BIG STARS, LITTLE LEAGUE
Superheroes trip over each other as DC stumbles through another flick
I still don’t know how Marvel puts together such great ensemble superhero movies, and I suspect DC doesn’t either. Justice League, which brings together Batman and (can I say this?) Superman, alongside boxoffice queen Wonder Woman and big-screen newcomers Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg, occasionally finds its footing but often stumbles just at the moment it should soar.
The players give it their all — the motor-mouthed one! The laid-back one! The, um, black one! — but these heroes feel a little lost on their own, only to keep stepping on each others’ toes when they get together.
Directed by Zack Snyder, the
plot is bare-bones simple. An evil entity called Steppenwolf — played by Ciarán Hinds, and confused at your peril with the Chicago theatre company and/ or the iconic Canadian rockers who gave us Born to Be Wild — is ravaging Earth in search of three Mother Boxes.
These do hickies combine the look of the All Spark (Transformers) with the power of Infinity Stones (Marvel) and remind us that the various cinematic universes seem to be running out of original ideas for props and costumes. (Exhibit B: Steppenwolf’s horned hat, which recalls such recent baddies’ noggins as Loki, Cate Blanchett’s Hela in Thor: Ragnarok and Angelina Jolie in Maleficent. The problem isn’t that they don’t make villains like they used to: It’s that they don’t do anything else.)
Even the casting choices are starting to repeat themselves. When J.K. Simmons popped up as Batman’s buddy Commissioner Gordon, I thought it was a cameo from newspaper editor J. Jonah Jameson.
I know, that was about 18 Spider-Mans ago, but some roles are iconic!
The Mother Boxes were hidden on Earth ages back, as revealed in a flashback that looks like an outtake from The Lord of the Rings. Now Steppenwolf is gathering them with the help of a swarm of insect henchmen. They’re called parademons, which sounds like a decent poker hand, and they can smell fear, which puts them in the same realm as dogs. And movie critics.
Batman (Ben Affleck), sensing a showdown, gets Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) and tracks down Aquaman (Jason Momoa), whose weapon is a trident so powerful it has two extra dents.
Also on the team is theatre actor Ray Fisher as Cyborg, and Ezra Miller (The Perks of Being a Wallflower) as The Flash. Each has an alter ego, a troubled dad and a reason for his powers, but as the movie runs just two hours, there isn’t time for specifics. Miller makes the strongest impression, mostly because he gets the funniest lines. And there aren’t many quips — the screenplay (by Chris Terrio and Joss Whedon, who also directed some reshoots) veers between dark nostalgia for “a time when the world still worked,” and hackneyed orders like “light the ancient warning fire!”
When the heroic quintet decides it needs a sexy sixth, it’s the cue to dig up Superman (Henry Cavill), which only The Flash seems to find creepy. I thought the floaty grave dirt at the end of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice heralded his return, but it turns out he needs some help. As does the film’s barely simmering climax, which takes place in a featureless corner of Russia and at least spares Gotham and Metropolis from more structural damage.
Justice League is merely the latest piece in the puzzling puzzle that is the DC Extended Universe.
Wait for the second of two post-credit scenes for clues as to what will follow.
Though I can’t help but wonder: As the two franchises continue to pile more and more characters into their sandboxes, will the day come when a mighty crossover pits the League of Justice against the Avengers? I know where I’d put my money.
Peace never reigns in the pages of DC Comics. There’s always a world to be saving, a cataclysm to avert. The making of the DC superhero team-up film Justice League was hardly any more tranquil.
Made in the wake of the disappointment surrounding its predecessor, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and the critically panned Suicide Squad, Justice League was, like a jetliner given new wings in mid-air, retooled on the fly. Warner Bros. sought to lighten the tone of Zack Snyder’s grandiose and muscle-bound DC universe — a much-publicized pivot that came just as tragedy was striking.
Snyder, the 300 filmmaker, had overseen this latest series of DC movies starting with Man of Steel, but he stepped down after Justice League had been shot after the death of his daughter. Joss Whedon, the Avengers director known for snappy dialogue who had already been helping to punch up the script, was brought in to steer the film through postproduction and two months of reshoots. Writer Geoff Johns and producer Jon Berg had already been brought in to brighten Justice League and overhaul the wider DC slate with a more optimistic tone.
But that’s not been all. Ben Affleck, who stars as Batman, withdrew from directing a standalone Batman film, while also combating criticism over his behaviour with women in the past. Whedon’s exwife Kai Cole called him a hypocrite for espousing feminist ideals but not living up to them. Jason Momoa had to apologize for a 2011 joke about rape and Game of Thrones. And just weeks before release, Warner Bros. severed ties with one of the film’s chief financiers, Brett Ratner’s RatPac-Dune company, after sexual assault allegations were levelled against Ratner. Gal Gadot, who plays Wonder Woman, has reportedly insisted Ratner have no connection with any future Wonder Woman film.
Justice League is the kind of production that, one suspects, its makers will celebrate the release of with a stiff drink.
“I’ve probably had a stiff drink along the way,” producer Charles Roven says, chuckling. “It’s been different in the sense that we’ve had some sadness along the happyjoy of making the movie. But for the most part it’s been an incredibly positive experience.”
Now, Warner Bros. and DC are hoping the finished Justice League doesn’t show any Frankenstein-like scars from its tumultuous creation.
“The goal is to make sure when you’re watching the movie, it all feels cohesive,” says Roven, the veteran producer of the Dark Knight trilogy.
“That imprint that Joss had, some aspect of it is going to come out in the direction, but the actors are already pretty much down the road on their arcs. Let’s just say 80, 85 per cent of the movie is what was originally shot. There’s only so much you can do with other 15, 20 per cent of the movie.”
It’s also a turning point in the larger DC cinematic world. Justice League finds Affleck’s Bruce Wayne, in the wake of Superman’s apparent death, gathering together the League to fight a new enemy. That means pushing not just Wonder Woman to the fore, but also Miller’s Flash, Momoa’s Aquaman and Ray Fisher’s Cyborg.
Gadot and Wonder Woman are a big reason for optimism in the franchise, after its critically acclaimed, zeitgeist-grabbing $412.6-million box office success domestically. Though the epicentre of DC Comics has always revolved around Batman and Superman, that’s starting to change.
Matt Reeves has taken over the Batman movie, but he’s starting fresh on the screenplay, making a release date several years off. That leaves open the possibility of further changes, even potentially Affleck’s casting. “From everything I know, he’s going to play that Batman,” Roven said. “They’re retooling the script, so I can’t really say anything for certain.”
The Superman sequel Man of Steel 2 also isn’t coming anytime soon, if at all. Roven says there’s no script but “various story ideas” are being kicked around.
On the front burner, however, is Aquaman, scheduled for release in December 2018, a Wonder Woman sequel due in 2019 (with director Patty Jenkins returning) and a Cyborg movie.
Whedon is also prepping a Batgirl movie.