People are harsh.

The other day I finally got around to seeing Justice League and while I can’t say it was the greatest movie I’ve ever seen it’s not a bad film. I have to figure the biggest problem is meeting expectations and the expectations were so very high there was no way it wouldn’t disappoint.

As bad as people may think Justice League was, The Last Jedi was a far, far bigger stinker.

Justice League did a good job on a few counts... Aquaman, a character I can’t say I’ve ever been a huge fan of was pretty damn cool. Cyborg too wasn’t just relegated to some kind of secondary status, he was actually integral to the plot.

Probably the thing that killed Justice League besides the fact that expectations were so high is that the script itself was a bit weak. There was a lot to cram into a single movie, let’s remember... when Marvel released the Avengers, Iron Man, Captain America and Thor had all had very successful individual films that established a host of other characters as well.

Black Widow had already been in the Iron Man movies, Hawkeye had been in Thor (as well as the main baddie Loki) and a host of supporting characters had made appearances as well.

Warner Brothers in their infinite wisdom decided not to do that. It’s as simple as they couldn’t come up with a Cyborg standalone movie or an Aquaman standalone movie prior to running a Justice League movie.

The irony here is that earlier this year they made a Wonder Woman movie that was excellent and people were raving about. In every sense of the word, the Wonder Woman movie was a great success. Each of DCs movies to this point have been good, they’ve been entertaining if they haven’t exactly been what we would have imagined them to be.

Man of Steel is a good movie, it’s one of those movies that grows on you with additional watches although I can’t say that I’m crazy about Superman taking out Zod at the end but there is a lot to like about that movie from the stuff on Krypton at the beginning to the casting of Clark’s parents (Kevin Costner and...

I’m looking forward to the full version of Justice League that’s supposed to show up on HBO Max sometime soon.

 

Zack Snyder’s sensibilities aren’t for everyone but I have to say the Superman movie and Superman/Batman are better movies than people give them credit for and that’s because they’re the kind of movies that when you rewatch them you pick up more of those small details that are in there and that you likely didn’t catch the first time you saw them.

 

Justice League was weak to be sure, I don’t know if I’m all that crazy about how they’re handling the concept of the Motherbox in these films or how they put Steppenwolf so prominent in the movie but it was okay.

 

The thing is, these movies have to be more than okay now. It’s not enough for them to be okay alone.

 

DC is uncool in a lot of ways but when they hit it, they manage to do a great job and competition isn’t a bad thing especially where comic book movies are concerned.