JUSTICE LEAGUE early reactions - so far, so GOOD!

[AJBopp]

Oh I think too many of the same kinds of movies. I mean how much can you really do with the Western. Its amazing they were as successful as they were for as long as they were.

If westerns proved anything at all, it's that you can do anything at all with them. Action/adventure, romance, comedy, war, detective, even science fiction. What's amazing is that it ever came to an end.

[Jon-El]

"The fight with the resurrected Superman vs. the Justice League was one of the "A" moments for me. Superman is my favorite character, and usually comics writers have to find a way to get Superman out of the way so that the other team members have a chance to actually do something. Here, Superman was in all his glory. As much as Zach Snyder is controversial for a lot of people, I do love the way he portrays Superman at his full power both here and in Man of Steel. The part of the fight where Flash runs up to him and Superman turns his head -- first just his eye -- and Flash sees that Superman can detect him and match his speed was great. Making it clear that Superman is more powerful than Wonder Woman was also great because it would have been so easy to give Diana another gratuitous shining moment, but the reality is that Superman is stronger and there is nothing wrong with showing that. Loved Superman getting the better of Batman and kicking Steppenwolf's ass."

I have to admit I did enjoy this a little. I got into these characters in the 70's during the Super Friends days & Superman was always clearly the most powerful DC hero. There might be few that could challenge him like Green Lantern or Captain Marvel but he wa always pretty much on a mountain by himself. After years of beating beaten by Batman, it was nice to see him look like...Superman.

[Da Boat]

If westerns proved anything at all, it's that you can do anything at all with them. Action/adventure, romance, comedy, war, detective, even science fiction. What's amazing is that it ever came to an end.

The thing with Westerns was that it didn't needed big effects. A good story, good actors, a few stuntmen and horses. There has been so many Westerns, probably the longest lasting sub-genre ever, it started in the silent era and ended around the mid the late 1970s.

[Arfguy]

I was waiting for reviews for this movie before watching it, but a friend of mine was insistent on watching the movie, regardless of whether he had friends going with or not. I didn't want the guy to go alone, so I said I'd go watch it.

I'm glad I did. This movie was a lot of fun. The pacing was great for me, the laughs worked and the League had amazing chemistry with each other.

If I make a recommendation, I say go out and watch it and judge for yourself. I do believe the Tomato Meter is a good indication of how many critics liked it vs. how many did not (given the box office totals I am seeing), but this was a really fun movie. My friends did have a problem with Steppenwolf being very CGI-esque, but I personally did not have a problem with the bad guy.

[Darth Phoenix]

If westerns proved anything at all, it's that you can do anything at all with them. Action/adventure, romance, comedy, war, detective, even science fiction. What's amazing is that it ever came to an end.

thank you.
not all westerns were Hollywood propaganda the the west needed to be taken for the US from the tribes as post massacre PR. Blazing saddles is nothing like the Clint eastwoood western, or Cowboys vs Alien, you can do a lot with westerns. Most people are just more aware of the John wayne or Cowboys vs Indians as a theme.

[Angilasman]

The thing with Westerns was that it didn't needed big effects. A good story, good actors, a few stuntmen and horses. There has been so many Westerns, probably the longest lasting sub-genre ever, it started in the silent era and ended around the mid the late 1970s.

It's no longer a huge genre, but you probably get at least one high profile theatrical Western every year, and if you count direct-to-download/Redbox films and TV shows that number expands to... I don't know, several a year at least!

[inisideguy]

This last block of comments kinda had me thinking on what is a big genre now. I have noticed about the last 5 years movies that do well in theaters pretty much consist of comic book movies,some comedy,star wars,and cartoons. You have a war movie here or there. But most serious movies barely make an impact. The days of godfather movies or even goodfellas or many other types of movies almost seem gone. This type of thing is done better on tv I guess. If you look at the 70s or even the 80s movies that did well at the box office also were nominated for best picture. Now it's mostly critical darlings that barely anyone sees. Oh I should say horror also is doing pretty well.

[Immortal Weapon]

Too many people in this thread put too much stake in reviews. Word of mouth is stronger than critics.

[sirmarkus]

Too many people in this thread put too much stake in reviews. Word of mouth is stronger than critics.

I agree, but from my friends on my facebook page that have seen it there is a really mixed bag of reviews. Some loved it, some hated it, but most were somewhere in the middle. I think the issues with the DCEU are more from studio interference than anything. I'm less concerned with these movies tieing together and more concerned with them just being good. That said, I think I'm going to try and watch it next weekend and make my own conclusions. For the record I liked BvS. Lol

[Jon-El]

This last block of comments kinda had me thinking on what is a big genre now. I have noticed about the last 5 years movies that do well in theaters pretty much consist of comic book movies,some comedy,star wars,and cartoons. You have a war movie here or there. But most serious movies barely make an impact. The days of godfather movies or even goodfellas or many other types of movies almost seem gone. This type of thing is done better on tv I guess. If you look at the 70s or even the 80s movies that did well at the box office also were nominated for best picture. Now it's mostly critical darlings that barely anyone sees. Oh I should say horror also is doing pretty well.

Studios had started to lose money on the big budget movies of the 60's. Some studios began to finance small budget films with young filmmakers who were given the freedom to shoot what they wanted. I'm probably doing a poor job of summarizing but this practice resulted in films like EASY RIDER that were inexpensive to make but connected to a younger generation and were very successful. As the young group of directors enjoyed success, they were granted larger budgets but still allowed considerable freedom. The filmmakers were still able to make movies that represented a personal vision. They weren't aiming at blockbuster attendance. JAWS in 1975 was the first film that became so that everyone had to see it. It was released during the summer & started the trend of aiming for the widest possible audience during those months. This ended the period when a director could take a small budget & shoot whatever he wanted. Studios wanted the big money now. Great book on this period is titled "Easy Riders & Raging Bulls". Solid read.

Westerns had a really long run. The first movie studios were on the east coast but eventually located out west. Once there, the easiest type of film to make was the western because of the terrain & abundance of real cowboys types who could assist. I think Tv pretty killed the western in the 50's & 60's. Look up a schedule of the period sometime. There were multiple western shows on every week.

[k von doom]

This last block of comments kinda had me thinking on what is a big genre now. I have noticed about the last 5 years movies that do well in theaters pretty much consist of comic book movies,some comedy,star wars,and cartoons. You have a war movie here or there. But most serious movies barely make an impact. The days of godfather movies or even goodfellas or many other types of movies almost seem gone. This type of thing is done better on tv I guess. If you look at the 70s or even the 80s movies that did well at the box office also were nominated for best picture. Now it's mostly critical darlings that barely anyone sees. Oh I should say horror also is doing pretty well.

This is true. Genres with intrigue where you need a lot of backstory and character depth (let’s say The Sorpranos, Breaking Bad, Suits…etc) are better left for TV, especially streaming services where entire seasons can be binge watched. So rather than a 2 hour movie, the story can be told over a season of 20 hours, which captures the viewer’s attention even more… a slow burn, if you would - rather than the high impact a blockbuster movie.

[nitake92]

For me, this was a pretty good movie, better than what I was expecting from the Zack Snyder "trilogy" I would probably watch it again unlike MOS and BVS

Like:

Superman finally smiled

Wonder Woman and Aquaman were pretty much the heavy in this Justice League and pretty much the one that fights Stephenwolf (until Superman arrives)


Superman and his stomp of Stephenwolf when he arrives and

Wonder Woman getting in the "final" shot with assist from Superman. I sort of felt she was the one hero of the Justice League that has the most history with Stephenwolf in the film (Aquaman didn't give off much of that vibe) and deserve to avenge the Amazons who died earlier in the film.


Aquaman and his sort of 90's Peter David esque portrayal and his moment with the Lasso of Truth


Dislike

I felt that Barry Allen was totally miscasted AND misportrayed... I don't SEE any version of Barry Allen that I know in this portrayal at all, they didn't even give him Wally West's portrayal. He was the weakest point of the Justice League film casting wise AND plot-wise for me.

That moment with berserk Superman having Batman by the throat and his cringe-worthy "Do you bleed" crap... seriously, it was a bad reminder of BVS for me... they really should have cut that part off.

The end credit with "gaga crazy" Luthor and the abrupt change to cool business man Luthor really annoyed me. Can't they just show that gaga crazy Luthor from BVS was just a failed clone and start over or something.


Overall, it's a good film but if you watch them as a trilogy, it is pretty jarring with the different portrayal, how the world treats Superman, mourns Superman and show how much he means to them (which I don't see in the last film). I still hate the portrayal of Superman, Batman and Lex in MOS and BVS and seeing them continue the role in this movie carries the baggage of complaints and unsatisfaction I had from the earlier movies with me.

I'm not sure if they want to proceed with Affleck and Cavill as Batman and Superman in later films or not, for me... I think they should focus on just Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman in solo films and maybe Aquaman (I don't think I'll see the Flash movie after his abysmal portrayal here) and once Gal is finish with the role and if they still want to make another JL movie, then recast all of them and start fresh.

[jbmasta]

Dislike

I felt that Barry Allen was totally miscasted AND misportrayed... I don't SEE any version of Barry Allen that I know in this portrayal at all, they didn't even give him Wally West's portrayal. He was the weakest point of the Justice League film casting wise AND plot-wise for me.

The humour that was derived from Barry felt very forced and tonally jarring at times. Knowing they were going into a hostage situation it should have determined beforehand that Barry would evacuate the hostages while the rest of them tackled Steppenwolf and the Parademons. We'd have been spared Barry's wrong place wrong time admission to lack of combat experience and it'd have shown some forward planning by Batman.

[chaosfist]

I didnt watch all of this but John made a great point here

"failures hur the genre as a whole"

so if this bomb messes up the rest of the MCUs plans, Im gonna be a little upset

If that were true in any way we would see some kind of impact. DC cant ride Marvel Studios coattails because a MCU film doing well doesnt mean a DC movie released around the same time will do well. Its been the opposite actually. And that provides us another piece of evidence that this isnt true. DC films bombing doesnt lead to MCU films bombing. Its wholly untrue based on looking at the performances of the two studios. There is no correlation at all. MCU films do well DC films bomb. DC films bomb MCU films clean up.

[AJBopp]

DC films bombing doesnt lead to MCU films bombing. Its wholly untrue based on looking at the performances of the two studios. There is no correlation at all.

DC films bombing doesn't even lead to other DC films bombing.