A STEP IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION?
Hey everyone, a thousand apologies for the sheer lack of uploads over the past few months. For the first time in my life, I got a proper job interning at Fox Sports and as you can probably tell, I have been very busy.
That hasn't stopped me from watching films, however - Just that I've had no time to review them. As such, I'm planning on doing one long post featuring short and sweet paragraph-long reviews for the movies I've managed to see over the past few months since Spider-Man: Homecoming, so stay tuned!
For Justice League, however, of course that deserved its own review.
Full transparency here - I'm honestly very split with regards to my views on this movie.
To be more specific, I'm split with my views on this VERSION of the movie.
Like many, I was fully aware of the production troubles which plagued this film throughout its development. There was the tragic death of director Zack Snyder's daughter which saw him step down from the production to be with his family, which then saw Joss Whedon take over to write and direct the reshoots who, according to Warner Bros, was to follow in-line with Snyder's vision.
As much as I want to be as professional about my views and opinions on movies as possible here on this blog, I can't help but call that claim a load of bullshit.
Those who have followed Snyder's work over the years (especially his work in the DCEU) will know that he has a very unique and distinctive visual style. Justice League has that look for the most part, but the fact that it was so noticeable which scenes were reshot is the ultimate compliment to him - that his style simply couldn't be replicated.
As such, the film doesn't feel like a whole. It feels like a two or more disjointed films directed by different people, glued together by THREE editors. I have watched many movies over the years and I've never seen a film which had more than two editors working on it. Yeesh. It's a testament to them that at the very least, the movie does flow well enough.
Perhaps my biggest issue with the false claims about maintaining Snyder's direction with Whedon at the wheel was how the latter dropped composer Junkie XL (who had been working on the score for Justice League for a year) to make way for Danny Elfman, whom Whedon had worked with on Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015).
I think it's a given that the score for a film is as equally important, if not more so, than the actual film. A film's music gives it an identity. A musical cue which represents something larger - a certain scene, a moment... a hero.
Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL created new character themes for Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman which was used to great effect in Man of Steel (2013), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and most recently, Wonder Woman (2017).
To have these themes overlooked in Justice League, the film which brought all these heroes together for the first time, is just a massive let down. You'd expect a lovely medley of all these heroes' themes into one epic score but that's not what we get at all.
By dropping Junkie XL, Whedon not only got rid of a talented composer, he got rid of the sound of the DCEU.
That should be punishable by law.
In those films, such beautiful compositions were produced which represented the heroes we all know and love - compositions which reflected the characters' individual portrayals in this cinematic universe.
All we hear of those already-established character themes are short cues of them only once or twice. In place, what do we get from Danny Elfman? A frankly unimaginative, generic and lazy overall score.
I have the utmost respect for Elfman and his acclaimed body of work over the entirety of his career, but his score for Justice League is simply not good enough. There are callbacks to the classic themes of Batman (1989) and Superman (1978) which make for nice brief fanboy moments, but when these themes are used as if they were the current-day themes of these heroes in this NEW cinematic universe, it just comes off as a cry of desperation.
It seemed as though Elfman didn't realise that this present-day version of Batman isn't the same as the one he worked on in the 90's. As such, the score would have been perfect if Justice League had been made in the 1990's. However, it's almost two decades since then. We've seen four different actors play Batman since Elfman scored Batman Returns (1992). Live with the times, man.
Why oh why did Whedon fire Junkie XL?
Having said all that, I think it would be unfair to judge the movie based on all this. From here on, I'll try my best to talk about the movie for the movie it was and not what it should have been. Of course, my fingers are crossed 24/7 for an announcement from Warner Bros./DC Films that Zack Snyder's intended cut of the film WITH Junkie XL's score will be released on home media.
Till that happens, the version of Justice League we got in cinemas is the film we'll have to live with for now.
Let's talk about the positives for a change.
For one, there is outstanding, almost electric chemistry from the main cast. These guys worked really well on camera and the jokes and one-liners (even the reshot ones) flowed nicely and naturally, which is so important in team-up movies especially.
I really liked the dynamic of the group and how it wasn't all just happy times and working together harmoniously. In the insanely short 120 minute studio-enforced runtime, they still managed to fit in some excellent character conflicts which really humanised these heroes, even as god-like as some of them are.
The new boys that joined the Trinity were great, both in casting and performance, with perhaps the standout in this movie being The Flash (Ezra Miller).
It was a mammoth task to create an original take on the character on the back of The Flash TV series starring Grant Gustin being so popular. Personally, I feel that Miller did a great job establishing this character in the DCEU. I myself have never seen the show and I'm glad I haven't because it makes viewing Miller's version much easier to talk about instead of constantly comparing the two.
They are different portrayals of the character in different universes. Come on, people, live with it.
I also really liked the portrayals of Cyborg (Ray Fisher), whom I was somewhat familiar with from the awesome TV show Teen Titans from my childhood, and especially Aquaman (Jason Momoa) whom I didn't really know much about apart from the endless list of jokes made about him and his abilities.
All those jokes were silenced in what was a solid, serious and downright badass portrayal, and like this movie as a whole, it leaves you craving for more.
And more we will get in next year's solo Aquaman movie.
Having said all that, you could tell that much of their introductory scenes were cut short or just cut entirely from the movie. In many instances, jarring cuts were noticed when they progressed from one scene to another in similar settings/environments.
You could also tell the difference in the quality of filmmaking with the reshot scenes and Snyder's original footage. Not only do the reshot scenes not match in colour grading and continuity, they also aren't framed to match the original clips. When put together in one scene, the differences become extremely jarring.
I don't want to go into detail with this as it would contain plot spoilers but I think a safe scene would be the one where Bruce Wayne/Batman (Ben Affleck) goes on a long journey to a snowy village in the middle of nowhere to find Aquaman.
That scene was in the early trailers which hence implies that they were shot by Snyder. There's a bit during that scene which made me question whether this was the originally intended scene or not, and it all had to do with the framing of the shots.
Snyder isn't a director known for settling for the simpler solution when given a choice between a complex and costlier shot and a simple no-frills one. He will ALWAYS go for the former in a heartbeat.
As a result, that scene I was describing ended up wrapping pretty quickly after a dump of exposition. Along with that, there was some painfully obvious green screen behind Arthur Curry. This same issue plagues the movie throughout and it just sucks that I, a media student familiar with these filmmaking techniques just can't help but notice these things right away.
Sad.
For the already established characters, there is excellent character development from when we last saw them (i.e. Wonder Woman in her solo film earlier this year, Batman, Superman, Lois Lane and Martha Kent from BvS).
We see them mature as well as deal with the tragic loss of Superman/Clark Kent in their own ways and it's very nice how it all comes together and culminates in this movie.
This was something I really appreciated, but one thing I didn't appreciate was how some of these deeper moments between characters ended up being made into insensitive jokes or cheap gags.
Again, this cries of reshoot and of The Joss Whedon Effect. After all, he was brought in to lighten the tone but not like this, man, come on.
These cheap, unnecessary bits of comic relief are scattered all over like bird shit on Trafalgar Square, most of them coming from Barry Allen/The Flash who ultimately just says a few one-liners too many. Gets really annoying, and it's not the character or performance, it's the writing.
It's no secret that Superman would return from the dead in this movie. I mean, come on. A movie with the Justice League must surely feature its key and integral member from the planet Krypton in it, right?
In other words, practically everyone knew Superman would return in some way or form. It was only a matter of how. And that "how", in my opinion, was pretty cool.
I felt that they handled the return of Superman logically and respectfully. Some may be disappointed with how it's done but if you think about it, I think it makes perfect sense.
When the League reunites in full attendance and fight together, you truly get the chills down the spine. It's great stuff.
On the topic of Superman, it was widely reported how Paramount Pictures didn't allow Henry Cavill to shave off the substantial moustache he had grown for his role in the new Mission: Impossible movie for the Justice League reshoots.
As such, they had to use CGI to remove it and my goodness, it was laughable.
I honestly think it would have been better if they had stuck a piece of flesh-coloured tape over his upper lip. That's how bad the CGI was.
Admittedly, the fact that I knew of this beforehand does play into me noticing it but still, they could have done a much better job with it, as with the CGI on the movie as a whole.
It feels incredibly inconsistent throughout, and like the inserted reshot cheap joke scenes, it causes the whole movie to feel very irregular and jarring.
Perhaps they were running out of time in post-production thanks to the sheer amount of reshoots that had to be done. I don't know. I just want answers and a Zack Snyder cut.
As for the villain, well, I guess Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds) did his job and succeeded in his duty to bring all the heroes together in order to fight him.
He was just really weak in terms of character and motivation. It's a very generic "supervillain from another universe coming to earth to conquer it" kind of characterisation which is disappointing but at the same time, it sets up the opening for bigger and badder evils to come down to earth to finish what Steppenwolf couldn't.
For that, I seriously can't wait. These are such exciting times in the superhero genre.
All in all, Justice League, even with all its issues, was an enjoyable and most importantly, fun time in the cinema.
A two-hour runtime is alarmingly short for any movie with more than three new main characters but the movie does surprisingly still flow decently. Sure, continuity errors, reshot scenes and a terrible score don't help its cause but at least the story flows and makes sense. I guess that was most important to get right with all the changes.
Of course, there will always be the disappointment that this movie isn't Zack Snyder's even with his name given directing credits. We, the fans know it doesn't have his stamp on it, and that will always remain a let down.
It does, however, accomplish the one main goal it set out to achieve - and that was to make one crave and hope for more. For more of these heroes and for more of this universe of characters. This movie does precisely that. It leaves you wanting more.
6/10.
Full transparency here - I'm honestly very split with regards to my views on this movie.
To be more specific, I'm split with my views on this VERSION of the movie.
Like many, I was fully aware of the production troubles which plagued this film throughout its development. There was the tragic death of director Zack Snyder's daughter which saw him step down from the production to be with his family, which then saw Joss Whedon take over to write and direct the reshoots who, according to Warner Bros, was to follow in-line with Snyder's vision.
As much as I want to be as professional about my views and opinions on movies as possible here on this blog, I can't help but call that claim a load of bullshit.
Those who have followed Snyder's work over the years (especially his work in the DCEU) will know that he has a very unique and distinctive visual style. Justice League has that look for the most part, but the fact that it was so noticeable which scenes were reshot is the ultimate compliment to him - that his style simply couldn't be replicated.
As such, the film doesn't feel like a whole. It feels like a two or more disjointed films directed by different people, glued together by THREE editors. I have watched many movies over the years and I've never seen a film which had more than two editors working on it. Yeesh. It's a testament to them that at the very least, the movie does flow well enough.
Perhaps my biggest issue with the false claims about maintaining Snyder's direction with Whedon at the wheel was how the latter dropped composer Junkie XL (who had been working on the score for Justice League for a year) to make way for Danny Elfman, whom Whedon had worked with on Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015).
I think it's a given that the score for a film is as equally important, if not more so, than the actual film. A film's music gives it an identity. A musical cue which represents something larger - a certain scene, a moment... a hero.
Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL created new character themes for Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman which was used to great effect in Man of Steel (2013), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and most recently, Wonder Woman (2017).
To have these themes overlooked in Justice League, the film which brought all these heroes together for the first time, is just a massive let down. You'd expect a lovely medley of all these heroes' themes into one epic score but that's not what we get at all.
By dropping Junkie XL, Whedon not only got rid of a talented composer, he got rid of the sound of the DCEU.
That should be punishable by law.
In those films, such beautiful compositions were produced which represented the heroes we all know and love - compositions which reflected the characters' individual portrayals in this cinematic universe.
All we hear of those already-established character themes are short cues of them only once or twice. In place, what do we get from Danny Elfman? A frankly unimaginative, generic and lazy overall score.
I have the utmost respect for Elfman and his acclaimed body of work over the entirety of his career, but his score for Justice League is simply not good enough. There are callbacks to the classic themes of Batman (1989) and Superman (1978) which make for nice brief fanboy moments, but when these themes are used as if they were the current-day themes of these heroes in this NEW cinematic universe, it just comes off as a cry of desperation.
It seemed as though Elfman didn't realise that this present-day version of Batman isn't the same as the one he worked on in the 90's. As such, the score would have been perfect if Justice League had been made in the 1990's. However, it's almost two decades since then. We've seen four different actors play Batman since Elfman scored Batman Returns (1992). Live with the times, man.
Why oh why did Whedon fire Junkie XL?
Having said all that, I think it would be unfair to judge the movie based on all this. From here on, I'll try my best to talk about the movie for the movie it was and not what it should have been. Of course, my fingers are crossed 24/7 for an announcement from Warner Bros./DC Films that Zack Snyder's intended cut of the film WITH Junkie XL's score will be released on home media.
Till that happens, the version of Justice League we got in cinemas is the film we'll have to live with for now.
Let's talk about the positives for a change.
For one, there is outstanding, almost electric chemistry from the main cast. These guys worked really well on camera and the jokes and one-liners (even the reshot ones) flowed nicely and naturally, which is so important in team-up movies especially.
I really liked the dynamic of the group and how it wasn't all just happy times and working together harmoniously. In the insanely short 120 minute studio-enforced runtime, they still managed to fit in some excellent character conflicts which really humanised these heroes, even as god-like as some of them are.
The new boys that joined the Trinity were great, both in casting and performance, with perhaps the standout in this movie being The Flash (Ezra Miller).
It was a mammoth task to create an original take on the character on the back of The Flash TV series starring Grant Gustin being so popular. Personally, I feel that Miller did a great job establishing this character in the DCEU. I myself have never seen the show and I'm glad I haven't because it makes viewing Miller's version much easier to talk about instead of constantly comparing the two.
They are different portrayals of the character in different universes. Come on, people, live with it.
I also really liked the portrayals of Cyborg (Ray Fisher), whom I was somewhat familiar with from the awesome TV show Teen Titans from my childhood, and especially Aquaman (Jason Momoa) whom I didn't really know much about apart from the endless list of jokes made about him and his abilities.
All those jokes were silenced in what was a solid, serious and downright badass portrayal, and like this movie as a whole, it leaves you craving for more.
And more we will get in next year's solo Aquaman movie.
Having said all that, you could tell that much of their introductory scenes were cut short or just cut entirely from the movie. In many instances, jarring cuts were noticed when they progressed from one scene to another in similar settings/environments.
You could also tell the difference in the quality of filmmaking with the reshot scenes and Snyder's original footage. Not only do the reshot scenes not match in colour grading and continuity, they also aren't framed to match the original clips. When put together in one scene, the differences become extremely jarring.
I don't want to go into detail with this as it would contain plot spoilers but I think a safe scene would be the one where Bruce Wayne/Batman (Ben Affleck) goes on a long journey to a snowy village in the middle of nowhere to find Aquaman.
That scene was in the early trailers which hence implies that they were shot by Snyder. There's a bit during that scene which made me question whether this was the originally intended scene or not, and it all had to do with the framing of the shots.
Snyder isn't a director known for settling for the simpler solution when given a choice between a complex and costlier shot and a simple no-frills one. He will ALWAYS go for the former in a heartbeat.
As a result, that scene I was describing ended up wrapping pretty quickly after a dump of exposition. Along with that, there was some painfully obvious green screen behind Arthur Curry. This same issue plagues the movie throughout and it just sucks that I, a media student familiar with these filmmaking techniques just can't help but notice these things right away.
Sad.
For the already established characters, there is excellent character development from when we last saw them (i.e. Wonder Woman in her solo film earlier this year, Batman, Superman, Lois Lane and Martha Kent from BvS).
We see them mature as well as deal with the tragic loss of Superman/Clark Kent in their own ways and it's very nice how it all comes together and culminates in this movie.
This was something I really appreciated, but one thing I didn't appreciate was how some of these deeper moments between characters ended up being made into insensitive jokes or cheap gags.
Again, this cries of reshoot and of The Joss Whedon Effect. After all, he was brought in to lighten the tone but not like this, man, come on.
These cheap, unnecessary bits of comic relief are scattered all over like bird shit on Trafalgar Square, most of them coming from Barry Allen/The Flash who ultimately just says a few one-liners too many. Gets really annoying, and it's not the character or performance, it's the writing.
It's no secret that Superman would return from the dead in this movie. I mean, come on. A movie with the Justice League must surely feature its key and integral member from the planet Krypton in it, right?
In other words, practically everyone knew Superman would return in some way or form. It was only a matter of how. And that "how", in my opinion, was pretty cool.
I felt that they handled the return of Superman logically and respectfully. Some may be disappointed with how it's done but if you think about it, I think it makes perfect sense.
When the League reunites in full attendance and fight together, you truly get the chills down the spine. It's great stuff.
On the topic of Superman, it was widely reported how Paramount Pictures didn't allow Henry Cavill to shave off the substantial moustache he had grown for his role in the new Mission: Impossible movie for the Justice League reshoots.
As such, they had to use CGI to remove it and my goodness, it was laughable.
I honestly think it would have been better if they had stuck a piece of flesh-coloured tape over his upper lip. That's how bad the CGI was.
Admittedly, the fact that I knew of this beforehand does play into me noticing it but still, they could have done a much better job with it, as with the CGI on the movie as a whole.
It feels incredibly inconsistent throughout, and like the inserted reshot cheap joke scenes, it causes the whole movie to feel very irregular and jarring.
Perhaps they were running out of time in post-production thanks to the sheer amount of reshoots that had to be done. I don't know. I just want answers and a Zack Snyder cut.
As for the villain, well, I guess Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds) did his job and succeeded in his duty to bring all the heroes together in order to fight him.
He was just really weak in terms of character and motivation. It's a very generic "supervillain from another universe coming to earth to conquer it" kind of characterisation which is disappointing but at the same time, it sets up the opening for bigger and badder evils to come down to earth to finish what Steppenwolf couldn't.
For that, I seriously can't wait. These are such exciting times in the superhero genre.
All in all, Justice League, even with all its issues, was an enjoyable and most importantly, fun time in the cinema.
A two-hour runtime is alarmingly short for any movie with more than three new main characters but the movie does surprisingly still flow decently. Sure, continuity errors, reshot scenes and a terrible score don't help its cause but at least the story flows and makes sense. I guess that was most important to get right with all the changes.
Of course, there will always be the disappointment that this movie isn't Zack Snyder's even with his name given directing credits. We, the fans know it doesn't have his stamp on it, and that will always remain a let down.
It does, however, accomplish the one main goal it set out to achieve - and that was to make one crave and hope for more. For more of these heroes and for more of this universe of characters. This movie does precisely that. It leaves you wanting more.
6/10.
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