Tag: Joss Whedon

JUSTICE LEAGUE will be available on Blu-ray next Tuesday, March 13th

Ok, I get it, the jury is in, the Justice League bombed at the box office and most critics were less than kind. I don’t care, I saw it three times (not as often as Wonder Woman) in theaters. I love it anyway. Even though I had my own problems with this latest DC Universe movie.

My problems, in brief: First, the missing and deleted scenes. Youtube was loaded with many and various previews for Justice League leading up to its release, all of which had scenes and lines of dialog that didn’t make it into the final cut. I sincerely hope the blu ray will present an extended or director’s cut of Justice League. And of course the blu ray release has been delayed.

Second the threat is too generic, Steppenwolf never does seem like much of a villain and the “ParaDemons” are too much like the Alien Army in the first Avengers movie, cannon fodder for the heroes with no personality. And the Macguffin the villain is after is way too much like the power box, again, in the first Avengers movie. Making three magic boxes instead of one, that makes it different? Right……

And to me the most egregious mark against the Justice League, J. K Simmons. Not the actor, he is one of the best actors working now and has an Oscar to prove it. My problem is, why hire J. K Simmons and give him nothing to do? Commissioner Gordon is used to working with The Batman, would he not have something to say to, I don’t know, Wonder Woman or Cyborg other than “How many of you are there? “ How about “Are you people crazy?” or “Why in the hell are you doing this?”

Oh well, to my simple mind these are minor problems. There is much I love in Justice League starting with:

10. Ezra Miller as Barry Allen “The Flash” Miller is a little guy but has a huge talent. Don’t believe me? Check out a movie called We Need To Talk About Kevin, a movie more relevant than ever in the wake of yet another school shooting. With a face that looks like it was designed by an artist Miller’s take on the Flash is wonderful. His comment that Barry Allen “needs friends” is heartbreaking. In fact Justice League more than hints at the notion that all these characters “need friends” most of all Batman and Cyborg. Miller brings humor to a movie that needs it, he makes an impossible character believable and likeable, all the actors do quite frankly. Which brings me to:

9. Jason Momoa as Arthur Curry “The Aquaman” I saw Conan the Barbarian in a theater and have it on dvd. Momoa really didn’t make much of an impression in that project. He must have been working on his craft because he is flat out wonderful in Justice League. Steals every scene he’s in and, for a man who can live and breathe under water is the voice of reason and sanity and common sense in a comic book universe. How many comic book super heroes are there that not only drink whisky straight out of the bottle but litter the landscape with their empties? Aquaman does. And I love his “truth to tell” rant due to his sitting on Wonder Woman’s lasso. Aquaman was never one of my favorite DC heroes, I now look forward to his stand alone movie. Justice League is worth seeing for Momoa alone.

8. The first battle scene. I love the idea of all the Justice League members being dependant on Batman’s various vehicles and gizmos. The fight in the tunnels under Gotham Harbor is complex and involves a lot of movement; it could have easily degenerated into confusion and chaos, much like the (rightfully) disliked Batman vs Superman Dawn of Justice final battle. We never lose track of anyone’s location and who is doing what to whom. This battle can stand alongside any of the action set pieces in the Marvel Universe.

7. Henry Cavill as Kal El, Clark Kent, “Superman.” I will be the first to admit Cavill is not the most versatile actor in the business. Want real proof? Try The Man from Uncle Movie with Cavill as Napoleon Solo and Armie Hammer as Ilya Kuryakin, if you can make it all the way through. However, if there was ever an actor who looked exactly like a comic book character Cavill is it. I will be honest, I grew up with the George Reeves Superman television series and to me he will always be Clark Kent/Superman. I also very much enjoyed Christopher Reeves take on a classic character (except for that fourth movie!) Cavill looks exactly like the Superman of the 1960s DC Comics. And he brings his A game to the project and, as I told my sweetheart Radah Sheah, when we watched Superman Vs Batman Dawn of Justice (which she hated) “you can’t kill Supes, can’t be done!” And yet another issue I have with Justice League, when Superman finally (finally!) joins the fight against Steppenwolf and his cartoon minions we fully expect him to pound the living shit out of the Bad Guy and slam him back and forth on the concrete (much like what The Hulk did to Loki in the first Avengers movie) No, we see Supes get in a few licks and then run off to save “civilians!” Whatever!

6. Another visit to Paradise Island/ Themyscira/The Amazon Kingdom. I love the Amazons, LOVE the Amazons, adore them! I saw Wonder Woman 7 times last year, in theaters (that’s Seven times!) And not just for Gal Gadot. When I was 10 years old I became obsessed with the legend of the Amazons (yes obsessed is a good word, although it may not be strong enough!) I read of them in a children’s encyclopedia and checked out books, written at an adult level, from the library on Greek and Roman history and mythology for any information about the Amazons.
I even wrote my own stories about Amazons in my grade school classrooms, when I should have been paying attention to Geography and Arithmetic lessons. Other boys drew pictures of tanks and fighter planes; I scribbled out stories of women warriors defeating entire armies of men. The first time I saw Wonder Woman, during the entire opening on Paradise Island I wept, cried tears of absolute joy! I had forgotten all of my youthful enthusiasm for the Amazons.

There are other movies about the Amazons. Tarzan and The Amazons with Johnny Weissmueller, 1945, depicted a very cool Amazon kingdom in Tarzan’s territory. Ironically those Amazons defeated men armed with guns using bows and arrows, spears and swords, much like the Amazons of Wonder Woman. And during my time in the Navy when I ran the ship’s tv station on the USS AMERICA I broadcast a later day Italian peplum movie, War Goddess aka Amazons from 1973. Depicting the Amazons dealings with the Greeks and a disputed power struggle, it has its moments. Those Amazons apparently spent all their money on eye makeup. Those movies were ok, but Wonder Woman’s movie depicted the Amazon Empire exactly as I had pictured it at 10, 11 and 12 years of age. Except my Amazons had a bowling alley, equipped with pin ball machines, bumper pool tables and a soda fountain. My Amazons also got to use automatic weapons, grenade launchers, tanks and what have you. Hey, they were MY stories and I enjoyed that I could give them anything I thought they should have! So Wonder Woman is a very special movie to me and I was ecstatic that Justice League took us back to Themyscira and populated the Amazons with many of the same actors and athletes who portrayed the Amazons in Wonder Woman. I would love to see them have their own stand alone movie. A sweeping historical epic about their wars with the Greeks and Romans, and especially how they got mixed up with Hercules! It would be a perfectly logical reason to bring back Robin Wright as Antiope, one of the most awesome woman characters ever captured on film! I should add too, my Amazons always won, every engagement they kicked ass and took names. And they never even had any casualties (again, they were my stories, and no, none of the stories survived. Whenever recess was called I would throw my stories in the trash. I wrote them only for my own amusement and I was convinced that if any one, especially adults, found out about my obsession I would be put in an institution! I am NOT kidding!)

5. The second battle scene. In the DC and Marvel Universe there seems to be a great concern about collateral damage. And rightfully so, if super heroes and super villains really did exist and had epic battles in urban areas, the damage would be catastrophic. In Justice League the final showdown happens in what appears to be Chernobyl. Very few civilians present and the League members take great pains to get them out of harm’s way. And again, we never lose track of who is doing what, when, where and why. And the action, once it gets rolling, is truly awesome.

4. Ray Fisher Victor Stone “Cyborg” This is the one character I was not familiar with. I have not bought a comic book since about 1985. It finally dawned on me that I could no longer afford to buy and store huge amounts of paper collectibles. So Cyborg was a new character to me and Ray Fisher brings a lot to the project. I read at least one comment on the web that Cyborg is based on Robocop. Not really, Cyborg made his debut in 1980, Robocop the original movie, was released in 1987. If anything Robocop owes a debt to DC Comics and the character of Cyborg. What’s left of a man housed in a robotic body and finding himself stronger, faster and with many other powers not possessed by mundane people, like you and me. We get all that with Fisher, the pain of being different, an outcast, alone. And even better we have the incredible Joe Morton, star of John Sayles classic cult movie Brother From Another Planet as his suffering Father. Cyborg and all the other Justice League members are to have their own stand alone movies. I am looking forward to all of them.

3. Ben Affleck Bruce Wayne “The Batman” I have a co worker who refused to see Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice or Justice League because she cannot stand the idea of Ben Affleck playing Bruce Wayne/Batman. I could not possibly disagree more. Affleck makes a good Batman and an even better Bruce Wayne. I will readily admit I am a sentimental old fool when it comes to these characters. I saw all the faults of Batman Vs Superman and loved it anyway, mainly for the thrill of finally seeing Batman, Superman AND Wonder Woman in the same movie. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Marvel Universe and have seen most of their movies. But Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman were there first. There was no Marvel Comics publisher during that time frame of the late 1930s and 1940s. Captain America was published by an outfit called Timely. I treasure what is probably the best moment in Dawn of Justice “Is she with you?” “I thought she was with you!” And I love the moment when Diana literally pulls Batman’s ass out of the fire. Affleck is a fine Batman, there is an epic sadness to this Caped Crusader. Bruce Wayne in Justice League is about, literally, at the end of his rope. A reluctant leader.

I love the idea that he would much rather have Superman back or somehow goad Wonder Woman into taking the lead. It’s heartbreaking when he openly admits that Superman is a better man than him. In fact this Batman seems to think that Wonder Woman is a better man than him! Of course Supes is a better man than anybody, and everybody! I would put Affleck’s Bruce Wayne/Batman about midway between Michael Keaton and Val Kilmer (my personal favorite of all the contemporary actors who have played Batman.) Affleck has proved himself as an actor and he’s an even better director, The Town and Argo prove that beyond any doubt. I’m going way out on a limb here and say it for the whole world, Justice League is the best Batman movie since Dark Knight. You want to see a bad DC movie? Try sitting through Dark Knight Rises more than once.

2. Gal Gadot Diana Princess of Theymyscira “Wonder Woman” If you’ve read this gibbering nonsense this far here is a no brainer. Of course I adore Gal Gadot and Wonder Woman. Here is the best example I can think of for an actor to be inseparable from a comic book super hero character.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved Lynda Carter but her television show was to Wonder Woman what the 1960s Batman show (which I loved too, Adam West will always be the “real Batman”) was to the Caped Crusader. A goofy, pop art, more comic than book, take on this iconic character. Patty Jenkins and her crew gave us what is probably the greatest superhero movie that will ever be made.

I’ll say it again, I saw Wonder Woman seven times last year, bought the blu ray the day it went on sale, and could watch it every day the rest of my life. My co workers during the summer of last year, told me to shut up about Wonder Woman (and most of my co workers are women!) I also treasure the movie Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, which I also saw in a theater.

I love that Wonder Woman was created by a man, who truly believed women were superior to men. Marston’s my man, I have believed that for years, decades. Jenkins is on the record, Wonder Woman is only about 20% of what she had in mind! I would love to see how she originally envisioned this masterpiece.

I love that Gadot is, apparently, the real deal. She is an Israeli Army veteran and was a combat trainer, hand to hand and firearms., She downplays that and says it was no big deal. I doubt that, during my time in the US Navy we had class room training, one class involved “know your allies and your enemies” a rundown on various countries different military outfits. I distinctly recall being told the Israeli army is one of the toughest and most well trained in the world. I rest my case.

I had a co worker tell me that I kept going to see Wonder Woman because of Gal Gadot’s astonishing looks. No, if she were just another pretty face I would have seen it once, maybe twice. Part of what kept me going back is her incredible acting talent. The male super heroes, both Marvel and DC, when they go into combat mode, look very grim, determined, no nonsense. When Diana cuts loose and runs amok on the German Army she has this lovely smile, of utmost confidence and, could it be…..joy? Her smile, after she knocks aside her first bullet with those bracelets (one of my few problems with Wonder Woman, I would like to have an explanation of what those are and why they work the way they do. I also don’t think the Germans of WWI would be so quick to open up on one lone woman crossing No Man’s Land, some hesitation would be in order, but these are minor quibbles.)

When she comes busting through that window and lands in a roomful of heavily armed Germans her smile says it all “I’ve got this! You people are about to enter a world of pure, agonizing pain!” What she does after that is the best example of what I would call “running amok!” And she wears that smile of determination in Batman Vs Superman Dawn of Justice, repeatedly. Every time she gets knocked down by Doomsday she has that smile, gets back up and goes right back to knocking the shit of “a creature from another world.”

I could write page after page of how much I loved Wonder Woman’s movie, the humor, the valor, the team work, the pure joy of knocking the piss out of somebody who has it coming. And Gal Gadot brings all that to Justice League, and a whole lot more. The lady has talent and charisma and style to burn. I could watch her take a nap on the couch. Of course if she woke up and saw me she’d scream bloody murder and beat the shit out of me (I should be so lucky!)A good friend made a very rude comment when I showed him my Wonder Woman poster, which I shall not repeat on the internet. I told him the truth, such comments are sacrilegious, blasphemous, “I do not see this woman as a sex object, I worship her as a Goddess (I am only half joking!)

1. And finally; this is the Justice League movie. This IS the Justice League movie! Good Bad or Indifferent this is a movie aging comic book fan boys, and girls, like me have looked forward to for years. In the 1960s when I was reading comic book and monster magazines and science fiction books and magazines I never dreamed there would be a whole series of Marvel Comic movies,, or DC, that brought these wonderful characters to life. If someone had told me that in the future there would be movies as good as Spider Man Two or Dark Knight or The Avengers or Captain America: Winter Soldier or Wonder Woman, or a complete filming of The Lord of the Rings, I would have called them out for bull shit artists. And yet , here we are. As I said I am a sentimental old fool, at the end of Justice League I wept, again, at seeing Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, Flash and Aquaman in the same shot, dust still in the air, with the American flag behind them.

And there are other moments I love, Jeremy Irons joins a long list of great actors who have played Alfred, Bruce Wayne’s right hand man. His Alfred has several great moments. And Diane Lane is probably the best Ma Kent we will ever see. There is a video on Youtube of Chris Hemsworth, Thor in the Marvel Universe, at Comic Con. He was asked about the DC Universe series; he laughed and said something to the effect that “those guys are just trailing in our dust!” Don’t get me wrong, I like Hemsworth, and Thor. I thought Thor Ragnarok was a very fine piece of work, loved it. But that was a rude thing to say. There is room in the market place for Marvel and DC. Although if somebody ever makes a Thunder Agents movie I’ll know for sure we are really living in the end times (or Blue Beetle or Plastic Man for that matter!) So yes, I love the Marvel Universe and DC, I thought Justice League was fine. Could it have been better? Of course, any movie could, unless you’re talking about directors at the level of Kubrick or Hitchcock. Having said all that, at some point in the future, if it’s possible, I would love to see a Justice League meets the Avengers movie. Of course the threat would have to be colossal, the fate of the entire solar system? Galaxy? The Universe itself? All of life hangs in the balance? I would just imagine that Superman and Thor would have something to talk about. And I would love to hear a conversation between Tony Stark and Bruce Wayne, technical innovations and high finance? But what I would really treasure, the moment I dream of, I would love to see Diana, Princess of Theymyscira, Wonder Woman, sit down with Agent Romanov; The Black Widow and The Scarlet Witch and have a nice cup of espresso and a croissant and talk about how messed up it is to try and deal with male super heroes. I can hear it now “you think Tony Stark is a jerk! Let me tell you what Bruce Wayne did! What he said!” “Sister you have no idea!”

And how would this be for a slow motion team walk:

Superman, Batman, Iron Man, Captain America, Wonder Woman, Black Widow, Spiderman, Antman, Wasp, Black Panther, Flash, Aquaman, Hulk, Thor, Cyborg, Scarlet Witch, Hawkeye, The Vision, War Machine, Green Lantern, and what the hell, Suicide Squad, Guardians of the Galaxy, The X Men, Fantastic Four and everybody else in the Marvel and DC Universe, striding towards the camera with a “terrible resolve” to face down an implacable and unstoppable enemy. If I’m going to dream I may as well dream big!

I have friends, good friends, who don’t care for the super hero movies. To paraphrase a line of dialog from My Favorite Year “ I need my heroes, I need them bigger than life! As big as I can get them!” And I thank everyone who works on these movies, in the DC and Marvel Universe. And I am so happy for Stan Lee, the Marvel movies are something he dreamed of for years.

And so, yes I love the Justice League, for all this and so much more.