Justice League was perhaps doomed before the film was even announced. Due to polarizing and critically panning reviews of Batman V Superman and Suicide Squad, but universal acclaim for Wonder Woman, the weight of the financial success but mixed critical success of the DC Heroes Universe films proved perhaps too much for Warner Brothers, who, once again, found a way to screw audiences out of what could have been a great movie. When Warner Bros. decided not to cut anything from Wonder Woman and let the film keep its 140 minute run time, the critics and fans got a film with its full vision realized. When they forced heavy cuts and reshoots for Suicide Squad and Batman V Superman, it heavily impeded on the films’ respective visions and was turned into something that was confusing and messy. That case is the same for Justice League.
This film has bright moments whenever it took time to try to develop the characters and their interactions together. However, the film’s final theatrical cut was ultimately choppy, unfinished in its visual effects and missing a lot of meat that could obviously be noticed that there was a deeper better and darker movie that was originally planned. The original cut for this film was 2 hours and 50 minutes. The cut audiences got was a 2 hour cut that moved way too fast and spent little time in developing its narratives and new characters. It hurts my heart because The ultimate 3 Hour cut of Snyder’s original vision for Batman V Superman was damn near perfect and showed potential of what made this universe stand out. The same was for Wonder Woman that took the time it needed to introduce us to the characters and the world presented around them.
Justice League is a sad example of a film with small moments that are fantastic when coming to the characters but lacking in the things that might have been filmed and put into an original cut but ultimately violated and cut by dumbass studio executives, who care more about a shorter movie to sell more tickets for more showtimes than creating a rewatchable 3 hour superhero triumph that could have been. There are flashes of greatness in Justice League. The casting is perfect and there is hope still for this universe to succeed. But it begins with the studios not getting their hands on the final cut and letting the directors continue on their vision for this universe to succeed.
Justice League gets a C