Friday, December 29, 2017

Justice League


Before all else, I must say that I’ve always been more of a Marvel Comics fan, never really getting into the DC Comics side of the books.  Seeing that Marvel used real world cities in their stories—mainly having New York as the backdrop to most of their heroes—I‘ve always felt it was hard to engage myself in made-up worlds like Gotham or Metropolis.  Don’t get me wrong, I do have my share of Batman comics as well as Superman and others of that side of the house, but Marvel is always where my heart had resided.  When it comes to movies, however, as long as it’s a superhero adaptation it doesn’t matter what comic book publisher it comes from—as long as they’re put upon the big screen, I’ll plop down my money to see it.

 

With that said, I was fairly excited about DC coming out with their own ensemble of characters sharing the screen, much like we’d gotten with Marvel’s The Avengers.  But as time went on—but in a quick way as not to induce anxiety in the fanboys—I had become less and less enchanted with the eventual release of this film. Man of Steel was—in my opinion—a very good film, dare I say very well done.  Henry Cavill was an excellent choice to play Superman and I’d really liked Zack Snyder’s vision in that film.  However, after watching Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, I saw how convoluted a movie can become, with too many threadbare subplots and impossible conclusions that made me a little uneasy about where this DC cinematic universe was going. Nevertheless, I did enjoy the film and thought there were some highlights that exceeded my expectations, but left me wanting more overall.

 

Now…finally…we get Justice League, and I can’t help but think this was coming at us way too fast…but let’s get the plot summary out of the way…

 

Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s (Henry Cavill) selfless act, Bruce Wayne/Batman (Ben Affleck) enlists the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), to face an even greater enemy—Steppenwolf (voiced by Ciarán Hinds).  Together, they work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat.  But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes—including Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Cyborg (Ray Fisher), and The Flash (Ezra Miller)—it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.

 

So…the team-up we’ve all been waiting for, right?  Well…in a way…I guess.

 

The film starts off nicely with a burglar (an uncredited Holt McCallany) leaving some apartment with Batman coming in to apprehend him.  It’s a great scene, being a callback to the beginning of 1989’s Batman, but here’s where my confusion starts.  Turns out that Batman is here, not to capture this crook, but to use him to lure a parademon out into the open.  What?  Did I miss something?  I know we get a vision or dream sequence in BvS regarding these creatures, but when did they become a known threat?  Either something was cut out in the beginning of this film or this is just lazy screenwriting.

 

Although their introductions into this superhero universe was totally forced into BvS, the inclusion of Aquaman, Cyborg, and The Flash are done a bit better here.  Each intro still lacks a little and needs a bit of finesse, but we’re given enough to care for them and realize their importance in this film.

 

My thoughts on Aquaman?  When it was announced that Jason Momoa was cast as the underwater hero, I thought it was a little weird, seeing that I knew the character to be this clean-shaven blonde man who swam with whales and communicated with all the sea creatures in the ocean.  But I’m accepting of casting such as this, trying to spice up the vision to make it cooler and to give the hero a bad boy look.  However, it still seems a bit unusual to include this superhero to engage in battles that take place on land and in the air.  With Batman requiring to give Aquaman a ride on the car or Cyborg needing to catch him in midair to throw him into another fight, he seems more like a hindrance than a hero.

 


The Flash was always a hero that I liked in the DC Comics, probably because the thought of being able to move that fast would be awesome.  Although I don’t think I’ve ever purchased a comic book containing this character, the TV show that ran in the 90s was a favorite of mine.  I do enjoy the new show and wished they would’ve just incorporated it into this film, but Ezra Miller fills in the role just fine here.  He’s definitely the comic relief in this movie as he has some of the best lines spoken throughout. 

 

Cyborg is a character I’m not too familiar with but took a liking to right away in this film.  The story—which we can kind of get in bits and pieces here—of how he became this half man-half machine is very interesting and has the potential for a great standalone movie (yet another strike against Warner Bros.).  The design of the character leaves a bit to be desired, but gets a little better by the end of the film (you’ll see what I mean when you see it).  Ray Fisher plays the part fantastically and it’s hard to believe that this guy has barely a résumé in IMDb.com.

 

Gal Gadot continues her role as Wonder Woman, displaying her heroics early on in the film as she stops some terrorists from blowing up a bank filled with innocent people.  She unquestionably shows her leadership throughout this story and definitely doesn’t take the backseat anywhere in this flick.  I still don’t agree with the casting decision of Gal Gadot in this role because her accent is a little off-putting.  It’s just that I have fond memories of watching Lynda Carter in the role back in the 70s and seeing the cartoons over the years with the character never speaking with any accent.  But Gadot is clearly making this role her own and I guess time will tell if I’ll be able to finally accept her as Wonder Woman.

 

Once again, Ben Affleck nails it as Bruce Wayne/Batman.  It’s a shame we’re hearing stories about him not wanting to continue his role as the hero and how Warner Bros. may need to recast someone else as Batman, but what we’ve seen in BvS and here in Justice League, it’s pretty upsetting to hear there may be such a change to come.  As is with Gadot’s Wonder Woman, Affleck’s Batman is quite a leader as he recruits the new members to join as a team to fight the coming threat to the world.   

 

Finally…it’s no secret that Superman makes his return in this film—even if the trailers didn’t give us this info, all you have to do is check IMDb.com to see that Henry Cavill is included in the cast, so I don’t think I’m giving out any spoilers by stating this.  All that as a given, I’d say that Cavill gives us a much better Superman than he had given us in BvS.  He’s a confident figure and leader, with a more lighthearted way about him.  I won’t even get into the much maligned complaint about his CGI’d upper lip—which, for the record, I couldn’t tell where this work was done. 

 

My final “bit” on Justice League?

 


My overall thought when the third act began—and even as I thought about the film shortly after it ended—was that it felt rushed.  The film clocks in at around two hours and with a large ensemble film like this one, you need to give it a little more time.  I’d already mentioned the mysterious introduction of the parademons and how it seemed like Batman and Wonder Woman already knew about the danger, but that was probably the only gleaming issue I had with the film.  So, besides the short run time and unexplained presentation of the planetary threat, I actually liked this movie a lot.  Dare I say, I may have enjoyed this film more than The Last Jedi (I’ll get to that post shortly).  I’d mentioned earlier that there must have been some scenes cut from the movie and it’s most evident especially if you’ve seen the last trailer.  Most notably, there’s a shot where Cyborg saves a police officer from getting crushed by a tank, Barry Allen/The Flash is shown to push his finger through some glass to make it bubble out then explode, and the teaser at the end of the trailer shows someone walking up to Alfred (Jeremy Irons) though we never see this individual’s face.  But none of those scenes were in the film that was released to us…boo!  All in all, Warner Bros. just needs to take their time with this filmic world, put more trust into the filmmakers and cease their constant interference, stop putting all their eggs in one basket (having Zack Snyder directing multiple movies is a mistake), and they can truly have an awesome DC Cinematic Universe that would give Marvel Studios some competition.  All that aside, Justice League is a good time and worth a watch.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

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