NPR

'Justice League' Is Just Okay

Various heroes meet for the first time to face down a generic, CGI-generated villain who wants to collect ancient boxes. Think Antiques Roadshow, but loud and evil. (... More evil.)
<em>Later, at the Hall of Just-Us</em>: The Flash (Ezra Miller), Batman (Ben Affleck), and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) stand prepared in <em></em><em>Justice League</em>.

Howard Hawks, whose four-dozen-feature filmography didn't include a single superhero flick, had a formula for success: "Three great scenes and no bad ones." Justice League, the DC Comics movie-verse's inevitable all-star-charity-single-team-up catch-up movie, has at least three pretty good scenes and, um ... maybe we can just talk about those for a while. They're enough to average things out to roughly a C-grade B-movie wherein all involved fully satisfy their contractual obligations. Isn't that inspiring?

Bringing in maestro Joss Whedon — who is credited as a writer, but who directedand director Zack Snyder had to step away due to a family tragedy — is a lot like having J.J. Abrams do and there oughtta be a law. But the stuff that works in if only just, bears his stamp. It also sticks out from the material that Snyder started shooting 19 months ago like strapping Clark Kent in a newsroom full of pasty, soft-bellied bloggers.

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