Justice League is making
it really hard for me to compare to other films.
I have been one of the
biggest defenders of the DCEU that I am aware of for a while now. I absolutely
adore the DCEU. Dawn of Justice is my second favorite movie ever, one of my
favorite pieces of art ever. I absolutely loved both Man of Steel and Wonder Woman
giving them the highest rating I can 5/5. Suicide Squad I thought was very well
made, without any major flaws, and had a lot of highlights but was stylized in
a way that was not my particular favorite type of style, the sort of
anarchistic punk style which, to be fair, fits the characters.
These films were clearly
the apex of superhero films.
1: Dawn of Justice
2: Man of Steel/Wonder
Woman (The Two were about comparable in my eyes, Superman having a better first
part whereas Wonder Woman had the better second part)
3: The Best superhero
movies from other films lines (Dark Knight, Spider-Man 2, Captain America 3).
Suicide Squad was about at this level in my opinion.
But I…don’t know how to
compare Justice League to these films.
Let me say the biggest
thing in it’s defense: I had an absolute blast watching it. I felt great
watching it.
But…was that the heat of
the moment plus my pre-conceived desire to like it?
I am writing this blog mostly
to try and talk out with myself how I actually feel about this movie.
So the big thing I’m
worried about is that it won’t have the depth the other movies, especially Dawn
of Justice, had to rewatch over and over and to reconsider and to think about
again at some later point. Man of Steel, Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad, Wonder
Woman…I think about all of these fairly often. Their themes and philosophies I
have woven into my life. They are constantly resonating with what I see around
me. Will Justice League be the same way?
What are the major themes
of Justice League as a film and a piece of art? I say that and I’m not actually
sure which to me indicates a problem. The biggest one is the need for unity,
what with the three tribes uniting to stop Steppenwolf to be echoed by the JL
uniting to stop him. However….that’s not very much to go off of, especially
compared to the other films.
All the DCEU films so far
have been about what DC as a whole and DC Rebirth is about, the greatness of
humanity, the power of the human spirit to prevail.
In Man of Steel we saw
people constantly acting heroically inspired by Superman to do the right thing
against the existential alien threat, like military generals standing up to
Faora, or Perry White helping to save Jenny from the debris, or Lois Lane
willingly going with Superman on the alien ship, or Martha Kent telling off Zod
etc.
In Dawn of Justice, we
see a Batman and Superman who have no knowledge of each other being manipulated
into fighting by outside forces but being united together by their shared
humanity, as well as other themes of media manipulation, of not idolizing or
demonizing people, but accepting that they are just people like you and me
trying to do the right thing, of the nature of memory and the significance of heroism.
Honestly if people understood the “maybe he’s just a guy trying to do the right
thing” it would probably REALLY help and alleviate a lot of our big
contemporary political issues…
Suicide Squad was about
how even the dregs and outcasts of society are really noble individuals
internally. Harley Quinn might protest “we’re the bad guys, it’s what we do”,
but in the end she gives up being with her puddin’ for her friends and it’s his
love for his daughter that gets Deadshot twice over to stop Enchantress.
Wonder Woman was about the
nature of why people do bad things, and how each person is fighting an internal
struggle just as she was against Ares, that you can’t force people to do the
right thing, but only love can help them realize it’s what they want.
Does Justice League
convey that theme or really any number of consistent themes?
I have only watched it
once so far so it’s hard to say, I might have been so caught up in it that I
just didn’t notice a lot, which happens.
Make no mistake I was
greatly enjoying watching it the first time, especially Superman fighting the other League Members (though
I have no idea where people get the impression he was somehow super different
then he was in the previous films. After he regains his memories he seemed
exactly the same to me.)
I’ve already mentioned
the theme of unity but what other themes did I notice in Justice League?
Justice League carries over a theme that has been present through the DCEU
which is parenthood, and how it shapes people. Let me give examples from the
prior DCEU films first:
1: Man of Steel is just
loaded with parent imagery. It is Kal-El’s natural birth that gives him the
free will to choose what he wants to be instead of being genetically forced into
a role
2: There’s a really
important line where Pa Kent reassures young Clark that “you are my son”, that
the lack of biological connection is not as important as their bond of love and
raising
3: Superman’s first
battle with Zod is because Zod threatened his mother
4: In Dawn of Justice
Batman was of course formed by his parent’s death as is usual
5: But it goes on to make
a beautiful connection where Clark trying to get Bruce to save his mother’s
life instead of his breaks through to Bruce that Clark isn’t some alien monster
but a person with a mother just like the scared kid he once was.
6: Lex Luthor’s
motivation is shaped by his abusive parenthood and convinces him that power is
always corrupt
7: In Suicide Squad
Deadshot through the whole movie is motivated by his love for his daughter
8: Harley Quinn in her
fantasy brought on by Enchantress is the mother of Joker’s children, which is a
small character point because it shows a perhaps subcouncious desire of her to
reform herself and The Joker to have the stability needed for a family
9: El Diablo is motivated
by the loss of his wife and children that he burned up because he couldn’t
control his powers and his anger
10: In Wonder Woman the
relationship between Diana and Hippolyta is obviously based around Hippolyta
being Diana’s mother and her desire to protect Diana
11: Diana sharing the
same bloodline as Ares becomes important near the end where she calls him
brother as she kills him
This is continued on in
Justice League
1: Cyborg says that his
father doesn’t have a son anymore, referring to his loss of his own humanity in
his mind, which shapes his early antagonistic behavior and shows the blame he
assigns on his father saying that he should have died
2: Flash is motivated by
wanting to get his father out of prison and until the JL came along was content
to “run in place”, his familial duty to his father trapping him in a go nowhere
life (almost ironic given his powers), even against his father’s wishes
3: Aquaman is motivated
by his parental abandonment which explicitly is stated to be the reason why he
should be doing things, that his absence of parents is what means he should be
acting
4: Not sure how this
works into the symbolism but it’s the mother-daughter relationship of Diana and
Hippolyta that allows Hippolyta to warn Diana of the threat of Steppenwolf
since Diana recognizes Hippolyta’s signal
5: Might be missed
opportunity or it could be there and I just didn’t notice it but Batman’s
parents don’t get brought up even as a passing mention in this movie despite
all the familial connections to it, at least I don’t recall it coming up.
So, Justice League does
continue the theme of parenthood, and it has theme of unity…anything else?
Not so much, and it’s
possibly part of the shorter timeframe. Which leads me into thinking about
Whedon taking control of the film.
A lot of DCEU fans
disliked the addition of Whedon one-liners like Batman saying “I didn’t bring a
sword” when he gets into the Nightcrawler or goofy moments like after Flash
gets Diana her sword how he faceplants into the ground.
I’m gonna be honest, um….I
don’t LIKE those parts, but I also didn’t mind them. They just of didn’t impact
me really.
What does annoy me is
Whedon cut out for those parts a lot of Synder’s parts supposedly, but I don’t
blame Whedon himself for that, instead I blame Warner Bros for arbitrarily
cutting down the movie size. If it was allowed to be 3 hours I think a lot of
the problems I do have with the movie, like the missing Synder content and the
truncated final fight would be alleviated. Whedon had 2 hours to work with
though so I dislike what he did at some points, but I don’t blame him for it,
it’s something he really shouldn’t have had to do in the first place.
Did Whedon add anything I
like to the film? I don’t know how much but I do know at least one scene he added
which I liked, which was Batman telling Alfred the reason they need Superman
isn’t his powers but because “he’s more human than me”. A little cliché for DC
at this point but that was handled pretty well. I was blown away to here that
he purportedly added Memoryless Superman asking Batman if he bleeds as a
callback to Dawn of Justice. Never would have thought it.
Basically, what I’m
saying is, I think the Extended Edition if/when it comes will be absolutely
amazing even more so then the film was.
So, what do I mean when I
say that I love but I might not like it very much. What I’m getting at is I don’t
know how much depth there really is for me to go back into like the other
films. The other 4 films I could watch all day, and I’m worried this one will
come off as just an action piece spectacle in comparison.
I can see the logic that
team-up movies should be action piece spectacles and the philosophical bits
should be saved for solo movies. Avengers 1 is pretty much an action piece
spectacle if you are being honest with yourself. The most interesting part of
that movie on any kind of deeper level is Cap and Tony exchanging the lines “Big
Man in a suit of armor, take that away what are you?” “…Everything special
about you came out of a bottle.” But for the most part it’s clearly just to
have them together and bask in the coolness of the idea.
Yeah, Justice League
clearly does that. They even have the same problem of the villain not being at
all threatening at the end, capable of clearly being beaten by one member of
the team.
But, art to me shouldn’t
just be an adrenaline rush if it wants to be really good. You shouldn’t be
watching just to get your blood rushing. It should be emotionally moving, or
thought provoking or something that makes you care 10 minutes after it ends.
And Justice League definitely made me care, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing
this. Will this pleasant buzz this movie gave me last? I don’t know.
My thoughts about Justice
League right now are that it’s at the very least a really good movie and a 4/5
about on the level of Suicide Squad even if it stops giving me the pleasant glowy
feeling when I think about it for enough time. If that feeling doesn’t wear
off, OR they come out with an extended edition that gives it the same depth and
intensity of the previous films OR I watch it again and realize it WAS there
but I was missing it, then it will probably be a 5/5 movie about on par with
Man of Steel and Wonder Woman. My thoughts might change but that’s how I
currently see the movie.
As a sidenote, if you want to see purportedly what Snyder and Whedon personally contributed to the movie there is supposedly a leak that says:
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