Decent, but Disappointing

Rating: 6/10 (20 November 2017)

I am one of the few who has enjoyed the quirky darkness of the DCEU films, flaws and all. Marvel's films are just about pitch perfect, and I love that, but I liked the fact that the DC films took risks and set out to do something different. So it was not welcome news to me that Suicide Squad reshoots were being done to make it more funny, or that Justice League was going to move in the direction of being more lighthearted.
The primary flaws with Justice League are as follows:

The "lighthearted and funny" icing is applied scattershot across the whole film. As a result, they lost some of the distinctiveness of the characters. Let the dedicated comic relief characters like the Flash carry that aspect of the film. Batman should be dark, driven and frightening. This Batman was practically in Joel Schumacher territory compared to the excellent portrayal in Batman vs Superman.

The villain is an action figure. Totally unconvincing, totally disposable.

Because there has been no investment in solo films, only Superman has some genuine context and depth, and even that has been rushed. The guy has been alive, dead and alive again in three movies, only one of which was his own film.

Why does Aquaman have such a cowboy attitude? Would Aquaman really throw an empty liquor bottle into the ocean? Why is Cyborg so upset about not being dead? Did he have, like, a promising future in football or something? Who knows? They just show up, and off they go.

The ending is superhero movie paint-by-numbers. If I see another film where the superheroes have to fight through total chaos near a giant beam of energy going into the sky in order to save earth from an interdimensional/alien threat, I am going to lose my mind. They all look and feel and end exactly the same.

The movie just feels very superficial and flat. Knowing that Affleck has yet to make a Batman film and they are already losing a grip on what made his character work is depressing. I can see why he wants out.

What worked:

Superman, once they take 5 hyper-compressed minutes to straighten him out, is pretty awesome. Batman's contingency plan is fairly surprising. I expected Kryptonite weaponized something-or-other.

Godot as Wonder Woman is still working well. Her fight scenes are not as impressive as in the solo film, but she makes it through Justice League with the gains of previous appearance intact. Her banter with Batman and how she responds late in the film are highlights that bring some genuine forward movement and depth to the character.

The Flash is well-defined as a personality. He still suffers from minimal context and history, but it works for the purposes of the film.

Given the production challenges, the movie holds together well and manages to get some traction.

In short, this is a barely adequate film by creators who have lost their confidence and are trying to mimic the successes of other franchises instead of continuing to blaze a new path. I'm pretty bummed about that.