Justice League's Biggest Plot Holes, Explained

WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Justice League, in theaters now.

Justice League is finally out, marking the first we've seen DC's finest superheroes come together to form a legendary team. In a nutshell, it's not quite as divisive as Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice or Suicide Squad, but there are still plenty of people who liked it and plenty who did not. At this point, it just comes down to whether you think the good outweighs the bad.

It's important to note that while many people enjoyed the film, it still had its flaws. The reasons for this are numerous, but a good part of it likely came the film being severely cut due to Warner Bros. wanting a runtime of no more than two hours. Because of this, there are many scenes that feel incomplete and some plot holes that develop because of it.

Unfortunately, Justice League isn't devoid of plot holes or continuity errors. And while even the biggest ones we selected don't dampen the enjoyment of the film, they are quite bothersome.

Superman's Resurrection Makes No Sense

We all knew that Superman was going to return in this movie, leaving the only real question of, "How?" Well, as it turns out, Batman gets an idea from the power of the Mother Boxes. By harnessing their abilities, combined with the liquid from the Kryptonian ship Lex Luthor used in Dawn of Justice, the League is able to dunk the Man of Steel into the resulting recipe and instantly revive him.

The problem presented with this is in terms of continuity. When Superman died at the end of Batman V Superman, he had a big funeral, and that was the end of that. After his coffin was placed in the ground, we get a brief shot of dirt rising off of it, suggesting that he's not really dead, but in a coma, similar to the way the comics handled it. However, Justice League doesn't waste any time to tell the audience that Superman really, really is dead for good. He shouldn't have been emitting any sort of power at all because of this. Because of this shift, the brief scene in the aforementioned BvS is just the director blatantly telling the audience, "Hey, he's going to come back eventually!" storytelling be damned.

Aquaman Joins the Brawl... Somehow

As Bruce Wayne is putting the Justice League together, he travels to the far North to look for the man named Arthur Curry. After finding the gruff (and somewhat drunken) hero, he tries to get him to join the team. Unfortunately, Aquaman declines Bruce's offer and chooses to stay where he can help random people and have easy access to Atlantis.

While the League is in the midst of its first battle with Steppenwolf, the Mother Box from Atlantis is stolen by the villain. Aquaman gets a pep talk from Mera, and thus decides to join the League to battle their common threat. During the fight, though, Aquaman doesn't appear until the water from Gotham Harbor flows into the tunnel, threatening the League. With his trusty quindent (not trident), he temporarily parts the water in an awesome scene... that doesn't make any sense. Batman stated several times that he had no way of contacting Aquaman, so there's no way the Prince of Atlantis would've been debriefed as to where Steppenwolf was. He apparently instinctively knew exactly where the fight was taking place, and at what time, when he shouldn't have had any prior knowledge of it.

We get that it makes for a cool shot, but it's a narratively inconsistent one at best, and jarringly bad storytelling at worst.

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Who Was Supposed to Guard the Mother Boxes?

When Batman and the rest of the League go to revive Superman, they have to do it through the use of one of the three Mother Boxes Steppenwolf requires to complete his plan for world domination. Once they succeed, Superman and the Mother Box shoot out of the Kryptonian ship and into the city. However, everyone seems to randomly ignore the Mother Box and instead watch Superman as he copes with being alive again.

Then, once the fight against a confused Superman is over, one of the portals randomly drops down from the sky, and it cuts to Wonder Woman saying that he has all three Mother Boxes. Clearly, there was a scene there that was removed, but at the very least, the League should've been watching the Mother Box to prevent this sort of thing. Ignoring the fact that Steppenwolf's teleporting is never explained to people that don't know the comics, they should've been guarding that object like their lives depended on it. Instead, they just ignore it so they can get a few words in with the Man of Steel back from the dead.

On that note, the Mother Boxes themselves are given little to no explanation as to why we should care that they exist. They're nothing more than McGuffins that were also responsible for the creation of Cyborg. A little more showcase of what they can actually do would've been much appreciated, and wouldn't;t have required much more screen time.

Why Keep the Mother Boxes On Earth At All?

Once Batman encounters Parademons, he starts to piece two and two together, realizing that something bigger is coming and has everything to do with the Mother Boxes. Once he meets with Wonder Woman, she gives him the breakdown of what's going on: Hundreds of years ago, Steppenwolf came to Earth for the first time to try and conquer it. It took the alliance of man, Atlanteans and Amazons to take him down. Yet there was another group that joined the fight to get rid of the CGI monster: the Green Lantern Corps. We even get to see a few shots of them using their power rings to fight.

Apart from the fact that there were seemed to be plans to include Hal Jordan in earlier cuts of the film, it appears that the Green Lanterns have a bigger stake in the DCEU than we previously thought. The problem this presents is after the war is won and Steppenwolf leaves the planet. The three Mother Boxes are divided and heavily guarded so they will never be brought together again. One was given to the Amazons in Themyscira, and another to the Atlanteans in Atlantis. Where did the last one go, you ask? Well, it went to the humans, of course! They intentionally buried it so that it would never be found again.

The issue here is obvious. If the Green Lanterns, the willing protectors of the universe, were there to fight Steppenwolf, wouldn't it have made sense for them to get one as opposed to the humans? If they really wanted to prevent Steppenwolf from getting his hands on the Mother Boxes again, putting them on different planets would've been the way to go. After all, the entire Green Lantern Corps on Oa would easily have been able to take on Steppenwolf and his Parademons. Then again, the entire plot would have to change, or there would be no need for the Justice League movie in the first place.

Now in theaters, Justice League stars Ben Affleck as Batman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Henry Cavill as Superman, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Ezra Miller as The Flash, Ray Fisher as Cyborg, Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Ciarán Hinds as Steppenwolf, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor and J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon.