Not much works in Justice League, no single aspect. DC’s latest blockbuster film has a story that is half baked, characters that lack any sort of exuberance and a heap of visuals that are quite literally headache inducing.

I have no idea where Justice League went wrong, but let us start with the plot. Here is the basic crux of the film: Oh, no, there is a big baddy that wants to destroy the world for seemingly no reason! Batman must assemble the Justice League to stop this evil menace! The fate of the world is on our hero’s hands! Yawn. Honestly, the entire plotline seems like a device to simply get these iconic characters in the same camera frame, and the 30 minutes to get there drag on and on.

We do get to learn a bit about each hero’s backstories, yet we don’t really get to know these characters themselves. The Flash is left to be the comic relief, Aquaman is the macho man of the group, Cybrorg is the thoroughly serious, brooding fellow and Steppenworlf, our villain, is not really interesting at all. The only characters that truly work are the already established Wonder Woman and Batman.

Gal Gadot singlehandedly saves this film as the charming, forceful Princess Diana. Seriously, every time she is on screen the film lights up with a wondrous energy that only Gadot can bring. Ben Affleck is reasonable as the Batman, he gets the job done. With that being said, Henry Cavil barely gets to flex his acting muscles in this motion picture entity, where Superman honestly seems like an afterthought.

Justice League jumps from scene to scene, moment to moment without any sort of control of pacing or tone. The film moves by so fast that even attempting to care for the story would be a miracle, because it seems like the movie honestly wants itself to be over with.

A couple of exciting moments flare up during interesting confrontations between the superheroes, and these moments actually fire off in the realm of dramatic heft. If only Justice League actually consisted of the Justice League interacting wholeheartedly with each other, this film would have definitely worked on all fronts. Instead, we get a 120-minute visual mess that barely reaches above mediocracy.

One more thing: There is a horribly blatant curse of the male gaze riddled throughout this picture, with Wonder Woman being shot from thoroughly absurd angles. Considering the intelligent, respectful filmmaking that Patty Jenkins brought to Wonder Woman, it seems pretty dated and shameful that Warner Brothers would continue shooting women in some pretty degrading manners. Can we just get the great Ms. Jenkins to direct everything from now on? Thanks.

Score: 4/10.

Zain Hashmat is a film student from Meridian. An avid lover of film and literature, Hashmat will check out one movie on Thursday nights and give his take on the best (and worst) that cinema has to offer that weekend. He hopes his passionate reviews will get The Star’s readers excited to get up and go to the movies.