By Thomas Novak
Warner Brothers and DC Comics recently unveiled the full trailer for the new Justice League film. It’s directed by Zack Snyder and stars Ben Affleck as Batman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, and Henry Cavil as Superman. This film not only has the potential to become a HUGE box office hit, but is also something that both movie and comic fans have been waiting patiently for.
Justice League will hit theaters in November, following the June release of Wonder Woman starring Gal Gadot. However, the storyline of Justice League will likely pick up where viewers were left at the end of 2016’s Batman V Superman and Suicide Squad, which saw Affleck working on assembling a group of heroes to address some looming threat. We can safely expect this film to continue the trend of directly tying properties together and laying the foundation for future films to pop up, similar to what their competition at Marvel and Disney have been doing. ‘Cinematic Universes’, whether you love them or hate them, are here to stay.
Being familiar with the source material, having viewed the trailer a couple times, and having seen Snyder’s other films, I can’t help but wonder if Justice League will finally achieve what Warner Brothers and DC have failed to do with Snyder’s previous films. Specifically, will it offer a story that fans can sit through? Or will it again focus on the ‘wow factor’ and special effects, while letting the plot fall by the wayside (Like many people feel happened with Batman V Superman).
There is plenty of potential for this film to rival (if not surpass) its competition in terms of story; it will have all the major fan favorite characters from DC comics in a single big screen adaptation! Fans have been waiting a long time to see this, but that means it also runs a higher risk of letting them down. Hard. I cannot be the only one who remembers what Zack Snyder did with 2009’s Watchmen…right? If being reminded of how bad that film was, has awakened your deep rooted anger, you’re not alone. Some of us still have yet to let that one go.
It should be said, however, that DC / Warner Brothers have produced some amazing films based on their core characters, which have left a mark on cinema in one way or another. Most notably, Richard Donner’s Superman films, the Batman trilogy by Christopher Nolan, and the two Batman films from Tim Burton. And those are just the live action films. That isn’t counting the numerous animated films they’ve released, or their long line of successful television properties.
As for Justice League: the fans who loved Batman V Superman are more than likely going to ignore anything, anywhere that could be seen as negative press. They don’t want to be reminded of the potential for flaws in something they hope is going to be perfect. For those of us who aren’t quite so blindly optimistic, make sure to prepare yourself for the possibility of leaving the theater angry and/or confused. There’s a track record in place that lends itself to an overabundance of special effects attempting to compensate for poor storytelling. At the very least we will finally get to see characters like the Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg team up with Affleck’s Batman and Gadot’s Wonder Woman to combat a looming threat and a mysterious villain on the big screen. Plus, let’s not forget that this is a film based on a comic. We will more than likely see Henry Cavil’s Superman return to the land of the living because, let’s face it, in comics and films based on comics no one stays dead forever. As for how this all comes to be, fans will find out in November when Justice League hit theaters.
