The Justice League trailer was released today and it was two-and-a-half minutes of… something. I'll give it my commentary and then I’ll give you some of my initial thoughts afterward.
0:09- I find it pretty cool how we are seeing Bruce Wayne in new and different environments doing new and different things that we have never seen him do before. This kind of interpretation of Batman is the one that I wish the Nolan trilogy gave us.
0:19- you cannot tell me that Zach Snyder is a bad director. He definitely has his different strengths and weaknesses, but visuals in Snyder films are beyond spectacular. The visuals in Batman v Superman were amazing too and it’s nice to know that these beautiful sweeping shots and framing shots are just a small bit of what is to come.
0:32- PARADEMONS!
0:49- So, one of the concerns I had with the last SDCC trailer was that it seemed too campy and almost too 'Marvel' for a DC film. The trick with doing any film with characters is to make sure that the world mirrors the people in it. Batman movies are gritty, Flash is comical and science driven, Superman is hopeful and inspiring (I will fight anyone who says that Man of Steel wasn’t. Or at least I’ll talk about it with you… over a pizza… that you buy… if you didn't like it, maybe you'll like my re-write I did a while back.)
Anyway, this trailer, I feel like, balances everything out a lot better. To be fair, the SDCC trailer did attach itself to Flash a lot and this one doesn’t.
0:53- Cyborg looks cool
0:57- fun facts: the color of lightning you have determines your connection to the speed force. Yellow is standard, red is intermediate, blue is advanced, and white is the Speedforce saying “yeah, you run really fast”. Ladies and gentlemen: Barry Allen! The fastest man alive! (The rules may be different in the movie. Please don't run me out of town if I'm wrong later on).
1:08- oh yes Barry. Of all the Batman’s who have ever Batman’ed, he is THE Batman. Batman feels back at home now. The combination of martial arts fighting styles and gadgetry use make me feel like I’m watching the theatrical version of the Arkham games. That’s a very good thing.
1:13- GROUP SHOTS! Remember when we all got really excited over the Avengers group shot in the trailer?
What are they looking at? #IHopeItsSuperman
1:16- Aquaman’s sick moves are sick
1:20- Small details, but Wonder Woman pulled this same kick move in her trailer. It’s cool that each character is given a completely different fighting style from the other. Details like that really make the team feel more realistic to me.
1:29- Flash’s sick moves are sick
1:33- ok. Jokes. Jokes are fine and dandy as long as it doesn’t cut into your brooding time Batman. At the same time, DC did something very right very unintentionally. Since their universe has been to some really dark places before, placing humor in it now will serve to make the characters more well-rounded. They grow and develop and that is something that is hard to accomplish in a cinematic universe.
1:38- I love The Beatles. They are on the list of my favorite musicians. I know this isn’t them, but I like the song… so…. Points!
1:46- biggest half second for me ever. Lois Lane. Walking down a street. Look! Up in the sky!...
I love Superman. He’s my favorite. I need him to come back from the dead. Bringing him back slowly through the movie like in the comics would be way cool- occasional sightings of red/blue blurs, drunk people in alleyways swearing they saw criminals mugging one moment then gone the next, it could be way cool.
I have my own thoughts on how Superman should come back, but they likely aren’t going to happen. Sometime I’ll tell you guys about it I’m sure.
1:50- this is where I see problems arising. In this trailer we have already seen Victor Stone playing Football, Barry talking to his dad, Amazons at war, Mara in Atlantis, this seems like too big of an origin story re-telling for a standard film. It could be a good thing seeing as how Avengers/ team assembling movies have an issue where no character really gets a good arc because they have to show 45 minutes of action and split 30 minutes between 6 characters. There’s no time for art. I’m split on this one. It’s a lot of movie to cram into one film but it’s also better than a film full of cotton candy- sweet one second then forgotten the next.
2:02- Cool group shots inside alien spaceships are cool
2:11- thanks, Gordon. Now I want to see a good, Ol’Fashioned Batman and Robin team-up that I’m likely not to get anytime soon.
2:13- Just saying, Batman’s mask is looking more and more like Owlman from Watchmen.
2:22- Sick combo moves are sick.
Consensus:
The Trailer was a lot of fun to go through and it took long enough for them to release it. Makes me wonder what was going on behind the scenes that made it take so long to release this trailer and so close to the release date too. Whatever. The film will be fun I’m sure.
The biggest strength of the trailer is showing how varied and expansive the world is. We get to see Atlantis, Space Ships from Apocalypse, Science hangouts, College/ High school football stadiums, Gotham, Metropolis, and an island full of Amazons. This movie isn’t pretending to not be a big deal. This is a globetrotting, swashbuckling, Sci-Fi action flick and they want you to know it.
I feel a lot better about the amount of jokes in the trailer this time around and I feel better knowing that the jokes are probably going to be stuck with The Flash while everyone gets their own story and character differences rather than changing the kind of jokes they tell each other. Seeing everyone have a different fighting style is awesome and I think it'll be safe for me to say that characterization of the heroes is going to be one of the strongest points that this movie will have to offer.
The problems, as I’ve mentioned, are my concerns over pacing the film. I’m down to go see another 3 hour long movie in theaters but it makes it hard to re-watch anything if I have to block out 3 hours to do so. There seems to be a lot of background that they are trying to cover and maybe background, like Wonder Woman and Flash that maybe doesn't need to be expanded on too much.
This movie, in a large way, can determine the future of the DCEU and how many more movies we get. No pressure on Zach Snyder, but it’s time to bring you’re a-game, some extra writers, and maybe an active co-director to make this all happen. I guess I’m saying this a bit late, but it’s on the wire now. Please don’t mess up. I want that second Superman film.
Those are my initial thoughts on the trailer. Hopefully we see another trailer here in the near future but until then, thanks for liking and sharing this analysis. Let me know what you thought about the trailer in the comments below, remember to always be your best self and I’ll see you in line for the film in November.
No comments:
Post a Comment