Zack Snyder's Justice League | HBO Max | March 18, 2021

[Ruthless Love 7,324]

In Zack Snyder's Justice League, determined to ensure Superman’s (Henry Cavill) ultimate sacrifice was not in vain, Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) aligns forces with Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) with plans to recruit a team of metahumans to protect the world from an approaching threat of catastrophic proportions. The task proves more difficult than Bruce imagined, as each of the recruits must face the demons of their own pasts to transcend that which has held them back, allowing them to come together, finally forming an unprecedented league of heroes. Now united, Batman (Affleck), Wonder Woman (Gadot), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Cyborg (Ray Fisher), and The Flash (Ezra Miller) may be too late to save the planet from Steppenwolf, DeSaad, and Darkseid and their dreadful intentions.

 

[kira 171]

it better be good

[plutoniano 16,263]

i wanna be perchedt but i'm unperchedt  

[Dennis Reynolds 14,981]

So it's out now  Haven't seen it yet, definitely will on Sunday at the latest (slim chance of me watching it tomorrow night). I think there's about a 20% chance I love it, 20% chance I hate it and a 60% chance I hate and love different things about it, mostly think it's better than the not great to begin with theatrical version and yet far too fucking overlong  

 

@Daenerys @Mr. Mendes  

[Ruthless Love 7,324]

42 minutes ago, Dennis Reynolds said:

So it's out now  Haven't seen it yet, definitely will on Sunday at the latest (slim chance of me watching it tomorrow night). I think there's about a 20% chance I love it, 20% chance I hate it and a 60% chance I hate and love different things about it, mostly think it's better than the not great to begin with theatrical version and yet far too fucking overlong  

 

@Daenerys @Mr. Mendes  

We should do a watch along or something! I hear the second part is worth it, though.

[Dennis Reynolds 14,981]

Just now, Ruthless Love said:

We should do a watch along or something! I hear the second part is worth it, though.

Fun in theory but four hours is hard to synchronize  Yea I've actually been slightly surprised at the mostly positive reception? I've haven't been following every bit of it but compared to the initial buzz on Batman v Superman, this seems a lot kinder. Heard some good things about Steppenwolf and Cyborg in this version.

[Ruthless Love 7,324]

58 minutes ago, Dennis Reynolds said:

Fun in theory but four hours is hard to synchronize

Touché

[Mr. Mendes 10,643]

1 hour ago, Dennis Reynolds said:

So it's out now  Haven't seen it yet, definitely will on Sunday at the latest (slim chance of me watching it tomorrow night). I think there's about a 20% chance I love it, 20% chance I hate it and a 60% chance I hate and love different things about it, mostly think it's better than the not great to begin with theatrical version and yet far too fucking overlong  

 

@Daenerys @Mr. Mendes  

I haven’t watched yet but everyone I know who has says it’s still imperfect and a bit messy, but that it is miles better than the theatrical cut in every possible aspect. They said the story makes sense, the characters all shine, the fan service is more satisfying, and it has a clear purpose rather than bouncing from sequence to sequence. But, the villain is still weak, it’s runtime isn’t necessarily warranted, and there are some plot choices that, while they make sense, are a little stupid. I’m gonna watch probably tomorrow myself! 

[Daenerys 101,805]

5 hours ago, Dennis Reynolds said:

So it's out now  Haven't seen it yet, definitely will on Sunday at the latest (slim chance of me watching it tomorrow night). I think there's about a 20% chance I love it, 20% chance I hate it and a 60% chance I hate and love different things about it, mostly think it's better than the not great to begin with theatrical version and yet far too fucking overlong  

 

@Daenerys @Mr. Mendes  

I might start watching it tomorrow night, but I'll definitely split it up in the parts because my ass is NOT watching a 4 hour movie  I've heard amazing things tho so I'm a little hyped  

[Dennis Reynolds 14,981]

@Daenerys @Mr. Mendes @Ruthless Love So I actually am gonna watch it tonight, made a dumb Crave account just to do so  About to start it now, there goes my evening...  

[Ruthless Love 7,324]

6 minutes ago, Dennis Reynolds said:

@Daenerys @Mr. Mendes @Ruthless Love So I actually am gonna watch it tonight, made a dumb Crave account just to do so  About to start it now, there goes my evening...  

Damn. Had I known you were making a Crave account I would've sent a copy of the film!

[Dennis Reynolds 14,981]

All right, yowza, so I actually watched that in one sitting. Let's do this...

 

Spoiler

- Affleck is a pretty great "Justice League" Batman in this. He's stoic, vital to the team despite being the least powerful and has a sense of humor/wit. The only key thing I think he's missing is his practical distrust of his teammates and his preference to work alone, but I understand that the latter doesn't really work within the context the movie needs him in and the former was something he REALLY had in BvS, so I get it. But I still find it hard to accept how easily he gives away his secret identity to strangers...

- The plot point with the Anti-Life Equation makes no sense. They flat out refer to it being on a world that fought back and this (Earth) turning out to be the one, which implies Darkseid knew it when he tried to conquer Earth in that very Lord of the Rings sequence...did he forget? It'd back sense if he simply didn't know that the Anti-Life Equation was on Earth and when that attempt at its subjugation happened, but the dialogue makes it seem like he did. And on the Lord of the Rings thing again, they even had a ringed being get the appendage with it on severed! Albeit, with the villain doing this to a hero rather than the other way around but still...

- Snyder really does not do subtlety  Superman's death scream setting off the Mother Boxes in particular...Silas Stone's sacrifice also seemed unnecessary given he just could've left that room (seemed like a probable nod to Jon Osterman's origin in Watchmen there), although Steppenwolf probably would've cut him down I guess. Still not as dumb as Pa Kent sacrificing himself to the tornado (god, it's been eight years and that still gets to me... )

- I really like the New Gods in this, and Steppenwolf is a much better character in this cut. This being simply another world of thousands he has to conquer before he's back in Darkseid's good graces make him a unique villain, and contextualize why he was so little interest in the planet and its defenders - he's done this all before, and about two-thirds of the way into his quest he's just tired. His communications with DeSaad and Darkseid were pretty great I thought, and the fact that Steppenwolf is obviously quite a powerful and capable character, and yet receives zero respect from them sets them up as powerful foes quite well. It's a different kind of set-up than Thanos vs. Hulk - they don't kick the shit out of him, they just regard someone who's more powerful than the entire Justice League sans Superman as barely worthy of acknowledgement. 

- I know most of this was shot before Aquaman but wow, Mera's posh accent really took me out of the film  I know it's really the Martian Manhunter but Martha Kent's rootingest tootingest accent was pretty ridiculous as well.

- The design of Cyborg's outer shell makes a bit more sense now given it has a similar appearance to Steppenwolf's armor.

- I dig the Martian Manhunter but his reveal makes little sense when you recall the Swanwick character's previous place in the plot. But you know what...I always really liked him so I'll accept it if it gets him in the movie.

- Although not drastically, Wonder Woman seems to be on a power level closer to Superman's than she does in her solo films. 

- The grave digging scene was definitely a lot less dumb in this cut.

- Although I still don't get the reason as to why Batman of all characters is having these prophetic dreams and visions of the future (Martian Manhunter is a telepath - his doing maybe?), at least the content of the Knightmare scene in BvS makes sense now. We knew Lois Lane died and it was Batman's fault to some degree, but this leaving Superman susceptible to the Anti-Life Equation is something we didn't know. 

- Cyborg had a lot more of an arc here (as in, one at all) which is good but I really could've done without basically any of the scenes in his digital dreamscape/mind palace.

- The time travel stuff with the Flash was/is most likely a set-up to Flashpoint, and not a bad one.

 

And a lot more...  

[Dennis Reynolds 14,981]

4 hours ago, Ruthless Love said:

Damn. Had I known you were making a Crave account I would've sent a copy of the film!

Oh, does it work like that? Didn't realize, but thanks! I had wanted to do just the one month for a bit anyway, there's some movies like Jojo Rabbit on there that I wanna see. I don't think I need to be permanently subscribed to a fifth streaming service when I already have Criterion Channel/Disney+/Netflix/Prime Video...  

[Dennis Reynolds 14,981]

@Daenerys I just saw that you logged this on letterboxd, I know you're not gonna skip out on talking to me about the parts you weren't texting through...  

[Daenerys 101,805]

23 hours ago, Dennis Reynolds said:

@Daenerys I just saw that you logged this on letterboxd, I know you're not gonna skip out on talking to me about the parts you weren't texting through...  

PLEASE

 

i actually loved it so much! (yes i did look at my phone a few times!) but i did it in the episodic parts way. watching 4 hours straight through was NOT happening. but the last hour was... AMAZING  

[Daenerys 101,805]

i love how in the beginning it's mostly storytelling and then the end is the pay off is a great superhero fight  i will be buying the blu ray if they ever release it! oh yes!  

[Dennis Reynolds 14,981]

23 minutes ago, Daenerys said:

PLEASE

 

i actually loved it so much! (yes i did look at my phone a few times!) but i did it in the episodic parts way. watching 4 hours straight through was NOT happening. but the last hour was... AMAZING  

 

18 minutes ago, Daenerys said:

i love how in the beginning it's mostly storytelling and then the end is the pay off is a great superhero fight  i will be buying the blu ray if they ever release it! oh yes!  

Spoiler

Some of my favorite new scenes were Steppenwolf communing with DeSaad  Really liked the depiction of the New Gods in this. 

 

I think they will; there's already plans to in other regions