10 Reasons Why The Justice League Cartoon Is Better Than The Film
4. You Cared About The Team
By far the DCEU's biggest problem is that it was simply too eager to get going. Man of Steel might be four years old - and the same timespan existed between the first Iron Man film and Avengers Assemble - but Marvel had a greater output in those years. The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger all released before the Avengers set the world alight in 2012, and they were all invaluable in its success.
People cared about the team because, for the most part, they'd gotten to know them over the course of their own individual features. With Justice League, only Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman had been given even the most basic of exploration in the years before, which made the film's team dynamic feel contrived and indeed, far less organic than its Marvel counterpart.
The Justice League animated series suffered no such issues, largely because it juggled its time (wisely) between each member of its cast. While this may speak more to the limits of the live-action format more than any inherent lack of quality on JL's behalf, it's simply true that the cartoon made fans fall in love with its heroes. The serialised format was instrumental in this success, most definitely. But any show is only as good as its characters, and it's equally true that the characterisation of each and every Leaguer in this series is superior to their respective live action counterparts.
You just care what happens here, whereas the film - on the whole - just feels like a cynical product.