Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
2016, RatPac-Dune Entertainment et al
Justice League is DC Comic's answer to Marvel's Avengers, and as such feels like an also-ran in a race to the bank, as opposed to any effort at serious filmmaking. In DC's first pan-franchise installment, we see that Jack Snyder's style is about as subtle as a wrecking ball. He starts with a vaguely interesting premise—pitting two superheroes against one another—that happens to provide a genuinely intriguing subtext: examining the collateral damage caused by superheroes, and their moral obligations to the lives they presumably protect. Unfortunately, any substantive exploration of these topics is completely drowned out by a lurid excess of violence and destruction (we get your point already, Jack), culminating in the senselessly brutal, way-over-the-top titular battle, the outcome of which hinges on an improbable coincidence with respect to the heroes' mothers. Having said that, I confess to the guilty pleasure of watching said battle unfold—the superhero equivalent of an immovable object being met by an irresistible force. We all knew it was coming anyway, so let's just see how it plays out (but at 151 minutes, it's a long wait).
DKS 12/17/17
GRUMPY OLD FART-O-METER® Rating:
Justice League
2017, RatPac-Dune Entertainment et al
A film with six lead characters is bound to have issues—although nowhere near as much as one with ten. I'll give the filmmakers credit: it wasn't nearly as confusing as I'd expected, and each character seemed to have a respectable amount of attention paid to them. But director Zack Snyder, who of course made certain that lots of stuff blew up, spent an estimated $300 million to cram ten pounds of pure comic book nonsense into a five-pound boot.
By the way, Ezra Miller was underwhelming as The Flash, whereas Jason Momoa stole the show as Aquaman. Amy Adams (Lois Lane) got to cry, natch, while super-buff Henry Cavill looked as though he'd suffered a botched plastic surgery job thanks to having his moustache digitally removed—at times I didn't even recognize him. Needs more work, guys.
DKS 4/15/18
GRUMPY OLD FART-O-METER® Rating:
Zack Snyder's Justice League
2021, Atlas Entertainment et al
It begins with a super-bellow... the biggest, longest, most impressive earth-shattering howl imaginable... as Superman dies. It may as well have been his fans after seeing the 2017 version of Justice League. It's not often a film gets a remake within its own time, but between dismal box office performance, disappointed fans and a heartbroken Zack Snyder, the studio finally caved in and funneled $70 million into a proper restoration.
It's the same story, more or less, just told through a mirror darkly—very darkly. Gone are the comic book primary colors, goofy dialog and erratic storytelling. If anything, Snyder took things a bit too far in the opposite direction, with many a grim look and considerably more violence—hence an R rating. While most agree it's far superior, at four hours (yikes, my poor bladder!), it's just too long.
What happened with the original film? Snyder had left in the middle of post-production due to the death of his daughter, prompting the producers to bring in Joss Whedon (The Avengers) to retool what they considered an unwatchable film. His orders were to keep it around two hours and inject some humor. It's quite fascinating to see what he kept (very little), and what he reshot (an awful lot); indeed, large portions of the script were entirely rewritten. Meanwhile, it's said that Snyder did not use one frame of Whedon's stuff. Bottom line: Whedon for the kiddies, Snyder for the grownups.
Note the difficulty I had rating this: if divided into two or even three films, each of the parts would be better than the whole. But in all honesty, Superman's howl alone was solid gold—gut wrenching and riveting.
DKS 5/9/22
GRUMPY OLD FART-O-METER® Rating: