Justice League: 13 Complaints Everyone Will (Probably) Have

6. The Stakes Don't Feel Real

It's a frequent complaint that comic book movies can't muster up palpable stakes: even the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been routinely criticised for this by copping out on death too many times, and the DCEU isn't exactly innocent in this department either.

After Man of Steel glossed over the huge human casualties in its final battle, Batman v Superman clumsily attempted to address it, and of course, Superman's death had no emotional impact because it was incredibly rushed and there was no way he wasn't returning for Justice League.

The problem with this film, as it is with almost all comic book films, is that it's hard to care about the life-and-death stakes if nobody's actually going to lose their lives for good, and people can just be magicked back to life with supernatural nonsense.

Compare it to Logan, where people died left and right, and they died in ugly, comparatively realistic ways. Here the League is only going to be fighting digital supernatural enemies for the most part, and there's zero chance that any member of the League dies by film's end. Maybe Lois will bite it at a stretch, but she's the "key", so The Flash will probably just warp time to bring her back.

Not every superhero movie needs to be a grim meditation on existence, but making the heroes feel remotely mortal is important, no matter how powerful or even God-like they are.