Let's Talk About The Justice League Movie...

So, this Justice League movie...

Yeah, I know I've been quiet for, well, months. No good reason, let's not dwell. Mostly, it's been a lack of things to talk (ie. be enraged or excited) about. I haven't seen anything worse than I, Frankenstein this year, and don't really have any intention to, but time will tell. Things like RoboCop happened, and it was the biggest 'don't know if want' film for me since Iron Man 3. But again, not much to talk about there. A fan of the original film didn't love the remake? GET OUTTA TOWN! But I digress, because the blockbusters are again on the way and with that will come my oh-so appreciated opinions of them.

That will come; but, before that, I need to talk about this Justice League movie.

Last year I expressed my opinion of Batfleck being a thing, and his involvement in Batman Vs. Superman or whatever title Man of Steel 2 is going with. That hasn't changed. He's going to be fine. And yeah, that was the biggest bit of casting news that this movie was going to have, but over the past months there have been so many characters cast in it that it's hard to keep track. It's now getting to the point of overkill with major characters for this movie that should really only be focusing on one. And now, Zack Snyder has gone on record to say he's directing a Justice League movie following Man of Steel 2.

My first thought: No shit.

The only surprise here is that Man of Steel 2 isn't a JL movie in it's own right. So far, we have Supes, Bats, Wonder Woman, Cyborg (really?), with rumours abound regarding characters such as Green Lantern and Aquaman. Keep in mind we still have Jesse 'I invented Facebook' Eisenberg coming in as Lex Luthor
the (we can assume) main villain. So, with all these characters being brought in, how fucking long does this movie have to be to do all these characters justice (no pun intended)?

The answer: it doesn't matter, there won't be a movie long enough.

The problem is that we now live in a world where The Avengers has happened and was successful. Of course DC wants to put together their equivalent and put it out into the universe. And apparently, they want to do it as fast as possible. To date, DC has done two of their major characters well in film: Batman and Superman. They tried with Green Lantern and it was a mess in every aspect. This will not change between now and Justice League. In contrast, every single major player in Avengers, including the fucking villain, had appeared if not starred in a film before Avengers was released. Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, and Hulk all had their own films with Black Widow, Hawkeye, Fury et al making cameos throughout. A continuity is established through five films before getting to the payoff. DC's retort to this reads like 'Fuck it, YOLO!' and have now placed half the roster of their superhero team in one movie as an intro.

I think there's a good and a very big bad to be considered here. The big bad here is that anyone not familiar with the source material might be taken aback by the sheer amount of people shoehorned into this movie just to set up another film that's at least a year away from its release. This is especially bad considering that there is only one film in this continuity so far, being Man of Steel. Of course everyone knows Batman at this point, but the films everyone's familiar with don't exist in the same world as MOS, hence the Batfleck. As stated, Green Lantern was a failure at another franchise, whether it was meant as part of this continuity or not.

Therefore, instead of the equivalent of the aforementioned Marvel headliners having their own movies, we have one film. Two hours, three at most. And yeah, Black Widow and Hawkeye never had their own vehicle, but it can be certainly said that they are secondary characters on the roster. We're talking about Wonder Woman, maybe the most iconic superheroine in history, and The Goddamn Batman not getting their own films to set up Justice League, a group in which they are major players. That concept is staggering to me. It would be like Iron Man and Thor not getting their movies pre-Avengers. Cyborg? Whatever, who cares. The Flash should be in JL, but no word on him as of yet. Same with Aquaman, but there is rumour of some people attached to the character for MOS2, including Khal Drogo himself, Jason Momoa. And if Ryan Reynolds shows up in that terribly CGI'd outfit anytime in the future I will go all the way out of my entire damn mind. Long story short, there is no context for any characters other than Superman going into MOS2, and there's no real way of establishing context for the following JL movie while also being a primarily Superman-focused film. There just isn't enough time, even if you're faster than a speeding bullet or whatever.

Here's the good thing, and I pray to R'hllor that it works out: it's different. It's pretty much the antithesis to what Marvel has done with their superheroes. Instead of the long buildup over four or more years, we get a star-studded follow up to Man of Steel, see the beginnings of the interaction between what will be the backbone of the Justice League, and get the payoff as soon as two years later. If this has been the plan from the get-go, it's a good move. Even more so considering the development has been surprise after surprise. However, if the pessimist in me is correct and there are just changes and edits being made to an already existing script, overcomplicating things, this could get messy.

DC needs this to work in order to compete with Marvel in any way other than the comics themselves. DC has been doing a great job with their animated films, some of which are the best depictions of the characters in existence. They also have a line up of decent looking TV shows coming out, such as The Flash, Constantine/Hellblazer, and Gotham (squee!), with Arrow doing well as a darker, less shitty version of Smallville. But Marvel is coming up with some TV business as well. Agents of SHIELD is way better than it has any right to be. And with Netflix doing four shows with Marvel for Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and motherfucking Daredevil (!), DC won't have the advantage for long.

I'm a DC fanboy at heart, and would be even if Batman wasn't on their roster. I truly hope that this bold play works for them. I think that the casting so far is inspired, especially with Eisenberg as Luthor (but that's a discussion for another day). If it sucks, I guess we'll always have Avengers.

But please don't suck.

Knight Owl