After three misses and one hit, the DCEU was in desperate need of another critical and financial success. However, with a 39% on Rotten Tomatoes and a $94 million opening weekend box office (the lowest of any DCEU film), many are already dubbing Justice League a failure of epic proportions.
We here at Epicstream found plenty to love about the film, but that doesn’t mean we weren’t able to see its flaws, as well. With that being said, here are Justice League’s 5 most glaring offenses:
Danny Elfman’s Score
Critics may be divided on the quality of the films, themselves, but many are in agreement that the DCEU has been home to some incredible movie scores. Hans Zimmer’s Man of Steel score is both inspirational and heroic, and his collaboration with Junkie XL on Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is appropriately dark and thunderous. Meanwhile, Rupert Gregson-Williams was able to craft something that truly encapsulates the power, grace, and ferocity of the Amazons with his Wonder Woman score, and even Steven Price’s Suicide Squad score has its moments.
As for Justice League, Danny Elfman’s score isn’t necessarily bad. However, unlike those that came before it, it’s far from memorable. In fact, the only parts that really to stick out, at least upon first listening, are the ’89 Batman and ’78 Superman homages, which actually err on the side of distracting.
Having a subpar score isn’t detrimental to the quality of Justice League in and of itself, but considering Junkie XL was canned in favor of Elfman, it’s certainly disappointing.
Steppenwolf
The DCEU hasn’t had the greatest luck when it comes to villains. Admittedly, Michael Shannon’s General Zod was outstanding and Jesse Eisenberg’s divisive take on Lex Luthor still has its fair share of supporters, but not even the voice talents of Ciarán Hinds could save Steppenwolf, who’s somehow even less compelling than the Enchantress and more visually unrefined than Doomsday.
To the film’s credit, Steppenwolf’s motivations are abundantly clear, if not painfully generic, but that’s only because he never fails to mention them whenever he’s on-screen. And wanting to collect the Mother Boxes is all well and good, but the way he affectionately refers to them as “Mother” is disturbing; not in the eerie super-villain way but more so in the Mike Pence calling his wife “Mother” way.
The bland nature of the character wouldn’t be so damning if he at least looked imposing. However, the unconvincing CGI leaves much to be desired, especially considering Justice League’s ridiculously bloated budget. In fact, that brings us to our next point…
#MustacheGate
$300 million: That’s Justice League’s estimated production budget. That’s $50,000 more than Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Yes, extensive reshoots are the primary contributing factor, but it’s still unfathomable that with so much money being pumped into this film, Warner Bros. would give the green light to Henry Cavill’s laughably bad CGI upper lip.
For the uninformed, Cavill had grown a mustache for his role in the upcoming Mission: Impossible 6, and despite needing to reshoot most of his Justice League scenes under Joss Whedon, he was contractually obligated by Paramount to keep his facial hair. WB decided the appropriate course of action would be to digitally remove the mustache, and the end result was painfully distracting nearly every time Cavill appeared on-screen.
It’s not even that you can tell that his mustache was removed. In fact, even if you had no knowledge of the situation, you’d still realize that something was off (i.e. the uncanny valley), as Cavill simply doesn’t look like himself. What’s more, the process of waxing up his facial hair to make room for the motion capture dots exacerbates the issue whenever Cavill speaks, as the curve of his upper lip doesn’t move as if it’s separate to the rest of his face.
Obviously, WB had a lot of work to do and a very short timeframe to do it, so this isn’t entirely the fault of the VFX artists. Still, one can’t help but wonder if the de-mustachioed Man of Steel would have been passable had those doing the CGI been given the adequate time and resources.
Choppy Editing
Remember when Batman battles a parademon in the beginning of the film, realizes he needs to head north to recruit Aquaman, and then somehow has a full beard when he arrives at that village? Did it take him a month or two to get there? Sadly, the answer is that the rooftop scene, while incredible in its own right, was one of Whedon’s reshoots that was hastily placed just before a scene that appeared all the way back in the 2016 Comic-Con International sizzle reel.
Maybe if this were the only instance of choppy editing, it wouldn’t be as big of an issue. However, there are also several instances where it’s clear that expository dialogue and key moments from the trailers were cut from the film. This, of course, is because Warner Bros. CEO Kevin Tsujihara mandated that Justice League needed a runtime that clocked in at less than two hours, but much like we learned with the BvS Ultimate Edition, leaving things on the cutting room floor may have come at the expense of the theatrical viewing experience.
It’s A Product Of Two Directors, And It Shows
Zack Snyder and Joss Whedon are two tonally and stylistically different directors. Snyder’s films are known for their unique and stylized approach to action sequences, while Whedon’s are known for their self-aware dialogue and dry humor. That being said, it’s abundantly clear in Justice League which scenes were shot by Snyder and which were shot by Whedon.
To be fair, having another director on-board for reshoots isn’t necessarily detrimental to the end product. During the filming of 2016’s Rogue One, Disney and Lucasfilm weren’t satisfied with the first cut that Gareth Edwards delivered so they brought in Tony Gilroy to oversee massive reshoots, and that film was largely praised by fans and critics. However, when it’s so apparent which director did what, it can be distracting, and given the dichotomy between Snyder and Whedon, it’s no surprise that Justice League has something of an identity crisis.
Nevertheless, Justice League is still a great overall film, and while it’s not without flaws, it’s certainly not worthy of the critical and financial beating it’s currently taking.