Better than Batman vs Superman, but that’s not saying much.

Let’s not kid ourselves, filmmaking isn’t easy. The sheer volume of blood, sweat, and tears that go into putting a movie together makes it nothing short of miraculous that they ever get made in the first place. Therefore, when news breaks that a film’s production has hit the buffers, it just feels so inevitable.

Like a car crash, a troubled film production holds a morbid fascination and consequently, in an era that thrives on easily consumed tragedy, the mere whiff of trouble can signal the beginning of the end for any movie. However, production troubles needn’t be the end of the world as, with many things in life, shit happens. It’s how you bounce back from that shit that’ll ultimately define your success.

While cinema history is chock-full of troubled productions, few will have come complete with Justice League’s drama or inflated price tag. With Zack Snyder vacating directorial duties (under admittedly tragic circumstances), to be replaced by Joss Whedon; alarm bells had already begun to ring and, as extensive and expensive eleventh-hour reshoots were ordered, panic levels were rapidly reaching melting point. Several months, a rumoured $25 million added to the budget, and one bizarre moustache custody battle later; and the long-awaited DC team up had finally limped over the line.

With their wallet still stinging and the critical pummelling of Batman vs Superman still ringing in their ears, however; could DC pull off a minor miracle and offer something great despite the problems? Or will the comic book giant be their own worst enemy yet again?

As the world continues to mourn the tragic death of Superman (Henry Cavill), Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) takes inspiration from his sacrifice to build a team capable of defending the world Kal-El swore to protect. Enlisting the help of newfound ally, Diana Prince (Gal Gadot), Batman must work quickly to recruit a team of metahumans to help fight a newly awakened danger. With the threat of the powerful Steppenwolf now upon them, this unprecedented team of heroes must put their fears, differences, and egos aside in order to protect the planet from an assault of apocalyptic proportions.

If saying Justice League is a better film than Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice sounds like the very definition of damning with faint praise, that’s because it is. It really, really is. On almost every conceivable level, Batman vs Superman was a catastrophic disappointment and, for the first ever big screen meeting between two of the world’s the most iconic superheroes, it fell woefully short of expectations. What should’ve been a glittering piece of cinema history, quickly turned into such an anti-climax that the ramifications were both catastrophic and extensive.

As that film’s direct sequel, not only is the pressure on Justice League to perform almost unbearable, but the lingering, bitter taste that BvS left in its wake will be hard to shift. For Justice League to enjoy any success, something dramatic had to happen and through director swaps, hastily lightened tone, and hefty reshoots; dramatic is precisely what Warner Bros got – just not in the way they’d have hoped.

Stopping just short of a Batman vs Superman’s total meltdown, Justice League nevertheless inherits many of its predecessor’s glaring weaknesses and, after Wonder Woman’s positive steps forward, it’s truly frustrating to see DC let themselves slip back into old habits. This is yet another misstep in a long line of missteps for both DC and Warner Bros, and the more it continues, the more Wonder Woman’s singular joys feel like a fluke.

For all its faults however, Justice League is far from a lost cause and, hidden beneath the glaring problems, there’s a fun film in there somewhere. Let’s not kid ourselves here, the characters Justice League offers up are among the most iconic in pop culture history so the pure, primal joy of witnessing them stand shoulder-to-shoulder is hard to ignore.

It’s been a long, long wait for fans to reach the point where Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash and…yes…even Aquaman sharing screen time is no longer the stuff of geek fever dreams, but a bona fide reality; and there’s something deeply gratifying in that. Sometimes life is about the simple pleasures and, while it ultimately feels a bit hollow, witnessing this collection of comic book legends duke it out, is enough to set an old nerd’s heart aflutter all on its own.

This novelty of seeing the team together will only get you so far, however, and does little to hide the cracks in a fundamentally flawed film. Justice League’s problems are dispiritingly numerous, but they stem largely from one source – a jarringly mismatched tone. Any film shot by two separate directors will always have its issues, but to have Joss Whedon and Zack Snyder – two vastly different filmmakers – steer the ship, is just asking for trouble.

The film just doesn’t know what it wants to be, and as it rapidly descends into a sinkhole of sloppiness, no amount of fan service can mask its inconsistencies. Justice League is a corporate Frankenstein’s monster of a movie and the worst example of Hollywood’s horrible habit of second-guessing. Warner Bros aren’t the first (and certainly won’t be the last) studio to dabble in inadvertent self-sabotage; yet, after the horror stories surrounding Batman vs Superman and Suicide Squad, things are becoming difficult to ignore, with one of WB’s most precious commodities suffering because of it.

Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, Warner Bros have created an unholy mess of a movie and, as a film-viewing experience, it’s not a particularly pleasant one. If that wasn’t bad enough, the studio have conspired to undermine any hope the film may have had by unnecessarily truncating the running time; chopping it all down to the point that not a lot actually makes much sense. In an era of increasing blockbuster convolution, simplicity can be a wonderful thing, yet Justice League’s streamlining hack-job only works to confuse matters.

By condensing itself and abandoning any significant character development, Justice League sacrifices any chance of its big action scenes paying off. The film is so consumed with getting to its battle scenes as fast as possible, it dispenses with the necessary build-up to ensure these moments hold emotional weight and, as a result, the supposedly epic set-pieces fall flat on their face.

It really doesn’t help matters when every single fight scene descends into a blur of horrendous CGI nonsense. Holding little weight or style, the action is so poorly executed at times that it becomes nigh on impossible to work out just what’s going on or who’s decking who. Watching the Justice League converge, full steam, on their enemy should be a monumental spectacle, yet it’s all left floundering with little emotion and CGI that’s, quite frankly, embarrassing.

Rather than enhance the action, the woeful CGI only works to further expose the film for the rush-job it is. When Joss Whedon took over directorial duties, the clear remit from the studio execs was to fix what they perceived as a train wreck but, in hindsight, they appear to have sold their new director a kipper. With precious little time and a whole host of unforeseen issues (including the unintentionally hilarious issue with Henry Cavill’s upper lip) have left the film half-baked.

As the very embodiment of this problem; our big bad, Steppenwolf, is a hot mess of terrible CGI. Looking like he’s stepped off an early noughties Xbox game, the villain’s aesthetics don’t work on any level, with the character’s hilarious lack of verisimilitude incredibly distracting. Aside from his visuals, Steppenwolf is the very worst example of a superhero villain, with a lack of depth and motivations never venturing beyond vague plans for world-domination; making him one of the dullest comic book bad guys in recent memory.

With a villain this lightweight though, the pressure is certainly on the good guys to save the day and, despite a glaring lack of character development, there’s just enough there to avoid an all-out catastrophe. While many will approach Justice League as an excuse to see their favourite superheroes slog it out for the first time, the film’s successes are from a far more low-key source.

Echoing his work on The Avengers, Joss Whedon creates little pocket moments stuffed with his patented irreverent, personable style, that work well to add respite from the overwhelming awfulness. Being the clear afterthought they are, these moments sometimes feel forced yet, as little character pairings develop here and there, they bring with them glimmers of light amidst the gloom. In a parallel universe somewhere, Joss Whedon is being given free rein to tell the Justice League story in its entirety and it’s a sight to behold.

While Bruce Wayne and Diana Prince’s blunted sexual dynamic feels downright awkward, the rest of the film’s pairings keep things ticking along nicely. There’s a simplistic treat to seeing god-like heroes chatting on their down time and it’s a tactic that works well to humanise previously unapproachable characters; hitting at the heart of why big-scale team ups like this impact with people.

It’s just a shame that we don’t get enough of these moments, as the service Justice League pays to its various heroes is wildly hit and miss. Thanks largely to the condensed running time, there’s not one member of the team that wouldn’t have benefitted from a little added development and, as a result, we’re left hanging with characters that feel wholly unsatisfying.

Of the film’s holy trinity; Wonder Woman battles well to continue the success of her solo film although she offers no signs of significant progression, while Batman just looks bored, and the less said of Superman’s anti-climactic return to the fold, the better.

This new, roguish Aquaman, however, goes a long way to silencing the character’s long-standing jokes but, while Jason Momoa gives it his all, his character is by far the most under-serviced of the group. You have to hope that Aquaman’s solo outing will do a lot of the leg work in this respect, but that doesn’t help the hero’s DCEU debut feeling like a huge missed opportunity.

Despite the damage done, there’s enough evidence from Aquaman, together with fellow newbies, Cyborg and The Flash, to suggest that hope still exists for the franchise’s future. With a little luck, a lot of good writing, and a reinforced cage to keep the Warner Bros executives in; the DC Extended Universe (or whatever they want to call it) may just about be ok.

To borrow the well-worn cliché, however – it’s the hope that kills you. While the nice character moments provide means for optimism, they just can’t save the film from itself. Justice League’s troubled production history has clearly taken its toll, with some terribly inconsistent pacing and tonal issues that only come when those involved aren’t on the same page. Add to this a non-existent plot and some truly laughable CGI, and you’ve got yourself a recipe for disaster.

Justice League ultimately feels incomplete and the overwhelming air of disappointment is palpable as, what should’ve been DC’s answer to The Avengers, ends up as an underwhelming mess. For all the positivity that arose in Wonder Woman’s wake, Justice League feels like a massive step backwards for a franchise that’s in desperate need of a hero right now.