Bruce Wayne warns Barry Allen of severe consequences if he keeps traveling back in time to see his mother alive. Overcome by his emotions, Barry uses speed force to alter the past and ends up in another universe where there is another version of Barry with his mother alive.
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to yet another sad chapter of an ever-collapsing brain-farting universe of DCEU or DCU. A cinematic universe whose Gods are still devising a plan to jump-start and level with Disney Studio‘s Marvel Cinematic Universe.
After seven years of inception, or maybe ten if I do not dare to miss Man of Steel, the story of this cinematic universe still fails to get the confidence vote of comic book audience and DC Comics loyalists. Meetings after meetings, reshoots after reshoots, executive producers are still clueless and now almost every Justice League actor is out besides Jason Momoa. If you ever get to know that a DC film has been interrupted with the bosses ordering reshoots, realize that the film is already marching towards the failure before even hitting the theatres.
REVIEW
The Flash is just another DC superhero film that is badly trying to follow one of the successful routes of MCU philosophy which is dragging humor in almost everything. Yes, The Flash is a cool dude and I cannot imagine his solo film going dark despite his dark origins and many portions of comic book pages turning black in the past.
The Flash film is supposed to entertain the audience. But you have to apply the fun and the entertainment only when the cinematic universe is either fixed or turning towards a game-changer. Fixing the universe and being a game changer are the two major factors this film was to be made responsible for. Instead, the film overcooked the whole screenplay with a very unconvincing plot. After such a messed up plot and extremely bad CGI, you will have to ask yourself, what was the value of the entire story of the film? Exactly, close to none.
Warner Bros. bosses have still not learned their lesson from DCEU failures. You cannot drag so many characters in a single film to get the audience approval. The story of the film needs breathing. And there is no space or time of maturing the supporting characters who are introduced.
Michael Keaton‘s Batman has returned and roped into this miserable DC universe just like wrestling legends are often dragged to WWE events to attract the audience. After mere ten minutes of onscreen appearance, Keaton’s Batman agrees to fight alongside visibly two boys with silly jokes to find Superman and stop General Zod from invading the planet. Ten Minutes! Keaton’s Batman who looked so washed up to his old game suddenly finds reason to return and fight. Such development requires build up and that lacked here.
There is nothing Wow! about Supergirl at all. Boring introduction, unattractive fighting sequences, and no character development. Plus, Sasha Calle doesn’t look fit for the role. Michael Shannon‘s General Zod is terribly wasted. You must have felt Zod’s wrath in Man of Steel ten years ago. Why? Because Zod’s character was widely stretched to fit in the story and make you feel uncomfortable about his madness. But this time, I was not getting that thrill to see him attempting to invade the planet. Zod was in the film for hardly 15 minutes.
Unprecedented cameos in the final act were meaningless and once again, dragged. Yes, thank you. Super thank you for finally uniting Christopher Reeve‘s Superman and Helen Slater‘s Supergirl in the same frame in such a blood-boiling use of CGI. But at what cost? In fact, I am curious to know the real cost of production for “The Flash”. Wikipedia and various sources on the internet says that this film costs over $200 million in the production. I fail to believe a film with such heaving budget hitting the theatres with that deepfake and horrible CGI.
The dialogues of the film lacks substance. There is no impact but very off dialogues.”Come on Barbie, Let’s go party?” “You wanna get nuts? Let’s get nuts.” The Music score is super ordinary. So many vital scenes lack a musical impact. Zero inspiration.
I am unsure of Ezra Miller‘s future after being surrounded with so many controversies but after watching “The Flash”, I feel it is time to find a new face. This character portrayal is way too cheesy. And it feels like the television portrayal by Grant Gustin was more fitting and closer to comic books in comparison.
When ‘The Flash’ was announced years ago, my first impression was that this film will be based on “Flashpoint” due to the nature of the continuity in the first phase of DCEU indicating about it when Barry comes from the future to warn Bruce in Batman v Superman. But I guess I was in delusion to assume if WB executives will come up with a plan smart enough to run a comic book inspired storyline.
PLUSES
Despite being immensely disappointed with the film, I liked a couple of scenes. One was Ben Affleck’s Bruce Wayne’s thought-provoking advises to Barry. The life lesson Bruce gave here to Barry were quite hard hitting that actually makes Ben Affleck’s version of Bruce more subtle. I wish DCEU had valued this angle of Bruce/Batman. The other scene was Barry meeting his mother one last time in the supermarket. Knowing the fact that he is reversing the altered timeline which means his mother will remain killed in the past breaks Barry and makes the audience re-imagine what if the sons and daughters meet their dead parents while traveling back in time one last time? How does it feel? Painful, isn’t it? This is what Bruce was trying to understand Barry, “These scars we have make us who we are. We’re not meant to go back and fix them. And there’s nothing broken with you that needs to be fixed.”
TWO BATMEN IN THE SAME FILM!!!
A cinematic delight to our eyes was appearance of not one but two Batmen in the same film. Let’s not talk about the third Bruce Wayne of the film which was also meaningless. But anyway, a story that had to make two Batmen from different worlds appear for Barry didn’t give much chills to the audience. One may ask themselves, should two Batmen have shared the same screen? Just like three Spidermen? I think it obviously would have been exciting. But at what cost? The given story didn’t support to bring them together. So I think it was a good decision. Maybe it would have been more heartbreaking to see two Batmen together being part of an unusual disappointment.
THE DCEU MESS UP
So what now? Now, I wait for Aquaman and observe how James Gunn‘s vision for a fresh DC universe will give birth from there. Am I excited? About what? This DCEU had a weak foundation due to a punctured storyline that was unjust to the Justice League. The slating of the films, the interferences of Warner Bros. bosses, the reshoots of the films, the Joss Whedon chapter, and last of all rejecting Zack Snyder‘s version of continuing of what possibly looked like a very promising trilogy of the JL. All this failed to present a DCEU that we comic geeks ever wanted to watch out.
Just take a small example of planning Michael Keaton to play a Nick Fury kind of role in the future films of the DCEU. And for that purpose, Keaton starred in this film. And then, he worked in Batgirl and then the upcoming sequel of Aquaman. When WB hired James Gunn, he came up with a new plan that held no future for Keaton. Therefore, he was killed in ‘The Flash’. Batgirl got shelved in the post production. And his scenes from Aquaman cut. How do you expect actors to work with you in this universe for a long period?
ANOTHER BOX-OFFICE DISASTER!
When it comes to the box-office collections, The Flash, believe it or not, is the sixth consecutive flop in the DCEU. Shazam in 2019 was the last DCEU film that met success. Since then, two of the DCEU films didn’t even reach the cost of the film budget, Wonder Woman 1984, and The Suicide Squad. Perhaps because of COVID-hit 2020. But still, the last three DCEU films didn’t even meet the break even point. And now Blue Beetle has become the seventh consecutive flop in the DCEU.
GUNN’S VISION
Shall I be optimist about James Gunn’s vision for future DCU? See I am inclined towards Zack Snyder’s vision but it is useless to whine about something that is shelved. The one aspect I really like about Gunn is that he is a comic geek and knows this shit. The developments of the future projects that he announced all have essence of comic books which is exactly what a comic geek desperately wants; a universe that identifies and recognizes the efforts and contributions of the writers. Where and what is the enthusiasm if a superhero film doesn’t have a comic book value at all? To devalue book sources and detach a comic character and story line for a new once-upon-a-time, you need to come up with an extremely rich writing content that can hit the audience while playing the right chords. So not every film can be Joker at all.
CLOSING REMARKS
To end my never-ending assessment, take ‘The Flash’ as a comedy film and a forgettable past, and for some time, we believe in the theory that S stands for Hope.
RATINGS: 3/10
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If there is one superhero most of the directors wish to direct, the global audience gets mesmerized, and comic geeks would always love to talk about for hours, it is Batman. The new line of work about Batman and his city was planned back in 2014 when Ben Affleck was writing, directing, and starring as Batman in this very film. Entered Matt Reeves and Ben’s ideas and creativity about the entire project went off. Matt Reeves was a very fitting selection after his artistry behind the Ape trilogy. His vision behind presenting Gotham city and the inspirational elements he was willing to apply in this project plus the casting for the major characters was topping the expectations. I happened to watch The Batman a couple of days ago. So let me try to analyze.
Bruce Wayne is fighting against crime in the city for the past two years. Officer Gordon summons him to scrutinize a crime scene committed by Riddler in which the mystery to catch him is directed only to the Batman. With his involvement comes anger amongst Gotham police as no one trusts him besides Gordon. While trying to discover the next targets on Riddler’s agenda, he meets Selina Kyle a.k.a. Catwoman through crimelords Oswald Cobblepot a.k.a. Penguin, and Carmine Falcone. During all this, Bruce also digs to find answers about his deceased father Thomas Wayne. While the film enters into its final hour, it is a little late for Batman to realize that the entire Gotham city is under major threat.
Let me first talk about the characterization of Batman in length. Robert Pattinson as Batman had mixed responses when his selection was announced. He is not the same vampire and has improved a lot in his performances as well as picking films. This character has always been judged as Batman but not Bruce because the audience is unlucky to not have watched much of Bruce Wayne as a Gothamite who is loyal to his city and a philanthropist who is generous for welfare. Only a few minutes are given to this side as the film centers around the dark knight who fights crime usually at night. So once again, Bruce’s heroism was limited just like in the previous films about Batman. There was certainly a reflection of the good side of Bruce in the memorial scene; but if you notice Robert Pattinson’s Bruce Wayne, this rich guy doesn’t really look so dedicated to the city as he has always been in the comics or previous films. He takes crimefighting very personally as an act of revenge after the murder of his parents. This is confirmed in the beginning phase when Bruce doesn’t show any interest in his company’s financial affairs when Alfred tries to convince and he responds what he is doing (at night) is his family’s legacy.
Plus Bruce as a person in this film looks more natural in characterizing this antihero than in any of the enactions before. Robert Pattinson’s Bruce is more lost and sadist than any portrayals. He has a lot of rage with killer instincts and is about to beat some crook to almost death. This man is weird, he doesn’t portray an ideal rich playboy but is more of a thinker whose emotions have shattered away while trying to bring justice into this crazy city.
So when I say that this Batman is fighting crime for only two years in the city, that still counts as a rookie. And his two years of buildup as the phenomenal combatant still are not through to the physical challenges. He gets punches pretty quickly. Gets visibly exhausted like one in a bar when he wants to see Penguin. A major surprise to the audience is that this Batman is afraid of heights. Yes, he also fails in his heroics like when he tries to land after flying from the top of the Gotham Central Police Department (GCPD) tower. All this makes this Batman very realistic to the period Matt Reeves has set for Gotham.
Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman didn’t appeal to me as much as Selina Kyle. I felt if Catwoman was some forced character that was tried to fit into the mystery. Not that much was focused on Selina Kyle but was connected with Carmine Falcone that also looked pretty nonsensical. John Turturro as Falcone was a superb choice but the problem with the character is that the minutes on him are the least to focus on because he is always a sub-supporting character. Imagine Penguin being his chief lieutenant had more screen minutes than Falcone.
I am not sure why Colin Farrell was selected for Penguin with so many prosthetics and makeup done on the actor to look like Penguin. No doubt he did a fine job and he is holding a lot of promises for future films. Jeffrey Wright as officer Gordon has to be the worst character in the film. No, this is not about race swapping, Jeffrey is a quality actor and I am okay with his being Gordon. The problem is the characterization. In the entire film, he looked so dumb and desperate for solutions. I felt Gordon was clueless without Batman and had no guts to solve some of the mysteries himself. I was expecting a very strict and hardcore Gordon who has some hold even if he is just an officer because this is how James Gordon is.
Andy Serkis as Alfred did a fair job although it was a short role. The character doesn’t remind me of any comics storyline but fair enough as the film is very much based on Matt Reeves’ vision. The comics version of Alfred has never been portrayed in the films.
Paul Dano has been a very underrated actor throughout his career and he deserved a role that will make him remembered by the mainstream audience. He needed this push. When his name was announced for the film’s main antagonist Riddler, I had this feeling that this is a very serious and intelligent choice. Because Riddler has always been taken for fun. This time the director made sure that Riddler will now have the fun. This is a remarkable psychotic portrayal of Riddler and marvelous execution. I was fully sold on what I watched. The threat he imposed on Gotham and tested Batman’s heroism was genuine.
In such a lengthy film, I felt there was a lot of space to fit at least three characters in the film. One was Gordon’s daughter Barbara who will become Batgirl. With so much screentime of showing up together, Gordon could have introduced Batman to his young girl. The other is Ted Grant a.k.a. Wildcat who taught Catwoman boxing and streetfighting in one of the storylines in Catwoman’s comics. Wildcat also holds the distinction to be one of the few comic characters who trained Batman. And the third is Leslie Thompkins, the doctor who helped raise Bruce Wayne when he lost his parents. Leslie has been a motherly figure to Bruce in comics and was also a close friend to his father Thomas. When Batman was digging for answers in the middle of the film about his father, he could have asked for Leslie’s assistance or just met her for a few minutes.
SCENES
Bruce Wayne’s commentary in the beginning and ending drives me towards the comics. Both scenes of his commentary shots on some catchy scenes were like many first pages of the storylines where a major character or the writer addresses the intro to give a particular start to a comic book. The lines narrated by Bruce are so comics-oriented.
I am thankful to Matt Reeves for breaking the tradition of dramatizing the murder of the Waynes. This scene is so popular that those viewers who do not follow superhero films know about Batman’s tragic childhood story. Instead, this incident was used in the news bulletin that looked more appropriate to proceed with the story in the current timeline.
In the beginning, a group of thugs attacks a man and they have all painted their faces like Joker. Whereas Joker’s cameo happens when the film is finishing. So the portrayal of street gangs indicates that Joker terrorized the city and influenced the gangs to adopt his cult. Batman put him in the cage and perhaps dropped down some criminal activities. One of the guys in the gang is Jay Lycurgo who incidentally also stars in other Gothamverse, Titans as Tim Drake. Interestingly, he is the odd one in that gang with half makeup. So is he inspired by Two-Face? Does Two-Face already exist?
One of my favorite scenes in the film is the public memorial of Mayor Mitchell. The direction is master class, and Robert gives a thoughtful performance. If anyone observes this memorial scene, Bruce was silent all that time besides the two words he uttered in question to the lady running for mayor, “I’m Sorry?”. He observed the memorial from top to bottom, left to right, every possible important person or a thing he could have checked in for clues. And then a noise breaks out indicating a possible terror attack from far a distance panicking everyone in the memorial. The next half a minute you watch after the breaking of the exterior noise is what Matt deserves applause for. How magnificently a terror attack was picturized! Notice everyone who reacted to the noise. Every single attendee reacted naturally, no one showed a sign that this was some scene to act. This is the director’s determination I am much impressed with. He wanted every single extra to behave naturally to the threat. This was the most perfect terror scene I have watched in years, if not decades.
One of the things I really liked about the film was that Batman and Riddler, the main antagonist, had only one encounter in the entire 176 minutes. And the hype lived up to it. It was intense and mad. But one of the heavy surprises was Riddler saying his name in a stretch. So does he know that Bruce is Batman? Yes, he knows. Riddler is a smart guy making his crime mysteries the hardest to solve. So it will be a piece of cake for Riddler to figure out who is behind the mask. Plus, Riddler was looking straight at Bruce in the memorial. No? Why would he do that? Of course, he knows who Batman is.
In the comics storyline ‘Batman: Hush‘, Riddler correctly guessed about this. The audience may feel as if that’s a plothole. Why would Riddler not expose the real identity to the world? Because if he exposes him, who will he play the riddling game with? Where lies the beauty of guessing if Riddler exposes him? The plothole is, how come no one listened to the conversation between them in GCPD and found out that Batman is Bruce Wayne?
In one of the last scenes of the film, Batman saves some lives and it is quite cogent when he rescues one of the Gothamites on the stretcher and she in all trauma holds his arm while Bruce narrates in the background that vengeance will not change the past, he has to become more and people need hope. Perhaps Bruce realized at the moment when one of Riddler’s followers called himself a vengeance, that his being vengeance is not helping and giving a wrong influence. He has to make alterations to his gloomy despair to bring optimism to living in this city.
Although the film didn’t allow the viewers to get thrilled with the most anticipating face-off. But the deleted scene after the film’s release gave the viewers a glimpse of the clown prince of crime and Batman’s biggest archenemy Joker played by Barry Keoghan. With Keoghan’s selection comes a heavy responsibility on the shoulders of both Matt and this 29-year-old talented Irish actor to play one of the most challenging roles in Hollywood. He surely is the first actor to become Joker in a film who is not a well-established actor. By that, I mean he, as an actor, is not there where Joker actors like Jack Nicholson, Heath Ledger, Jared Leto, and Joaquin Phoenix have reached and decorated their names and careers. Incidentally, each of them has won an Oscar in their lifetime.
Of what I have watched in that brief clip, I believe Barry’s version has to be the most horrifying (and for weak-hearted viewers the most terrifying) Joker ever presented in the film. Since Heath Ledger’s Joker, every time a new Joker has shown up in either film or television format, the character has looked more deranged and psychotic which is actually challenging and thoughtful to test up to what extent can Joke be dramatized to madness. And how much insanity can an actor prevail?
With plentiful scars, a very few hairy portions on the burnt head, bloody hands with broken fingernails, this Joker looks like a subject of severe self-torture after all hell broke on his personal tragic life. And the voice is very similar to Heath’s Joker. He also looks to gain some emotional control with skeptical remote insanity. Observe his polite response to Batman when he reads the file. It was a smart move to shoot this scene as blurry towards Joker and reveal the facial disgust later. I predict this is going to be the most intelligent Joker ever to surface in films. And if he really makes a partnership with Riddler as depicted, Gotham shall not be ready for this merciless showdown. So, really excited to watch him in the sequel.
MUSIC
Great ideas do not muddle. The use of Nirvana’s track ‘Something In The Way‘ in ‘The Batman’ was apt. It was played twice, in the beginning, and in one of the last scenes. We don’t often listen to the same track more than once in a film. So why did Matt Reeves give this much importance to the track in the film? This has something to do with the elements of rock, rage, dominance, sadism, and revenge. These elements, besides rock, are common in both Batman and Nirvana. More than rock, Batman has been more about the symphony and his city Jazz and Blues. Batman’s commentary and the song’s lyrics also match the dark fate of the city. There is the line in the song “And the animals I’ve trapped have all become my pets”. This pretty much suits Batman’s personal trophies from his crimefighting where animals like crocodile, penguin, cat, bat, and a few more are his pets.
After Hans Zimmer blessed our ears with one of the most beloved music scores for Christopher Nolan‘s The Dark Knight trilogy, it is a multitude of challenges for any composer to come close to Hans and give a score for the Batman films as memorable as that work. Matt’s frequent collaborator Michael Giacchino tried his best and made a decent attempt. Let me halt comparing and talk about Batman’s new theme. Many Star War fans around the world are in for a treat to get mesmerized by this theme because that is an obvious reminder of one of the most iconic Star Wars themes, Imperial March. Imperial March associates with Darth Vader and with that wrath comes a piece of music that represents the rage of hellfire. If Giacchino actually took the inspiration from a theme about one of the most iconic supervillains to apply to one of the most iconic superheroes, he certainly deserves praise. This Batman theme sounds more broken and vexated, some buildup of a nightmare on the criminals appalled by the Dark Knight.
ISSUES
As explained above, from my point of view, most of the characters didn’t do justice besides Batman and Riddler. Besides, the role of GCPD was below par portrayal like any action film that doesn’t will to give some prominence to their crime-fighting. GCPD looked extremely compromised and clueless, and so was Gordon. Maybe the theory is that GCPD would have gone so dysfunctional all this time that the city got destroyed by so much corruption. But still, GCPD and Gordon were not good enough in the film.
Gordon summons Batman to solve the crime scene. This was the first time Batman was directly involved in GCPD’s case. I am more unreluctant to understand how Batman and GCPD fought crime before this for two years. If Gordon believed in Batman, how were they fighting crime in that period? Was there no bigger threat or major villain who showed up two years before Riddler?
The film in the middle was dead meat. The screenplay consumed a lot of time in searching for the clues and trying to identify if Thomas Wayne was a bad politician or if he was framed for death.
‘The Batman’, as a whole, has a more television show feel than a film. The editing of the film makes you think if four or five episodes have been attached together and shaped into a film. Due to this reason, the cinematic feel of watching The Batman is dingy. The making of this film does support the classic filmmaking element of neo-noir and there is no doubt about Matt Reeves’ direction for the film has been exceptional and innovative.
I am not convinced with the final phase of the film after Batman understands the threat Gotham is imposed. The writing of this phase looked flat. It was just another action-packed phase like any superhero film with not much extraordinary effort in writing. Bombing the city, lookalike henchmen terrorizing, predictable action scenes, etc. I felt a quality of writing was fading before and after the bombing.
QUESTIONS
Barry Keoghan in a cameo appearance shows up as the clown prince of crime and Batman’s biggest archenemy, Joker. After the release of the film, Matt Reeves releases a deleted scene of around five minutes of Batman’s interrogation with Joker. I am not sure why was this decided by the makers to remove this scene from the final cut. This scene held a lot of importance and would have worked in the middle of the film while Batman tries to catch Riddler. It is an open secret that Joker will show up in any of the future Batman films. It is impossible to complete Batverse without him. So it is illogical to delete this scene. And if the director wished to keep the audience thrilled by Joker’s existence in the last phase, why release the deleted scene then?
Will Riddler return? I think he will. But I feel technically his time is up and should stay imprisoned in the Arkham Asylum and let Matt Reeves let him pass the torch to Joker and other future villains. Riddler’s mission failed and hence, makes no reason to bring him back but rather focus on other bad guys. There are so many who deserves their time in this Batverse. If the plan is for a trilogy which is highly likely, then the villains will be limited to the most popular ones.
Catwoman leaves Gotham in the final scene. That is another technical conclusion of the character, just like Riddler. And there are many ladies to become Bruce/Batman’s love interest. This Batverse can work on introducing the photographer/reporter Vicki Vale and develop a love affair with Bruce like in the comics. She was the closest of all the Gotham characters to theorize that Bruce could be Batman. If Matt Reeves consider Talia, that will lead to all new dimensions and start a story towards Ra’s al Ghul. Jezebel Jet can also play the part of a woman who plotted to destroy him while secretly working for the Black Glove in ‘Batman R.I.P.‘ storyline. or maybe it is time to introduce Kathy Kane a.k.a. Batwoman in this universe and we watch both Bat man and woman fight the crime in their costumes. Is bringing a heroine in Batman films really important? Depends on the writer/director that how he pushes his script in the continuity. But Bruce has been a playboy so there is a certainty. It will also be wise if no more woman enters his life as Robert Pattinson’s Bruce maintains a dark emotional journey.
Mayor Mitchell was killed at the start and his kid showed up a couple of times. Why? The Batman looks at him and surely remembers his time. So who is he? Is this boy Robin? It is quite exhilarating that in the first instance, the boy looked at Batman at the crime scene and the next time, he looked at Bruce Wayne in the memorial. Such a dramatic touch!
It is quite a touch of framing a kid into theorizing a solid future of crimefighting. The origin story of Robin aside, it will be quite an interesting idea to buy for the sequel where the boy gets picked by Bruce and pays for his well-being. And in the third Batman film, Bruce begins to train him which leads to joining him as a crime partner. I would love to see that happen.
But in this theory, the problem is the boy’s age. He is too young to become the boy wonder. That is the other case if the timeline jumps in the sequel.
CONCLUSION
‘The Batman’ holds technical brilliance in dialogues, cinematography, writing, and direction. The film holds a lot of promises for continuity. The characters that didn’t live up to the expectations can get developed in the sequels. The Batman broke a lot of traditions like not bringing back Batman’s hoarse voice, not dramatizing the murder of Bruce’s parents, dismantling Bruce’s close-to-perfect rich personality, and applying a lot of realism.
The film’s cinematic accomplishment is that most of the audience is not willing to take down Matt Reeves’ imagining of Gotham and understanding of Batman and argue that The Dark Knight Trilogy did better. That trilogy has earned the respect of all the noble courts of comics. This film scales itself from that respect and distinguishes itself from the acceptable aesthetics of Batman’s world. It is a promising trilogy to the hype with new and fresh expectations. Perhaps, another memorable trilogy about Batman is surfacing in the coming years to earn new respect. Time will tell.
Another major plus that separates ‘The Batman’ from all the past films centered around Batman is that this is a detective film. Batman has been a crime fighter all his life but first, he is a detective. Comics have always emphasized his role as a detective more than a crime fighter. The directors in the past usually dramatized the films based on Batman as a crime-fighting superhero. Matt Reeves understood the character precisely and presented his true characterization. And that’s a win for me.
The Batman has room for improvement, there are issues that I addressed above. But I also admit that this is a spectacular start. I want the epic plunge into the cosmos of wholesome brilliance in Batmanship. Hope the bite doesn’t get rotten.
Justice League film is not the ideal assembling of the greatest superheroes team for scores of reasons. Because the continuity of the universe is faltered from here and makes you feel if the other powerful substance stole the power from the God of this DC cinematic universe and in the process, claims to be God. When the universe is in the process of perpetuation, make your mind how to maintain and execute the project. The planning of the infrastructure of the universe should be done even before the beginning of this all Project: DCU.
In short: “If the God is making silly mistakes, do not blame the universe.“
ONE LITRE OF WATER IN A GLASS?!?!
Superman is dead. Steppenwolf, Darkseid‘s uncle, has threatened the world to destroy the earth by stealing the three Mother Boxes he once stole and then lost in a prodigious battle to a unified army of the Amazons, Atlanteans, Olympian Gods, and Green Lantern Corps (I also have doubt that Thanagarians were involved too). With all the Mother Boxes with Steppenwolf, Batman creates a team of metahumans to honour Superman and fight against Steppenwolf and his military of Parademons.
This all sounds a pretty impressive plotline on paper but this all doesn’t fit in a universe whose existence is in a premature state. This is like some kind of sports shaping into the invention and is further announced for a global competition and in a few days, a team is created from nowhere to participate and win the jackpot. Yes, that last sentence didn’t make any sense. And that is my explanation about the fate of this DC Universe.
The audience knows nothing about these metahumans, Barry Allen aka The Flash, Arthur Curry aka Aquaman, and Victor Stone aka Cyborg, nor do they touch their origins. They are just contacted by the team leader and asked for help! Their becoming superheroes are just concerned in the dialogues which are not enough. And with the space of hardly two hours of the screen time, the film is a source of confusion and running a 100-metre sprint race without firing a starter pistol, just like Suicide Squad.
JL film creates a colossal issue of hows and whys of the universe. Many questions are to be raised by the audience especially the one who has never known this superhero team but wants to know. Why is Barry’s father in prison? How did Victor die before he became Cyborg? What’s this conversation of Mera and Arthur about? All the answers to these questions are in the dialogues which are not enough. You cannot explain and present the entire hows and whys in mere two hours. And with shortening or cutting the screen time of the film by almost 50 minutes, the filmmakers ask you to stop thinking that much and focus on the what-the-hell continuity.
MAN OF STEEL RETURNS
Now Superman’s return. From the release of Batman v Superman to Justice League, a lot of opinions and theories were established. Many questions were raised. Should Superman return? If so, then how? Why? Exactly when? Of course, the creation of a superhero team without him is impractical. The return was certain but to wait how long? 21 months? He died in one film and returns in the next. It all happened in haste but why so hurried? What train are the executives missing?
Superman’s return as many stated one of the best scenes, didn’t impress me, to be honest. First of all, the idea of his return itself is not so spectacular. Using the Mother Box to resurrect his body is not a wow! to me. This is not an ideal return. Imagine where does this resurrection nonsense stand in front of the comics storyline in the making of his return after his death while fighting Doomsday, nowhere!
Once he returns from the dead. He is confused and not at all alright. Fights his soon-to-be friends and before it is too late, enter Lois Lane to melt his anger and he flew with her to Smallville like what the actual f***! This scene is even worse and illogical than Martha one.
Yes, Superman not included in the marketing campaign was a wise idea as it produced a spectacular wait for the release of the film and watch the grand revelation of his magnificent return but his return was nonsensical. And what about Bruce’s Knightmare sequence in BvS? What was that all about if Clark had to return this way? Barry eventually was right that Lois is the key and she is the one who brought Clark back to his consciousness but I am not convinced that this was the motive behind the Knightmare sequence. Will this confusion be cleared in the Flashpoint film? Because I am not understanding when did Barry go and warn Bruce?
If Superman is returning, so is Clark. Superman’s return may be understood by the world but what about Clark? How is he back? Why are people in the surroundings not surprised? Hopefully, these questions may be responded in the sequel of Man Of Steel.
ISSUES AND TISSUES
Barry, in his own words, is afraid of guns and murder, and obnoxiously tall people. And he has never done battle. Victor, on the other hand, is new to the language on his head which he doesn’t understand and fresh of becoming some robot who is not aware of his powers which he is getting every morning. A shaky beginning of such metahumans who are put into a team to fight against the global threat. They haven’t proved their worth in their cities, Cyborg is hiding after his father’s experiment on his son’s dead body while Barry hasn’t even joined CCPD, but they are recruited to save the world from Steppenwolf.
CGI of Steppenwolf is very different and looks less-threatened to a Steppenwolf the filmmakers showed in a cameo in BvS. I have no idea how and why his face is so changed in a time period of two films but is easily the worst supervillain offered by the DCU so far. Even Doomsday or Zod looked more threatening than him. With the return of Superman, Steppenwolf is so easily defeated that gives a furthermore wrong impression about his threat. This was the same monster who with his army was fighting against a unified team in the beginning. How on earth is the normal mind to accept the fact that this killing beast Steppenwolf who was stopped with the collective efforts of the ancient Gods, Amazonians, Atlanteans, and Lanterns was manhandled by Superman alone? For Superman, he was such a piece of cake that he smashed him, then he went to save the civilians, raced with Barry, returned back and asked his teammates if he was still bothering them and resumed the beatings like if Steppenwolf was ever bullied by Superman back in the college before! This was so so wrong! Who was writing this part? Joss, was that you?
Aquaman’s first appearance in the film is so ordinary. His first appearance could easily have been where he saves a man in the boat. His character in the film is very underdeveloped. It is just a Jason Momoa show, not Aquaman. Although I liked the father-son conversation between the Stones but overall Cyborg was average. The excellence of Wonder Woman continues from where she left in the previous instalment and in fact, she further impresses with her leadership qualities. Her relation with Bruce was one of the positive points of the film. Barry Allen is funny and his character is lighter than the one in the Arrowverse. Superman doesn’t have enough lines but I think his character has been more lighted than the previous two appearances. I am convinced with this decision. A slight change in his personality after the resurrection helps the environment of the DC films proceed in the same mode.Â
I don’t know who was editing this film but it was a very unattractive start to the film with a camera recording Superman in one of the worst possible CGIs in an attempt of hiding his moustache. With such an enormous amount of money invested in this project, how possibly could CGI go that wrong? I wonder what made the makers think about keeping Superman clean shaved. In the comics, he did grow the beard. Speaking of the opening, in my opinion, the film could have its super blockbuster opening if they had shown that Steppenwolf’s ancient war against the unified army as the opener. Imagine the film opening with Steppenwolf stealing the Mother Boxes and with his army of Parademons about to invade the earth and suddenly steps a unified army to stop the threat. A perfect 10-minute starter making the audience understand the significance of the Mother Boxes and also explaining why exactly a League of Justice must be established. And by the way, this fight sequence is the only time in the whole film which made me convince to be directed by Zack Snyder. One of the best scenes of the film sadly was hardly a minute of screen time.
JL film is lighter in tone. Yes, a lot of humour is added but few were unnecessary like Aquaman sitting on Lasso of Truth, The Flash’s That’s Rude scene, and Cyborg and The Flash digging Superman’s grave, yes they were digging. I mean there could have been many ways to bring out Superman’s dead body. If this was some comic reference or homage then pardon me.
The fighting sequences are impressive. I liked the teamwork the way the heroes are helping each other like The Flash helping WW pick her Sword of Athena or Superman and The Flash dividing their work in saving the civilians or Aquaman reaching at the nick of time and saving his new friends by lowering the water pressure through his Trident of Neptune in the tunnel of the Gotham Harbor (The Ten Commandments tribute, anyone?).
COMICS EASTER EGGS & REFERENCES
Like all the DCU films, JL also has honoured some notable comic book references and dropped some easter eggs. The one obvious is the race between The Flash and Superman which happened twice in the film. This comic tradition of the race between the two speedsters has been presented many times in different mediums but this all began in the 199thissue of Superman back in 1967. The idea was devised by the writer of this issue, Jim Shooter, and penciler, Curt Swan. At that time, Jim Shooter was only 16 years old.
Parademons are exactly the same from the comics. Crispus Allen appears for a scene with Commissioner Gordon discussing the drawing of the Parademon. Who knows if Crispus becomes the Spectre in the future just like in comics. As I mentioned before that Steppenwolf is Darkseid’s uncle but this fact should not be confused if he is found later in the films that he isn’t his uncle because, in The New 52 version, he is just the general. This DCEU has been more based on The New 52 as you may notice the lineup of JL is exactly the same as New 52 comics. Cyborg replaced Martian Manhunter from the original work.
Bruce plans a headquarter for the JL which has to be the Hall Of Justice for sure. And further on, Diana adds the line “With room for more”, giving an obvious hint to have more superheroes in future to join the league. After winning the fight against Steppenwolf, Cyborg utters the word ‘Booyah’ which is not a comic reference but one of the most popular catchphrases Cyborg introduced in the Teen Titans cartoon. Barry’s Pet Sematary joke comes from Stephen King‘s novel and film with the same title.
A very important comics discovery was the Green Lantern fighting in that ancient war against Steppenwolf. That GL was none other than Yalan Gur. Check the comparisons in the pictures below. I screenshot the film sequence where, by few microseconds, the face is the clearest.
In comics, Yalan Gur abused his power and turned corrupt due to the fact his ring was then passed to Alan Scott who was the first character to bear the name, Green Lantern. Yalan Gur is killed by Steppenwolf in the sequence and so the ring leaves the finger and flies somewhere. Has the ring now passed to Alan Scott? Is Alan Scott the Green Lantern we are waiting for in the future films?
In the first meeting, when Bruce asks Barry about his powers, Barry in response is pretending and answers that he is skilled in learning sign language and gorilla language. That has to be quite obvious that Gorilla Grodd exists in the universe.
Batman standing on a skeletal gargoyle before meeting Commissioner Gordon is the tribute to the cover of the 682nd issue of Detective Comics. Cyborg’s body reconstruction with the help of Mother Box is from Geoff Johns and Jim Lee‘s Justice League: Origin. On this book, the animated film, Justice League: War was produced. Bruce riding a horse in quest of Arthur looks like one of the homages of Frank Miller‘s The Dark Knight Returns which Zack perhaps missed in BvS. Arthur sitting on Lasso of Truth may be another homage to the comics incident when Hal Jordan accidentally touched Lasso of Truth and spoke his soul out.
UNAPPEALING SCORE
DCEU films have been blessed with the impressive musical scores from Man of Steel to Wonder Woman. Even before this universe, Hans Zimmer gifted our ears the unforgettable work on The Dark Knight Trilogy. But this time, even the music department looked compromised. Danny Elfman‘s score was flat and very ordinary. It was supposed to be Junkie XL but was later decided to replace him with Danny. Yes, Danny is the one who produced the iconic Batman theme which was also used in Batman: The Animated Series but that doesn’t guarantee his producing another top-notch. Instead, he reused the famous themes of Batman and Superman, the result? Average response. Listen to his score straight after the credits when the burglars are about to rob the bank and you will realize how ugly his score sounded. Also, many of his scores will remind you of his work on Hulk. Removing Junkie from the project was a bad bad bad decision. No situation in the film gives you the feeling from the background score. The genuine score builds the mood of the audience and sets a proper tone. Take an example of the No Man’s Land Scene when Wonder Woman raises and presents herself to the world as the answer for the victory and confronts all the shots and bullets. This is what I am talking about. The score in that scene melts you and that is what I wanted in JL like all the previous DCEU films, some quality.
JUSTICE LEAGUE NEEDS JUSTICE
JL film is as expected a very early breakthrough which should have happened after the audience gets the awareness of the superheroes, their worlds, their origins and hows/whys of becoming a superhero. After all this, then the God of this universe should have dropped the bomb over their heads by bringing a monster, a threat, a disease, against whom they collectively fight together for a better cause.
If the box office collections are low and the response of the audience is negative, Warner Bros. is to be blamed. They should not involve themselves in the director’s vision and creativity nor should they decide what to cut from the film. After director Zack Snyder’s departure due to the family tragedy (strong rumours are that he was fired), WB hired Joss Whedon which was a massive blunder. Many scenes were reshot and further added $50m to the extraordinary budget of $250m. Then the Warner Bros. CEO, Kevin Tsujihara, cut the screen time to 1hr59m which is extremely short for a superhero film like JL which needed a heavy detailing about the heroes and their worlds.
Many important scenes are rumoured and reported to be cut from the theatrical release. Barry’s love interest Iris West and Arthur’s advisor Nuidis Vulko are not featuring in the film. Two of the Lanterns, Kilowog and Tomar-Re, were to meet Batman in his Batcave in one scene but that was scrapped. Film’s principal photographer has confirmed Superman wearing his iconic black suit which never happened. Some sources are claiming that Darkseid was to appear in the film which never happened. Plus, few scenes which were observed in the trailer never featured in the film which is quite strange. Most significantly the one in which someone showed up to Alfred in the trailer became a mystery to the viewers and began finding the answer who that superhero can be by zooming Alfred’s glasses and observing the colour. To that level of madness among the die-hard fans, the producers chose to scrap this scene, wow! Now that scene has been added as the deleted scene in the digital release. All the above-mentioned scenes would have helped the audience leaving the room with comfort.
WARNER BROS! DO YOUR HOMEWORK!
I have never understood this philosophy or ideology of cutting the screen length in the theatrical release. Warner Bros. decided to cut almost half an hour of BvS in the theatrical release and paid the price of making the film confused and misunderstood full of plotholes to the viewers. From here, I actually thought Warner Bros. will learn from their mistakes because later on, they hit their peak through Wonder Woman. But for JL they cut no less than 50 minutes which is an extraordinary length. The audience can watch a film with a running time more than three hours IF the film makes you understand things what the director wanted to. Just in case if you had not watched the ultimate edition of BvS, you would never know that how come Superman couldn’t detect the bomb in the court or Steppenwolf and Luthor did meet each other. Warner Bros. has to get rid of making the horrible decisions before the viewers begin taking less interest in their films.
Warner Bros. has to slow them down and stop competing against the Walt Disney Studio to match the standards where their Marvel Cinematic Universe today is. This is not how you assemble the team and expect praise from the audience. Stop being in haste and focus on making people understand your universe.
The reason why Wonder Woman worked both on the box office and praised by the critics and the audience was that Wonder Woman was produced to make the audience understand the superhero, realize why she exists, and why the world needs this woman. Same goes for the other metahumans. Instead of implementing a JL project, the God of this universe should have focused on introducing the metahumans in their own solo or origin films so that the audience would be convinced and understood their involvement to their world.
MCU’s approach was the perfect one, they had the right plan in both cinema and TV on assembling their heroes in a convincing way. But I guess Warner Bros. decided to innovate a different structure of explanation and presentation so that they can separate the ideology from the Walt Disney Studio. But how long can they keep them away from the MCU philosophy? Two of the DCU films did follow the trend of surprising the audience with the post or end credits, JL and Suicide Squad.
Status of Zack Snyder in this universe is now confusing. Is he really fired? Because according to IMDb, he is the announced producer of future DCEU projects. But in any case, losing him as a director is a major setback. In addition, Warner Bros. is adding way too many films on so many characters in the universe and most specifically from Gotham city which I find unnecessary. Instead of rushing with so many projects like films on Nightwing, Batgirl, Black Adam, Gotham City Sirens, Lobo, Harley Quinn, JL Dark and God knows what else, better they stabilize the DCEU structure and reconsider what and how exactly they want from this universe and how to continue it with improvements.
For the sake of DCU’s prosperity, increasing a universal fan-following, overwhelming responses from the critics, and boosting the commercial sales through the marketing campaign and merchandising, WB have to take immediate and effective steps before the universe collapses and becomes a laughing stock. Things have still not gone that down financially. Their each DCEU film has worldwide grossed at least $650m despite the negative reviews which is absolutely not bad at all. From DCEU, Warner Bros. has earned $3.7b from only 5 films which shows the worldwide fan-following of DC Comics are excited and not giving up at all! I am hoping for a decent turnaround and may they learn from their mistakes and make the fruitful but not dreadful decisions.
Sami Naik | Film Critic 