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I'm a fan of The Avengers and was surprised how Whedon was able to pull it off. Watching Justice League has given me a new appreciation for Marvel, even though I already knew the difficulties it faced. Seeing how atrociously bad Justice League was thrown together is actually really depressing. I don't want these movies to fail, this isn't some Marvel VS DC fan boy fight. These are films that should be fun and entertaining. Justice League is neither those things, nor is it thought provoking or gritty or...anything really. Its just there. Snyder goes for a darker sense of realism masked in a fantasy built world and fails. This film is bad on so many levels.
The world mourns Superman. His death has signaled a clearing for Steppenwolf (the band) to come to our world in search of three cubes that contain unlimited energy. Merging these cubes will create mass destruction. Batman begins his internship for people with abilities. He needs a fish, a kid with who needs Ritalin and a terminator. He finds those people rather quickly, we know very little about them and then they fight faceless flying creatures and someone's computer rendering of a giant person with a helmet.
Okay, so Justice League opens with some kid's smart phone recording Superman saying something inspirational. Then immediately cuts before he says something REALLY inspirational. We are now in Gotham with Batman. This opening looks straight out of a comic book. The shots, the lighting, the choreography all look spectacular. Snyder is without a doubt a gifted visual director. The awesomeness of this opening is ruined when we are then introduced to a flying alien creature that Batman lunges onto. The creature self destructs when caught, leaving behind three square marks. Why? I have no idea. But Batman has seen this before and decides it's finally time to get the team together.
Introduce Wonder Woman who has to stop some terrorists from blowing up some people. This sequence is a re-hash of her fighting Nazi's in Wonder Woman. Slow -motion here, deflect bullets there and look good while doing it. There is some tension though because there is a countdown clock. This is the only real scene of tension in the film, as everything else fails to feel real or relatable. A second sequence that was kind of fun, but again ruined by how fake it all looked, was when Steppenwolf first emerges. He goes to the Amazonian place to retrieve the first cube. The Amazonian women make an effort to keep it away from him, people die and Steppenwolf makes off with it. A nice short story involving the boxes is told, we see that Amazonian women are protecting one, Atlantis is protecting one and then a bunch of dudes buried one somewhere. Interesting that we decided to keep all 3 boxes on earth instead of different planets. We see a Green Lantern in a flashback sequence helping fight Steppenwolf, but let's not give one to them to protect. Let's not separate them all over the galaxy, let's keep all of them here on Earth. One easy spot for him to teleport to and grab.
Steppenwolf....who? Here is guy so boring, so bland, so obviously fake looking with terrible CGI that it was hard to take anything he says or does seriously. People complained about the third act in Wonder Woman, that third act is this whole film. People flying through the air, hitting others, sending them flying back and vice versa. It's pedestrian. I thought we were past this garbage. This isn't exciting action, it's a lame video game cut scene that makes no sense. Yes, the CGI in this movie is terrible. If it's not 90's videogame graphics Steppenwolf, it's bad green screen. Never once did I believe these people were anywhere real in the final act. It felt like I was watching a Star Wars prequel, they stood out from the obviously fake background that it is distracting. Even in the frickin' batcave it looked bad. Don't get me started on Stache-Gate.
If you were worried that the film would feel like an incoherent mess due to Whedon taking over from Snyder, you're right. This film was all over the place, felt rushed, reshoots were completely obvious. A scene where Bruce Wayne recruits The Flash is fine, then it goes on a little too long for a Whedonesque joke that you can clearly tell was shot after the fact. The lighting doesn't even match up for crying out loud. The plot is another alien being wanting to destroy earth BS. A forced sequence to add more action has Superman show up and be evil. Props to Cavill for making evil Superman something I want to see in the future though.
Spoiler territory.
Okay, what else, what else??? The acting? At least Ezra Miller seems to be having fun. Along with Jason Momoa, these two look like they actually liked being in this film. One has comedic timing down very well, the other does not. Maybe it's the writing for Aquaman, but all his jokes fell flat. The rest of the cast looks utterly bored. Amy Adams, I feel bad for you. Ben Affleck, he desperately wants to leave this franchise. Henry Cavill has no material to work with. Ray Fishcer is a new-comer and doesn't really show anything in this film to be noteworthy. He plays a Frankenstein's Monster type character, but you never feel his pain. He's too busy hacking into things for plot convenience. Each of these new characters are given minimal backstory. This is a mistake. DC rushed this film, it's evident. They needed their own films to build an emotional connection, don't assume that because they are comic book characters we automatically know and love them. This is lazy. This review is all over the place, must like the film.
I don't know what state this universe will be in now. It's in shambles. It's weird to think that Black Panther in one week has made more money than Justice League did in it's entire run, domestically. This to me shows that the DCEU needs to re-examine itself. Have The Flash do something weird with the timelines and reboot the series. Seriously, this is your best chance to redeem yourselves because if Justice League is any indication of future installments, I'm out.
Justice League
(Zack Snyder)
[
(Zack Snyder)
[
I'm a fan of The Avengers and was surprised how Whedon was able to pull it off. Watching Justice League has given me a new appreciation for Marvel, even though I already knew the difficulties it faced. Seeing how atrociously bad Justice League was thrown together is actually really depressing. I don't want these movies to fail, this isn't some Marvel VS DC fan boy fight. These are films that should be fun and entertaining. Justice League is neither those things, nor is it thought provoking or gritty or...anything really. Its just there. Snyder goes for a darker sense of realism masked in a fantasy built world and fails. This film is bad on so many levels.
The world mourns Superman. His death has signaled a clearing for Steppenwolf (the band) to come to our world in search of three cubes that contain unlimited energy. Merging these cubes will create mass destruction. Batman begins his internship for people with abilities. He needs a fish, a kid with who needs Ritalin and a terminator. He finds those people rather quickly, we know very little about them and then they fight faceless flying creatures and someone's computer rendering of a giant person with a helmet.
Okay, so Justice League opens with some kid's smart phone recording Superman saying something inspirational. Then immediately cuts before he says something REALLY inspirational. We are now in Gotham with Batman. This opening looks straight out of a comic book. The shots, the lighting, the choreography all look spectacular. Snyder is without a doubt a gifted visual director. The awesomeness of this opening is ruined when we are then introduced to a flying alien creature that Batman lunges onto. The creature self destructs when caught, leaving behind three square marks. Why? I have no idea. But Batman has seen this before and decides it's finally time to get the team together.
Introduce Wonder Woman who has to stop some terrorists from blowing up some people. This sequence is a re-hash of her fighting Nazi's in Wonder Woman. Slow -motion here, deflect bullets there and look good while doing it. There is some tension though because there is a countdown clock. This is the only real scene of tension in the film, as everything else fails to feel real or relatable. A second sequence that was kind of fun, but again ruined by how fake it all looked, was when Steppenwolf first emerges. He goes to the Amazonian place to retrieve the first cube. The Amazonian women make an effort to keep it away from him, people die and Steppenwolf makes off with it. A nice short story involving the boxes is told, we see that Amazonian women are protecting one, Atlantis is protecting one and then a bunch of dudes buried one somewhere. Interesting that we decided to keep all 3 boxes on earth instead of different planets. We see a Green Lantern in a flashback sequence helping fight Steppenwolf, but let's not give one to them to protect. Let's not separate them all over the galaxy, let's keep all of them here on Earth. One easy spot for him to teleport to and grab.
Steppenwolf....who? Here is guy so boring, so bland, so obviously fake looking with terrible CGI that it was hard to take anything he says or does seriously. People complained about the third act in Wonder Woman, that third act is this whole film. People flying through the air, hitting others, sending them flying back and vice versa. It's pedestrian. I thought we were past this garbage. This isn't exciting action, it's a lame video game cut scene that makes no sense. Yes, the CGI in this movie is terrible. If it's not 90's videogame graphics Steppenwolf, it's bad green screen. Never once did I believe these people were anywhere real in the final act. It felt like I was watching a Star Wars prequel, they stood out from the obviously fake background that it is distracting. Even in the frickin' batcave it looked bad. Don't get me started on Stache-Gate.
If you were worried that the film would feel like an incoherent mess due to Whedon taking over from Snyder, you're right. This film was all over the place, felt rushed, reshoots were completely obvious. A scene where Bruce Wayne recruits The Flash is fine, then it goes on a little too long for a Whedonesque joke that you can clearly tell was shot after the fact. The lighting doesn't even match up for crying out loud. The plot is another alien being wanting to destroy earth BS. A forced sequence to add more action has Superman show up and be evil. Props to Cavill for making evil Superman something I want to see in the future though.
Spoiler territory.
WARNING: "Justice League" spoilers below
How bad is your climax scene that Superman just shows up and easily saves the day. The film literally has Superman fly in, not break a sweat,
throw some one-liners around and movie over. This is bad script writing, plotting,
character, action, everything that is bad is in this scene. Bad....bad bad bad.
throw some one-liners around and movie over. This is bad script writing, plotting,
character, action, everything that is bad is in this scene. Bad....bad bad bad.
Okay, what else, what else??? The acting? At least Ezra Miller seems to be having fun. Along with Jason Momoa, these two look like they actually liked being in this film. One has comedic timing down very well, the other does not. Maybe it's the writing for Aquaman, but all his jokes fell flat. The rest of the cast looks utterly bored. Amy Adams, I feel bad for you. Ben Affleck, he desperately wants to leave this franchise. Henry Cavill has no material to work with. Ray Fishcer is a new-comer and doesn't really show anything in this film to be noteworthy. He plays a Frankenstein's Monster type character, but you never feel his pain. He's too busy hacking into things for plot convenience. Each of these new characters are given minimal backstory. This is a mistake. DC rushed this film, it's evident. They needed their own films to build an emotional connection, don't assume that because they are comic book characters we automatically know and love them. This is lazy. This review is all over the place, must like the film.
I don't know what state this universe will be in now. It's in shambles. It's weird to think that Black Panther in one week has made more money than Justice League did in it's entire run, domestically. This to me shows that the DCEU needs to re-examine itself. Have The Flash do something weird with the timelines and reboot the series. Seriously, this is your best chance to redeem yourselves because if Justice League is any indication of future installments, I'm out.