The long-awaited “Justice League” has finally hit theaters and just like I expected it has very polarizing reviews. “Justice League” is the 4th film in the DC Comics cinematic universe, coming hot off the heels of the successful “Wonder Woman.” The two other movies “Man of Steel” and “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice” were panned by critics and started a whole feud between DC comics fans and Marvel comics fans. I personally find myself in the middle, enjoying both franchises and their movies. “Man of Steel” is one of my favorite superhero movies of all time, mostly due to that heavenly Hans Zimmer score.

I can see all the faults in these movies and accept that they have various different tones that may not mesh too well with the characters as they're portrayed in the comics, but overall I think they’re very enjoyable and interesting. I wanted to get all that out of the way before talking about “Justice League” since liking the recent DC movies seems to be such an unpopular opinion nowadays...except "Wonder Woman" though, who didn't love "Wonder Woman?"

“Justice League” feels like a complete reconstruction of what DC wants to do with their films, it tried to have a bit of everything when it came to tone and that might’ve ended up hurting the film in the long run. “Man of Steel” and “Batman V. Superman” are very serious and dark, the movies barely pause for any comic relief or any relief for that matter. Again, I was intrigued by the choices those movies made but I understand why the negative reactions to those movies urged Warner Brothers to make changes for the future of the franchise.

I feel like I should get all the negatives out first so that I can then focus on everything I really liked about the movie. The biggest criticism I can give is that the villain is totally weak, he’s not intimidating at all and his plan is just a typical “my minions will take over the world and terraform this planet to my homeworld!” That might sound specific but it’s pretty typical when it comes to comic book villains. The villain is completely made of CGI gunk and he looks so stupid. I even blanked on his name for a moment while writing this until I remembered the one time they said the name “Steppenwolf.” Every scene he's in looks like a cutscene from an old PlayStation 2 game, he’s so forgettable and bland. It didn’t ultimately ruin the movie for me or anything though. There have been plenty of superhero movies with really bad villains but the movie still ends up being enjoyable.

The Flash (Ezra Miller) is a new character introduced in this movie and he’s pretty hit or miss. He’s the comic relief and some of his jokes work but a lot of them do not land at all. Audiences in the theater I was in were laughing but some of his lines made me cringe a little, he had a lot of great character moments but they forced way too many jokes on the guy. He was better in action scenes where he can utilize his powers to help others like pushing someone's weapon closer to his super speed. One of the best moments of the movie actually involves Flash, and without getting too much into spoiler-territory...it also involves Superman. The Flash's running effects are really cool and I actually like him a lot more than TV's Grant Gustin.

I thought all the acting was spot-on and they all had great chemistry with one another. Gal Gadot knocks it out of the park again as “Wonder Woman” and Jason Mamoa gives a great performance and an interesting introduction to the character of Aquaman, a character that could easily be cheesy or stupid if not written or acted well. Ray Fisher also surprised me with his performance as Cyborg, judging the trailers I thought Cyborg would be a completely shoehorned-in character who wouldn’t end up doing much. I was impressed with how they made him relevant to the plot and he also had some good character moments with Flash.

The best stuff in the movie definitely involved Superman, after his death in “Batman v. Superman” it was widely known that he’d come back in some triumphant moment during “Justice League” and they did not disappoint. He has two “reveals” in the movie and each one hits perfectly, the movie actually opens up with cell phone footage of Superman giving an interview to little kids, it was a glimpse into the “hopeful” Superman that people felt “Man of Steel” and “Batman V. Superman” were missing. Superman actually smiled and seemed genuine, he had very few heartfelt moments in the other movies so they definitely ramped it up in "Justice League" to give people the Superman they want.

However there is a con concerning Superman, but it was out of the hands of the writers and Henry Cavill. What happened is that before they did reshoots for “Justice League,” Henry Cavill grew out a huge mustache for the next "Mission Impossible" movie which he’s starring in. When all the actors for “Justice League” had to return for reshoots there was a lot of talk about how to handle Henry Cavill’s mustache. He was under contract with Paramount and could not alter his facial hair since it would mess up production of the new "Mission Impossible." Warner Brothers had to use CGI to remove the mustache and it’s completely noticeable in the movie. There are some scenes with Superman where you just can’t stop looking at his mouth because he has a baby face, it’s so obvious that there’s some computer trickery going on around his upper lip. Knowing the mustache thing before seeing the movie probably hurt because I was looking for the effects, I wonder what people who didn’t know he had a mustache during particular scenes would notice that his mouth looks off.

Overall, I really enjoyed the movie. It has a lot of issues but that’s not new when it comes to superhero movies. I think they really nailed the “team” aspect and there was a lot, of course, correction after the previous movies didn’t do well critically. I think this movie is a great step in the right direction and it makes me really excited for future movies in the DC Universe, “Justice League” opened the door to different plot lines and character arcs, hopefully, the negative reviews this is getting doesn’t hinder the future of the DC movies.