Spoilers Justice League - Grading and Discussion

It might be the worst movie I saw in theaters last year. I can't be sure until I see it again. Then again, I only saw 9 theatrical releases last year.

 

For me it was the worst I saw in theaters in at least 15 years, so yeah... makes sense IMO.

 

Finally got a chance to see Justice League. It was entertaining but flawed. I think Superman should have come back much sooner in the movie. You don't bench your top player. Superman is a tier 1 hero. You don't leave him dead for half the movie and then only bring him back for a few "money shot" scenes in the final battle. On the positive, I did like that Superman lost the grumpy attitude. I hope we get another superman movie where Superman is more optimistic this time. I definitely like Henry Cavill as Superman and I feel like he deserves a great Superman movie.

The CGI was really really bad in some parts. In the final battle, there is that scene where we get a side view of Superman and Steppenwolf preparing to face off. The CGI on Superman was atrocious. It looked like a bad video game.

 

I think that they're taking out their bitterness on how WB has continually burned them again and again. First MOS was divisive, then BvS and Suicide Squad really let them down...WW was praised but I suspect there were some political reasons for that, and now JL brought down whatever goodwill WW built up.

 

And it seems they can't count as Ben Affleck played Batman for the third time in JL The article says, "For the second time...") He was in Suicide Squad - had scenes with Deadshot, the Joker and Harley Quinn and Amanda Waller at the end; and overall his work in that film was more than a quick cameo.

Overall, I didn't care for Suicide Squad, or BvS (actors were fine, the written material they had to work with, not so much); I liked both MoS and JL, and thought Wonder Woman was WB's best big screen DCU film to date - but yeah, JL as one of the 10 worst films of 2017?...Hardly.

 

Many people liked WW because it was a good/great film. Nothing political about that.

 

It was good, but I don't think it was great. Gadot's performance was lacking, the movie was carried by its supporting cast and the whole 3rd Act was blech.

 

A small handful of people don't care for Wonder Woman, but for the majority who enjoyed it, it's political? That's a new one, even for thread about DC properties as movies!

 

Lacking ... flaws? (I'm trying here.)

 

Even though I enjoyed JL quite a bit, I'm willing to admit it had it's flaws. I don't think those flaws were anywhere near severe enough to earn it a place on worst movies of the year lists.

 

Do you deny that the feminist angle helped that movie's publicity?

 

Complaining about a "feminist angle" in a Wonder Woman movie is like complaining about diversity in Star Trek.

 

She says nothing but really simple lines, all the really good lines and acting went to her co-stars and supporting cast. Having great actors to play off Gadot gave an illusion of a good performance from her.

 

That's quite a trick, since I saw not just a "good" performance, but one of those rare instances of casting so perfect it's likely to be permanently character-defining. Wonder Woman will, I believe, be seen through a Gal Gadot lens from now on, the same way Superman will be forever filtered through Christopher Reeve.

And here I was thinking Gadot deserved some credit for that. Those crafty co-stars!

 

It's mainly because Wonder Woman never had any big screen adaptations. No one really thinks of Lynda Carter when thinking of WW on the big screen, so Gadot had no predecessors to be compared negatively to unlike Superman and Batman.

 

For that crowd, ability to count is not necessarily in the skillset. A lot of places called The Last Jedi the eighth Star Wars movie, including USA Today, Vanity Fair, Breitbart...

 

I liked her in BvS but both her and my friend who I saw WW with thought she was wooden and limited in range in WW and JL. We didn’t like the film as whole either (but both quite enjoyed, though didn’t love, the other DC films she was in).

I wouldn’t compare her to Christopher Reeve, more like Sam Jones in Flash Gordon but I’d watch that film again before I’d watch WW.

 

You are quite correct in the way Gadot will influence WW as Reeve was the judge/model for every Superman actor since his era. Some forget Lynda Carter became a cultural icon as Wonder Woman, so much so that when the rumor of WW being added to the DEEU was in the air, most--from comic book fans to the media at large, all compared any potential WW to Carter's, as she (Carter) cut that big a path in the cultural landscape (despite her less than grand acting abilities).

When Gadot made her debut, it was so overwhelming that all doubts about a version of the comic character come to life were swept away, as Gadot made the character hers, which now stands as THE live action version. Reeve was just as much a revolutionary choice; some forget that in 1976-77, as the production of Superman moved ahead, eventually into principal photography in '77, the public's idea of a Superman was still centered on George Reeves' The Adventures of Superman, which was heavily syndicated and well known, whether considered for its own merit, or tied to the infamy of Reeves' death. Christopher Reeve's performance--along with an instantly classic production--finally placed the 50's version on the shelf of history, forever seen as some "old" version that did not get it right compared to Reeve, and to this day, only Cavill has come close to matching that larger than life level, though in a way meeting the demands of the DCEU's tone.

 

She didn't have any real competition as there were no WW Movies in the past, so most moviegoers had nothing to compare her to and let any failings in her acting go.

As for Reeves, he did a great job with a character that wasn't always written well.

 

Hate to disagree with you when you're agreeing with me, but you go too far here. George Reeves hardly failed to get Superman right, even compared to Reeve; while lacking Reeve's subtlety or range as an actor, he had effortless charm and charisma, and was a wonderful Superman in his own right (just as, for that matter, Lynda Carter was a splendid Wonder Woman). I do think Christopher Reeve and Gal Gadot put their defining marks on their respective characters in unique and indelible ways, but that doesn't mean their predecessors' fine work has to be dismissed and consigned to the dustbin.