-wasting. Lots of action and explosions, but very little story or character development.
What chiefly dissatisfies me is that the movie just isn't cosmic enough. Why didn't they pour on the whole Darkseid thing? They should have pulled out all the stops! They are in competition with bloody Marvel Studios, which race onward with one amazing movie after the other while DC is standing still and scratching its behind. They should have gone for bigger and brighter, and poured more money into it, hiring more competent talent, especially regarding the writing. But it's DC. They do stupid things by force of habit (sorry, but they do. Many many people think so).
Well, at least this movie isn't a total loss. I expected the worst, but there were quite a few things in the movie I liked (and, of course, more things I disliked. Why didn't we see more of Mera?). I particularly liked Cyborg, with his alien tech that kept evolving and producing new super-tech powers for him. That was cool, especially since I felt that he would be one of the toughest characters to make work. Besides the lack of arcs and development, I didn't have problems with the other characters, but I'll emphasize that I really loved Wonder Woman. She was a total inspiration. She succeeded in giving you the feeling that she would absolutely have your back, and truly care about you all the while, whether you were an innocent bystander or a comrade in arms. She embodies all the admirable and feminine qualities of mother, sister, lover and protector, and that is a heck of an achievement. The movie is worth watching for her alone.
I hear that some people really like this movie, as in giving it 8 or 9 stars out of 10. Good for them. For me it was a bit of a hollow experience; something with the potential to be so much more. I rate it 6 stars out of 10, which means slightly above average, compared with other movies of its type. No classic, but conceivably something I'll want to watch again sometime. It's a shame Whedon couldn't do more to save it. Ultimately, I think they should have just redone the whole movie from scratch rather than changing it into a sort of happy zombie version of the original version. Who knows, maybe some form of the original cut will make it onto an eventual disc release. I doubt it will be better, but it will certainly be interesting.