Hi! I’m Buddy Acker and I want to thank you for stopping by to check this out. If you have read an E-Pals before, thank you for joining us again. I hope you enjoy. I love doing these because I love the folks I do them with. I hope you have as much fun reading this as we do doing E-Pals every once in a while.
Buddy Acker: Matt! Tony! …other person! Are you all excited? I’m hella excited. It’s the return of E-Pals! It’s been a while. We’ve all been doing things in our lives, as human beings tend to do. We gotta make more time to do more of these things!
However, we did all make time to see Justice League. Of course we did. It’s one of those movies we were always going to HAVE to see. So I thought this could be an E-Pals where the four of us share our thoughts on the movie itself, our thoughts about the DC Extended Universe, and whatever else floats our boat.
I’ll try to keep this neat. First of all, did you all see Justice League because you’re a fan of the DCEU? Did you see it because you hoped it would be an improvement over the other movies or at least some of them? Did you see it because it was the first time the Justice League has teamed up in a live action movie? Or was it a combination of those things?
I haven’t been too crazy about the DCEU so far. I didn’t like Man of Steel, I thought Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was just OK, and I hated hated hated Suicide Squad. I haven’t seen Wonder Woman. So for me, it was a mixture of wanting to see the Justice League together and hoping it would be better than its predecessors.
How about you guys?
Tony Chavez: Hi Buddy! Hi other guys! It’s good to be back again!
I saw Justice League because I’m a comics nerd and I was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt, all things considered. But yeah, as a whole the DCEU is absurdly messy. Especially when you have the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) out there killing it with the whole “extended universe” model in comparison. Man of Steel was tolerable, Batman v Superman was laughably mediocre, and I’d love to never speak of Suicide Squad ever again. Wonder Woman is really the only stand out where I feel like they got it right.
But then, the bar was set low enough where getting it right wouldn’t of been too much of a challenge at that point. Out of Justice League, I had to come to terms with the fact that I wouldn’t get the same sort of fun team up movie the first Avengers brought, but I still wanted a movie that kept that turnaround in quality going.
Matthew Kline: Hello hello all! Great to be back at this.
I saw Justice League because if I’m gonna be honest as fun as Marvel is, I like the storylines and some characters a LOT more in DC than Marvel. Like lately the MCU movies have been on point, but looking back on that timeline there are a lot of boring and more or less useless movies now that we are towards the end. What I appreciate about DC is that they didn’t make an origin movie for everyone before the team up. Like I know all of these heroes like the back of my hand now, I don’t need a movie wasted on origins. And yes it would be good for people not familiar with comics, but they did it so well in the movie. Here’s Cyborg, died in an accident, brought back by dad, boom. Done. A couple minutes and it makes sense to everyone without having a whole movie on it.
DC is a mess with their writing and vision, but the formula is there to make some great movies. Plus they weren’t shy to jump into all the weird space (and other) shit, where as Marvel took f o r e v e r to realize people actually want comic book movies. While Marvel is doing well making “realistic” comic book movies, DC is making actual comic book movies. They just need to tighten it up a little. I think Justice League is a step in the right direction. It’s fun and serious where needed, and the set up for the future makes for some really exciting possibilities.
Karl Dodds: Oh hey gang! My E-Pals alarm went off so I guess we’re doing another one of these. Much like Superman, we just won’t let it die.
I’ll be honest, I wasn’t hyped in the slightest for Justice League after the disappointments of Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad (still haven’t seen Man of Steel). I just wasn’t prepared to let myself get excited. I was much more looking forward to The Punisher, which came out the same day. The only reason I saw it on opening night is because I had friends who wanted to go and I have a cinema card that grants me unlimited access. That being said, it wasn’t as bad as I feared.
I would still rank Wonder Woman as my favorite DCEU film, but Justice League now comes second. I did leave the cinema excited to see more of these characters. The casting was pretty on point.
Who was the standout character for you guys? I was apprehensive about the Flash due to being a fan of Grant Gustin’s portrayal, especially as Ezra Miller and he are both playing Barry Allen. However, they managed to make them different enough that I can appreciate both in their own way. I will say that the movie version of Flash has the most goddamn goofy run I’ve ever seen on film.
BA: The standout was Flash for me too. I loved the scene where he tries to sneak past Superman only to realize he’s just as fast as he is. The other parts with him running on the walls and whatnot are kind of ripoffs of the Quicksilver scenes from the X-Men movies, except done worse, so that took me out of them a little. I still enjoyed Ezra Miller’s performance and I laughed a few times at his antics. I’m probably biased since I have a crush on Miller as well, but to hell with it.
TC: Ezra was a much more entertaining Flash then I was expecting. But still I couldn’t look at him and separate myself from the fact that we already have a great live action Flash running around in the DC Arrowverse (yes, even if THAT Barry Allen is a dummy dummy dumbhead who fucks everything up every other episode).
I think I’ve got to say that the standout character for me was Jason Mamoa’s AQUAMAN. Because making a character who has been historically laughed at into a bad-ass surfer bro with a drinking problem is a great spin on things, and makes me interested in the direction they take his solo movie next year.
…Oh, yeah. The fact that he’s smoking hot and has abs that I willingly want to break my teeth on may have also played a part. Maybe.
MK: I didn’t expect to like the Flash as much as I did, as I had the same issue of becoming attached to the CW Flash (before it went completely off the rails). I related to him a lot and he was just fun to see on screen, but I really think Aquaman was the winner for me. He was badass, one of the most perfect comic book castings I’ve ever seen, and his “sitting on the lasso of truth” gag was hilarious. What really satisfied me was the team though. They quickly started working together, figured out what works, and had great chemistry. It didn’t feel like a cheap Avengers knockoff. It felt like its own thing.
KD: I agree with Buddy (there’s something I thought I’d never say), that scene where Superlameman is grappling everyone and the Flash is running to their aid then he realises that Superman can see him is probably my standout scene of the film.
My issues with the film aren’t with the cast; I think the entire film was cast greatly. One of the gripes I have is I didn’t really like how quip-y they made Batman. He’s not supposed to be Deadpool or Spider-Man. A good example is that moment after Superman says, “Tell me, do you bleed?” was ruined after they show Batman on the floor and he remarks, “Something is definitely bleeding”. It was played for laughs and I think it undercut what otherwise was quite an epic moment with the reversal of the line from Batman v Superman.
BA: I think Warner Bros. probably stepped in and forced humor into it after all the gripes people had about the dark tone of Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad. They probably made Zack Snyder and co. agree to lighten up the mood. So Batman is not as much a brooding “I’m getting real tired of these criminals’ shit” dude as he was. And as we have seen, the creative indecisiveness has pretty much scared Ben Affleck off the solo Batman movie and the character.
However, I do prefer this direction for the DCEU. Batman could maybe be more…like Batman, but I would be fine with Flash, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, and Aquaman, whom I have hated until now, staying exactly the same. I’m also fine with this mixture of witty banter/hopefulness/some dark stuff going forward. Fuck Superman, though (the Snyder version is perfectly as bland as I have come to expect Superman to be).
I don’t think Justice League was anything even approaching “great”, but it was great fun. I kept my mind open as I always do and I was pleasantly surprised. I noticed a lot of bad editing and A LOT of bad CGI. I was a little ehhhh about the plot, which with the inclusion of the “Mother Boxes” was incomprehensible as all get-out. It was sooooooo comic book-y. But I had a good time and I hope I keep having at least a good time with future DCEU movies.
TC: Yeah, the Mother Boxes and Steppenwolf in general are easily my biggest problems with the movie. As a villain that they had to “assemble” a whole damn team (TWICE…shout out to the Amazons, the Atlantians, humans and MOTHER FUCKING GREEN LANTERNS who kicked his ass the first time!) to defeat, he was lame as hell, was badly showcased with some terrible ass CGI, and had a seeeeriously weak ass motive. Also, how DO the Mother Boxes actually work? Those things are just plot hole central.
But beyond that, as a whole, the team blended well. Superman at the very least actually acted like Superman and not some gloomy, neck-breaking jerk. Cyborg was there…because Mother Boxes…I guess? This was not even close to a masterpiece, but I can live with the DCEU if Aquaman, Flashpoint, and Wonder Woman 2 continue tokeep things light and fun.
MK: I feel like a lot of the problems are stemming from critical audience reaction and a feeling of need to beat Marvel. They have a lot of problems, but I feel like the actors and the formula is there. They just need to tighten it up and own their content.
Some of the stories and heroes/villains they have in DC I love a LOT more than Marvel, so I want them to tap into that and make something great. The standalone movies will help with this direction, I think. Here’s hoping, because they could make some really great movies. I’m a sucker for overly comic book movies.
KD: I’m excited to see more of these characters (in particular I’m looking forward to Wonder Woman 2). I just hope that in the future they can do these characters justice wink, wink by giving them better plots and better villains. There is absolutely no reason why DC can’t have the same success as Marvel. I think the quality of the films will always speak louder than any superhero fatigue. If the story is strong people will still watch. DC need to stop trying to rush these things out.
So in conclusion, the film was OK, and we’re all still cautiously optimistic for the future of the DCEU!
As always gents, it’s been a pleasure.
