The desire to build a megafranchise has been ongoing for a while, but one of the fundamental rules is that you can't actually have a franchise if people don't like the movies. Oh, you may get a large amount of interest early on, but getting them back for sequels and spinoffs is more of a challenge. And the DC movies have, generally, not really hit the mark. Yes, "Wonder Woman" managed to get a fair bit of geek acclaim, but set off against that is the trio of "Man of Steel", "Batman vs Superman" and "Suicide Squad". And while Wonder Woman is back for this teamup vehicle, she can't really carry all the baggage that remains attached, plus introducing three new superheroes into the mix.
Look, this is nowhere near as bad as the worst of DC's work. Yes, the villain is distinctly placeholder, the film's visually ugly, and there's still dull checkins on plot points from elsewhere in the series, but ... there's a little bit of wit and energy in a couple of the characters, a lower level of blatant stupidity (nothing nearly as stupid as the "Martha" moment), and when people brawl they do occasionally. And the running time is almost spot on two hours rather than the bohemoth lengths of some recent wannabe epics. This is strangely the most apologetic film ever to cost a couple of hundred million dollars - it's sorta the filmic equivalent of Warner Brothers Executives crying "please don't hate us" for two hours. Running on fumes and desperation, it signifies "meh" in cinematic form - a film where you can sorta see Ben Affleck mentally quitting from big-budget filmmaking minute by minute.
It's difficult to really praise this film - it feels like a corporate obligation rather than anything made with a lot of thought to what an audience may possibly enjoy, and certainly not like any kinda story telling vehicle or representation of anything in human experience. It's ... just sorta there.
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