Movies
What Does ‘Justice League’ Tell Us About the Film Industry?
One story, two perspectives
In 2017, Justice League director Zack Snyder left the movie due to a tragic event. The film, which had finished shooting and was expected to be edited, was handed over to Joss Whedon, known for Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron. After Zack Snyder’s Man Of Steel and Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice failed to perform as expected at the box office and were accused of being ‘too dark’, Joss Whedon was given the task of creating a fun Avengers-like movie that appeals to the general audience by moving away from the ‘dark’ tone of the films.
While we may not realize it, the changes Joss Whedon made to Justice League offer an important lesson for the movie industry that can be translated into hours of lectures and decades of experience. Zack Snyder’s Justice League is a dazzling spectacle, like a sumptuous meal served with expensive garnishes, shells and oysters, but it is ultimately a difficult meal to digest.
Snyder offers a cultural experience that only ‘worldly elitists’ can understand and enjoy.
Whedon, on the other hand, offers an experience akin to a cheap hot dog wrapped in cheap paper and offers nothing but flavor for us middle class who are used to fast food.
It’s a street food-like experience that you eat in a hurry to get through the day, stabilizes your blood sugar and makes you feel better when you get back to work or class.
In contrast, Zack Snyder’s Justice League is a grueling experience where you feel compelled to fake smiles and endure empty speeches for four hours, like someone having to take off their high heels and massaging their feet after a lavish party.
Snyder’s movie overcomes all these flaws with four hours of epic battle-death-resurrection sequences and gorgeous cinematography reminiscent of Baroque paintings, but the enemy’s intentions are not conveyed clearly and simply, and references are made that even the most passionate comic book readers will struggle to understand. In short, Zack Snyder’s eagerness to create his own ‘Seven Samurai’ fails to appeal to the ‘moviegoer’ who tries to decide which movie to see by looking at movie posters with popcorn in hand.
As a result, it struggles to fit into the low-cost, high-profit marketing strategy of the producers, as it fails to deliver an easily digestible and delicious experience as Whedon did.
The astonishing silence of the producers in the face of the reactions of Snyder’s fans shows how far capitalism is from being the tool of ‘competition and progress’ it claims to be, and how ruthlessly it can slaughter art and the human spirit.
I still see Whedon’s version as one of the most important events in the history of ‘industrial cinema’, comparing a completed and fictionalized story to a child painting all the walls of a house with crayons.
