Finally got around to watching Justice League last night. Believe it or not, I didn’t think it sucked. Was it the best superhero movie I’ve ever seen? Not even close. However, it was a far cry better than Thor: The Dark World, X-Men: The Last Stand, or Spider-Man 3.
What didn’t work about this film:
The Directors Switch: I’ve got no argument with fans who labeled this picture a train wreck of Frankenstein proportions in terms of tone and story. The change in directors from Zack Snyder to Joss Whedon was totally evident from title to credits, and that manifested itself in every aspect of this film from visual style to dialogue.
Movie Barry needs to be different then TV Barry : Ezra Miller’s Barry Allen/Flash, while relatively humorous at times, was something of a throwaway character. I get why DC didn’t want to use Grant Guston from the television series. However, don’t recast the character then use musical elements and story themes from the show and expect CW fans to give Barry 2.0 a pass. If you’re gonna change the character, change the character.
Me personally? I’d have stuck with Guston and called it a day.
The Return of Superman: Superman’s resurrection was also a bit dodgy for my liking. Without giving anything away, I didn’t like the way this film handled that. I’d have stuck with the source material from the comics and moved on to the next scene.
Eisenberg as Lex Luthor is beyond saving: There are several references to Lex Luthor in this film (one in particular), which suggests that DC/WB has no plans to recast this character. That’s a real shame. I like Eisenberg in certain roles, but he was just, plain awful as Lex. Period. End of story. Peace. Gotta go.
On paper, I get why you’d want to reinvent Luthor for the modern era, ala an evil Mark Zuckerberg. In reality, it just didn’t work. Sorry. Time to cut your losses and move on with a new actor.
Steppenwolf was terrible: I thought Aries from Wonder Woman was the most cookie-cutter, cliché villain I’d ever seen in one of these films. I was wrong. Steppenwolf took the cake, horns and all.
What did work about this film:
The Cast: The core cast DC has assembled for this franchise is spot-on — and yes, I’ll even toss Batfleck into that. Ben is a solid Bruce Wayne, really solid, and Cavill is a fantastic Superman. I also like Momoa as Aquaman, Fisher as Cyborg, and I’ve long since been on record as saying that Gal Gadot’s portrayal of Diana Prince/Wonder Woman is one of the best in comic film history (male or female).
Final thoughts:
At the end of the day, I think this cast could really work with a good story and solid direction. Snyder is clearly not that director, though the Firefly homer in me will forever think Whedon could’ve been had he guided this project from green flag to checkers. Alas, we’ll never know.
With Flashpoint on the way, it’s likely that much of what I’ve discussed above will be changed. As to the length of those changes, we’ll just have to wait and see.
My suggestions: Leave the core JL roster as is, separate Barry’s story from that of the CW series, recast Lex immediately, and bring in some new storytelling blood with some fresh characters to spice things up. *cough* Nathan Fillion as Hal Jordan. *cough*
Cheers, y’all. Thanks as always for the vine, and feel free to drop your own thoughts in the comments below if you’ve got some.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to hammer out some rewrites on Where Eagles Fly then put some finishing touches on the Colonies Lost prequel short story, Nightfall.
Later!
I like Fillion. However, at this point I believe he is too old for the role