DC Brings Justice to the Big Screen by T. S. Jones
*SPOILER ALERT* – If you haven’t seen the Justice League film yet, you may want to wait until you have before reading this article. Should you choose to proceed, understand there are some telling details from the feature.
Just in time for the holiday season, DCEU brings together some of their legendary heroes together from the page of the iconic comic to the movie theaters in Justice League. Gal Gadot & Ben Affleck & Henry Cavill reprises their roles as Wonder Woman, Batman & Superman respectively. The film takes place after Superman dies and how everyone has moved on with their lives. Bruce Wayne is still defending the city of Gotham, Diana continues her work at the museum in Paris and Lois Lane is doing puff pieces at the Daily Planet.
They go up against a foe that to me, is more menacing than Ares was in Wonder Woman. He is a deadly alien named Steppenwolf who is hellbent on dominating the universe by obtaining the Mother Boxes that have been hidden and protected throughout the world. When Bruce & Diana start to notice different signs of the common problem, they join forces and he decides to venture out and gather together a few more extraordinary people to join the cause which is saving the world of someone who claims to bring death to all mankind.
The newest movie from DC Films brought about a great mix of action, drama and comedy; the latter coming mostly from Ezra Miller as Barry Allen/The Flash. Speaking of The Flash, there is some mention of his back story regarding his father Henry being in prison for the murder of his wife; a crime Barry knows he didn’t commit. He has devoted his life to proving Henry’s innocence and refuses to give up despite his father’s wishes to do so.
Jason Momoa comes on the screen basically larger than life as Arthur Curry aka Aquaman when Bruce Wayne makes a pilgrimage to Iceland in the search for the underwater King who Bruce claims “can talk to fish”. While the aquatic royal isn’t convinced to join the cause lead by a man who “dresses like a bat”, a catastrophic event in his underwater kingdom changes his mind and is, like Barry, taken by the beauty of the leading lady of the league. For those who loved his look as King Drogo on Game of Thrones, they will certainly love his look in this film. It would be safe to say there are moments meant for the ladies.
There are some familiar faces throughout the film. Diane Lane returns as Martha Kent, mother of Clark Kent/Superman and Amy Adams appears in the film as Lois Lane, the love of the Kyptonian’s life. Connie Nielsen reprises her role as well, portraying Diana’s mother Queen Hippolyta; she’s also a protector of one of the Mother Boxes. Her Amazonian army naturally had her back when Steppenwolf invaded their homeland; a definite sight to see on the big screen.
Another standout actor is the one and only Joe Morton, who despite his role as Olivia Pope’s father Rowan, can be perceived as the go-to actor to portray a scientific genius with his caliber of talent (can’t forget Terminator 2 & Syfy’s Eureka). He is Dr. Slias Stone, father of the college football star Victor Stone now known as Cyborg. We find out how he came to be the cybernetic hero with a passion to do the right thing and protect his father from evil as well as the world.
No stranger to the comic book film genre, J. K. Simmons joins the DCEU as Gotham City Police Department’s Commissioner James Gordon, a role that’s a bit calmer than J. Jonah Jameson in the Spider-Man films. It’s minimal at best but with Simmons being the 4th actor to take on the part, he’s made it memorable. Can’t forget the iconic actor Jeremey Irons as Bruce’s right-hand Alfred Pennyworth being as the protective father figure with the voice of reason. If I didn’t know any better, I would think that this version of Alfred lives a little vicariously through the cape crusader he raised after Bruce’s parents were murdered.
As stated earlier there are some lighthearted and comedic moments in Justice League, several came from Barry Allen and there was one that stood out for me. Barry may have the speed force and proved to be a great asset to the group of superfriends, he was also like how Ant-Man was when he met Captain America in The Avengers; you couldn’t help but to laugh. The big laugh however came from the King of Atlantis aboard one of Bruce’s many aircraft toys. Apparently, it seems that he was compelled to express himself to the group and was quite open. Bruce noticed Diana holding in the laughter and in turned lets Arthur know that it wasn’t his choice; he was on Diana’s lasso of truth – classic.
Award-winning composer Danny Elfman (The Simpsons, Spider-Man, Fifty Shades Darker) utilized his skills with the film score. During a couple of scenes where we saw Henry Cavill was featured, Elfman used some of John Williams’ iconic composition from the Superman films Christopher Reeve starred in. No offense but unless you were a true fan of the Reeve films and had the score embedded in your head, you just didn’t get it. It was even used in the first episode of Smallville he guest starred in.
For some reason, when it came to this movie, critics had nothing on social media…nothing. There was so much negativity towards this film you would think that rotten tomatoes had a negative scale; it unfortunately got 41% on the popular site. It could be due to the notion that Marvel films are presented like halftime shows at the Super Bowl; they expect DC to bring it in the same way. Therein lies the beauty of individual creativeness; you can’t please everyone with it.
Zack Snyder directed some great live action comic book films such as Watchmen, 300 and Man of Steel. He directed this film and did a wonderful job at it. It would be safe to say that his track record in this genre is incredible. I see him as one of those filmmakers that will take the good with the bad, the positive with the negative and come back hard with something that will draw the masses to the theater seats knowing he will not disappoint.
This is another great step for the DC Extended Universe and some will agree, some will disagree. There is always going to be opinions on both ends of the spectrum and that is going to make for some great promotion for the film. As the saying goes, there’s no such thing as bad publicity. To be honest, I wasn’t too convinced that Ben Affleck could pull off being Batman only to see that he’s been pretty good at it; I can admit when I’m wrong.
At the end of the day, Justice League has shown that despite some of it’s previous films (except for Wonder Woman of course), they understand the phrase room for improvement. This is putting them in that direction, it can only get better from here. I for one look forward to seeing it. Up next – Aquaman in 2018!
That’s my opinion and everyone is entitled to one.
