Justice League (Zack Snyder, 2017)

DC has a go at replicating Marvel's success with the Avengers, but it's a poor second. The problems are numerous: a chunky Ben Affleck, so clearly miscast as Batman, seems terminally bored and uninterested, which is a bit of a handicap when he's meant to be the one geeing up the disparate band of heroes to work together. Then the villain they're meant to take on is thinly conceived and dull. The plot is a direct copy of the baddie's quest in Marvel 's films to get all the Infinity Stones and absolute power (here, 'Mother Boxes'). And, least forgivably, the FX don't match those of its rival series: compare the exhilarating scenes with Quicksilver in X-Men: Days of Future Past with the treatment of The Flash here, which is pedestrian in comparison. And with a production budget of $300 million this is one of the most expensive films ever made. They'd be better off throwing in the towel and concentrating on their individual characters: at least Wonder Woman was watchable, and the Bale Batman films were high art in comparison with this.

4/10