It might seem curious to some that I am writing a post on
the Justice League movie three years after its release. Then again, it might
have seemed curious then that I didn’t address this abomination of a movie. Doomsday
indeed. The reason I am now getting back on the subject is none other than the
notorious Snyder cut, whose trailer was leaked some ten days ago; a superhero
movie for grownups, as Snyder himself regards any movie that features the song
Hallelujah at any absolutely random moment. This made me go back and watch the
theatrical cut of Justice League, the first ensemble movie of the DCEU and
compare it to the first ensemble movie of the MCU, Avengers (2012). There is no
need to say which one was best; only why.
In case some of you don’t know, I will briefly explain this
whole Snyder cut situation. Zack Snyder is a CGI, slow mo enthusiast that takes
himself too seriously and thinks that this in itself makes his movies serious,
dark and gritty. He prior gave DC two movies; Man of Steel, which was alright
at best, and Batman v Superman, which was salvaged by Ben Affleck’s beautiful
torso (and an excellent portrayal of Bruce Wayne, fight me). Batman v Superman
was meant to give DC a much needed edge against Marvel; they featured the two
most famous, loved superheroes of all time and had them fight each other for a
good couple of minutes. This was meant to be the best superhero movie of its
time. It wasn’t even close. Zack Snyder had filmed most of Justice League when
tragedy hit and his daughter passed away. DC then thought their best option was
to bring in the man who made the marvel (pun intended) that was Avengers, Joss
Whedon, to finish up the movie. This move was clearly an attempt to move away
from the up to then failed DCEU direction and towards what superhero movies
should be; not taking themselves that seriously. The result was the equivalent
of two jigsaw puzzles trying to produce a picture of a burn victim. This in
turn caused an uproar on Twitter asking for the original three and a half hour
long, serious, slow mo Snyder cut, because this is what would salvage DC; the
rejected version of the movie.
I began rewatching Justice League making notes of why it was
so ridiculous. I ended up having to record myself because I couldn’t type that
fast. The movie makes its intent to be dark and gritty obvious right from the
start, with a montage of the darkness and grittiness that followed Superman’s
death. Half way through the dark and gritty montage though, they run out of
ideas and just start showing less and less relevant sad things. My favourite
one was a homeless man holding up a sign saying ‘I tried’. Unless he tried to
fight Doomsday along with Superman, Batman and Wonderwoman, this is Snyder at
his most desperate. I won’t go through every single one of my comments, because
I don’t think my fingers have it in them to type that much, but lest assured
character development was not part of this movie. Character was even retracted.
Wonder Woman was built up as a considerate, pure, determined superhero in her
stand-alone movie, but Justice League decided to go for the old fashioned,
sexist lady hero that smirks a lot and flirts with tough, loner bat guy.
Aquaman was a video game character trapped in a movie, whose sole purpose was
to yell exclamations and one liners, when the movie seemed too silent. Flash
was one nervous tick away from becoming Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor and Cyborg
was non-existent. Lastly, the villain might as well have been called ‘villain’.
He is not even worth the diss.
At this moment I would like to discuss Joss Whedon’s
unfortunate input and then go on to type why it is absolutely insane to credit
him with his ridiculous outcome. So, the one liners I am guessing were his
idea. As well as Bruce Wayne’s sudden wave of Tony Starkedness. As well as the
fact the boss fight of this movie ended with the word ‘Booyah’. And he did cut
one hour from the film which fans think holds the key to all that made no sense
in the movie. But I will honestly defend Joss Whedon to the core. Assume CAPS
LOCK for the rest of this paragraph. If anyone claims DC brought him in saying ‘follow
the movie’s original tone’ they must be on Snyder’s payroll. They brought in
Joss Whedon with instructions to do exactly what he did to salvage the movie. Why
else? They got the guy that made Avengers, to make their movie more like
Avengers. And I honestly believe he had nothing to work with. Bear in mind,
most of the movie was already shot. I don’t think there were any developed
characters available, especially not the ones we met for the very first time;
Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg. Avengers worked because there were clear cut characters
from both the previous movies and the current movie. And cheesy one liners were
a much welcome addition.
‘What about the plot of the movie?’, I hear you say. There
must have been a plot; how else did they fill two and a half hours and will
fill three and a half hours in the Snyder cut? There was a stupid plot alright.
There is an evil guy with boxes. They decide to put together a team and
resurrect Superman. Resurrecting Superman does not make any sense, nor their
plan of action to bring about the resurrection. Then they all turn on Batman because
Wonder Woman started insulting him and he responded accordingly, but I guess
his response was not gentleman-like. Then Superman emerges as a murder zombie.
He blames Bruce Wayne for his death, which in itself does not make that much
sense considering they ended up being on the same team against Doomsday, then
Bruce brings out Lois Lane and Superman decides he ‘owes him one’, him being
the guy he initially blamed for his death. IT’S FUCKING ‘MARTHA’ ALL OVER AGAIN!
Then there are these boxes of doom, which are saved and lost off screen with no
explanation. One box is used by our heroes to resurrect Superman and the very
next moment is in the hands of Steppenwolf (otherwise known as ‘villain’).
These boxes are also unexplained, but in a movie with no characters, I didn’t expect
much more luck for the boxes. And last but not least, I will describe the
resolution of the conflict with our friend Steppenwolf. First of all they break
the box. That’s it. And then we are left with the villain whose plan has gone
array. See this is where Snyder wanted to bring a bit of an Aesopian life
lesson into the mix, considering this is a serious movie. Steppenwolf had these
flies doing his dirty fighting. The way these flies operate is they sense fear
and attack. So Superman blows a bit of snow unto Steppenwolf and Steppnwolf
gets scared. And then his own agents turn against him and consume him. And this
works, I assume, because the moment Steppenwolf gets a hint of fear, everyone
else is overcome by a feeling of utter calmness and he is left the sole target
of the attack. And this teaches us that you should not rely on others’ fear,
but your own strength to succeed or something very dark and gritty like that.
It is not just a bad movie. It is an unfortunate movie considering
it had to, at the very least, rival its equivalent. Avengers was incredible;
MCU has since released Infinity War, Endgame, Guardians, Black Panther, The
Winter Soldier, Thor Ragnarok and this movie from ten years ago still holds its
ground (I rewatched that too). Justice League brought in two characters with
independent movies and four that were never properly introduced for an
ensemble; Avengers, on the other hand, even chose a villain we already knew. In
fact, there was not a single Avenger that had not been adequately portrayed in
a previous MCU movie, maybe Hawkeye. Agent Fury recruits the Avengers after
thorough tracking and good indication of their abilities. Each member of the
team is given motivation to join, that motivation being curiosity (Iron Man), blackmail
of some sort (Hulk), family ties (Thor), revenge (Black Widow/ Hawkeye) or need
for a war and action (Captain America). And while this would suffice, the
heroes are then given more motivation; it gets more personal, they stumble onto
this collaboration and build up to being a team. Batman gets a USB stick and
just recruits whoever. There is no motivation for the others to join, they have
no team building moments prior to them being ‘the Justice League’. Most importantly,
there is a diminished sense of danger. Unfortunately our immature audience
brains ask that we are shown the extent of the threat, allegedly destroying
earth. If this is world threatening, where is this threatened world? All I remember
is a small family in Russia who is left unscathed. Also, where were the
Amazonians and Atlantians in that final battle? Let’s say the humans are not
made aware of this imminent threat outside Russia, but these civilisations were
previously attacked and beaten. Did they all die? Did they blindly trust the newly
formed Justice League and feel they would not bring much to the fight?
Sixteen hundred words of bitterness and I am far from done.
I look forward to the Snyder cut, I honestly look forward to the disappointment
I await for all those who hate on Whedon and think Snyder is DC’s lord and
saviour. I’ll say it, Snyder’s directing is ugly, superficial and incredibly
old fashioned. I hope, for his sake, that he has done some secret reshoots and
has updated his vision of the superhero genre. I am coming in as a Whedon fan girl,
I will admit, but someone needs to be. I find it incredibly fucked up that a studio
like Warner Bros brought in Joss Whedon to fix what they considered broken and
then nothing short of threw him under the bus by releasing an alternative cut,
seemingly turning their back on a movie they approved and made money off. It is
a disgrace that is not acknowledged enough. I am a Whedon fan girl because
everything else he’s made in this genre is fun and consistent. Snyder made Batman
v Superman. Whedon was a game changer; he lay the foundations for Endgame, a
movie event we will not have again for some time. And here I am eighteen
hundred words later, with my blood boiling because Snyder thinks grownups don’t
deserve enjoyable movies and Leonard Cohen suffices to turn his slow motion
snores into critically acclaimed pieces of film.
No comments:
Post a Comment