Top 10 Wasted Opportunities With Justice League
DC had all the building blocks to make one of the greatest superhero movies of all time, but when they missed out on these opportunities the result became a muddled mess. WatchMojo presents the Top 10 Opportunities That Justice League Wasted! But what will take the top spot on our list? Will it be the inexcusably bad CGI, a waste of a villain, or wasting the talent of great actors? Watch to find out!
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#10: Not Enough Atlantis
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Though the Justice League disappointed in a variety of ways, it did deliver one big surprise in Jason Momoa's Aquaman. Long the butt of jokes in the comic book world, it would seem that, despite the odds… Aquaman totally works on the big screen. With his attitude and muscular build, Jason Momoa’s rugged Aquaman is a character we can’t wait to see more of. The thing is… we wish we’d already seen more of him AND his homeworld of Atlantis. This underwater kingdom feels fresh and exciting and would’ve been a welcome departure from the desolate, crumbling CGI battlescapes of the DCEU. We get that they’re saving it for the Aquaman film, but a little bit more world building would’ve gone a long way.
#9: Too Much CGI on Cyborg
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We are living in a world of technological marvels. Anything you can dream up, the wizards in the FX department can bring to life. But as any superhero fan knows: with great power comes great responsibility. Meaning that when it comes to CGI… less is often more. Ray Fisher delivered a solid performance as Cyborg considering the limited screen time and dialogue he was given, but it’s hard to appreciate it under all that post-production chrome. He’s just too shiny. Too jagged. Too complex a structure to ever mesh with the three-quarters of a human face that remains. We’re not saying they should’ve given him a physical costume, but a hybrid of practical elements and CGI or a simpler design might’ve been easier on the eyes.
#8: Adapt an Iconic Story
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Like Batman v Superman before it… Justice League was hard to follow. Perhaps they felt indebted to past films, but the folks at Warner Bros. really would’ve been better off learning from their mistakes and just telling a simple story. The basic plot is easy to summarize: Heroes unite to stop extra-dimensional being from destroying civilization as we know it. But ask for an explanation of how, why, and the various machinations of this plot and the answers become much more convoluted. Why were we treated to this mess of a story rather than a classic Justice League arc? Or why not just adapt the simple New 52 “Origin” story that actually uses Darkseid?
#7: Let Joss Whedon be Joss Whedon
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When tragedy struck in Zack Snyder’s life, the director understandably needed to step down from his film work to focus on what matters most - his family. Avengers director Joss Whedon had already been working with Snyder to rewrite some scenes, and in the end, the reins were handed over to him to finish the race. Whedon knows how to make a comic book team-up movie - he basically set the standard. Unfortunately, as insiders tell it, Whedon was forced to keep the movie under a certain running time, largely maintain Snyder’s direction, and, perhaps worst of all, wasn’t allowed to trust his gut, allegedly being forced to follow the dictates of the studio. Whedon isn’t perfect, but we know he can deliver when given enough control.
#6: Not Enough Character Development
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Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman. Before the dawn of the MCU, these were undeniably some of the biggest and most recognizable names from the world of comics. They still saturate popular culture, but as far as cinema goes… they’re lagging behind. The sad truth is, while these icons have decades worth of character development in the comics, in the DCEU… they’re rather flat (with the exception of Wonder Woman, thanks to Patty Jenkins’ film). We get that Justice League had to accomplish a lot in 2 hours, but for a film to succeed, you need character arcs, and in this flick, those ranged from paper thin to non-existent - and these complex heroes deserved better.
#5: A More Focused Tone & Direction
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As we’ve said, if Warner Bros. wanted Joss Whedon to take over, they should have eaten the loss and given him full creative control, allowing him to reshape and reshoot the film as he saw fit. If not, then they should’ve remained entirely faithful to Snyder’s apparently lengthy vision, and instead had people from his camp complete said vision exactly as he intended it. The end result we got… feels like a film directed by two separate directors - you know, because that’s what it was. One scene is Snyder-level grim and gritty, the next is that trademark Whedon comedy. Both can work, and both make for a compelling superhero flick, but both smashed together? Not so much.
#4: The Characters Felt Dumbed Down
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Not every character can get an arc, but they all need basic development at the very least, especially when they’ve already been developed in past films. For all its faults, “Man of Steel” made us feel for the wandering Clark Kent. In Justice League, he was supposed to be the righteous hero people had been waiting for… but felt like little more than a cardboard cutout. Wonder Woman was the biggest offender though. The world fell in love with Gal Gadot’s well-rounded believable heroine in her solo outing. Sadly… that Wonder Woman is nowhere to be found. Across the board, it felt like the actors were trying to give personality to characters who had been written as blank canvases.
#3: A Villain No One Cares About
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A quick Google search will turn up countless lists of DC baddies that fans want to see on the big screen, but you’d be hard-pressed to find Steppenwolf on any of them. He’s a powerful character, but a C-list villain at best, and one that only functions in relation to Darkseid. While it’s all well and good to “build up” to your universe’s big bad, the stepping stone villains need to be able to hold their own. Hardly anyone knows who this guy is… and even the hardcore DC fans that did recognize him were asking... “why?.” The generic way he was written, from his dialogue to his motivations, likely didn’t earn him any new fans.
#2: Bafflingly Poor CGI
When is the last time that you really thought about the CGI in a Marvel movie? Sure, there might be the odd, fleeting moment when the movement feels too smooth and artificial, but for the most part, they allow you to suspend your sense of disbelief almost completely. Justice League, on the other hand, often felt like a video game trailer. Steppenwolf was just one big, living, breathing reminder of the fact that we were looking at CGI.He just lacked real-world grit and therefore always felt… fake. Add to that the oddly colored computer-rendered landscapes and you get a film that feels painfully surreal, and therefore, deflects emotional investment. Don’t get us started on their mustache removal skills.
#1: Great Actors Doing Nothing
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Of all the ways in which “Justice League” felt like a wasted opportunity, the criminally underutilized talent is perhaps the most glaring. Gadot has proven herself relatable as Wonder Woman but is all but gutted in this film. Affleck, Fisher, Miller, and Momoa have all proven themselves to be capable and compelling actors in past roles. They each seemingly did the best they could, but the material just wasn’t there. The supporting cast is even more insultingly under-utilized. Jeremy Irons, J.K. Simmons, Amy Adams, Diane Lane, Billy Crudup, and more - this film is jam-packed with brilliant actors given bad dialogue and little screen time. And let’s face it: any film that cuts Willem Dafoe… has made a huge mistake.