Saturday, March 25, 2017

Justice League (2017) Trailer - Review/Reaction

justice league movie poster wallpaper screensaver image picture

The first trailer for the long awaited movie has finally been released.

Directed by Zack Snyder (Man of SteelBatman v Superman: Dawn of Justice), the movie stars Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Gal Gadot as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman, Jason Momoa as  Arthur Curry/Aquaman, Ezra Miller as Barry Allen/ The Flash and Ray Fisher as Victor Stone/Cyborg.

Newcomers include Amber Heard as Mera, J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon and Kiersey Clemons as Iris West.

Check out the trailer below:



From what I have seen in the trailer, I am guessing that this movie is based on story Justice League: Origin by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee. That story features an invasion of earth by Darkseid and the heroes forming a team to stop him.

The DC animated movie Justice League: War is itself an adaptation the same story. I am quite sure that this live action movie will not measure up to the animated version.

The trailer is not as exciting as the trailer for BvS: Dawn of Justice was. Considering the quality of BvS, this does not bode well for the movie. The movie seems to suffer from the same shortcomings as the previous two Snyder movies: weak character development, weak dialogues and the most damning of all - special effects that are not worthy for a video game.




Even video games have better detailed locations than this movie does. Like BvS, this one too has been shot extensively in the studio against green screens. Instead of filling the background with details, the lazy director and his crew have just opted for darkened visuals to hide the fact that they have zero imagination.

Considering that this is a superhero movie, at least the special effects must be good if not excellent.

Even the great J K Simmons looks bored. He was on fire as J Jonah Jameson in the Sam Raimi Spiderman movies. Here he just looks lost. I think this has to do with the general lack of vision and direction about the DC Films at Warner Bros. The standalone Flash movie lost not one but two directors and is now headed for a complete script rewrite.

The Batman standalone movie is in a slightly better situation: after Ben Affleck quit as director, the studio managed to hire Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes). The movie is also undergoing a complete script rewrite after the previous script credited to Ben Affleck and Geoff Johns was discarded.

If the rumors are to be believed, Affleck completely wants out of the role. It is understandable that his retirement from the role will be officially announced after this Justice League movie will be released. Given this state of affairs, it is obvious as to why he too looks bored in the trailer.

Click on the link below to buy Batman v Superman:


The rest of the cast do their best with the weak lines. But none of the so-called humor works. The actors just strike action figure poses and have minimal dialogues. Further it does not help that some of the footage are reused from the character spots the studio has been releasing for the past couple of days. I think the best shots in the movie are in this trailer.

But not all hope is lost for DC Films. In addition to hiring Matt Reeves, the studio is reportedly in talks with Mathew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class) to direct the sequel to Man of Steel. That does raise my hopes. Point of interest - Vaughn's Kick-Ass had a Batman knockoff character in the form of Big Daddy (Nicholas Cage in one of his better performances in the recent past).

Clearly, Warner Bros have acknowledged the negative feedback about Snyder's “vision”. If only they had not hired him in the first place....



Coming back to this movie, I am predicting that it will earn around the same amount of money as BvS: Dawn of Justice did. Just as that movie had the novelty factor of the two heroes appearing first time onscreen, this one too has the famed DC team coming to life. Once the opening weekend is over and the hardcore fans are done with the movie, the movie should drop like a rock. Yes, pretty much the same trajectory as what BvS took before falling well short of the coveted 1 Billion USD benchmark.

The critics will no doubt be tough on the movie and I expect the Rotten tomatoes rating to fall below 30%. The hardcore DC fans will take up arms and demand the site to be closed. They will be interested to know that Warner Bros. owns the Rotten Tomatoes site.

Ben Affleck's Batman says at one point in the trailer: “My turn. To see the same line delivered by an actor invested in his character, check out this scene from V for Vendetta:



Unless Zack Snyder has improved his sensibilities and directorial skills dramatically, I would expect this movie to be another missed opportunity.

Click here to read all my posts about DC Comics.
 
Image Sources: DC Comics, DC Entertainment, Dune Entertainment (as RatPac-Dune Entertainment LLC), Lensbern Productions, Warner Bros.

Sunday, March 12, 2017

Wonder Woman (2017) Official Origin Trailer - Review/Reaction

gal gadot wonder woman poster image picture wallpaper screensaver

The origin trailer for the upcoming DC Film has been released.

Directed by Patty Jenkins (Monster), the movie stars Gal Gadot as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman, Chris Pine as Steve Trevor, Robin Wright as General Antiope, Connie Nielsen as Queen Hippolyta, and Danny Huston as General Erich Ludendorff.

After not so interesting trailers that preceded this, Warner Bros. and Patty Jenkins finally managed to put together a decent sell. After all, this movie is supposed to rescue the DC Films from oblivion after the disappointing Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad.

Check out the trailer:



The trailer shows a young Diana taking lessons in warfare to become the best among the Amazonians. Then comes Man and with him comes the problems of the big bad world. Diana takes a trip with Steve through Guy Ritchie's steampunk London followed by a nod to Richard Donner's 1978 Superman.

Like any self respecting superhero in the 20th century, Wonder Woman fights Nazis and brings peace to the world.

The action scenes are way better than what we have seen in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. There is far less graphics and more of actual people doing the fighting. Still we have to see the movie if this is the case for the entire movie or if this is just another promising trailer that sets us up for (another) disappointment eventually.

Chris Pine has the best lines in the trailer and delivers them very well. Gal Gadot is good at action but seems a bit lost in dialogue delivery, emoting and voice modulation. Plus there are only so times we can see an origin story.

Click on the link below to buy Batman v Superman:



This looks to be at least as good as Man of Steel if not better than it. This itself is a big achievement considering the dismal quality of BvS and Suicide Squad. Warner Bros. studio executives are clearly only interested in making money from these movies and they do not care about these characters at all. Which is why Ben Affleck quit as the director of the solo Batman movie and the Flash movie lost two directors and is currently undergoing a complete rewrite.

But the most disturbing thing about this movie is that Zack Snyder claims writing credits.. Let that fact sink in. The guy who is clearly anti-feminist and has already delivered two DC duds so far has contributed to this movie.

Irrespective of the other factors, if the movie has a single action sequence that is at least half as much fun as the airport sequence in Captain America: Civil War, I would consider that a major win for DC Films.

The answer lies a couple of months away. 
 
Click here to read all my posts about DC Comics.

Image Sources:  Atlas Entertainment, Cruel & Unusual Films, DC Entertainment, Dune Entertainment, Warner Bros.