Just stop the DC universe, it's already beyond saving

Rating: 3/10 (20 November 2017)

I really love DC, I don't love their movies
Wonder Woman inspired hope that there really could be something salvageable in the DC cinematic universe but this film just ripped all that away.
The film itself isn't completely awful, there are some great scenes particularly when superman fights off the other members of the league, but really the movie has much more bad than good. It has characters that have never been introduced, and not just minor characters, major members of the League itself. Some characters are not present at all *cough* Green Lantern *cough* for no other reason than just that they aren't there. Because of these notable absences of both characters and characterisation and backstory, the film shoe horns in barely related content such as Atlantis and Jim Gordon just to show the audience that they exist, they add nothing to the movie. Superman is brought back in the most generic boring way possible, and now, because he died so early on, stakes go out the window. No one cares if a character dies because A. we don't know who they are and B. They can just be brought back whenever.
Steppenwolf is a terrible villain on multiple levels. His presence is never felt during the film. If he's not on screen he might as well not exist. He doesn't feel like a threat, especially compared with Loki in the first Avengers film. Secondly he is quite clearly related to Darksied, the big bad of the DC universe, which means when Darksied does eventually show up we've seen pretty much seen him already, as Steppenwolf is from the same place, uses the same henchman, and has the same goals. The film manages to simultaneously have a terrible villain and ruin a future villain.
The after credits scene also suffers. Most after credits scenes are either a setup for future events or a little extra comedy and Justice League utilises both. The latter is actually decent, featuring the Flash and Superman gearing up for a race, it's harmless fun. The former however is terrible, it has Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor (the worst casting choice in the history of super hero movies) and a never before seen Deathstroke, scheming about forming a league of villains. This doesn't work because other than these two characters and Jared Leto's joker, there are no other villains in the DC Universe! If we had seen other movies such as Aquaman or Flash we would have villains like Black Manta or Captain Cold who could conceivably join the injustice league but we haven't so no hype is built up.
With all this in mind, Justice League doesn't feel like an event. When the Avengers came out it was a spectacle, all these characters who had either had there own movies or been in other movies came together to fight a big bad. Justice League is 3 characters we've seen before, three we've never seen before, and one who isn't even in the film. It's disjointed scenes trying to give as much backstory as possible, never focusing on the imminent threat until the third act. It shows how an improper and rushed setup for a cinematic universe eventually leads to failure.
Seriously, why wasn't Green Lantern in this movie??? they had three other characters we've never seen before in it! What difference would one more make???
THEY HAD DEATHSTROKE INSTEAD OF GREEN LANTERN!?!?!