Justice League is coming and going from theaters at the moment with a dearth of attention and impact, certainly in terms of what the studio was expecting (or praying for, more like it). It wasn’t as big a movie as it could have been.
It isn’t hard to discern why, no question about that. The final product had its flaws – getting cut up and retouched to the 11th hour. Joss Whedon was brought on to save it and others were fired over lingering imperfections,i.e., Superman’s top lip.
Understandable, but, and this might be blasphemous to state openly, maybe the detractors need to cool it a little. Maybe everybody – the geeks, fanboys, casuals, and purists – should count their blessings and give Warner some credit.
No, it wasn’t perfect, but Justice League nevertheless was entertaining; hardly the worst movie of the year or the worst to ever come out of Hollywood. As earth-shaking as it is to admit or ponder, at least they tried. At least they had the guts to stick to their guns and follow through with their end game.
Think of how long it took to get off the ground. For a studio that owns the entire catalog of DC’s legendary heroes and rogues, the inability to fast-track a blockbuster with an ensemble of them in it for such an inordinate period of time is pathetic.
Justice League is a project decades in the making. And to make matters worse, Marvel beat DC to it with Avengers when nobody thought that was possible. DC and Warner were as sick as anybody of waiting, which is why they seized the opportunity after Man of Steel and didn’t flinch. No more waiting, time to get the ducks in a row.
The first component was Zack Snyder. On paper, he’s perfect: he is capable of pathos and delivering the swooping action the producers wanted. He was somebody new to boot, not the same old Bryan Singer or Chris Nolan. Nolan leading the charge, while ideal, was not going to happen. The auteur was clear – his vision bore no room for an extended universe. There was Batman and he was all.
Snyder executes the creative direction, but the centerpiece was Geoff Johns. Celebrated writer that he is, and no less a fan with an encyclopedic knowledge, Johns became the caretaker of the DC landscape.
He was a sign WB wasn’t messing around in their search for their own Kevin Feige. Johns was credible and still is. He knows how the comic world works, and as an intern under Richard Donner, he figured out how filmmakers think and knows what Superman, cinematically, should look like.
Things were falling into place until Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad happened. So much got jammed and shoehorned into those films, but sailing might have been smoother if it wasn’t for tinkering by the studio.
That is the narrative being pushed, anyway. Truth be told, it’s only one opinion, which in reality is divided over DC in the movies. BvS and Suicide Squad have their defenders and both movies made money.
Of course, therein lies another school of thought: Warner is just looking to make a buck. They don’t really care.
The answer to that is a hard truth; yes, they are out to make money. Movies, and comics too, are a business. Neither would be very successful if they weren’t profitable.
Wonder Woman made money and it was received well by critics and audiences. That film isn’t somehow tainted by its earnings. It was a shining moment for DC at the box office and they should be proud.
Balance sheets and projections are incidental. They don’t factor in when a movie is good as a piece of art. In the end, they don’t make a film bad when one is bad.
“Bad” and “good” are classifications that come down to taste and care within craftsmanship. Complaints concerning Man of Steel or BVS or Suicide Squad lie with the filmmakers and choices made that displeased a portion of their built-in following.
Which brings us to Justice League itself. Seemingly even upon the announcement of the film being greenlit, there were those sharpening their knives ready to hate it. A criticism of nerd culture – often all too true – is it’s quick to judge and attack, sometimes militantly, simply because it can.
Balance and objectivity be damned, something is condemned to high Heaven because a segment of the population, augmented by the Internet, is displeased. Why? Because they feel like the authentic stewards of the mythology.
Nobody knows comics better, they presume, and they are going to decide how Justice League is perceived. Keep in mind they always wanted the Justice League movie, just not this one. Oh, they went to see it but their mind was made up, it was going to suck because two of the prior movies sucked.
Most don’t share in the prejudicial vitriol. People who saw it generally liked it, if only for certain aspects. Ezra Miller got rave reviews for his portrayal of Flash; so did Jason Momoa as Aquaman. Remember, their casting met with resistance. Cavill on top of that finally got to do the Superman he’s capable of (notwithstanding the obvious).
Justice League’s production may have been a mess yet it cohered into a fast-paced action movie with moments to write home about. Try watching the first few minutes featuring Batman trapping a parademon without walking away thinking it was cool. It might be the purest, most satisfying scene of full-on Bat action in years.
History will hopefully look upon the Justice League movie mercifully, if not appreciatively. 2017 is the year DC turned a corner in this era of superhero blockbusters. Wonder Woman is a big part of that, but she was not alone.
And with Deathstroke here now, everything is looking better already.
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