Further Reading: ‘Justice League’

Shout out to @scottlechowicz, @Deanna, @Vivatoto, and @BackyardHero11 for their contributions to this.

New Frontier and Kingdom Come are masterpieces, by the way. If you don't read any other recs, at least read these two.

 

I can back that everyone should read Kingdom Come

 

Justice League managed to be even worse than I had anticipated. The Flash had some fun lines but ultimately not enough to save the movie.

 

This is coming from someone who really enjoys BvS *ULTIMATE CUT* and loves Man of Steel....


Justice League was a fucking dumpster fire. Incredibly disappointed.

 

Makes me think JL is gonna be good.

 

I saw Justice League and enjoyed it, much better than Batman vs Superman. Wonder Woman and The Flash were great in the movie. I encourage people to go see it, make up your own mind!

 

Did you like BvS? I’d say it’s a slight improvement on that.

 

Justice League wasn't great, but it was fun. I'm kinda surprised that anyone who generally enjoys superhero films would end up hating it. The pacing was rough, and the threat was dull, but whatever. At worst, it was a decent theater experience for fans of heroes in colorful costumes. If nothing else, Superman actually being Superman after he (super obvious spoiler, I guess? lol) returns from the dead was pretty darn refreshing.

Anyways, not enough talk of how New Frontier is a perfect comic book.

 

Meh. It was fine. Didn’t hate it the way some did. But wouldn’t say I liked it.

 

I know your comment isn't directed at me but since you've seen it I felt like dishing my feelings on the movie. Also, killing time while traffic dies down back to the city. Curious to hear what you liked/disliked.

Preface: I loved Wonder Woman, really enjoyed Man of Steel, didn't care for BvS (fell asleep in theater) but I found the ultimate/director's cut to be an improvement despite being longer. Hated Suicide Squad. It's also important to note that the studio's cuts to the running time (and Joss Whedon's reshoots) are most likely the cause for many (if not all) problems I had with the film. The film's lack of character development for new team members can be resolved in the standalone films, but it's unfortunate that they have to.

I've done my best to obscure what I consider spoilers for those who haven't seen the film.

Things I did care for in Justice League:

• The Flash – Ezra Miller was such a great choice for the role and a bright spot in the film. Between "Perks of Being a Wallflower", "We Need to Talk About Kevin" and now "Justice League", he's really shown a great range, dramatically. I really hope his solo film actually ends up getting made.
• Wonder Woman, who honestly seems like a much better choice to lead the group.
• The mid/end credit scenes were fun, we'll see if the latter leads to anything given the uncertainly of this franchise.

Things I didn't care for in Justice League:

• Humor feels out of place. I realize that they were trying to course-correct from the tone of previous films, but certain points it just felt so forced and unnecessary. Barry Allen was entertaining but Aquaman's humor and persona were a bit painful.
• No sense of urgency or true peril. Stakes didn't seem high. The mother boxes weren't an awful macguffin, but what they led to was pretty underwhelming given the setting. In Avengers, we get aliens tearing New York City, in Justice League a villain sets up shop in a more or less abandoned part of the world. Because of this, we're given a single family to worry about.
• So many underutilized characters. Commissioner Gordon had practically no screen time. Would've loved some more background on Cyborg.
• Villain wasn't very developed. Steppenwolf was menacing and entertaining to watch, but just seemed to come out of nowhere. The only DC villain I've really enjoyed in the short list of films was Zodd. Granted, Marvel has a villain issue too, and even more films under their belt. I've only really enjoyed Loki, hoping Thanos makes up for others in the past.
• Superman's post-resurrection scene where he's evil for a moment was very predictable and felt unnecessary BECAUSE it gets resolved too easily. Such a "Martha!" moment. The fact that we didn't even get a darker suit was such a bummer cherry on top.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the DCEU (or is it DCU?) now that Zac Snyder is out of the picture. It feels like it's in disarray. Last I read, the Cyborg movie was being put on the back burner. Maybe the Aquaman movie will surprise us like Wonder Woman did (and at least we have a Wonder Woman sequel to look forward to). On the topic of Wonder Woman, pending the strength of the sequel, I would love to see a Justice League follow-up directed by Patty Jenkins.

 

I liked BvS director's cut enough, and MoS.
Suicide Squad was mind blowingly awful.

The worst problem with JL is how corny it is.
They should leave the neverending feel good to Marvel, and stay broody, with only occasional humor. Nolan but with the necessary adjustments. My two cents.

 

Agree with all your observations, and regarding this one I'd add half of the movie was just waiting for Superman to get around to easily beating Steppenwolf, what the hell?

 

Seriously, it was so phoned in. Completely agree about the humor, too. Beyond the Flash’s dialogue, the only joke I found myself laughing at was Martha Kent’s whole “Lois Lane is thirsty” bit.

 

So, your worst problem with JL is also my favorite thing about JL. Huh.

The more I think about this movie, the more I notice its major failings, but at least it featured heroes being heroes. If I have to sit through one more brooding Superman film, I'll gouge my eyes out.

Besides, superheroes are inherently corny, and I say this as an avid superhero fan. Even successful dark films like The Dark Knight and Logan have moments that acknowledge that fact. Great stories with a more serious tone can be told about most characters (even Spidey has "Kraven's Last Hunt"), but if you're gonna ask me to take a superhero super-seriously, you better freaking earn it, lol.

Otherwise, just let me have my dang four-color superheroic escapist fun.

 

That's fine too, and they've created some potential for that in the future, between the different team members, but they definitely have to work on the script. And cool it with the "epic pose" scenes, or the "that was cool" reactions. When I say corny, that's what annoyed me the most.

I know I've personally associated DC with broody and Marvel with levity, and I kinda want it kept that way, or we'll never get another The Dark Knight. Thor movies for me count as comedies.

This corny conversation also has me sad that Andrew Garfield is no longer Spidey, his corny joke delivery was impeccable haha.

 

I get what you're saying and don't disagree, but with that weird Joker origin thing they're developing (which I don't have much interest in, but I love what it represents), I think there's room for both a Marvel-esque shared universe and weird side projects. Plus, at least both Fox and Sony are leaning into similar weird side project territory. We're in a pretty exciting time for superhero films.

Also, way to tug at my heartstrings with that Garfield comment, lol. Still my favorite Spidey.

 

I thought Steppenwolf was a Band.

 

I love you both.

 

I watched the new Thor on Thursday. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I watched Justice League tonight. I liked it more.

I really and truly wonder if the vocal critics of this just had their minds made up before walking into it. Because going in with an open mind, as someone who's read some comics and doesn't have strong feelings towards the previous installments of the series, I thought it was just fantastic.

Wonder Woman was great; the Flash was extremely fun. Batman was significantly better in this than in BvS; Superman was nicely built off of Man of Steel. Aquaman and Cyborg were Aquaman and Cyborg (read: totally fine as filler members on a team with the three most iconic superheroes not named 'Spiderman' in the world). The story was your standard 'aliens come to conquer the planet, heroes have to set aside their differences to win.' I just have a hard time understanding people who act like Marvel stuff is game-changing and worthy of 90-95 consistently on Rotten Tomatoes, who then take a crap on stuff like this. And don't get me wrong - I love Marvel. But this is really good too. And the same point by point criticisms of the plot here could be done for any superhero story or movie - they all follow the same basic three act formula.

But here's the deal - I've read folks mocking this since the first trailer came out. For a ton of people, it sure seems like there was nothing that could be done to make them happy, so long as it has 'DC' attached to it instead of 'Marvel.'

 

Just got out of seeing this thing. I didn’t think it was bad at all. If I could I’d say C+/maybe at best B-. Maybe, and that’s not a knock on it.

There obviously could have been some changes, but that’s any movie. My main qualm was I couldn’t get over the heavy green screen usage over real locations. Like, you have 300+ mil for a budget and you can’t go to a real corn field for a day? Ha.

As she showed prior, Gal Gadot is the cinematic bar that all Wonder Women will be judged on. Affleck and Cavil were good, wish Cavil had more screen time. Ezra Miller was funny, Jason Mamoa was a scene stealer and the guy who played Cyborg was really good.

There’s improvement to be made but I’d recommend JL to someone

 

Who had the coolest powers?

 

Batman, because he's rich.