The internet (mostly Twitter) is being mean to the new Justice League trailer

On Saturday, Warner Bros. released the ‘first’ official trailer for what could possibly be one of their most riskiest movies in recent memory. A lot is riding on Justice League, and a lot was riding on the trailer. And the reactions have been... mixed.

First, watch the trailer:

Warners’ DC Extended Universe (a series designed to challenge Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe) is in dire need of a lifeline. The series began with 2013’s Man of Steel, which received lukewarm reviews and wasn’t as successful at the box office as one would hope for a Superman movie to be. The expensive $225 million movie clocked out with $668 million globally. But its sequel, 2016’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is where things took a dark turn. The film, which was intended to be a lead-in to the Justice League movie, couldn’t cross the coveted $1 billion mark and was savaged by the critics. The third film in the series, director David Ayer’s Suicide Squad, suffered similarly.

So yes, a lot is riding on Justice League, which marks the first cinematic depiction of the popular superhero team. Not only is it expected to be one of the biggest films of the year (which means that anything below $1 billion would be considered a disappointment), but it needs to win over the fans (and critics) that its predecessors have lost.

But it seems like the challenge is far greater than anyone would have expected. The Justice League trailer is once again being criticised for being very similar in tone (and visual style) to BvS, although with a tad more humour.

“As it did in Man of Steel and BvS, (director Zack) Snyder’s vision of the DC cinematic universe continues to feel like a literal-minded homage to Fifty Shades of Grey. Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) and Aquaman (Jason Momoa) may trade some zingers, but they do it in monochromatic outfits … at night … on rock formations roughly the color of slate. And nearly every other scene hews to the same palette,” writes Angela Watercutter on Wired.

“For better or worse, the DC movieverse is Zack Snyder’s baby. It has his stylistic fingerprints smudged all over it. Maybe I’m too old or my brain is hard-wired to only understand long, ponderous tracking shots, but I couldn’t understand half of what was going on in that trailer,” Dave Schilling wrote on birthmoviesdeath.com.

Here are some reactions on Twitter

There were some positive reactions too