Justice League…the most hyped up film of 2017 aside from Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Talking about this movie is somewhat difficult for me because of how much I was looking forward to it. This was going to be big, this was the first ever live action adaptation of the Justice League. Characters that I grew up with, characters that I loved ever since I saw them for the first time in the classic Justice League animated series by Bruce Timm and Paul Dini. And WB knew this as they marketed the hell outta this movie. This felt like an event. And I had faith that Zack Snyder would deliver since I’m a big fan of Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Justice League was going to be different though. From the trailers, it looked like DC was going in a much lighter direction with it’s movies as oppose to the tone of the previous two Zack Snyder movies. But from what I got, this was the intention all along. The “DCEU” was going to start in a much darker and realistic tone, but then enter a much lighter tone. See, this was Zack Snyder’s thing. He started all of this with Man of Steel and built a story with BvS that felt like it was going to expend in Justice League. Sadly though, Zack Snyder’s daughter, Autumn Snyder, passed on March 20, 2017 and Snyder had to step down from post production for the movie. Joss Whedon was hired to finish the movie and it went under some major reshoots that are pretty noticeable in the final product. Which now leads me to writing this.
Charles Roven, producer of Justice League and other DC films said that Joss Whedon shot 15-20% of the movie. But if you’ve seen the movie you’ll notice that…yeah it’s more that just 15-20%. You can tell what was originally shot by Zack Snyder, what was shot by Joss Whedon and what was just completely cut. Now, Justice League is not a bad film. Nor is it a great film. It’s average in my opinion. Seeing these classic characters that I grew up with on the big screen was still exciting and I’d lie if I said I didn’t have a little fun. But I look at this movie and I just think of what it could’ve been. It could’ve been so much more, but instead we just got another run of the mill superhero team up movie. And…yeah that’s pretty disappointing. A lot of scenes were cut that explored DC’s New Gods. Steppenwolf was going to be a much more sympathetic villain. Exiled by Darkseid because of his past failure of conquering Earth, he returns to conquer Earth again so he can regain Darkseid’s favour. None of that…is in the movie. Steppenwolf is just a bland villain who’s sole purpose is to just be a world ending threat so the league can come together. And that’s fine, but if you look at how much backstory and scenes were cut that would’ve made this ten times better, I can’t help, but feel disappointed.
I’m going to go into spoilers now, so if you still haven’t seen JL, then this is just a spoiler warning!!!
Okay so let’s talk more in detail about the reshoots. Um…what the fuck happened here?! It’s so obvious what was originally shot and what was a reshoot. Hell, this is almost as obvious as fucking Fant4stic. But it doesn’t stop there. Oh no. Remember that whole buzz about WB using CGI to remover Cavill’s mustache? I remember thinking it that it wouldn’t be a big deal, but when I saw those leaked stills from the film and when I actually saw the film…oh boy. Honestly, what’s even worse is the way they brought back Superman. I remember a lot of people were shocked that they killed off Superman at the end of BvS. Some loved it, some hated it. But it left an opportunity to do a great rebirth of the character. It was the moment I was really looking forward to in JL. They even teased it at the end of BvS. However…they completely butchered, what could’ve been, the best scene in Justice League. Instead of this great big return, Superman is brought back to life by a motherbox and Flash’s powers. The scene that follows is even more stupid. When Kal is brought back, he’s sorta confused. He meets the League and something causes Cyborg to attack Kal which leads to a fight scene between the League and Superman. He mops the floor with everyone and when Batman shows up, he remembers what an asshole he was to him in BvS and tries to kill him. But not until Lois shows up that he starts remembering more and they fly off. While all of this is happening, Steppenwolf steals the motherbox, that was so important to the movie. What the fuck happened here?! Oh and Superman shows up near the end to save the day because of course Superman is going to show up near the end and save the day. This whole thing breaks the movie for me. None of this makes any sense. And what’s even more frustrating is that recent news tells us that Superman was going to appear in the classic black suit, beard and everything, but was cut. Writing this just made me hate the movie even more.
There’s a lot more problems with Justice League. Unnecessary sexist jokes by Joss Whedon, little to no character development, no actual suspense etc. Like I said, the characters are pretty great. I had fun with most of them and I’m looking forward to seeing them again. I don’t know what the faith of the “DCEU” is, but all I hope is that WB learns their lesson. They almost ruined BvS, but luckily we got the Ultimate Edition. However Justice League’s problems are much bigger and it shows how little WB cares about Zack Snyder’s vision. This film feels like an apology to all the fans that hated the darker tone of the previous DC films. It’s WB trying to emulate The Avenger’s success.
I hope you all enjoyed reading this.
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