First off, I loved it, I really did, I came out of the theater very happy. Was it one of the greatest movies of all time? No. Warner Bros. seems to have listen to the fans and made a more brighter and light hearted film, but at the same time you can't tell if that is what they were originally going for at the beginning of writing and filming, because you end up leaving wondering which scenes were Zack Snyder's originals and which were Joss Whedon's reshoots. We will never know the truth, no matter what any one person from production says, to me personally the film almost felt director-less with only a handful of scenes here and there that felt like that had either director's personal touches.
My two favorite stand out characters were Cyborg and Superman, it was very joyful to see Henry Cavill's Superman smiling, and saying heroic quips again. Ray Fisher's portrayal of Victor Stone, a young man fused with alien technology to save his life, and finding a purpose to use those new abilities was a great centerpiece to the story. You could almost call this Cyborg's movie, he is the one character that I felt truly had a character arc, and can't wait to see the extended cut blu-ray with all his cut scenes put back in.
My two favorite scenes were with Superman, his throw down with the other heroes after he comes back to life showing he is the most powerful being on the planet and you better be damn grateful he's an actual good guy was phenomenal to see on the big screen, and then of course him joining the final fight, flying around saving people, dropping true to comic Superman lines, helping and working with his teammates, and look like he's having fun doing it. As to the rest of the League, Gal Gadot still really shines and owns this version of Wonder Woman down pat being her third time around, so no problems there, but Flash and Aquaman are really the less fleshed out, but I'm pretty sure that's because WB dosen't want to retread what the Flash TV series has already done, and Aquaman is getting his own movie. Another thing that bugs me with the two characters is Ezra Miller's Flash waling his arm weirdly when running, hopefully they'll fix that in future appearance along with a better designed costume, but more importantly not one single scene showcasing Jason Momoa's Aquaman use of aquatic communication, come on!, I was waiting for a scene of Aquaman protecting people leaving the final battle location by boats in the ocean by calling up sharks and giant octopus to take out Parademons.
Then there's poor Ben Affleck, I really loved him as Batman/Bruce Wayne in Dawn of Justice, but in Justice League he just seems so nerfed, I don't know if it was the writing, his state of mind when filming scenes, or the direction given to him, but I just felt we didn't get the proper amount and attention giving to the Cape Crusader this time around. I mean in the final battle he didn't even fight Steppenwolf, he was left on a ledge firing a Parademon laser rifle, WHAT THE HELL! This is Batman, the goddamn Dark Knight himself, human and powerless or not he would still be down there throwing every gadget in his belt helping his teammates to stale the Apokoliptian from getting back up to the Mother Boxes, just like he would be in the comics, WB missed an opportunity to continue to have Batman looking badass.
Two things I really wish they could of done better for the movie, number 1 being: Who approved the color palette for Steppenwolf?, he was two different shades of gray, that's all, his armor and his skin tone barely a hue away from each other, it was like people were fighting and talking to a stone statue not a cosmic warlord. Would it have killed them or the budget to add some red stripes to make him more vibrant or something, geez. Number 2; I know Snyder does a lot of green screen shooting, but this movie was damn near Star Wars prequel level, if it wasn't in Metropolis, the Batcave, outside Wayne Manor, or inside the Flying Fox, every other scene was CGI added background, and then there's during the final battle when we watched a video game cutscene of the Batmobile driving through buildings and shooting Parademons. The two things bugged me the most, but there's also the issue of scenes and dialog from trailers and other scenes cut out to make the film under two hours, which apparently was a Warner Bros. board mandate which I think hurt the film more than it helped you move plot point to plot point at break neck speed, like going down a studio approved predetermined checklist they think the general audience would need.
Finally my critiques of the written story used to add to the DC Extended Universe, first off, Really!?, that's how you bring Superman back to life?; with a fricking Motherbox, when you already set up his possible healing and coma in the previous chronological installment. I couldn't of been the only one that was expecting them to find an empty casket and discovered Clark was alive but was wandering around the country as a nameless small time hero again instead, that would of been way better then easy buttoned back to life. Second, does any one in the world know a group of heroes came together and saved the world from destruction and enslavement, I don't think anyone outside of those Russian villagers truly felt the danger, everyone else on Earth was none the wiser just going on with their lives and not knowing about the formation of the Justice League.
Which brings me to my final gripe, we never get to hear them called The Justice League in the movie, not even as a joke, why is WB so afraid of their very own comic book source material names being said out loud? Wonder Woman never called Wonder Woman in three movies, Cyborg called "The Cyborg" once in dialog, one mention of Arthur Curry being called "The Aquaman", and correct me if I'm wrong but I sure never heard them say "The Flash" in the movie at all. Warner Bros. needs to realize yes these are million dollar motion picture adaptations of the characters but they are still comic book characters and they need to say them in the movies and we need to hear them coming out of the surround sound at the theaters, or they're just basically selling us the Trademark they own that they think we're only drawn to like mindless zombies, and not selling us on making a live action continuity connected super-hero universe like they should be doing.
No comments:
Post a Comment