Justice League Movie Review Scores Roundup: What Are The Critics Saying?

With one day until release of Justice League, the reviews are in. While Rotten Tomatoes is delaying the release of their score for the movie, that hasn't slowed critics down from speaking their minds. As it turns out, opinions on the movie are actually rather divided.

With a score of 51 on GameSpot sister Metacritic score of 51 thus far, Justice League is already doing better than both Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (41) and Suicide Squad (40). However, it falls below the scores awarded to both Man of Steel (55) and Wonder Woman (76).

What does that means for the movie? It depends on what you're looking for in the movie, really. The Justice League review from GameSpot's own Mike Rougeau says it's "a pretty good movie." He continues, "Justice League is everything you want in a modern super team-up movie: a diverse crew of well-developed heroes coming together, butting heads, cracking jokes, and kicking butt. Despite the DCEU's sputtering start, Justice League coalesces in the end, and it works in many more ways than not."

Den of Geek's Don Kaye agrees, writing, "The best aspect of Justice League is the team itself. For the most part, they are all engaging and charismatic, with the story giving each one of them a surprising amount of character moments and even little mini-arcs that they must resolve to serve the greater narrative."

Truly, one of the throughlines of most reviews how good the heroes themselves are. Given that this is the first time The Flash (Ezra Miller), Cyborg (Ray Fisher) or Aquaman (Jason Momoa) get substantial screen time, it's important to note that even the negative reviews typically speak positively about how the superheroes--new and old--were handled.

"Each character gets moments to shine and make a positive lasting impression," IGN's Jim Vejvoda says. "Thankfully, these three new characters work more often than not."


Still, one place the movie seems to falter--and most critics agree--is the plot. "Steppenwolf is coming to get the Mother Boxes, which will destroy the world, so five superheroes team up and try to stop Steppenwolf," Collider's Matt Goldberg says, breaking down the movie's story. "The plot can't do much more heavy lifting than that, and it takes all of the movie's effort just to hold together what feels like a forgotten Justice League of America story where an intergalactic invader comes to ruin everyone's day."

While something as major as the Justice League coming together should feel like a major moment, it instead ends up being, as Rougeau puts it, "Superhero Movie Plot 101." At the very least, though, it's more coherent than Batman v Superman. "You can follow the plot from A to B to C and the one-dimensional character motivations make sense," Goldberg says.

Another place the movie falters in its reliance on CGI, which includes the movie's villain Steppenwolf. "Steppenwolf is one of those patently phony CGI creations that gives the film a uncanny-valley shlockiness," Entertainment Weekly's Chris Nashawaty explains. "He looks like a cross between a Viking and a billy goat."

With such divided opinions about Justice League, surely the movie will find its audience. Regardless of what critics thing though, there's no reason to suspect the movie will do anything but win huge at the box office. After all, with fairly dismal reviews, both Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad went on to make Warner Bros. a lot of money.

Justice League is in theaters on November 17.