Tomorrow sees the release of Warner Brothers’ most ambitious movie in the DC Extended Universe yet – Justice League.
For the first time on the big screen, Cyborg, Aquaman and The Flash join Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman to become an evil-battling unit in a team-up superhero film that is DC’s version of Marvel’s The Avengers.
It is a huge event for any DC comic book fan and Warner Bros. will have high expectations to meet.
You can watch the trailer for the upcoming superhero flick here:
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However, with such a bad track record of disappointing films, aside from this year’s Wonder Woman, people are wondering whether Justice League will actually be any good.
And if it isn’t, will it bring about the death of the DCEU?
Of course, we all want to enjoy the film, but we also wanted Suicide Squad and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice to be entertaining.
For fun, let’s take a look back at some of the DCEU’s more widely criticised films.
First, there was Man Of Steel, a less than super film that made my least favourite DC hero, Superman, dull beyond your worst nightmares.
Next up was Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice which nearly destroyed all the love I held for my favourite, and the best (don’t argue with me), superhero the dark knight himself, Batman.
It is best to pretend that Suicide Squad doesn’t even exist so let’s move on…
But when we had nearly lost all hope with the DCEU, Gal Gadot and Patty Jenkins stepped forward ready to save the day with the amazing Wonder Woman, undoubtedly one of the best films of this year.
Fresh, fierce and fun, Wonder Woman was a dream come true, being the film the previously tortured DC fanboys, including myself, wanted from the universe.
Despite this some people just can’t forgive the DCEU for its past sins though, so it is understandable why people are nervous about Justice League.
It is undoubtedly going to be a smash hit at the box-office, just like the past films, but the millions it is guaranteed to make doesn’t mean it will be actually decent.
Although he has let us down plenty of times before, Zack Snyder, a man who’s struggled in the past to tell a coherent story, preferring dull dialogue to entertaining wit, is back in the director’s chair.
This time though he has thankfully been reined in by the studio meaning the run-time is two hours rather than nearly three although I still think Snyder may bore audiences.
The man loves using a large ensemble cast and although we are being introduced to plenty of new and potentially exciting characters, Justice League may just be too big.
As well as being introduced to Cyborg, Aquaman and The Flash, we will also meet the evil Steppenwolf, Vulko, Mera, Commissioner Gordon, Iris West and potentially, if the rumours are right, the new Green Lantern too.
That really is a lot of people who have to make their marks and I can tell you now, all except for one of two will be instantly forgettable.
However, these type of massive casts can work well sometimes as seen with Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War and J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Also, the new additions include the likes of Ezra Miller and Jason Momoa, both fantastic actors who always have great charisma and personality on screen.
With the DCEU being criticised in the past for being too dark and too dull, Miller has been cast to inject some much needed humour into Justice League which will hopefully have some moments of comic relief.
Also in the trailers, there is incredibly actual dialogue from the film that produced a chuckle from me with my favourite being ‘What are your superpowers again? I’m rich’.
Ben Affleck’s rather dry Batman looks like he will bounce off Miller’s witty The Flash meaning, fingers crossed hey, Justice League will actually be fun!
Like most other superhero films out there, including those from Marvel, the finale is always a big battle scene between the heroes and the villains that is jam-packed full of action.
Normally action would equate to entertainment but with the past DCEU films, the battle scenes have always been too big, too messy, too long and just painful to watch.
It is an easy trap to fall into and from the looks of the trailers, it appears that Justice League has followed suit.
However, you would hope the team have learnt something from this year’s Wonder Woman whose early battle sequences on the beaches of Themysciara were some of the best choreographed action scenes I have seen on the big screen.
Talking about Wonder Woman, seeing Gal Gadot once again take on the role of the Amazon princess can only be a good thing as she is just brilliant.
However, the less said about what her fellow Amazons are wearing in the film the better as it is just one massive step backwards.
Seriously though, who made the decision to dress them up as strippers rather than warriors?
After the tragic suicide of Snyder’s daughter, the director departed from the project and Joss Whedon stepped in to finish off the film bringing the cast back for significant reshoots and rewriting parts of the script.
Having directed The Avengers, Whedon knows a thing or two about making a superhero team film and his input can surely only be a good thing.
However, there is the concern that bringing in a director with such a different style to Snyder will split the movie, meaning it will be very visible where one film ends and the other begins.
We don’t have to wait long now as with the league uniting tomorrow we will know soon enough whether Justice League is all we hoped it would be.
If it is awful, well it is pretty much guaranteed that we’ll still be getting more DCEU movies in the years to come with the likes of Aquaman, Shazam and Flashpoint already in various stages of development.
Whether we will have any hope left for the franchise though, well that is a question tomorrow will answer.
