Justice League Reviews: 12 Early Reactions You Need To See

4. The Humour Works... Mostly

Lotsof talk ahead of release inevitably focused on the agenda to make the DCEU brighter and funnier with Justice League, and the good news for fans of super LOLS is that it seems to work. As VillageVoice puts it, despite the disparity:

"As does the humor, which often sits uneasily next to the moodiness, but is somehow fast and witty enough to work. As the awkward novice, The Flash often winds up as the butt of jokes. Aquaman sits on Wonder Woman’s Lasso of Truth and winds up confessing all his insecurities. Batman is a little more self-aware than usual, and the film pokes fun at his self-serious demeanor. (Let’s not forget that Warner and DC have also given us The LEGO Batman Movie.) The actors actually look like they’re having fun, which somehow both undercuts and enriches the gloom."

Still, EW say The Flash - the chief instigator and mostly butt of the jokes - does grow a little tiresome, and he's called a bit of a try-hard elsewhere:

"After a while a little of this shtick goes a long way, and you’d gladly trade in half of his motormouth one-liners for a blurringly fast action sequence half as clever as Quicksilver’s in X-Men: Days of Future Past."

Several reviews mention a brighter approach in general, with Forbes inevitably lavishing on the praise:

"In short, everyone will have enough reason to be happy to make Justice League a respectable follow-up to Wonder Woman as a DCEU movie that fans of all stripes can rally behind. Meanwhile, critics who insisted Warner and DC Films needed to heed the warnings and complaints demanding a change of course to appeal to a wider set of tastes and tell more concise stories will appreciate seeing a film that was not only reworked to do just that, but manages to overcome a lot of obstacles to actually work pretty well and prove that -- regardless of my own love of Batman v Superman -- the complaints and suggestions ultimately resulted in a film far more fans and mainstream audiences can fully appreciate."