Showing posts with label justice league. Show all posts
Showing posts with label justice league. Show all posts

Sunday 28 March 2021

Opinion Piece/ Review; Zack Snyder's Justice League: Should we #RestoreTheSnyderVerse?

 With the Snyder Cut out, it's safe to say that DC is right now enjoying a lot of time in the spotlight now. I'm sure a lot of people here are at least somewhat familiar with the story. Zack Snyder was removed from directing the Justice League film due to tragic events that happened to his family. Joss Whedon was brought in to get the movie to a releasable state; that version was a disaster due to conflicting tones and visions, leading to a campaign to get Zacks version finished. AT&T heard that, though it would make great content for HBO Max, and so it was done, giving the public a four-hour movie. If all you're looking for is a review comparing the two, well, there is no comparison as objectively, Snyder's version is better. But is the Snyder Cut a good movie on its own merit?


The big thing of note for Snyder's version of the movie is that it's far longer by necessity. They've added in many scenes that help fix the pacing issues of the theatrical cut and give characters like Cyborg a more critical role. There are also inclusions that, as it currently stands with the fate of this take on the characters in limbo, forced in for the sake of building up later movies that might not happen. There are two scenes with the Martian Manhunter that can be summed up as him telling Lois "stop being depressed" and another asking Batman after the final battle "hey, you mind if I join in next time?". Darkseid is brought in for more buildup, which feels redundant due to his presence in the movie, thanks to Steppenwolf.

Why are you in this movie?
 

In contrast, another part of it is frustrating: the continuing focus on the nightmare future from Dawn of Justice (but I'll get back to that later). I think they could have easily cut over half an hour off the movie by trimming down these rather pointless inclusions (when looking at the story itself, taking out the director's desire to direct a scene with these characters). It's just padding out the run time, setting up sequels that will only really happen if AT&T get involved again, which they may not even do!

Remember this picture for after this coming paragraph...

One other issue that I have when it comes to how the movie was released is that the film was rendered and released in IMax resolution, which doesn't work on a streaming service release. Most people have 16:9 Wide Screen TVs, projectors and Monitors. There is a lot of dead space on either side of the screen because of this. When you combine that with the fact that the movie has a very cold, dark pallet with a lot of harsh shadows, night time shots, and not a lot of brightly lit shots in general, it makes the movie look a lot darker than it is when you have two very distracting black borders on the left and right of the screen. 

This is how distracting the black boarders can be.

Though I'm not sold on some of the designs, Cyborg reminds me a bit too much of Michael Bay Transformers for my liking; the CGI and effects in the movie are well done, with moments like the final battle looking a lot better with the lighting the costumes were designed for. That, and the scenes added to help expand on rushed moments from the theatrical cut, is why I'm not saying much about the actual movie itself here. As I said at the very start of the review, this is the best version of the film to watch, even if there are decisions that don't make much sense given the context for release and current standing on upcoming movies. The big question about the film isn't "Is it good", it's "should we go back to this style of DC movies?". I don't think we should.


I don't think it would be a big shock to say, "I'm a fan of the Marvel Movies". I think the fact that I've talked about every movie released so far and have done yearly Marvel reviews now for the last few years goes to show how much I enjoy them. They have problems, don't get me wrong, but the quality of the movies overall has kept me invested in them. When the worst movies in the MCU can be described as "Ehh, it ok." you're doing something right. Two of the big reasons for their success and the two things DC need to get right are the characters and the pacing. Looking at the three Snyder movies, Man of Steel, Dawn of Justice and Justice League, none of the characters feel faithful to the material because "deconstruction storytelling" has been baked into them from the start. That's not necessarily bad, but it does mean that none of these characters feels like the source material due to the conflicting ideas going into them. Introducing characters, deconstructing characters, modernizing characters, subverting expectations. I don't know who any of these people are. Can we start with introductions, please?! At no point in the three movies have I felt like I've gotten the character, something that I've done with every Marvel movie, and the versions of these very same characters in the DCAU. The only character in the DCEU that I can safely say, "ok, I get what this character is like, what their personality is, I get why they're a hero", is Wonder Woman, thanks to her standalone movie.

Really? You're doing a Flashpoint this early?

This takes me to my next point. Why are we here, at this point that we're at by the end of movie three with Snyder's films, four if we're going to count Wonder Woman (and no, I'm not counting Suicide Squad because that feels bolted on at this point)? We've got a four-hour movie trying to introduce three new heroes, revive a fourth that shouldn't be dead in the first place, getting them all together while also trying to introduce the madness that is the New Gods before establishing the Old Gods. It's the fourth movie directly focusing on members of the Justice League. One of the biggest reasons the MCU has succeeded is pacing character introductions, letting people get to know characters in their movies before they start mashing them together. Batman and Superman shouldn't have fought in Movie 2; they should have fought/ worked together after a Man of Steel 2 and a Batman movie introducing people to this new version of Bruce Wayne. Superman should not have died in Movie 2 (that shouldn't have happened for several years) to give the Justice League time to establish itself properly. Superman shouldn't have been immediately revived either because that kills the moment entirely! This version of Justice League (minus resurrecting Superman) should have happened after Flash and Aquaman had standalone movies. The DCEU shouldn't be building up to an Injustice movie, and you people want more of this? You want more of WB's corporate meddling, rushing to get crossovers to happen, forcing iconic characters to suffer as a result?

Why are you in this movie?

I want more DC movies too. I would love for a shared DC Cinematic Universe to rival Marvel's, to give them a run for their money as both companies are at their best when they're building off each other. But I want more movies like Wonder Woman, Shazam, Aquaman, movies that keep to the spirit of the character, with the movie's tone complimenting the character. Movies that show the world why these characters have fans, not trying to contort them to "the sensibilities of the movie going audience". The answer to beating Marvel isn't to make a grim, dark, cold series of movies where the idea of a smile is a rarity because "older people don't like smiling!", it's showing why DC's characters are beloved by fans by showing the good, the bad, the silly, and everything in between. There's a reason why WB Animation frequently mocks Snyder's movies because of how dark and edgy they are; that should show you that we shouldn't want more; we should want better. 

Why are you in this movie? And why the hell didn't you help earlier?!

As nice as it is to finally see a version of Snyder's Justice League, for as good as the movie is, anything would be better than the theatrical cut, and this should not absolve all the previous movies problems. This doesn't change the fact that Man of Steel tried to make an idealistic hero realistic, defeating the point of the character. This doesn't change the fact that the version of Batman we were introduced to was so far removed from what Batman should be that the final "look, he's Batman again!" moment feels cheap. This doesn't change how bad Joker was in Suicide Squad, how bad Killer Croc looked in Suicide Squad, and how bad the course correction from Dawn of Justice was because of how botched the theatrical cut was to try and cut down the run time. If the reason you want more of this was so that you could have something with a tone completely different from the MCU, you need to rethink your priorities.

Tuesday 12 February 2019

Young Justice: The less edgy, and better looking Titans

Before anyone tries it, that comment is aimed more at the costume design rather than the casting.

By now it should come as no surprise that, while both have their ups and downs, I tend to lean more towards the animated side of DC's catalogue when it comes to watching shows and movies related to DC, the highs have been higher, and even some of the low points can still loom over parts of their Live action films, and shows at times. One that many held in high regard was Young Justice, a show focusing on a team made up of sidekicks and younger versions of league members handling more covert ops missions, which was at one point cancelled, then brought back on DC's new streaming platform. Was it for a good reason though?


Wednesday 12 December 2018

DCember; Justice League: Was anyone expecting this to be good?

I don't really say that as a joke either, this film was in development hell from the start to the point where it was a miracle that it even got to "competently made", and many would argue that even that's a stretch. From rewriting on the fly, to calling in a director with a drastically different style due to loss in the Snyder family, to badly CGI'd upper lips thanks to Mission Impossible, the reports coming out about the film during development was one mess after another. It's safe to say that this movie was released with the expectation that it was going to fail in the eyes of Warner Brothers. Were they right to assume that though?


Wednesday 22 March 2017

Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: Justice League – Cosmic Clash: Coin Collecting, the cure for all kinds of collectors

Some might be thinking why I'm not starting with the first Lego Batman movie. Well, the reason is because... its Lego Batman 2, its the game's cutscenes edited into a movie. As to why I'm not doing the other Batman movies and TV specials first... I've been playing a fair bit of Lego Batman 3, and was just in the mood for something with Brainiac as the villain. Now as to why I'm playing Lego Batman 3 and other non Zelda or Horizon games? Future plans for Breath of the Wild, and I don't have a PS4. Onward to the review!

Wednesday 27 July 2016

Batman V Superman; Dawn of Justice Ultimate Edition: I think you mean Batman in Blue vs Batman in Black; Dawn of the Jesus Symbolism Cluttered Edition

The overly long name for the review of the overly long movie is entirely intentional.

Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. What many regard as the most dissapointing movie of this year. Panned by many, though more people wanted to see it, so many debate weatehr Ghostbusters is worse. Some think I may not have much to say about the movie that hasn't already been said. But, my view of the movie? Well, let me tell you what I think, and probably in less time then the movie itself. Oh and one thing, spoilers ahead.
No idea why, but for some reason the concept reminds me of the last part of Acadeca

Wednesday 27 April 2016

Justice League (+JL: Unlimited): Proof that a slow burn for build ups can work well

So here we are, the big one, in terms of tv shows. The uniting of the Justice League, the coming together of DC's greatest heroes in the shared DC show universe. Unlike something like The Avengers and the MCU, this wasn't as big of a deal back then, as far as I can tell (keep in mind I was 5 when this show first aired, so I'm going off of what I could/ couldn't find online), but it is one of the few most remembered. Batman and Superman worked well on their own, and recycling footage apparently worked, so lets bring them together properly, with more characters to boot.

Very quick, a lot of people have brought it up online, so I won't go into detail. Yes, the 3D animation is ugly, no its not the rest of the show, thankfully. The intro for Unlimited is better animation wise, but doesn't pack that same punch the original did though, so pick your poison.

However, being honest, there isn't much to say that wasn't brought up in Batman the animated series, Superman the animated series, or Batman Beyond, with the only part being the pacing. From what I've seen for this review, which is just over a season, all the storylines are multiple episodes long. There's no one episode plots, everyone taking two, or even three, which I think works in part. It does mean that nothing feels rushed, and with a cast this big, you need that. But the individual episodes might help with the pacing, making the two or three episodes more of an event, rather then just a 40 minute episode. I know it doesn't sound like much, but it is more tedious to watch multi part episodes, it just never feels as bad because they're more like events, so to get them all the time here is a bit of a drain if you marathon them.

If you liked the Batmen shows and you liked Superman, then you'll like this if you haven't seen it already. I know its a cop out, and I'm sorry for that. I have something to make up for it though coming soon.

Wednesday 15 July 2015

First Impressions: Batman vs Superman, Dawn of Justice: "So these red capes you talk about..."

As with what I did a few months ago for Age of Ultron, I intend to do a DC marathon to cover, not just the subject of this, but the other "DCCU" film, and what's coming out in a few hours on here, Suicide Squad (First impressions, not review. Do you think that someone who sucks at timely reviews overall, and is a nobody in comparison to others would get something like that this early?). But for now, the start of the flood of content for today, because I'm insane. Part one of six in today's marathon of content, because I'm insane (I'll check myself into Arkham later): Batman vs Superman.