Justice League Reviews: 12 Early Reactions You Need To See
8. You Can See Whedon's Influence (But Not A Creative Conflict)
Inevitably, separating opinion from the context of the movie's production was always going to be difficult, and lots of the early reviews use the set stories as a launch-pad for their criticism. But few of the critiques seem to suggest that Joss Whedon taking over from Zack Snyder - and changing significant swathes of the film - is too much of a bad or noticeable thing.
Variety confirms that “Justice League is seamless enough that it’s hard to say where one filmmaker leaves off and the other begins. But the film’s flavor tilts more toward Whedon than Snyder, whose pop grandiosity is radically played down
Forbes talks up the marriage of their styles:
"Justice League is Zack's film, but it has the undeniable touch and spirit of Whedon's characterizations and ability to bring a blended tone to the final edit of the film."
And indeed, IGN say the team-up works in a very specific way:
"The film largely maintains a visual uniformity with Snyder’s darker, more operatic aesthetic established in the early trailers; to the ear, though, many scenes bear the distinct voice and humor of Whedon. In other words, Justice League still looks like a Zack Snyder film, but it sounds and feels like a Joss Whedon movie."
Inevitably, there is dissent, though, as Uproxx simply don't agree on the success of the twin styles coming together:
"With Justice League being directed by both Snyder and Joss Whedon (who replaced Snyder late in production; only Snyder gets credited), we get a weird hybrid of styles that do not match up at all. There are movies like Rogue One and World War Z where entire swaths were famously reshot. But Justice League is weird because Whedon’s influence is sprinkled in – and it’s totally obvious where these Whedon sprinkles are. It would be like having a soup, then sprinkling the soup with basketballs. A scene will go from dreary serious, then all of a sudden switch to, “Hey, how about a joke?”"