Truth and Justice

Justice League

So as many of you may have noticed I stepped away from my tiny excuse of a review site and put my attention into other things. I did this for a couple of reasons, many of which came down to my displeasure with Hollywood and some of the decisions that they have made toward filmmaking and the things they produced. I strongly believe that if Hollywood were run by the fans, the films that we would receive would be DRASTICALLY different. But then again, maybe it is one of those ‘be careful of what you wish for’ moments, because fans of film go into film and my generation is the one running Hollywood right now…so maybe that is why we have what we have…I don’t know. Anyway, I have decided to return because I miss all of you and I just can’t keep my opinions to myself anymore. So what better film to come back for than the return of Sup...er…the Justice League.

But first, a bit of news...Jude Law (The Young Pope, Sherlock Holmes) will be joining the cast of the upcoming Marvel heroine film Captain Marvel with Brie Larson (Free Fire, Room) in the titular role. Apparently, Law will be playing the love/mentor Doctor Walter Lawson. Okay…um sure. Not really anyone I would expect to be in a movie like this, but at this point I think everyone we have ever seen on the big screen is going to be in a superhero movie. So…it’s whatever.

Second, Netflix has extended the hiatus on their hit show House of Cards. With everything that is surrounding actor Kevin Spacey right now, is this a shock? I’m sure that Netflix is going to distance themselves as much as they can from this (rightfully so, mind you) and try to push more of their other original content. I was on Netflix yesterday and they buried this show on their original content page and have a blurred image of Spacey. So don’t count on a wrap up on Frank Underwood’s time in political office anytime soon.

Lastly, as boring as subject to me is, box office numbers are in for the holiday weekend and Pixar’s newest entry, Coco, takes the top spot with today’s reviewee Justice League coming in second. I just thought that this would be a good lead into my review.

So with the DCEU being a virtual letdown, with the exception of Wonder Woman, I was very hesitant going into this film. Anyone who knows me personally knows the great distaste I have for the film named Batman v. Superman and just the poor execution that director Zach Snyder did with it. In his defense though, Snyder did a great job with the Batman scenes but not so much with everything else. Here we are, a year and a half later and I don’t really think that anything has changed. Ugh!

The plot of this film is extremely basic, so much so to the point that most of the film is filler to where and what the ‘team’ needs to do. The hastily assemble team of The Flash (Ezra Miller Perks of Being a Wallflower), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot, Wonder Woman), Cyborg (Ray Fisher), Aquaman (Jason Momoa Game of Thrones), and Batman (Ben Affleck Argo) have to stop the villainous Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds Game of Thrones) before he and his Parademons destroy the Earth. The filler of this movie is wasted on very small subplots that go NOWHERE! Aquaman is an angry drunk for some reason, Cyborg taking over the brooding from Batman because he doesn’t look like the other kids, and Batman having a crush on Wonder Woman; all of this stuff just seemed like afterthoughts to what the filmmakers really wanted to get to.

As far as acting goes, everyone is good except for Affleck and Cavill. Miller is great as comedy relief, Momoa surprised me with his take on Arthur Curry, and Gadot shines has Diana Prince. Then there is Cavill and Affleck…then tent poles to this whole party. I’m going to write all of this off as studio tampering but Affleck’s Batman seems weaker and not has menacing almost like the death of Superman made him second guess who he is and what the Batman stands for. Affleck mentions that he has a new outlook towards everything because of what Superman stood for, but they toned him down almost to the point where I thought little comic bubbles were going to pop out every time he hit someone and Burt Ward was going to show up in his Robin costume. Along with Affleck, Cavill just seemed like he was somewhere else and the reverted his characterization of Superman too far to the left and it came across cheesy. I am glad that the writers heard our complaints of BvS, but this was too much. I wish they would have gradually toned it back so that the transformation wasn’t so obvious. With the exception of the digitally removed mustache on Henry Cavill (which look horrendous btw), the effects in the film where fine, but nothing of worth noting. I thought the choice of blue lightning for The Flash was an interesting choice. As a comic book fan however, there is a giant gaping hole as far as the team goes and that is with Green Lantern. The film does give mentions of the Lantern Corps, but no real mention on where they are for this particular fight. Last thing for my complaints is why is everyone in this movie shouting out every other person’s secret identity? Minor Spoilers: In the beginning of the film, Curry does it to Batman and in the middle of the film Lois screams out “Clark” as there are a few witnesses to Superman’s reawakening and he is flying around. I guess they don’t find it as important in the film universe compared to the comic universe.

As I read back over all of this, I do want to say that the movie wasn’t total garbage. I did enjoy the action sequences, the awe of seeing some of these new characters debut was partially worth it, and I did have a decent time with this movie.  I hope that DC and Warner Bros. find their Kevin Feige (head of Marvel Studios). I think that there is so much untapped potential when it comes to this universe and with rumors of Affleck leaving and The Flash movie being Flashpoint (where the Flash goes back in time to rest the entire DC Universe), I am hopeful that this is reset and done right the next time. Wonder Woman is the exception to the mess that is DCEU because it had remnants of Richard Donner’s Superman film and as corny as this sounds, of hope for the cinematic universe. DC and Warner Bros are so far behind in the Expanded Universe cinematic game that I can’t fault them for trying to catch up. They just need to learn from their mistakes better and maybe step away from the vision that Snyder started.

As always, if you have any comments or opinions you like to share please comment below…Thanks!

The Verdict: Wait till Blu-Ray.