Someone Needs to Take Back Some Control
I’m currently sitting here at my laptop just pondering on what to say. Yesterday, as I’m writing this, I went to see a film that is a huge fanboy’s dream. Justice League is a film that feels like it should’ve been made ages ago, Marvel beat them to the finish line by having The Avengers out first and there was no sign of a Justice League film. There had been other Justice League films going about but nothing that actually ended up happening. Now we live in this world where Marvel fans and DC fans clash on the internet arguing about whose films are better, usually Marvel ends up with all their films are the same and they’re just family comedies and DC get their critically destroyed films. In this world, I’m supposed to be able to sit here and give an unbiased opinion on all of these films. I’m supposed to go to the cinema and clear my head of all these distractions and just enjoy a film that should really be celebrated that it’s finally happening. In the spirit of all that I’d like to start off with something different. Instead of simply telling you my opinions on Justice League I’m going to give you my scores for every Marvel and DC film that’s been released since Batman Begins in 2005, just so you know who I am and if you want to read my thoughts. Here’s a table to make it easy:
There you haven’t, scrutinise it if you want but that’s, where my opinion lies for every Marvel and DC property film since Batman Begins in 2005. If you want averages then I’m surprised to tell you that I actually rate DC films higher with an average of 3.5/5 when Marvel films are 3/5 but that might be because there is more of them. Just letting you know so that you understand that I’m not biased and I understand what a good comic book movie is. Anyway, now that that’s over with, the point I’m trying to say is that much like every other fan I’ve been through everything and scrutinised whats bad and celebrated what is actually good filmmaking. And in the end, that’s just it, good filmmaking. Good filmmaking is what made the Dark Knight Trilogy so good and the lack of good filmmaking is what makes me so disappointed in the Justice League because it could be so much better.
The Justice League film continues on from Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in a world where Superman is dead and buried in the ground and an evil force is coming to Earth to take over now that they know that Superman is dead. As Batman finds insect-like scouts in Gotham, the main villain Steppenwolf is gathering the three mother boxes that will help him become more powerful and bring his homeworld to Earth. The world’s fate lies onto of Batman as he has to gather the world’s strongest heroes to protect the planet from destruction.
The good parts of Justice League are very clear from a general look at the film. Much like every superhero movie, it is entertaining in the fact that these are your childhood heroes that are finally realised on screen and you get to watch them fight side by side as they save the world. Surrounded by all the ass-kicking that the heroes give is a score by Danny Elfman which is surprisingly good, it uses themes from other DC films and shows to create a great fan atmosphere in the film even though the themes aren’t utilised as well as they could be. Wonder Woman is her usual great, the best member of the Justice League self, Batman is as cool as he was in Batman v Superman, Aquaman is a really solid and surprisingly great addition to the DC world and Superman is the best he’s been yet since he returned in Man of Steel. All around if you’re a DC fan and just want to see the film because it’s one of your dream films then this is for you. If not then I’ll begin with whats wrong with the film.
If you think back to 2005 and Batman Begins it was a weird time, I mean to be honest I was eleven at the time so I actually don’t remember Batman Begins coming out. I had bought it on DVD one day at the shops. I remember watching it and before putting it in not really realising what it was, the only Batman movies I had seen were the 90’s Batman movies and the animated movies. It was a changing moment for me as it was the first film that changed the way I liked films, it basically flicked a switch in my head that made me start to realise what a great movie really is. Christopher Nolan had created this new era of Superhero movies, ones that weren’t colourful and filled with ridiculous costumes but instead were dark and mysterious much like the characters they were trying to represent. Christopher Nolan then continued from there to create one of the greatest films of all time in The Dark Knight, a film that took the whole world by storm and completely shocked everyone. Batman Begins wasn’t anywhere near as popular as The Dark Knight so when The Dark Knight came out this version of Batman on the big screen became the new normal as everyone wanted more. The Dark Knight didn’t just have great acting and a fantastic story it had this clear cooperation between every single department working on the film. In the end, it was the cultivation of all these teams working as one that made the film iconic. It is this very thing that feels like its missing from the Justice League movie.
Justice League is riddled with so many small imperfections that its hard from a critic’s point of view to not judge it. I’m not saying that fans can’t tell what has been made well or not, but more that as a critic myself who has studied film at University for three years and shot things on green screens and had to mix audio and set up shots I can, unfortunately, see the downfalls of the film. Right from the start, you have the unfortunate case of Henry Cavill’s moustache which shows as a moustache shaped tan on his face. The shots just, unfortunately, look fake, even simple ones of people standing in cities looked really green screened. Back in 1999 Star Wars: The Phantom Menace came out and it was the first film to be shot digitally and at the time it got destroyed because it didn’t look like natural cinema, didn’t look like the older Star Wars films that visually looked stunning, and it was because that weird digital effect just wasn’t good enough and people found it jarring and distracting. This same problem is spread out throughout Justice League. In this movie you have some of the most iconic characters of all time, people have been reading about them around the world for almost a century now and instead of showing them out about in the real world they are instead shot in a studio in front of a green screen which is eventually filled with what feels like more CGI than the prequel Star Wars trilogy. The big moments are ruined by all this CGI and digital mess, the film’s score, despite being good at times isn’t allowed the opportunity to break through and have you be locked in cinematic moments of brilliance like it does with Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard’s The Dark Knight score.
The screenwriting and directing are where the film is also let down as the story isn’t as captivating as it could be, it doesn’t hit any of the same emotional chords that The Dark Knight had or even some that Batman v Superman had. Instead, the script is played out by the director like some happy old time where they’re making jokes but they all land at the wrong time and simply just don’t fit the scenario, for example saying “Booyah” and “My man” after beating someone is just, to me, appalling screenwriting. I’m no expert on it, I’ve only ever written two short films in my life but I wouldn’t even consider putting jokey remarks like that at all in any of my scripts and one of mine was a probably crappy comedy. With the story you go in already knowing whats going to happen, I shouldn’t be able to tell you the story in less than fifty words but I definitely can. Its difficult to figure out who to blame as you watch the same colour palette be used again and again and you realise you’re just watching the same bad shots. For a film that costs hundreds of millions to make the ending result of its visual fidelity is shockingly bad. Someone, anyone, must be able to see that either at Warner or the directors Joss Whedon and Zack Snyder. Whedon came in late in the game to do the reshoots and make the film more lighthearted but I think, if anything, that’s made the film worse. Zack Snyder clearly had a vision for this film and it was dark and mysterious and it was like that on purpose. I’m a fan of Zack Snyder’s work, I think that visually he is a bit of a mastermind, no one can do slow-motion action as well as him and every film he makes is top notch visuals. What has clearly happened here is a studio interruption by making what they think is right and it ended up failing. I can’t believe I’m going to say this but Zack Snyder had it right during Batman v Superman, he had the right vibe but just not the well-written story.
Back when The Hobbit trilogy was being made Peter Jackson came in and had to make the film almost on the spot and if you watch the behind the scenes for the film you will feel sick and stressed out because of the amount of daily work he was doing. For The Lord of Thr Rings Trilogy, he had three years of preparation time before the cameras were even rolling and it is to this day still one of the greatest trilogies of all time. Warner Brothers allowed Jackson the time to make the trilogy he wanted to make and then for The Hobbit they got greedy. Warner gave films like Mad Max and Blade Runner 2049 the time to be made as well and they are also visual masterpieces. In the world of superhero movies, Christopher Nolan had a solid team and the right amount of time and resources to make The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises, we know this because he managed to make films in-between. Why isn’t Justice League allowed that same amount of time to have fantastic filmmaking? Warner Brothers are currently holding the DC franchises as hostages and ransoming the fans money through ticket sales just to make some money and it’s painfully obvious. The same is happening with the new Harry Potter series, Fantastic Beasts, which also suffers from poor CGI visuals because it’s cheaper.
The DC movies need someone to take a strong grasp of the wheel and steer the ship themselves and tell studios to basically get the fuck out of their way like Christopher Nolan clearly does. Films like Justice League don’t deserve this treatment that they’re getting, just so Warner Brothers can play catch up to Marvel and Disney who, despite most films being similar, are letting their directors control their movies. There is one sequence in Justice League that is excellent, a sequence on Themyscira with the Amazonians and it’s painfully obvious that it’s Zack Snyder’s sequence because it’s visually amazing with people flying through the air and yourself being launched through the scene with whats happening. It’s this one sequence that puts me on team Snyder and not team Warner Brothers. Zack Snyder, unfortunately, couldn’t direct the reshoots and had to stop making the film himself but if Warner knew what they were doing they would’ve waited for him to make the fantastic movie he was clearly going to make. Stop taking fans for granted Warner, yes they will end up liking the film because they’ve dreamed of this moment but it could’ve been so much better and it could’ve stuck for a long time as the moment fans saw the amazing Justice League movie and not just the Justice League movie.