Over the last few years, DC’s film division has had a lot of hits and misses. After the conclusion of Christopher Nolan’s critically acclaimed Dark Knight trilogy, Warner Bros. has had a rough time. All this started back in 2012, with the ending of the Dark Knight trilogy and Marvel successfully introducing the Avengers in mainstream media. That one event changed the Hollywood landscape, turning each studio’s heads towards the concept of a ‘shared universe’, where characters from different films could come and interact with each other. The one medium from which this concept could be organically worked upon was comic books. For years we have seen Batman and Superman interact on the pages of comics and wondered how it would look like on the big screen.
Starting with Man of Steel, WB/DC started their own cinematic universe, with the intention of building one up just like Marvel had done. While the Superman flick was a moderate success, it’s sequel wasn’t. Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice was, and arguably should have been, the biggest and the best superhero movie to ever grace the big screen. However, due to a number of reasons including a muddled plot, bad editing and overall mediocrity, the film didn’t really click with audiences and begged the question : Is this what long time fans like us deserved ? Subsequent films in the slate tried to ‘course-correct’ their way in order to be more accessible and for some part, it worked as in the case with Wonder Woman, while in others it clearly didn’t (looking at you, Suicide Squad).
Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa, Ray Fisher and Henry Cavill make up the first incarnation of the Justice League ever on the big screen, directed by Zack Snyder. But while the film credits Snyder as the sole director, we all know that is a bit far from reality. After some tragic events, Snyder stepped down from the role of director during post-production and Joss Whedon was brought in to fill in his shoes. Whedon did a minor rewrite of the screenplay, enough to warrant a credit to his name, and handled the reshoots. And that is where you can see the conflicting tone of the film getting its birth, which we’ll get in to in a short while.
Justice League, picking up a few months after the death of Superman, follows Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) as he investigates the appearance of several other-worldly tourists and their shenanigans. Realizing that he is not enough to stop them, he starts assembling a group of meta-humans, the likes of which he believes can help him fight off this new threat. Aiding his quest is Diana Prince (Gal Gadot), helping him find the three other members of the soon-to-be-formed league.
With Aquaman, comes a little sneak peek into the world of Atlantis. The under water scenes really look visually impressive, and I can’t wait to see more of that when his solo movie comes next year. We also get a short scene with Amber Herd’s Mera, which jump from an interesting action sequence to one involving an exposition dump for Aquaman’s backstory. While it can get irritating to see this, and other scenes like these, it is necessary to understand and get behind the new characters seeing as they haven’t had their solo projects to do that for them.
When Whedon was brought on board, it felt like a positive sign seeing as the man was responsible for the much more successful Avengers franchise. What I did not realise was the adverse effects of the general traits that his works have on this film. There are quite a number of scenes and dialogue sequences which can be easily recognized as the works of Whedon. His style of humor, while great on its own, really feels inconsistent with the tone that this franchise has established. So seeing Batman through witty one liners certainly feels out of place. It’s not so bad on the first viewing though. It’s actually pretty funny. With this, I feel like the studio tried too hard to play it safe by the audience. When you try something, commit to it fully. The diverse range of characters certainly invite some light-heartedness, but seeing it get used over and over does feel tiresome.
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice wasn’t a perfect film. Nor was it coherent. What it was though, is consistent is tone. While not many people liked the dour and grim style that narrative that Snyder brought to the table, at least it has some viciousness that made the stakes feel more real. Here that sense of urgency is somewhat lost, leaving us with an enjoyable film with big stakes (on paper) and then some to eradicate it.
I know I’ve been sounding very negative towards this film, and trust me I really wanted it to be the very best. It’s just ironic that the film suffers just because of the fear of failure that the studio had. Had they not muddled with the filmmakers’ original vision, perhaps the film would’ve been much better. Really 99% of the problems that the film has boils down to the amount of stuff left in the cutting room. The film just doesn’t flow smoothly until the second half.
At the end of all this, I come to Superman. The one person who lifts the film from it’s failing narrative to new heights. They finally got Superman right ! Superman in the film is the version we’ve been waiting for for years. This is the Superman we grew up reading about. The one who embodies truth, justice and the American way. Henry Cavill turns in a great performance as the resurrected Kal El. I won’t get into the specifics, but I’ll tell you this : When Superman enters the film, it suddenly lights up. There’s this sudden energy in the atmosphere, one which keeps giving positive vibes. They went with an interesting, while predictable (by the comic book fans anyway) way to deal with him and he has quite the screen time, more so than any of us would have expected. We get to see his power set expand quite so refreshingly, such as seeing him use his super speed to an awesomely comedic effect against the Flash.
As for why I didn’t mention anything about the antagonist, it’s because he is that forgettable. Steppenwolf is the love child of horrible CGI and bland writing, making him the weakest part of the film. Some may say the studio took ‘the Marvel approach’, by focusing on the heroes more than the villain. I do see that happening here and while it’s justified, even Marvel’s villains are somehow stronger and entertaining to watch. More so than this guy. Steppenwolf is your average comic-book movie villain, who makes a loud thump on the floor but evokes no sense of threat. Perhaps next time they’ll be able to get a better villain (of which there are many in the comics), and from the looks of the one of the (yes, there are two) post credits teases, it sounds like they will.