‘Justice League’ Review Round-Up: Just The Ladies
Something is weird the land of Rotten Tomatoes. Justice League — the latest installment in the Warner Bros. superhero franchise — hits theaters this weekend. The embargo on critical reviews has been lifted. Yet the most well-known aggregator of critical consensus broken with tradition and is holding off putting up reviews, must less the infamous Tomatometer score for Justice League until Thursday. (As of this writing, Justice League has a score of 49 on Metacritic.
Now I have no idea why Rotten Tomatoes would do this, but I can hazard a guess. Rotten Tomatoes is currently owned by Fandango, a company that sells movie tickets. It stands to reason they’d want people to buy tickets to Justice League, which they might not do if the film ended up with a “Rotten” score. Rotten Tomatoes has also been without an Editor-In-Chief since Matt Atchity left in July. Add to that Warner Bros. owns Fandango in part and suddenly you can see a future where Rotten Tomatoes is just a promotional arm of Fandango, streamlined to boost ticket sales.
Or maybe not. Who knows? What I do know is that into the Rotten Tomatoes void, other websites are picking up the slack. There is no shortage of Justice League review round-ups. However, most of those round-ups skew heavily male. To combat this, I created a Twitter thread this morning to boost the voices of women and non-binary folks working in film criticism. Now I’m giving them an even bigger platform (hopefully) but converting said Twitter thread into this Medium piece. Without further ado, enjoy!
I lied. A little bit further ado. If you know of (or are) a woman or non-binary critic and would like to be in this round-up, let me know on Twitter! If you are an asshole sexist who thinks the world wants your opinions in the comments, I will fucking ban you.
WARNING: MINOR SPOILERS BELOW.
Title: Justice League Is Actually A Good Movie. Can You Believe It?
Author: Jamie Broadnax
Outlet: Black Girl Nerds
Link: https://blackgirlnerds.com/justice-league-review/
Excerpt: The film’s pacing maintains a steady momentum and is never too fast nor too slow. There’s a great setup of backstory given to Steppenwolf’s story arc delivered by Diana’s exposition to Bruce.[…] I had low expectations for this movie and was pleasantly surprised. Justice League delivers on its action, special effects, performance, and story.
Title: Justice League: A Fun And Fast-Paced Two Hours
Author: Danielle Solzman
Outlet: Cultured Vultures
Link: https://culturedvultures.com/justice-league-2017-review/
Excerpt: The good news for those on the fence is that the superhero team-up is fun and it’s a fast-paced two hours. That’s not to say that Justice League is a great film–because it isn’t–but it’s not the unwatchable mess that DC gave us with Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad.
Title: Justice League Has Something For Everyone…
Author: Tasha Robinson
Outlet: The Verge
Link: https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/15/16654362/justice-league-review-zack-snyder-joss-whedon-gal-godot-ben-affleck-ezra-miller
Excerpt: [T]aken as a whole, Justice League is often thrilling and rousing, with few of the outright infuriating twists that have made past DCEU movies so frustrating: the “Your mom’s name is Martha too?” miscalculations or “Superman destroys the city he’s trying to save” tone-deaf shenanigans. For once, the heroes have a relatively black-and-white battle ahead of them, without existential questions about whether humanity deserves saving.
Title: Justice League: Superheroes? More Like Super Zeroes
Author: Katie Walsh
Outlet: The Chicago Tribune
Link: http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/sc-mov-justice-league-rev-1114-20171114-story.html
Excerpt: Snyder brought a level of darkness and nihilism to this franchise, so it’s very, very strange that “Justice League” is as quippy as it is. No doubt this is due to the presence of Whedon, who takes a screenwriting credit, but it just does not fit with Snyder’s dour takes on the characters.
Title: It’s Already Time To Disband The Justice League
Author: Kate Taylor
Outlet: The Globe And Mail
Link: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/film-reviews/review-its-already-time-to-disband-justice-league/article36981081/
Excerpt: Big guns demand a big plot and Justice League provides it in the shape of an evil god who has been locked away for millennia but has now awoken for some half-explained reason to do with three ancient and radioactive stone boxes. If he can reunite the three boxes, he will actually destroy the entire world. Why he wants to isn’t clear.
Title: Justice League Leans Into The Fun
Author: Allison Shoemaker
Outlet: Consequence Of Sound
Link: https://consequenceofsound.net/2017/11/film-review-justice-league/
Excerpt: It’s perhaps best described as a Snyder Instagram post with a heavy Whedon filter applied over the top. If Justice League is a photo of your brunch, then it looks, sounds, and feels better than it actually is, because someone tweaked the hell out of it. It’s not as satisfying as it promises to be, but it’s still a passable breakfast.
Title: How Justice League Fails Wonder Woman
Author: Kristy Puchko
Outlet: SYFY Wire
Link: http://www.syfy.com/syfywire/how-justice-league-fails-wonder-woman?amp
Excerpt: Diana is wedged into the tiresome role of “the nag,” like nearly every token wife/mom/girlfriend character on TV sitcoms or male-fronted movies. Bruce says in his grumbly voice he has a plan, and Diana chimes in to poke holes in it.
Title: Not Even Wonder Woman Can Save Justice League
Author: Lindsey Bahr
Outlet: AP News
Link: https://www.apnews.com/bcabe3bcfb4b401ba6911800a8eb0771
Excerpt: Justice League feels labored, from a preposterous underwater battle that comes out of nowhere and the camaraderie between the superheroes that never clicks into place, to Batman’s lumbering gait (does the batsuit weigh 300 pounds?)
Title: Justice League: A Fun-Filled Ride With DC’s Iconic Heroes
Author: Britany Murphy
Outlet: Geeks Of Color
Link: https://geeksofcolor.co/2017/11/15/justice-league-a-fun-filled-ride-with-dcs-iconic-heroes-despite-its-flaws-non-spoiler-review/
Excerpt: Villain aside, the films shining trait is truly its ensemble cast. There were many moments where the banter between the superheroes was reminiscent of what always made me love the Justice League in both the comic books and the animated television series from the early 2000s.
Title: Justice League Is Aggressively Meh
Author: Courtney Howard
Outlet: Sassy Mama
Link: http://sassymamainla.com/2017/11/review-justice-league-aggressively-meh/
Excerpt: In stark contrast to the empowering feeling of WONDER WOMAN, JUSTICE LEAGUE’s treatment of female characters comes from a noticeably different place — a darker, mean-spirited one. Motivations behind a few of the action sequences are questionable. Women take the brunt of violence in the battles in Atlantis and Themyscira. There’s a marked change in the way these sequences are realized.
Title: Justice League Is A Mixed Bag…
Author: KT Schaefer
Outlet: Substream Magazine
Link: https://substreammagazine.com/2017/11/review-justice-league/
Excerpt: The bare bones of Snyder’s ideas and work are there, but everything from the lighting to the dialogue has been adjusted to fit a new dynamic and lighter tone. But for all that it isn’t a Joss Whedon film as we typically think of one, the two styles are blended in such a way that occasionally works unbelievably well but also clashes in bizarre and jarring ways.
Title: Uneven Justice League Stumbles
Author: Kristy Puchko*
Outlet: Comic Book Resources
Link: https://www.cbr.com/review-justice-league-stumbles/
Excerpt: With scenes careening into each other oblivious of momentum, tone or plot structure, it feels like a Frankenstein of a film. Clearly, cuts to some stories were sacrificed for a leaner runtime. Aquaman’s time in Atlantis is startlingly short, while The Flash and Cyborg’s backgrounds are rushed through so they can join the chase for a malevolent McGuffin.
*Puchko’s work appears twice as she wrote two reviews with different angles for two different outlets
Title: Justice League: A Beautiful, Tormented Mess
Author: Julia Alexander
Outlet: Polygon
Link: https://www.polygon.com/2017/11/15/16650996/justice-league-review-superman-wonder-woman-dc
Excerpt: Even during Justice League’s better scenes, however, it’s impossible to ignore the creeping feeling that something isn’t right. That something is powerful enough to distract from those periods of positivity.
Title: Justice League: A Safer (and Far Less Interesting) DC Superhero Movie
Author: Karen Han
Outlet: Slashfilm
Link: http://www.slashfilm.com/justice-league-review/
Excerpt: There are hints of that more interesting movie scattered throughout Justice League, primarily in the first hour, in which Zack Snyder’s touch is most visible. […] As the movie goes on, however, the film’s aesthetic grows less and less distinct, and the streaks of light that trail after each swing of Steppenwolf’s axe turn from being gorgeous to being boring videogame accoutrements.
Title: An Underwhelming Justice League Is Desperate To Impress
Author: Stephanie Zacherek
Outlet: TIME
Link: http://time.com/5026138/justice-league-review/
Excerpt: Justice League also ensures that just about everyone’s love affair with Gadot’s Wonder Woman will continue: Her smile alone, winsome and brainy, is enough to jolt the movie out of its dudecentric torpor.
