I’m gonna be honest. I resent the promotional cycle now that has led to us covering this movie about 17 times already (with literally 8 months before it drops). But to this point, our consensus anyway, is that the Justice League has looked like landfill at every turn. Enamored shots of Jason Mamoa drinking shirtless while being soaked in the Pacific Ocean aside, the promo material for the Justice League has looked uninspired at best and just outright terrible at worst. So we have a new trailer. As one of the louder voices about how bad this movie might be, I’ll be the first one to say that a couple viewings of this left me feeling like…it didn’t look terrible. When you didn’t like Man of Steel at all and you drew the short straw to review a terrible Batman Vs Superman, then “didn’t look terrible,” is pretty relative.
What I fuxs with in this new trailer:
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- Well, unless Jason Mamoa had a stroke midway through filming and they only showed his coherent parts, I can’t see how he doesn’t steal the show as Aquaman. Unless he’s not in it much. Which would, really, really suck.
- Most of the action sequences look good. Which is to say, they look grandiose in the way that a huge global threat that needs the Justice League to fight against needs to look. Are we assuming this is Darkseid? Those look like parademons, anyway.
- I may be in the minority here, but I like how they portray the Speed Force for Flash. It seems just different enough than what we’re used to without looking bad that I dig it. Now, the Barry Allen side of it…we’ll get to that.
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What I’m still not feeling:
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- If you are going to try and make Cyborg be in Iron Man complete with flying (that always depends on who’s interpretation of Cyborg you choose) and face/helmet shield flap, then get the studio CG studio that did Iron Man. Cuz…Cyborg still doesn’t look very good.
- I can admit that Gal Gadot can pull off the warrior Wonder Woman for the most part, but my biggest concern was always the Diana Prince side of it. BvS did nothing to alleviate that, the trailers for Wonder Woman don’t and the voice overs in this trailer all make me feel validated in that. When you look at the Marvel films, they work because both personas are engaging. I’m not sure DC has figured this out yet.
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On the fence:
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- Similar to my feelings about Gal Gadot as Diana, I’m not sure how I feel about Ezra Miller as Barry Allen. And not because Ezra can’t do it, but because Barry Allen being Speedster Oracle or having a mini batcave feels weird to me. But, we don’t know if he’s works with the Central City police or whatever yet, so I don’t have a full judgment on that yet.
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- While it was one of the best parts about a dismal BvS, I still don’t know how I feel about Batfleck. Like, he’s not a trainwreck, but it ain’t sealing any deals for me either. And while I know it’s a legitimate challenge and brings all the Batman-hater jokes out, they gotta find a way to keep Batman involved in these huge battles without him always being in a “death machine” of some sort. The best Justifce League books and adaptations always nailed how to make Batman an essential part of the conflict without betraying his non-super abilities and or having him always be a mech warrior.
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And Yet…
Look, I know it’s not this movie’s fault, but more a fault of the overall arch of the franchise, but we are aware that we are finally getting a live action Justice League movie without prominently featuring Superman. I mean, yo, spoiler alert and all of that, but we all know that Clark isn’t dead…forever anyway, so I expect we’ll get a late appearance from Superman by the end of the film, whether that’s part of the action or after. But if you told me five years ago that you’re going to have a Justice League movie with no involvement or promotional material including Superman, I would’ve told you that sounds like a bad idea fam. In the present tense, it still does.
Having said that, did this make me look forward to this movie. Nah. Do I have as much disdain in my heart for it. Nah. Having said that, history ain’t on its side for this to be good. Here’s to hoping they can break some bad habits.
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