What are the box office signs for Justice League? If enough people stay away will they take notice?
Pretty poor. Tracking at maybe lower than $100m opening weekend, which would be below both WW and BVS, and also RAGNAROK, and with a poor RT score and most people being a little mixed on it, I cant see it having legs like WW did. It needs to do around $600-700m to be profitable and right now thats looking pretty far off.
I went last night and to be honest its a mess. Its the
THOR: THE DARK WORLD of DC movies.
By that I mean obviously its not very good, its forgettable and disposable (which in itself is a massive issue, given this is supposed to be the grand team up film), but also, like
TDW, buried within the mess are some good character beats, some fun isolated moments, and a glimmer of hope that in the right hands, there's something here to go with in the future.
More thoughts and spoilers for JL:
Spoiler
The main positive I took was Superman actually being *Superman*. He smiles in just about every scene, he has some cheesy lines, he stops to save civilians, its just Superman. The shift in tone (clearly Whedon led, more on that in a moment) allows this new Superman to shine, and the introduction of colour, brighter lighting and more fun, jokey interactions within the team stop the film being another slog to get through.
Not all of it works, Flashs hyperactivity borders on being too much at times, but having sat through BVS I can forgive them going heavy with it, Cyborg is dull and his CG varies between pretty decent, to PS2 video-game cut scene level throughout the film. Aquaman I'm not 100% on, its a little strange how an actor that large and imposing, seems to have such little charisma behind it. Might be the limited time he had, but wasnt sold on him yet.
Diana is good, although not as much as her solo film, and they lean into her sexuality a little heavier than I liked, the hint at a romance between her and Bruce fell flat for me.
When its at its worse, the film looks almost unfinished. The action is ugly, incoherent noise, Steppenwolf is dull, unimposing garbage, Bruce doesnt feel like Bruce, and the CGI lip they had to put onto Superman is the most distracting thing I've seen in years. Its in the first shot of the film and I spent the rest of the time solely watching it move, fascinated how a THREE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLAR FILM could end up with an effect that bad, on its biggest hero.
Ok, on that, the reason it looks bad is because of the Whedon reshoots, and that whole deal is double edged sword. It looks bad, as do a lot of the clearly very extensive, and rushed reshoots, but in my opinion what Whedon did pretty much save this film from being a SUICIDE SQUAD level garbage fire.
WB say Whedon shot about 20% additional footage, and I think that is flat out bullshit. Its clear he shot massive amounts of this, and considerably changed the story, tone, character beats and in the case of Superman, basically his entire story. I think there are maybe two shots of Snyder-directed Superman in the film, and EVERYTHING ELSE is Joss. And to be honest, thank god for that. Theres rumours that Snyder wanted Supes to be "evil" for the majority of the film, until the very end when he snaps out of his confusion, but given WB demanded this be under 2 hours, its clear they cut basically everything, and had Joss just shoot it all his way. You can tell by the upper lip CG (I desperately want a "moustache cut" of this film on the blu-ray, where they just leave it in unexplained), but also because Joss' Superman has *heart*. A proper, beating, "truth, justice and the American way" SOUL. Its cheesy, and clearly the big time Snyder fans are a little embarrassed of it, but for me its perfect and went a long, long way to me almost enjoying this film.
So, yeah, JUSTICE LEAGUE is a mess. Its stupidly rushed, poorly mashed together, tonally jarring at points, ugly to look at and has serious flaws throughout. But... look up in the sky. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, its hope. Hope for a brighter, more heartfelt DC future.
