Review of Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021) by Mykzreview — 18 Mar 2021

Ultimately, it's just... fine...

It's not a masterpiece like some hardcore fans of Snyder are claiming, it's just decent. Most of the interesting stuff was spoiled in the trailers and by Snyder himself, and the story is pretty identical to the 2017 version, just with more to fill in the time. The movie has a lot of pacing issues, they focus on the characters barely and then cut to something else, they don't just stick to one character for more than ten minutes, they do something and then cut to something else. Lois Lane pretty much does nothing in the movie, she's just there to be sad and to eventually talk to Superman. Most of the characters don't act like their comic book counterpart. Superman barely appears for like 10 minutes. There's too much set-up for future movies that will never happen. The VFX and CGI is awful at times, especially on Steppenwolf and Cyborg, although it's better than the 2017 CGI. The movie, like all Snyder movies, prioritizes cool visuals over substance. They gave Cyborg somewhat of an arc, but they didn't give one for Aquaman, Flash, Batman, Wonder Woman or Superman - those characters really don't change much. Cyborg seems to be the heart of this movie and I'm glad of it, he's a great character. The music also plays too loudly in scenes where it doesn't belong, like for example when Barry saves Iris or when Bruce recruits him. We barely get to see Martha react to her son dying, the only time we actually see Martha is Martian Manhunter pretending to be her, which wasn't even a surprising reveal because they spoiled it before the movie came out. Jared Leto as Joker was strangely awesome, I didn't expect him to do this good, but what happened to his "multiple looks" and his supposed scene in the doctor outfit we were teased about? Also, there's a big lack of Darkseid, we barely get name drops and see him a few times, which would be fine if we weren't teased about him and made to believe he's gonna be a big part of the movie. A lot of scenes from trailers seem to have been deleted because they weren't present in the movie. Also, TOO MUCH SLOW MOTION, like we get it - Snyder likes slow motion, but you could probably shave a good 30 minutes off the movie if you removed any unnecessary slo-mo shots. Anyways, the positive things are the actor's performances, the costume design and Snyder's cinematography and eye for visuals. Although the characters don't act like their comic selves, the actors do a phenomenal job of portraying them. Snyder fans seem to be disliking and hating on any negative review down here. Anyways, all I can say is I'm glad the movie exists because WB needs to learn not to mess with filmmakers visions.