I do have real thoughts on this, as someone who's settled into the "nuanced & curious, with a dash of support for Snyder & Fisher as people" lane. But, that line from that actor as that character in that context legitimately destroyed me. I'm so baffled & so happy that that exists. Amazing. Anyways. I actually gave in & rewatched theatrical Justice League this past week. The fast approaching Snyder Cut, & the new wave of Whedon talk that seemed to finally have the impact it deserves, finally pushed me over. It took me three sittings, lol, but I'm glad I did it. Comparing that to this is going to be so much fun, just as a general case study of Hollywood blockbuster filmmaking. It's funny how much that one felt like a paint-by-committee attempt to answer fan critiques of BvS & create a test tube Avengers film. Meanwhile, this trailer feels like a direct sequel to BvS, with ties back to Man of Steel. This really is the culmination of Snyder's vision for DC, with all the cool & all the dumb that entails. (Also interesting how lifeless & sidelined Cyborg was, compared to the heavily Whedon-ized Flash & Aquaman. Makes so much more sense when you learn how shitty Whedon was to Ray.) I will say, as much as Snyder's visual tastes don't generally mesh with mine, this does look way better than Whedon's JL. That one was a weird mess of clearly unfinished Snyder shots, clear Whedon shots that look like a TV show, & inbetween shots that probably started as Snyder but were haphazardly manipulated in post. Reminded me of old comics that are recolored with modern styles that don't fit the line art, or black & white comics that've been colored in ways that look muddy. I prefer some of these characters in bright, four-color glory, but you can't turn what looks like an early 90s Image comic into a SIlver Age comic in post. This take is *EXTREME*, like it or not. It'll probably take me a couple weeks, lol, given the length & the tone, but I'm probably gonna watch this (maybe with the extended BvS before it), & then try to put all my thoughts into a long essay that maybe 3 people will read. I'm just too obsessed at this point not to, lol.
I hear that. I think it will be 4 hours of Snyder suck. Having said that, it will definitely feel like a uniform take on the content, and at least tonally, the film will work much better.
I like the 4:3 aspect ratio for this. I don't understand why the non-IMAX releases of Infinity War & Endgame were cropped instead of shown at the same aspect ratio at a different size. No reason different aspect ratios should be saved for things like The Lighthouse, imo. I don't think the Apokolips shot looks bad (certainly not distinctly worse than Infinity War's Black Order). It looks like a pretty reasonable live action take on that world. My preference with any Kirby property is always full blown Kirby; I'd especially hate it if that were the aesthetic for a whole New Gods film. But, in this context, it's fine. It's a meme to describe a certain kind of disenfranchised white male attitude towards society, particularly those who related back in the day to the Heath Ledger Joker. Think, like, those 4chan & Reddit Anonymous types, particularly those who grew into alt right Trump supporter types.
I think this looks pretty good, and I'm actually a little bit excited to watch it. I'm not a fan of Zack Snyder's style, so I'm sure this will be loaded with things that annoy me, but it looks a lot better than the tossed together Whedon-directed pile of shit. I'll take even just a semi-coherent story. I think the new bad guy design is pretty dumb looking and kind of silly, but at least it's better than what they did before. One of my least favorite trends in Hollywood blockbuster filmmaking is having a character that looks like this --> done with CGI. That is just a normal human shaped person with slightly weird skin wearing funny armor. How the fuck do you not just have a person put on that costume and a tiny bit of makeup?!?!?!??? So inansely expensive and the results are almost always ATROCIOUS looking.
Steppenwolf always looked horrendous and he still does. Just embarrassing, especially considering what Marvel was able to achieve with Thanos.
I think the biggest part of that is just character design. Marvel tends to lean more toward the more colorful, classics designs with a modern twist, while DC wants to be dark, complex, and realistic with characters who are not realistic at all. As an audience we’re more forgiving of the colorful ones because we know going in they’re not meant to be hyper real. I think that’s why Birds of Prey or Wonder Woman have been more successful in that department than the other DC films.
I mean, if I were criticizing the look of a superhero film, like on a cinematography & special effects level, I dunno if I'd use Marvel Studios as my example of how to do it well. And, I say that as someone who loves multiple MCU films. They've got plenty of rough compositing shots & bad visual decisions. And, even for the effects stuff that looks good, it's all got one consistent look. As much as I don't like the dark, colorless, *EXTREME* aesthetic Snyder's going for here, on a technical level, it looks as good or better than a lot of Marvel stuff.