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Update: November 16, 2017
Dragonlord’s Review of JUSTICE LEAGUE (No Spoilers)
Bottom Line: Clunky and doesn’t flow smoothly, Justice League is adequately entertaining but far from the excellence the world’s greatest superhero team-up deserves and could have been.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was a mess because Warner Bros. rushed to catch up with Marvel Studios and so stuffed what should have been a Man of Steel sequel with a plethora of characters and inserted, and ultimately wasted, different iconic storylines from the comic books (Death of Superman and The Dark Knight Returns). Coupled with Zack Snyder’s dour and joyless storytelling, BvS deservedly got panned by critics and audience alike.
Warner Bros. knew it had to course correct the direction of the DC Extended Universe. WB knew at that time that Snyder with his “dark, metallic visual style and grim, brooding, muscular-emo sensibility” was not a good fit for their brand, let alone be the one to shepherd the rest of the DCEU movies. But the studio didn’t have the time to search for a new writer or director without delaying the production and so bit the bullet (and to save face from the public) and proceeded with Snyder at the helm for Justice League.
Due to his daughter’s death, Snyder took some time off and Joss Whedon was brought in to finish post-production. WB used this opportunity to cut off Snyder’s power as he will now have less creative input in the direction of the DCEU going forward. WB spent a massive $25 million on extensive reshoots that lasted two months (average reshoots range from $6 million to $10 million). And so after knowing the history of the production and behind-the-scenes drama, has WB transformed Justice League into a winner? Eh. It’s not a home run but it’s not a trainwreck either.
Justice League is about Batman recruiting a team of superheroes to save the Earth against an alien invasion led by Steppenwolf from Apokalips who seeks out three MacGuffins, Mother Boxes, scattered all over the world. The story is generic as they come, no different from most of the other superhero movies out there, but it is the execution that counts which Justice League is a bit lacking.
The first half of the film is clunky and the flow of the movie doesn’t run smoothly. WB’s foolish decision to not introduce these characters in their own solo movies bites them here as the film drags a little due to giving these new characters background origins as well as updating what’s happening with the existing main characters. Lois Lane (Amy Adams) and Martha Kent’s (Diane Lane) scenes in the first hour were momentum killers.
Among the new characters properly introduced, the Flash (Ezra Miller) almost steals the show not only with his comedic awkwardness and wide-eyed, gee-whiz enthusiasm but also for the fantastic feats from his super-speed. But traditional Barry Allen fans might not like this new version of the Flash. They also gave him Barry a non-fighter, scaredy-cat persona to justify why he can't just stab Steppenwolf's face with Diana's sword 500 times in one second. Aquaman (Jason Momoa) is a bore when he just grimace and broods early on but becomes more fun when he lets his wild side loose. Cyborg (Ray Fisher) is bland but amiable and is just there to make the team’s job easier since he has a connection to the MacGuffin. Mera was a badass and actress Amber Heard looked smoking hot.
Coming off from the success of her solo movie, Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) continues to be a bright spot. Her bracelet bouncing prowess during the terrorist attack was dope. In what may be Ben Affleck’s last performance as the Caped Crusader, Batman is pretty good in here but less cool in some ways and more quip-friendly.
The main villain Steppenwolf (voiced and motion-captured by Ciaran Hinds) is a dull CGI villain. Though he gets to kill a lot of people and beat up the Justice League, he has no charisma, likes to sprouts cliché lines and his motivation is so unimaginative. He's so generic, you'll grow bored by the fourth time he appears. It doesn’t help that his CGI face looks fake and takes you out of it.
Snyder and Whedon’s styles are so distinctly different that you can practically guess correctly which scenes are from Snyder and which are from Whedon. The film is visually gorgeous thanks to Snyder but wished he would lay off the pretentious slow-motion shots in uneventful scenes like the thugs being arrested for harassing an ethnic-looking store owner.
The action looks terrific most of the time. But some of the action – Wonder Woman and Aquaman battling Steppenwolf in particular - gets repetitive at the end and seemed to drag on forever to finish. The best part of the film which put a huge smile on my face was the awesome fight scene roughly at the one hour mark (see spoiler box below).
The most ironic thing is the ending to Justice League is very similar to the climax of Whedon’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. But there is one critical flaw in JL’s ending and that is it felt so isolated with no media coverage, no government monitoring and only a few civilians were seen and in harm’s way. As formulaic as it is, you can’t have an epic save-the-world scenario without those elements. That’s one of the reasons why JL’s climax felt flat.
As much as BvS got it wrong, there were a lot of really cool scenes in that movie. Justice League doesn’t have a lot of highlight reel moments. Though there are less mistakes and blunders, Justice League feels safe and didn’t take enough risks with Snyder being shackled and Whedon unable to effectively create any big impact on the movie with the limited window he had.
Danny Elfman did a good job with the score and I particularly loved it when he incorporated Tim Burton’s Batman theme and Richard Donner’s Superman theme in there. Wasn’t happy with the music he chose for the terrorist attack scene, reminded me of Elfman’s typical superhero score he prevalently used in the early 90s which made that terrorist attack scene feel too cartoony.
There’s two post-credits scene. The first one, which I bet is from Whedon, is an awesomely fun scene that pays tribute to its comic book roots. The second post-credits scene is an exciting meeting between an old DCEU character and the debut of a popular comic book character.
Does the film succeed in making me excited to watch the planned solo movies for the individual characters? It's a mixed feeling. Cyborg movie? Don't really care. Aquaman movie? Only if it's the wild and talkative Aquaman. If it's the brooding Aquaman, I fear we're going to get Conan the Barbarian (2011) at sea. Flash movie a.k.a. Flashpoint? If WB proceeds with the planned Flashpoint storyline, then the studio still doesn't have a clue what they're doing since you don't introduce a major altering storyline to a live-action universe that is just getting its feet wet.
The most disappointing of it all is they cut out all the scenes of the seventh member of the Justice League despite being heavily promoted in their posters [1] [2], cover books [3], behind-the-scenes photo [4] and they even showed a clip [5] of this member in action.
Overall, Justice League is adequately entertaining with a few shining moments but seeing that this is the first live-action movie about DC Comics’ most iconic superhero group, you can’t help but feel that this could have been so much better.
Rating: 6.5/10 or 7/10
The movie was sort of bleh for the first hour but things got a whole lot more exciting when they revived Superman and he started fighting the League. This is my favorite part of the movie by far. I was grinning like a kid when Superman’s eyes suddenly followed Flash’s movements and Barry's "oh shit" expression. Absolutely love Clark's response when Bruce told him the world needs him. "The world doesn't need you. Tell me. Do you bleed?" So awesome.
The ending with Steppenwolf showing fear and swarmed by Parademons was a bit lame. It got even lamer when they were all teleported presumably back to Apokalips. They should have killed Steppenwolf. They probably spared his life so that Darkseid will be the one to kill him later as punishment for his failures.
It would have had more dramatic effect (not to mention a nice surprise) if they didn't show Lois Lane prior to Alfred dropping her off at the monument, revealing that she is the "big guns" Batman was prepping for Superman.
Secret identities aren't as sacred as they used to be. It's so weird that Aquaman is talking out loud about how Bruce Wayne is the Batman within earshot of the passerbys. How about Lois yelling "Clark" at Superman within a few feet from a policeman. Lastly, good luck explaining how Clark Kent turns out to be alive... at the same time Superman is resurrected.
The beginning with the cellphone footage of Superman is so clear that it's from the reshoot because of the weird digitally altered face of Henry Cavill, who was under contract to not shave his mustache while filming Mission: Impossible 6.
They intentionally gave the Flash a scaredy-cat persona because let's face it, he's the most powerful metahuman next to Superman. Barry could have killed all the Parademons in an instant and could have stabbed Steppenwolf's face hundreds of times before he knew what hit him.
They also corrected Snyder's grim and depressing Superman by giving him a fun and friendlier side. In short, they finally got Superman right.
When the team first spoke to a resurrected Superman, they should have just said, "Martha!" <45>
I have mixed feelings about Batman being portrayed as weak and getting beat up by Parademons. On one hand, his coolness factor drops. On the other hand, it is also refreshing that they didn't try to put him over unrealistically. After all he is just a normal guy in a suit. Plus he also managed to kick some Parademons' butts in other scenes.
I’ll add more after a while.
Link to previous thread: http://forums.sherdog.com/posts/135845257/
Dragonlord’s Review of JUSTICE LEAGUE (No Spoilers)
Bottom Line: Clunky and doesn’t flow smoothly, Justice League is adequately entertaining but far from the excellence the world’s greatest superhero team-up deserves and could have been.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was a mess because Warner Bros. rushed to catch up with Marvel Studios and so stuffed what should have been a Man of Steel sequel with a plethora of characters and inserted, and ultimately wasted, different iconic storylines from the comic books (Death of Superman and The Dark Knight Returns). Coupled with Zack Snyder’s dour and joyless storytelling, BvS deservedly got panned by critics and audience alike.
Warner Bros. knew it had to course correct the direction of the DC Extended Universe. WB knew at that time that Snyder with his “dark, metallic visual style and grim, brooding, muscular-emo sensibility” was not a good fit for their brand, let alone be the one to shepherd the rest of the DCEU movies. But the studio didn’t have the time to search for a new writer or director without delaying the production and so bit the bullet (and to save face from the public) and proceeded with Snyder at the helm for Justice League.
Due to his daughter’s death, Snyder took some time off and Joss Whedon was brought in to finish post-production. WB used this opportunity to cut off Snyder’s power as he will now have less creative input in the direction of the DCEU going forward. WB spent a massive $25 million on extensive reshoots that lasted two months (average reshoots range from $6 million to $10 million). And so after knowing the history of the production and behind-the-scenes drama, has WB transformed Justice League into a winner? Eh. It’s not a home run but it’s not a trainwreck either.
Justice League is about Batman recruiting a team of superheroes to save the Earth against an alien invasion led by Steppenwolf from Apokalips who seeks out three MacGuffins, Mother Boxes, scattered all over the world. The story is generic as they come, no different from most of the other superhero movies out there, but it is the execution that counts which Justice League is a bit lacking.
The first half of the film is clunky and the flow of the movie doesn’t run smoothly. WB’s foolish decision to not introduce these characters in their own solo movies bites them here as the film drags a little due to giving these new characters background origins as well as updating what’s happening with the existing main characters. Lois Lane (Amy Adams) and Martha Kent’s (Diane Lane) scenes in the first hour were momentum killers.
Among the new characters properly introduced, the Flash (Ezra Miller) almost steals the show not only with his comedic awkwardness and wide-eyed, gee-whiz enthusiasm but also for the fantastic feats from his super-speed. But traditional Barry Allen fans might not like this new version of the Flash. They also gave him Barry a non-fighter, scaredy-cat persona to justify why he can't just stab Steppenwolf's face with Diana's sword 500 times in one second. Aquaman (Jason Momoa) is a bore when he just grimace and broods early on but becomes more fun when he lets his wild side loose. Cyborg (Ray Fisher) is bland but amiable and is just there to make the team’s job easier since he has a connection to the MacGuffin. Mera was a badass and actress Amber Heard looked smoking hot.
Coming off from the success of her solo movie, Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) continues to be a bright spot. Her bracelet bouncing prowess during the terrorist attack was dope. In what may be Ben Affleck’s last performance as the Caped Crusader, Batman is pretty good in here but less cool in some ways and more quip-friendly.
The main villain Steppenwolf (voiced and motion-captured by Ciaran Hinds) is a dull CGI villain. Though he gets to kill a lot of people and beat up the Justice League, he has no charisma, likes to sprouts cliché lines and his motivation is so unimaginative. He's so generic, you'll grow bored by the fourth time he appears. It doesn’t help that his CGI face looks fake and takes you out of it.
Snyder and Whedon’s styles are so distinctly different that you can practically guess correctly which scenes are from Snyder and which are from Whedon. The film is visually gorgeous thanks to Snyder but wished he would lay off the pretentious slow-motion shots in uneventful scenes like the thugs being arrested for harassing an ethnic-looking store owner.
The action looks terrific most of the time. But some of the action – Wonder Woman and Aquaman battling Steppenwolf in particular - gets repetitive at the end and seemed to drag on forever to finish. The best part of the film which put a huge smile on my face was the awesome fight scene roughly at the one hour mark (see spoiler box below).
The most ironic thing is the ending to Justice League is very similar to the climax of Whedon’s Avengers: Age of Ultron. But there is one critical flaw in JL’s ending and that is it felt so isolated with no media coverage, no government monitoring and only a few civilians were seen and in harm’s way. As formulaic as it is, you can’t have an epic save-the-world scenario without those elements. That’s one of the reasons why JL’s climax felt flat.
As much as BvS got it wrong, there were a lot of really cool scenes in that movie. Justice League doesn’t have a lot of highlight reel moments. Though there are less mistakes and blunders, Justice League feels safe and didn’t take enough risks with Snyder being shackled and Whedon unable to effectively create any big impact on the movie with the limited window he had.
Danny Elfman did a good job with the score and I particularly loved it when he incorporated Tim Burton’s Batman theme and Richard Donner’s Superman theme in there. Wasn’t happy with the music he chose for the terrorist attack scene, reminded me of Elfman’s typical superhero score he prevalently used in the early 90s which made that terrorist attack scene feel too cartoony.
There’s two post-credits scene. The first one, which I bet is from Whedon, is an awesomely fun scene that pays tribute to its comic book roots. The second post-credits scene is an exciting meeting between an old DCEU character and the debut of a popular comic book character.
Does the film succeed in making me excited to watch the planned solo movies for the individual characters? It's a mixed feeling. Cyborg movie? Don't really care. Aquaman movie? Only if it's the wild and talkative Aquaman. If it's the brooding Aquaman, I fear we're going to get Conan the Barbarian (2011) at sea. Flash movie a.k.a. Flashpoint? If WB proceeds with the planned Flashpoint storyline, then the studio still doesn't have a clue what they're doing since you don't introduce a major altering storyline to a live-action universe that is just getting its feet wet.
The most disappointing of it all is they cut out all the scenes of the seventh member of the Justice League despite being heavily promoted in their posters [1] [2], cover books [3], behind-the-scenes photo [4] and they even showed a clip [5] of this member in action.
Overall, Justice League is adequately entertaining with a few shining moments but seeing that this is the first live-action movie about DC Comics’ most iconic superhero group, you can’t help but feel that this could have been so much better.
Rating: 6.5/10 or 7/10
The movie was sort of bleh for the first hour but things got a whole lot more exciting when they revived Superman and he started fighting the League. This is my favorite part of the movie by far. I was grinning like a kid when Superman’s eyes suddenly followed Flash’s movements and Barry's "oh shit" expression. Absolutely love Clark's response when Bruce told him the world needs him. "The world doesn't need you. Tell me. Do you bleed?" So awesome.
The ending with Steppenwolf showing fear and swarmed by Parademons was a bit lame. It got even lamer when they were all teleported presumably back to Apokalips. They should have killed Steppenwolf. They probably spared his life so that Darkseid will be the one to kill him later as punishment for his failures.
It would have had more dramatic effect (not to mention a nice surprise) if they didn't show Lois Lane prior to Alfred dropping her off at the monument, revealing that she is the "big guns" Batman was prepping for Superman.
Secret identities aren't as sacred as they used to be. It's so weird that Aquaman is talking out loud about how Bruce Wayne is the Batman within earshot of the passerbys. How about Lois yelling "Clark" at Superman within a few feet from a policeman. Lastly, good luck explaining how Clark Kent turns out to be alive... at the same time Superman is resurrected.
The beginning with the cellphone footage of Superman is so clear that it's from the reshoot because of the weird digitally altered face of Henry Cavill, who was under contract to not shave his mustache while filming Mission: Impossible 6.
They intentionally gave the Flash a scaredy-cat persona because let's face it, he's the most powerful metahuman next to Superman. Barry could have killed all the Parademons in an instant and could have stabbed Steppenwolf's face hundreds of times before he knew what hit him.
They also corrected Snyder's grim and depressing Superman by giving him a fun and friendlier side. In short, they finally got Superman right.
When the team first spoke to a resurrected Superman, they should have just said, "Martha!" <45>
I have mixed feelings about Batman being portrayed as weak and getting beat up by Parademons. On one hand, his coolness factor drops. On the other hand, it is also refreshing that they didn't try to put him over unrealistically. After all he is just a normal guy in a suit. Plus he also managed to kick some Parademons' butts in other scenes.
I’ll add more after a while.
The first post-credits scene is just a super fun moment when Flash challenges Superman to a friendly race. The outcome is undecided as the screen cuts just as the race starts. In the comics, this has been one of the most discussed topic, who is faster - Superman or Flash? and on rare occasions they actually show them racing each other. So it was super cool that they decided to recreate this monumental moment in live-action. I'm guessing Whedon is responsible for this post-credits scene.
The second post-credits scene shows Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) has escape prison and puts an imposter in his place. Luthor is in a huge luxury ship and visited by Deathstroke. Deathstroke removes his helmet and shows a gray-haired Joe Manganiello. To counter the newly formed Justice League, Luthor proposes they form their own "league." And so the Injustice League is formed. The End. The biggest surprise here is how Lex Luthor was actually decently portrayed. Sinister and smug but not a clown.
The second post-credits scene shows Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) has escape prison and puts an imposter in his place. Luthor is in a huge luxury ship and visited by Deathstroke. Deathstroke removes his helmet and shows a gray-haired Joe Manganiello. To counter the newly formed Justice League, Luthor proposes they form their own "league." And so the Injustice League is formed. The End. The biggest surprise here is how Lex Luthor was actually decently portrayed. Sinister and smug but not a clown.
Link to previous thread: http://forums.sherdog.com/posts/135845257/
