In the ever escalating war for superhero supremacy between DC and Marvel, DC’s premiere superhero team has its first movie as the “Justice League,” amid a semi rocky start to the franchise. However, this movie elevates the position of the series and is able to do well despite director changes and outlash from past films.

The premise consists of a team of superheroes, all from different backgrounds, who must be united by Batman to create a group capable of defeating an extraterrestrial threat.

The movie’s far most redeeming factor is the interaction between characters. The team itself is so much better than it seemed it would be in “Batman V. Superman” and there appears to be real team chemistry, like when the team is visiting with Commissioner Gordon or right after Superman joins the party. This works well with the light-hearted approach taken in this movie, and overall, the humor hits fairly well. However, during certain points in the film it is evident that there had been two distinct visions for its direction, as scenes from the first and second acts differ in mood.

While the villain itself felt pretty unimaginative like a standard computer-generated imagery villain that is disregarded for story purposes, Steppenwolf (a villain from space who serves as a general to a powerful god) served as an effective contrast to demonstrate how truly powerful the Man of Steel is.

Henry Cavill’s portrayal of Superman firmly establishes the character as the leader of the Justice League and is arguably the actor’s best performance as of yet. He exuded much more energy and less of a mopey attitude in contrast to his previous character choices in the preceding films. It quickly becomes clear that in this movie, it’s the characters that are the most important part. For the relatively new members of the cast who have not received their own solo films, everyone performed fairly well. Ezra Miller gave a fantastically, quirky performance as the Flash and served expertly as the comic relief for the movie.

Cyborg’s performance wasn’t as strong due to a lack of character development on par with that of the other characters. However, I do find myself excited for the Aquaman movie, and I think that will only add to the improving universe. Wonder Woman plays her part fantastically,  and this entire franchise most likely has her solo movie to thank for developing a really meaningful character considered to be among the strongest of the DC characters.

The movie has several entertaining elements, but a few scenes felt uninvested and caused battle scenes to drag, which is disheartening considering the villain and premise of the team’s mission. The movie would be vastly improved if it had explored Steppenwolf more and really taken the time to show his character’s strengths from the comic books and use that to set up Darkseid (the upcoming end all be all villain).

Should the movie refrain from being overly dark and allow for the natural chemistry of the cast to show itself? There is real potential for this team to give the Avengers a run for their money. DC’s performance will be reliant on how each of their solo hero movies go and how they continue to build their universe.