Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Heroism, supersized
Justice League’s new arrivals team up with Wonder Woman, Batman and Superman
The superpowered superheroes of “Justice League” have some super expectations to meet. One of them, however, has already been met. For Ray Fisher and Ezra Miller, it was a superlative experience in itself to join fellow newcomer Jason Momoa and previously established defenders of the DC Comics movie universe Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill and Gal Gadot.
“Honestly, man? Everybody was super welcoming,” says Fisher, who except for a brief cameo in last year’s “Justice League” leadup, “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice,” made his movie acting debut as reluctant good guy Cyborg for this one.
“It kind of feels like coming home,” Fisher continues. “I mean, this is my first feature film, and being able to step into the scene with people who were so established already and have them be, with open arms, able and willing to answer any question, no matter how stupid, I may have about the process or the business or anything of that nature, was pretty wonderful. And not just the cast, the crew too, everybody. I was in education mode, but it was good, man. I learned a whole hell of a lot on this, for sure.”
“I was taken under so many wings, I’m still taking out the feathers,” says Miller (“The Perks of Being a Wallflower”), who gives a youthful, wacky spin to his big screen superspeedster The Flash. “It was delightful; I felt deeply
and truly welcomed. I was given a lot of advice from a lot of different experts. This was not only my first voyage into the world of this sort of story, but it was also my first immersion into a lot of certain stuff — the training, the visual effects work — that this sort of movie entailed. I had all of these people around me, from the hardworking crew and my cast members, who in some way or another had more experience than I, to our incredible director and production team. So I was really well-taken care of, and never for a moment felt left in the dust or rushed into something. We processed each scene in an intimate way that I’ve always experienced working on indie films and small dramas.”
For those who haven’t
been keeping track, Cavill’s Superman “died” (nudge nudge, wink wink) at the end of “BvS.” In “Justice League,” Affleck’s Bruce Wayne/Batman and Gadot’s Diana Prince/Wonder Woman recruit Barry Allen/The Flash, Victor Stone/ Cyborg and Momoa’s ruler of Atlantis Aquaman to help them fight Earth-threatening alien menace Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds). Mostly directed by “Man of Steel” and “BvS” honcho Zack Snyder, until a family tragedy forced him to turn over the reins near the end of production to Marvel’s “Avengers” maestro Joss Whedon, “Justice League” not only needs to overcome the bad reactions to Snyder’s earlier DC movies, but now at least appear to be a decent enough follow-up to Patty Jenkins’ widely beloved “Wonder Woman” from last summer.
Gadot, who was introduced as the Amazon princess
in “BvS,” explains that “Justice League” was designed to counter the dark, fun-impaired vibe of the pre-2017 DC films.
“It’s hard to compare between the two because the tones of the movies are very different,” the Israeli actress says. “This movie is very entertaining and parents are going to feel great taking their children to see ‘Justice League.’ It’s just so different from ‘Batman v Superman.’ “
And, for that matter, from “Wonder Woman.” Not really burdened with backstory exposition, “Justice League” tells its eventful story swiftly and sleekly in under two hours.
“I think that the ‘Wonder Woman’ movie was packed with action as well; it was just two different styles,” Gadot says. “And two different styles of work. ‘Wonder Woman’ was an origin story and had a different kind of fighting to it, and I enjoyed it very much. But I think there are some awesome, very cool things that Wonder Woman gets to do in ‘Justice League.’ One that I really like is when Aquaman and I use the lasso. I found it very interesting and fun and new, the fact that we can help each other when it’s necessary.”
For his part, Miller brings a jittery comic energy to Barry Allen that not only jibes with The Flash’s sped-up metabolism but provides many of the light moments that were missing from previous DC films, including last year’s potentially crazy — but in the end, not so much — “Suicide Squad.”
“I tried to build Barry Allen just by reading the Silver Age comics and really trying to realize this person in this world, in our contemporary universe,” Miller says, referencing the comic book superhero revival period of the 1950s and ‘60s that the Allen version of Flash kicked off (and during which the Justice League was created). “That involved a lot of funny stuff. You can imagine, what with this fledgling scientist who becomes a phenomenon, who himself is breaking the rules of science and is talking to himself to try to figure out what’s going on. He’s this really good guy who has sort of this nerdy attitude and way of looking at the world. That was all really fascinating and played dynamically into the film, considering where that fit in tonally.”
Victor Stone, on the other hand, isn’t about comic relief at all. A former athlete who had 90 percent of his body replaced with otherworldly robotics after a terrible accident, Fisher’s character ain’t happy with his barely human anymore status and adds a new dimension of character gravitas to the slam-bang proceedings. And that’s not all. “I’m proud that I can represent, within Cyborg, a couple of different groups,” Fisher says. “One being people of color, but also Cyborg is a superhero that is in many ways disabled. So, being able to give representation from that end as well is something that’s really powerful to me. I hope that I’ve been able and will continue to be able to portray that with as much respect and decency as I’m allowed.”
Both new actors are bigtime superhero fans: Fisher from the many DC and Marvel cartoon shows he watched as a kid and Miller as a comic book geek since early childhood.
“At a wee age, my parents actually got me a Batman action figure to stop me from peeing in the bed,” Miller overshares. “So, yeah, this was an incredible experience for me, an awesome experience as an actor and what a sensational experience as a comic book fan. I mean, holy smokes, I’d be excited about this film even if I’d had absolutely nothing to do with it.”
But he did. And from what these actors are saying, they’re all super looking forward to remaining Super Friends.
“Lately, I’ve gotten to work with people who are very talented and also wonderful and funny and smart, and I really enjoyed spending time with them,” Gadot says of her tenure in the DC movie universe. “We all had fun.”