Just got out of the theater. It was okay. Tried very hard to be a course correction and only started to feel successful in that regard towards the end. This film needed a better villain and 10-15 minutes of extra runtime, plus Flash felt like he needed his own movie beforehand to enhance his fit in this one. But in a perfect world this film would also be following better Superman movies.
Here's some notes I had for the film. Slight SPOILERS, but I'll tag anything major.
- Why is this in 1.85:1 aspect ratio?
- Man, they're really still acting like the world is mourning Superman despite making two whole films about how divisive he is? "Beacon of hope," my ass.
- Laughed my ass off at the slow motion dramatic fruit kicking.
- Kinda nice to see a Snyder film use some color. It's been a while and with his visual eye, it's nice.
- I still really dig Ben Affleck as Batman. He didn't have a ton of stuff to do here (nobody really does), but I just like seeing him in the cowl. Plus, it's cool to see him not be a bloodthirsty rage monster this go-round.
- Wonder Woman's intro scene made me wish I was watching
Wonder Woman 2. She's easily the best character and Gal Gadot shines in the part.
- The Amazonians having different armor to show more skin was noticeable and a flat-out stupid change. It's only one scene so it shouldn't be a big deal, but the fact that it's only one scene actually makes it even more pathetic. They had already fully designed costumes and they threw them away just for some midriff in one scene? Dumb.
- Ezra Miller was solid as the Flash, though the writing was hit-or-miss there. I feel like he would have really benefited from having his own movie prior to this so that they didn't feel the need to force lines to designate he's gonna be the jokey one (not sure how much of that is Whedon since early trailers indicated he would be like this) or have scenes of him talking to his dad that disrupt the film's main narrative.
- Jason Momoa's Aquaman is nothing more than "the badass one" in the most generic way possible. I guess Snyder and those at WB were really insecure about whether the audience would be open to Aquaman. I started to like him a bit more towards the end when they stopped trying so hard to make him seem cool, and he does have the best gag in the movie right before going into battle.
- Ray Fisher's Cyborg felt completely unnecessary. The narrative reason for him being there
as a link to the motherbox
is fine, but you can't tell me they couldn't have written a way around that. Hell, I actually think it would have been more interesting if Cyborg and his father weren't there and the film had mostly been about the Justice League having to find the third motherbox before Steppenwolf does.
- Speaking of Steppenwolf, holy shit does he look like a PS2 cutscene. There's no reason for him to be CGI. And again with a big bad who's all "I'ma bring the end of the world." I was bored with it watching
Thor: Ragnarok a week ago and I was bored with it here.
- The scene between Amy Adams and Diane Lane in the Daily Planet was a whole heap of nothing. Again, just one scene so not the biggest deal but given this film is only 2 hours and likely had a ton cut out of it, why the hell did that scene survive? As I was watching it, I knew that it was pointless.
- Could have used more Jeremy Irons, but I could say that of every film.
- If Commissioner Gordon is what keeps J.K. Simmons from being in the running to come back as J. Jonah Jameson, I'm going to be super pissed. He is wasted.
- Was there a second act to this film? The first act would be introducing the characters and getting them together, the third act is obviously the big finale,
so would the second act just be the brief little section where they're together and revive Superman?
- Speaking of the plan to revive Superman, I hate the implication derived from Bruce and Diana's conversation that world-destroying power is worth toying around with for an abstract good that you can't account for (Cyborg crunching imaginary numbers does not undo that). Snyder already teased Superman's revival at the end of Batman v. Superman and if there's anyone who should be able to magically come back just because, it's fucking Superman.
- As soon as Superman started flipping out and causing a ton of destruction, I immediately thought, "yup, that's this universe's Superman."
- Superman tracking Flash's movements was a pretty awesome moment.
- The CGI to wax off Henry Cavill's mustache is a little noticeable, but not quite as bad as I expected, especially since I saw this at Dolby Cinema.
- Bruce's contingency plan was obvious, but did he account for what if Superman came back as a Doomsday-esque monster? That's what happened when Luthor tried to revive Zod, there was no reason to think it wouldn't happen like that again.
- Damn, the earlier films really held back my ability to feel much of anything during the scenes where Superman is being all chill with Lois back in Smallville. All I could think was, "why does she still want to be around this walking wrecking ball?"
- Why is the last battle color coded red?
- Danny Elfman's interpolations of his own Batman theme and of John Williams' Superman theme made me smile. Especially the Williams one, which was used in service of a pretty terrific character moment.
- It took three films, but I finally feel like Superman is back on the screen.
- The denouement was super rushed, but as a fan I was satisfied to see the Justice League together.
- Mid-credits scene between Superman and Flash was total fan service, but I'm just glad to have a little fun with these characters on screen.
- Post-credits scene reminded me Jesse Eisenberg is Lex Luthor. Bringing Deathstroke in is cool, but I'm not sure how Joe Manganiello will do in that part.