Zack Snyder's Justice League - Movie Review

Starring Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Henry Cavill, Jason Momoa, Amy Adams, Ezra Miller, Ray Fisher, Connie Nielsen, Jeremy Irons, Willem Dafoe, JK Simmons, Diane Lane, Joe Morton, Ciaran Hinds, Kiersey Clemons, Ryan Zheng, Amber Heard, Jesse Eisenberg, Jared Leto, and Billy Crudup.

Written by Chris Terrio.

Directed by Zack Snyder.

★★★

If it helps, don't think of it as a 4-hour movie. Think of it as a 4-episode limited series.

I thought Man of Steel was a thumbs-sideways and that Batman v. Superman was a let-down, though they both had their qualities. Justice League was a mess and about on par with BvS for me. I thought at the time that Joss Whedon did what he could with the troubled production, but stories have spread since what Whedon's really like to work with, and I felt bad about the personal family tragedy that led Snyder to walk away.

Now he's been granted the ability to tell the story the way he wanted to. Rather than making Justice League I & II, we get a full 4-hour experience. It's not perfect and it still pales in comparison to a similarly-plotted Avengers Infinity War & Endgame, but it's a vast improvement, and I really liked how the movie was able to take its time with these characters. I'd also be curious to go back and watch the 2017 movie again to see how different it was.

Ben Affleck is great as Bruce Wayne, and I was grateful to watch him stretch his legs in the role one last time. He's picking up the pieces after the death of Superman, and he knows he needs more people with special abilities to unite in order to fight what's coming. He has Wonder Woman on his side but he needs more. He tries to recruit Aquaman, Cyborg, Flash, some more successfully than others.

Of all the characters, it's clearest Whedon gave Cyborg the shortest end of the stick. We get full backstory here and a better idea of who the character is, what he can do, etc. Steppenwolf is also a more fully-realized villain here. His design's more impressive, his fighting ability makes more sense, and he has motive beyond Shiny Alien Wants to Conquer Earth. He has wronged his master Darkseid in the past and figures he can get back in his good graces by enslaving Earth for him. We only caught a glimpse of Darkseid in the original but he sure shows up here.

Other actors like Willem Dafoe and Kiersey Clemons, who'd been cut from the original, are able to deliver and expand their parts here, and even ones who weren't in it (like Jared Leto's Joker) pop by.

There are still some Snyderisms I'm not keen on. The sky is always this burnt sienna sheen from the sun in a perpetual state of setting behind some clouds. The slo-mo speed-up slo-mo approach to action scenes can make them seem repetitive. But I for one am happy that after everything he and his family's been through, Zack Snyder was able to return to his baby and fulfill his vision.

Random Movie Stuff - 1/15/14

- Matt Reeves will return for another Planet of the Apes movie. The Dawn of the Planet of the Apes director will now direct third movie in the rebooted franchise as well.  The as-yet-untitled film will open July 29, 2016. Dawn opens on July 11, 2014.

- The upcoming Batman v. Superman film does not have an official title, and even though Batman (Ben Affleck) and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) are in it, it is a Superman-centric film. It's confirmed that Lex Luthor will be the villain, with Joaquin Phoenix being the rumored frontrunner. Cavill returns as Superman, and Amy Adams (Lois Lane), Diane Lane (Ma Kent) and Laurence Fishburne (Perry White) will also be back. There's also rumor that Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is in talks to play the Green Lantern.

- Michael Douglas will play Hank Pym and Paul Rudd will play Scott Lang in Edgar Wright's upcoming adaptation of Ant-Man. Also, Michael Pena (American Hustle) is in talks to play a villain.

- Quentin Tarantino is writing and directing another Western. Plot details are being kept secret right now, but it's titled The Hateful Eight, and Christoph Waltz is attached.

- Not a movie thing, but Sasheer Zamata is about to become famous. She's been named the latest cast member of Saturday Night Live, and the first black woman in the cast since Maya Rudolph left.

Ben Affleck as Batman

Sooooo.....

That happened.








Warner Bros. has announced that Ben Affleck will play Batman in the untitled Superman vs. Batman movie scheduled to open July 15.  Zack Snyder (Man of Steel) will direct, and Henry Cavill (Supes), Amy Adams (Lois), Laurence Fishburne (Perry White), and Diane Lane (Ma Kent) will all return.

But why did WB ask him? And why did he say yes?

Let's start with why Affleck would say yes.

He's famously declared he's trying to be pickier about his projects.  He did a ton of paycheck movies, including one called Paycheck, but somewhere around the time Man About Town went straight to DVD, the Academy-Award winning writer decided to make his directorial debut with Gone Baby Gone. It was a critical success and garnered Amy Ryan a slew of nominations for her performance as the imperfect mother whose daughter gets kidnapped.  The box-office wasn't great.

His next few acting gigs were decent.  A harmless part of the the ensemble in He's Just Not That Into You, teaming with Russell Crowe in State of Play after Edward Norton dropped out, co-starring with Tommy Lee Jones in The Company Men.  He directed and starred in The Town, and that brought financial as well as critical success (and a slew of nominations for co-star Jeremy Renner).

He then directed and starred in Argo, where he got critical and financial success, and multiple awards for himself as director and producer.  He didn't win the Oscar for Directing for Argo, but he did as one of Argo's producers.

As for his own acting, he did Terrence Malick's To the Wonder and the upcoming Runner Runner for director Brad Furman (The Lincoln Lawyer).  He's also going to direct and star in Live the Night (based on the book by Dennis "Gone Baby Gone" Lehane), and he'll star in David Fincher's Gone Girl.

So why did Affleck say yes to Batman?

My best guess - some give-and-take with Warner Bros.  He'll do Batman, and they will in turn finance his next couple projects which might be riskier than normal.  In addition, he might see it as an acting challenge. He may have been teased about his voice, but Bale did a dang good job as Batman/Bruce Wayne.  So can he step into those boots and not make everyone go "Bale was better. Keaton, too."  He's been unafraid before to take over famous roles. (The new Jack Ryan in Sum of All Fears, for example.)

So why would Warner Bros. ask Affleck?

1. They needed a "name," and Affleck is a name-above-the-title guy.
2. They needed someone old enough to have been Batman for a while, and Affleck just turned 41. Bale was 30 when he was originally cast as Bruce Wayne (making him 39 now).
3. He wasn't their first choice.

I don't think he's going to be terrible.  The slams for the Gigli/Surviving Christmas section of his career don't factor in as much when you look at his last 5-6 years of work.  I think he'll be good at the Bruce Wayne stuff. There's something serendipitous about Affleck, who once played George Reeves, now appearing in a Superman movie, even if it's as Batman.