Category: DC

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The Justice League Has Finally Been United!

It has been a long time coming, but the Justice League has finally made their big screen debut, and for nerds like me it was a pretty great moment, but for everyone else it was probably just ‘fine’.  The movie had too many things to do and not enough time to do it, but the characters themselves were awesome.  Showing that if nothing else DC has a great casting director.

The movie starts pretty soon after Batman v Superman, and the world is still mourning the loss of Superman (Henry Cavill).  AKA The monster that everyone hated after Man of Steel because he destroyed Metropolis, but I guess you don’t know what you got until it is gone.  Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) has decided to take Lex Luthor’s (Jesse Eisenberg) advice seriously and get ready for an invasion, so he has to get a very special team together.

The team is far and away the best part of the Justice League.  Ezra Miller and Jason Momoa are great as The Flash and Aquaman.  Bringing their characters to life with so much fun and flare.  Ray Fisher was fine as Cyborg, but he wasn’t given much to do other then brood, so I will need to see more of him before I pass final judgement.  Gal Godot as Wonder Woman continued to be great, but the movie needed to pick up the camera off the floor when filming her scenes.  We get it, she has a nice butt.  Ben Affleck was given most of the heavy lifting in this movie to try and connect everything together, so sadly a lot of his dialog was exposition, and his character suffers for it.  Making him the least convincing member of the League.  I am not going to say much about Superman, other than he finally gets to genuinely smile, and it is fabulous.

Unfortunately the movie built around this great cast was not great, and honestly unlike everyone else I am not upset about the fact their villain was another gray blob.  When introducing three new characters you don’t have time to develop a villain, so random angry alien guy makes sense.  The problem was this movie was rushed.  The special effects are garbage.  The reshot scenes seemed to be filmed with a different type of camera on cheaper sets, so they stand out in bad way.  All in all this movie needed more time, and Warner Brothers/DC will no doubt pay the price for not delaying Justice League until early next year.

The fantastic cast of well acted characters made the Justice League work for me.  It has been a lifelong dream to see the League all together on screen, and slapdash special effects and poorly edited added scenes were not enough to ruin that for me.  For other people, maybe wait to rent or stream Justice League.  Though you will want to see it.  If only to get ready for Aquaman because after Jason Momoa’s fun performance you will be as pumped for it as I am.

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Did Rotten Tomatoes Forget That Metacritic Exists?

So by now I am sure that you have heard that Rotten Tomatoes is withholding Justice League critic reviews and the ‘Tomato Score’ until it streams its new show ‘See It/Skip It’, and if Rotten Tomatoes was the only critic aggregating site in town it might make sense to use its popularity to promote its new show this way, but guess what?  It is not.  If you want to go see a bunch of reviews with an average score just click on over to Metacritic.

I can save you some clicking and just tell you that Justice League is doing okay.  Not great, but much better than Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad.  Apparently the story is rushed nonsense, but the characters are great, so if you love Bats and Wondy, there is a good chance you will like this movie because they act like their true selves.  In other words, the dialog works, so it sounds like the Joss Whedon part of the flick works.  I will find out myself on Friday and then let you know what I think on Monday.  If things work out as planned that is.

Anyway, if Rotten Tomatoes makes this delaying the reviews thing a normal deal.  There are other, and some may say better, places to get the same info.  In this case, Metacritic.com.

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Someone At Marvel TV Needs To Watch DC’s Legends Of Tomorrow!

For the most part Marvel’s Netflix shows have been pretty great.  Yes there have been some downer moments, but most of the time Netflix/Marvel has delivered a quality product.  However, the fight scenes on the shows have started go down hill, and nowhere was this more apparent than The Defenders.  This should have been the show where they pulled out all the stops, but instead it was generally just four people fighting in the dark next to each other.  There were a few decent one on one fights, but the group together was pretty meh, and getting the gang together was the whole point of this show.

Now on the other hand DC’s Legends of Tomorrow can sometimes have some pretty meh storylines, but holy heck, a few times a season the fight scenes are just crazy awesome.  Granted on Legends of Tomorrow there are a lot of heroes with different fighting styles and powers, while The Defenders mostly just kick stuff, but still, they could have found a way to feature them all in a better light (or just in the light).

Look, I believe in the writing team behind the Marvel Netflix shows, but they need to find a new fight coordinator, or at least one that watches some of DC’s Legends of Tomorrow.  I just want the action in the shows to be as good as the story telling.

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Star Wars Looses A Director While Suicide Squad Gains One!

It seems like Disney can’t hold on to their directors for Star Wars.  They have now lost two directors (well three, but two come as a set) for their upcoming Star Wars projects in the same year.  Colin Trevorrow’s exit from Star Wars IX isn’t as stunning as Lord and Miller’s from Han Solo, but clearly Disney has a specific vision for their films, and if you can’t deliver it, you are out.  Really at this point they just need to lock in Howard or J.J. to long term deals and have them direct the next few movies, since both of them can deliver a pretty solid Spielbergian adventure film.

On the Warner Brothers side of things, we are finally getting details about the upcoming Suicide Squad sequel.  It looks like Gavin O’Connor has been called in to write and direct.  He is an okay choice.  I say that because most of his movies are, you know, okay.  Much like The Accountant which I recently reviewed.  If you go look at his IMDB page you will not find a bad flick.  Though you will probably not find a movie you feel super strongly about either, so this is probably a smart choice for a studio trying not to have any more critical failures, but just not one the fans are going to get supper pumped up about.  Hey, maybe he will get to direct an upcoming Star Wars movie!

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Hellboy Enters The Fray!

The trailer for the new Injustice 2 fighter pack went up, and while Raiden was an interesting choice, since this is not Mortal Kombat, and Black Manta (Aquaman’s number one villain) was a given, Hellboy is something I didn’t see coming.  Mostly because he is from neither NetherRealm’s stable of characters (Mortal Kombat) or from the DC Comics library.  He is Dark Horse Comic’s most recognizable hero, and if he can cross over, who else might come out to play?  I have my fingers crossed for Dark Horse’s other main hero, The Rocketeer!  For now though, I am very happy with HB joining the line up.