Justice League review round-up: Critics call the DCEU movie 'consistently embarrassing' and 'rotten'

Reviewers compared the film harshly to Wonder Woman

Considering how well-received Wonder Woman has been, many critics were open to Justice League being Batman and Superman’s redeeming hour.

Unfortunately, though, the reviews have been released and they’re quite scathing. Many have called Zack Snyder and Joss Whedon’s flick a step-up from Batman v Superman but a huge tumble down from Wonder Woman.

In a two-star review, The Guardian calls Justice League “ponderous and cumbersome” and Empire says “it dives headlong into a scrappy, Swiss-cheese plot”.

Perhaps the most brutal remarks come from The Telegraph, who awarded Justice League a single star, their critic remarking: “It’s consistently embarrassing to watch, and features plot holes so yawningly vast they have a kind of Grand Canyon-like splendour.”

On a somewhat better note, Entertainment Weekly praised the chemistry between the main heroes, while IndieWire notes “Gadot manages to escape unscathed”.

Multiple reviews have spoken at length about the CGI effects, calling them unfinished and unpolished, particularly those regarding villain Steppenwolf.

Read segments of the reviews below. Justice League reaches cinemas 17 November.

Geoffrey Macnab - The Independent - 2/5

“I am working with children,” Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) sighs in mock exasperation toward the end of Zack Snyder’s Justice League. She has a point. This is surely the most infantile of recent superhero yarns - a film that squanders the talents of an impressive ensemble cast and eschews any meaningful characterisation in favour of ever more overblown special effects.

Peter Bradshaw - The Guardian - 2/5

In the end, though, there is something ponderous and cumbersome about Justice League; the great revelation is very laborious and solemn and the tiresome post-credits sting is a microcosm of the film’s disappointment. Some rough justice is needed with the casting of this franchise.

Dan Jolin - Empire - 2/5

It’s breezily fun at times, in a what-the-hey way. But, lumbered with a story that struggles to find resonance beyond its improbable plot devices and preposterous MacGuffinry, Justice League isn’t about to steal Avengers’ super-team crown.

Robbie Collin - The Telegraph - 1/5

Justice League feels like a sheepish feature-length retraction of the franchise to date. It’s consistently embarrassing to watch, and features plot holes so yawningly vast they have a kind of Grand Canyon-like splendour: part of you wants to hang around to see what they look like at sunset.

Owen Gleiberman - Variety

The climactic battle is rooted in the corporeal — lots of gut punches and swinging broadswords. How does one defeat the other? The same way that everything else happens in a movie like “Justice League”: by looking fierce and staying with the program.

Richard Lawson - Vanity Fair

Perhaps the Justice League franchise really has been rotten from the start, experiencing not evolution but entropy, with Wonder Woman standing as an anomalous glimmer of false hope. I could be projecting, but boy does poor Gal Gadot look so sad in Justice League, watching this lumbering and witless movie lay waste to the nice thing she just got finished making. It really is a shame. What a dumb irony, to end this movie, of all movies, on a note of bitter injustice like that.

Jordan Farley - Total Film - 2/5

Justice League’s most significant shortcoming is how forgettable it all is. There’s barely a moment that sticks, not a single sequence to rival the standout superhero set-pieces of recent years. Say what you will about Batman v Superman, but at least it had ambition and vision.

Todd McCarthy - The Hollywood Reporter

[Zack] Snyder and [Joss] Whedon guide it all with the usual heavy hand and with a visual style that's both gloomy and garish. Many shots are elaborated upon with effects-powered pools of disco-era lighting, zig-zaggy electrical charges and visualized power currents that fill in the compositions in unattractive ways.

Mike Ryan - Uproxx

This Justice League in a post-Wonder Woman world is really a drag. Obviously, we all know the DC films will look radically different after Justice League as Warner Bros. takes these films in a new direction, but that doesn’t mean this movie isn’t a huge letdown.

Chris Nashawaty - Entertainment Weekly - C+

Some day, hopefully soon, DC will get the recipe right again and duplicate Wonder Woman’s storytelling magic. But today isn’t that day, and Justice League unfortunately isn’t that film.

Eric Kohn - IndieWire - C

As a pure ride, Justice League nicely panders to the lowest common denominator of moviegoing expectations, and Gadot manages to escape unscathed. Now in her third round as Wonder Woman, she elevates the movie whenever she’s onscreen, twirling her lasso of truth and staring down each threat as if her symbolism of feminist rage was immune to lackluster product.

Matt Goldberg - Collider - D+

The only thing that “saves” Justice League is a low bar and more promises.