WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
Justice League came out on Friday, November 17th, and the much-awaited movie had groups lined up outside theaters to watch a group of kick-ass superheroes slay. I was lucky enough to see a matinee, so my friend and I had wonderful seats on opening day and got to see the movie in all its glory (…and with all its flaws). Here’s what I have to say about it.
1. Wonder Woman didn’t slay enough
Wonder Woman, AKA Diana Prince, played by Gal Gadot, is a wonderful character. And yet, Zack Snyder didn’t do her quite enough *ahem* justice. Yes, she is given the most important “kill” in the movie, but it’s not without help. Yes, this is a team movie, but we still didn’t see enough of her kicking butt. Also, when Superman was brought back (*gasp!* I thought DC would wait at least two movies!) he appeared stronger than Diana. As in, much stronger, much more powerful, and much more skilled.
DC. What. Are. You. Doing?
Diana is an actual goddess. Sure, Superman’s Kryptonian DNA is soooo powerful (*knee-slap*), but it should still have nothing on Diana’s goddess blood. Yes, they fought, and she held her own, but honestly? She should have slayed him. She has been trained by Amazons her whole life for war, and Superman’s one epic battle pales in comparison to her lifetime of experience. He fought other Kryptonians, while she destroyed the god of war. Even with Superman’s epic diversity in his powers, it shouldn’t have even been a contest.
And for all of you who want to point out “but one time Superman absorbed the sun! He is strong enough to punch through dimensions!” Fine. But that has not been brought into DC’s cinematic universe yet. At this point, Diana should be able to slay him without even breaking a sweat.
2. It failed the Bechdel test
The Bechdel test is a scale for works of fiction that has only one requirement: that two female characters have a conversation about something other than a man. And Justice League failed. The only conversation between two women was a discussion between Lois Lane and Martha Kent about Martha’s living situation. Of course, the elephant in the room was Clark, and what Martha was going to do without him. The whole point of this test is to require more than one token female, and make sure that the female characters aren’t there just to advance the romantic plot of the man.
3. It was too ambitious
The reason Marvel has been so successful is that they started small, built up their characters individually, then grouped them together in the Avengers. Since we cared about each character alone, we cared even more about them as a group. Only Superman and Wonder Woman have had their own solo films, so the Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg didn’t have enough backstory or character development to make their characters compelling. We didn’t know their stories (I loved Ezra Miller’s Flash, but that’s because I already know a lot about his story, so DC didn’t have to do much to make me care about him). Batman, of course, has been the central focus of both Batman Versus Superman and now Justice League, so we already know quite a bit about him.
Essentially, DC’s Justice League needed two things to make it a great superhero movie: more background and more feminism.