Zach Snyder's Justice League: Part VI - Something Darker / Epilogue - A Father Twice Over

Despite my breaking the film up into six posts spread across three weekends, I actually watched the film in one day. However, I took breaks in between the chapters, utilizing the time to do a few things around the house, as well as type up my posts. I found this beneficial for two reasons. First, it gave me well needed down time from each section of the film, which second, provided me with an opportunity to reflect on what I had just seen and absorb it before being swept off to the next segment. Regardless of doing this, I have to admit that the film's sheer length still caused a bit of fatigue for me overall. Three and a half hours is a long time to commit to watching a movie, even when you spread it out across an entire day.

With that said, let's dive into the final chapter and epilogue. Again, spoilers, but if you read parts one through five, you knew this already.

Action, action and more action make up what is the longest chapter in the entire film. Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash take the fight straight to Steppenwolf's front door, staging an all out assault on his secret base of operations.

The plan, Batman will take out the shields, while Aquaman and Wonder Woman get Cyborg close enough to the combined mother boxes to hack into them. To do this, he'll need a charge from The Flash, who encircles the area, running as fast as he can to generate the electricity.

There's just one problem. Every best plan always fails, and that it does when one of the parademons blasts The Flash with a cannon just as he's about to engage. As Steppenwolf is about to deal a mortal blow to Cyborg, Superman appears to absorb the blow of his axe.

Ultimately, the heroes end up beating down Steppenwolf (mostly from the aid of Superman), and fulfilling their original plan. The mother boxes are destroyed, and Darkseid's plans to take over Earth are foiled.

That's really the long and short of it without taking you on a blow by blow walkthrough of the massive battle. If I had to nitpick, I don't like Superman in his black suit. Traditional red and blue for me, please. The action is only detered slightly by the very beginning of the chapter where we see Clark Kent reunited with his mother at the farm, and then at the end for the epilogue.

Speaking of which, the epilogue both wraps up the story arcs of the characters, while also offering us a glimpse at a dark dystopia future world. There are brief cameos by Deadshot, Lex Luthor and Joker, and because a large portion of this turns out to be a dream sequence, I honestly don't know if the part where Luthor divulges Batman's identity aboard his yacht to Deadshot is part of that or if it took place prior to the dream. The film ends with Bruce Wayne awaking from his dream and meeting Martian Manhunter.

Overall, the film was fantastic. I really enjoyed it, though I am glad I broke it up into segments. What will be interesting to see is if Warner Brothers retcons this film in place of the original theatrical release. I certainly hope so, as it leaves room for a potential sequel, and certainly establishes the franchise DC was going for to begin with. If they don't, it would honestly be a missed opportunity, and quite frankly, stupid considering the amount of money it cost to make this movie.

This film excites me to see what will come from the DC universe films, but again, only if they cement this film as part of the lore. I would certainly watch a sequel, and if you have HBOMax, I recommend you check this one out if you haven't - Even though I would you have already if you kept up with six spoiler filled posts.

Take note, Hollywood! Listen to the fans. If you give us what we want, we will support you.

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Zach Snyder's Justice League: Part V - All The King's Horses

 

My next paragraph is going to start with the spoilers, so read on only if you dare.

Superman is back! Utilizing the last mother box, Cyborg's abilities to interact with his Kryptonian ship and The Flash's ability to create an electric wave, Superman's once dead body returns from the grave. There's only one problem. He doesn't remember who he is.

As our heroes surround him, Cyborg's auto-defenses take control and open fire on the Man of Steel. This act is enough to enrage him into battle with them, a battle which he is poised to win with minimal struggle. It's only a result of Lois Lane arriving on scene that Kal-El perhaps starts to remember, and taking her into his embrace they shoot towards the sky not to be seen again.

However, activating the final mother box isn't without its consequences. Not only does Cyborg catch a glimpse of this horrific future prior to it being activated, but now that it has, Steppenwolf has heard its calling, and come to claim it.

Cyborg's father grabs it, retreating to his lab where he seals himself in a room with a giant laser. Though at first it appears that he's trying to destroy it, sacrificing his own life in the process, this is not the case. Steppenwolf takes the box and teleports away. However, the heroes quickly conclude that Silas Stone wasn't trying to destroy the box, rather he was heating it to the hottest temperature on Earth so that its signal could be tracked. It's here that the chapter ends.

Though it feels like the most simplistic chapter of the film so far, its not without its depth and advancement of the story. That aspect of course being the return of Superman. However, there was another stand out segment. That being the death of Silas Stone. Unlike many films which glance over a character's death, this one shows the impact that it has not only on Cyborg, but the responsibility that the heroes must bare for it. Aquaman in particular, who audibly notes that the only reason the man is dead is because of their desire and actions to use the box.

I have a feeling that the final act is going to be pile of action upon piles of CGI upon piles of explosions. With all the pieces in place, there's not really much more to offer to the story other than an epic climactic battle. We'll see if that turns out to be the case.

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Zach Snyder's Justice League: Part IV - Change Machine

 

To quote Heath Ledger's Joker, "Mmm...Now we're talking."

Crossing the halfway point, I dove head first into part four of Zach Snyder's Justice League. The film has been building up nicely over the past three chapters, and I can't wait to see how the second half of the film fairs. So with that said, spoilers ahead, and let's go!

This chapter of the film jumps right into it. We see for the first time Batman in full garbs. Aided by Wonder Woman and The Flash, they briefly meet with Jim Gordon atop the roof of Gotham City Police Department, and are soon joined by Cyborg. 

From there, the action explodes as our heroes take the fight to Steppenwolf beneath the surface of Stryker's Island. The plan is two fold. 1) Help the scientists abducted from the last chapter, and 2) Defeat Steppenwolf.

The fight showcases quite nicely everyone's abilities, making each member just as important as the next in their contribution. Batman and Diana are pure offense, while The Flash fills a roll of support. Cyborg on the other hand is the tactician and plays best when leaning towards his defensive side. Though they're able to free everyone, they don't stop Steppenwolf. Rather, he escapes by flooding the place. This is the perfect opportunity, what with all the water, for Aquaman to join the heroes sides, offer his support.

This battle plays out for the entire first half of the chapter. In fact, there is only one brief scene which interludes the first and second act, and that is of Steppenwolf discovering  the ultimate weapon, the anti-life equation, which is the key to controlling all of the multi-verse. It's carved into the surface of Earth. It's at this point we also get our second appearance of Darkseid, who informs Steppenwolf that he will be forgiven if he obtains the third box and synchronizes them.

The remainder of the chapter final explains to us why Cyborg has been in possession of the third mother box. Turns out, it was found by the Nazi's during World War II, retrieved by the Americans when they defeated the Germans, and then turned over to the lab where Victor's father works for studying. It was his father who harnessed the energy of the box, using it to bring Victor back from the edge of death with it. This leads the team to concluding that the box could be used to bring Superman back from the dead, and the chapter ends on a cliffhanger.

However, inter-cut within this portion of the final act is a scene where Martha Kent visits Lois Lane. I forgot to mention in my review of chapter one that Martha is seen briefly driving away from the now bank foreclosed Kent Farm.

Martha tells Lois that she went to the Daily Planet to retrieve Clark's possessions, only to discover that Lois hadn't been there since his death. She sympathizes with Lois, finding common ground in the fact that both of them carry not only the loss of Superman, but the burden of his secret identity. She leaves the discussion telling Lois to come back to the living.

This is where a fantastic surprise / twist occurs. As Martha steps out of Lois's apartment, and the door closes behind her, suddenly the woman's eyes turn bright red, and she morphs into the form of Martian Manhunter, and then his human identity, J'onn J'onzz. That was a wonderful surprise to see, and it made the chapter all the more fantastic.

Overall, I only had one complaint with this chapter. Lois is still sitting around doing nothing and serving no purpose to the film. However, the appearance of all the heroes in full garb, and the battle that commences is beautiful. The cliffhanger ending of them realizing they could bring Superman back, and the brief appearance of Martian Manhunter make this one the best section of the film so far, and the rest have been pretty darn good. I am very excited to jump into chapter five.

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Zach Snyder's Justice League: Part III - Beloved Mother, Beloved Son

 

Onward and upward I go through the Zach Snyder cut of Justice League. Just a general reminder, this post will have spoilers.

Chapter three gives us a well needed look at Cyborg and The Flash, two characters whom Bruce and Diana are trying to recruit into their team. While the story brings with it a brief, but sufficient origin story of Cyborg, what it fails to do is pay the same respects to The Flash.

What we learn from Beloved Mother, Beloved Son, is that Barry Allen, aka The Flash, is trying to earn money to study law. This is because his father is locked away in prison for the murder of his wife - A crime which the two say he isn't guilty of. However, this interaction with the two is left off with his father telling Barry to stop wasting his time on this pursuit, and instead to forget about him and go live his life.

Mind you, this happens much later in the chapter, and before we get to this point we do get to see Barry in action as The Flash, though in street clothes, as he saves a woman from what would otherwise be a tragic car accident. As his scenes unfold, we also get to see that Barry is clearly the films comic relief character. He makes frequent comments that are meant as gags, and they are funny, but not over the top. His interaction with Bruce Wayne are rather fun, and I love the response when he asks Bruce, "So what are your powers?" Bruce simply responds, "I'm rich."

Barry is quick to join the team without so much as an explanation as to what they need for. However, Cyborg is not. When the chapter focuses on this character, we meet an angry man. Victor is incredibly angry at his father, blaming him for his mother's death in a car accident. Victor doesn't appear to embrace his father making him into what he is, in an attempt to save his life from that same accident.

When Diana finally meets with him to ask if he'll join the team, he declines rather harshly. Cyborg is definitely a man disenfranchised with the world, who sees no reason to help anyone but himself, yet at the same time, we're given a glimpse of him doing just that with an unknown diner waitress. His character is a bit messy as a result of this hot / cold mentality.

What was interesting was how the film handles Cyborg's origin story. It's confined to about ten minutes, but it tells you enough. I also like that while we don't necessarily see a hero evolving, we do get a sense of how he didn't just go from student to Cyborg to completely in tune with his abilities. It's somewhat reminiscent of how the original Superman starring Christopher Reeves took us through his growth and learning, but while wrapping it up as quickly as possible without making it seem unfeasible.

Roughly around the mid-way point we do meet up with Lois Lane again, but she is relegated to nothing more than a grieving widow. This is disappointing because in the two times we've seen her (so far), she's contributed nothing to overall advancement of the story. It's just showing her for the sake of reminding us that Superman is dead, and there were better ways this could have been done, such as her actually doing what she does best, and writing stories for the Daily Planet.

Lois Lane never struck me as a weak character. She was a go-getter, and I don't see her simply sitting around wallowing in misery. She would throw herself into her work, proving not only was she a strong woman, but at the same time, paying homage to the man she loved by reminding the world of who he was. Ultimately, it serves no purpose, and actually does the character a disservice, to continue to cut back to her if she's doing nothing more than moping.

The chapter ends with Steppenwolf attacking Atlantis by himself, and defeating Mira and Aquaman to obtain the second of three mother boxes. I didn't like how simplistic it felt for him to accomplish this.

When he gets the one from the Amazonian women (see chapter one), he brings an entire army, and the battle is epic. Here, he shows up by himself, obliterates the minimal guards, and defeats Aquaman and Mira in minutes. It paints the Atlantian people in a poor light. Uncoordinated, weaklings who aren't even worth the effort to fight. It made Aquaman seem unimportant, and was a bit of a weak spot in the story.

Overall, it was a great chapter in the film, but only because of the amount of effort put into developing Cyborg and The Flash. I do like how it gave both of those characters the well needed screen time, while not just slapping them into it and moving forward. The characters are both sufficiently fleshed out, and feel important as a result, and not just "B" characters.

I do like that the film is taking its time bringing everyone together. It's not just a neat bow tie of everyone saying, "I'm a good guy, let's go!" Those who join readily have their reasoning for doing so, as do those for why they won't. It's refreshing to see a story about heroes that everyone's not just an eager beaver to do good. They have their own lives, and the roadmaps that lead them to where they are complicate them, but also make them somewhat relatable. If given the opportunity to do good, yes, there are some that would jump at this. However, there are also those, that for whatever reason, would turn their backs. It's in exploring this aspect with these characters that the story doesn't feel hokey and convenient, and I like that. It feels realistic.

Chapter four is queued up, and I'm all ready to go. I've seen the introduction to all the characters, and I'm enjoying it thoroughly. Now let's start moving towards them coming together to save the world.

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Zach Snyder's Justice League: Part II - The Age Of Heroes

 

My oh my. I know that this is only chapter two of six for Zach Snyder's Justice League, but that bar just keeps getting higher and higher. Though The Age Of Heroes whips you around quite a bit from place to place, it ultimately settles down and actually pushes the story forward significantly.

The act opens with Steppenwolf inserting the first mother box into a mysterious structure, one which we quickly shift away from to touch base with Bruce Wayne. Aboard his private jet, Alfred and Bruce briefly discuss their next hero, Barry Allen, The Flash. However, this scene too quickly comes and goes, and we're whisked away again.

I admittedly started to worry, and the film's pace seemed to have been jumping fast. Fortunately, things did start to slow down a bit from there.

We're shifted to a lab, where Silas Stone, father of Victor Stone, aka Cyborg, works. He's wrapping up for the night, and letting the janitor know that the lab is all his - For cleaning of course. Upon hearing some strange noises within moments later, rather than call security, said janitor proceeds to enter and investigate. He comes face to face with one of Steppenwolf's flying henchmen who is tearing the place apart in search of another mother box. Obviously, the janitor doesn't survive that encounter.

Continuing where part one ended, we return to Themyscira, where Queen Hippolyta appears to be participating in a funeral dirge. Amazonia women bring a large coffin size box before her standing soldiers, and open the lid. Oh, this isn't a funeral. Rather, it's an arrow. The queen lights it and fires the signal arrow across the world to Europe where it lands in an ancient stone structure and burns. The scene ends with a brief showing of Diana Prince working on a statue in the Louvre.

The film quickly cuts back to the lab where Silas is being shown the damages that have just occurred, but then the film cuts again to his home where he meets his son to inform him that the mother box isn't safe under their watch. He tells his son that monsters are coming, to which Victor informs him that he knows a lot about monsters, obviously referring to himself.

While we as the audience might want him to elaborate on this more, we don't get this opportunity. Instead we're shuffled off to Diana finding the signal arrow - With no explanation as to how or why she would have known it was there, and more importantly why the police are also there.

Diana takes the arrow, and with it, seems to know exactly what to do. She inserts it into a secret compartment, opening a hidden path, where she finds ancient carvings and images of the three mother boxes and Darkseid. This is surrounded by an unknown text, which she appears to be able to read.

And shift off to the next location.

We're back in Amnesty Bay, well, actually the waters off the coast of it. A small fishing boat is sinking, with the captain crying over his radio for help. Aquaman appears, and without anything other than an establishing shot, are suddenly at the bar from chapter one where he unceremoniously dumps the man onto a table, gets a bottle whisky and chugs it as he returns to the sea.

Under the water, Aquaman swims to the ruins of his people where he is found by Vulko, played by Willem Dafoe. Vulko pleads with Aquaman to take up his mother's lance and sit on the throne of Atlantis, informing him that their people cannot protect the mother box any further. Aquaman declines.

Though this chapter is slightly over the halfway point, this is where things start to slow down, and the actual plot of the film unfolds in great detail. We return to Steppenwolf who summons DeSaad to inform him that he has found one of the three mother boxes and that his parademons are searching for the remaining two. It is here we learn that Steppenwolf was actually a traitor to Darkseid, and that he owes his master fifty thousand worlds before he will be forgiven.

While the above alone was a great advancement of the story, we then get to go a step further. Diana meets with Bruce, and fill him in on the whole backstory of what is going on, and why. She tells the story of the first time Darkseid came to Earth. His attempts to conquer the plant were thwarted by the unexpected alliance of man, Amazonian, Atlantian and Lanterns. The defeated Darkseid, who brought with him the three mother boxes, and this is how they came to be split up and protected by the factions (with exception of the Lanterns). What it doesn't explain is how the one box ended up in Cyborg's hands. Hopefully this isn't a forgotten aspect to be explained.

At first, this chapter of the film worried me. I felt like the pace had quickened far too much, and rather than focusing on explaining aspects of what was going on, it simply jumped from place to place to place. My hope is that these noted areas get explored in further depth throughout the remaining chapters.

With that said, the story really unfolded and advanced significantly in the second half of the chapter. I learned a lot of what was going on, how we got to where we're at, and more importantly, remained excited to see how all of this would play out moving forward. Though I'm going to take a little break from it, I'm definitely looking forward to chapter three.

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Zach Snyder's Justice League: Part I - Don't Count On It, Batman

 

Zach Snyder's Justice League was the reason I signed up for HBOMax when it first launched. Since then, while I have enjoyed a lot of content from the streaming service, I waited, and waited for the film to finally drop. Well, this Thursday was that day.

At roughly three and a half hours, this is a massive movie, and one that on the surface appears to take its time unfolding so that you get a full and rich story. However, if you're like me, and can't necessarily spend that chunk of time watching a movie, it is conveniently broken up into six parts, each one denoted as such with its own subtitle.

Today, I'll be taking a spoiler(ish) look at Part I: Don't Count On It, Batman. Before I do, it is worth noting that I never saw the Snyder / Whedon cut of the original theatrical film. I didn't bother, because since the day it came out, it got bombarded with negative reviews. With DC's, at the time, trend of so many misses vs. successes, I was disenfranchised with their attempt at building a film universe. As such, this will be a viewing from a one hundred percent fresh perspective.

The film starts out recapping the final battle of Superman's life, and more specifically as he's yelling in agony. The shout spreads across the Earth, breaking open the mother boxes under the watch and protection of the Amazonian, Atlantian and Cyborg. We also catch a glimpse of Lex Luthor, who give a sinister smile as if everything is unfolding as he expected. All the boxes react to this, and the one under watch in Themyscira becomes a focal point of interest as it cracks open.

From there, we're advance in time and are taken across the globe to Amnesty Bay, where Bruce Wayne is on a quest to build a team. He's doing this because of his premonitions of an upcoming war. Ultiamtely, Aquaman turns him down, but it's a fun scene that showcases the multiple levels of skills that Bruce Wayne has at his disposal - From tracking, to speaking languages nobody would suspect him of understanding, and his endless resource of money. Okay, that last one isn't a skill, rather a resources.

We then shift again to the Europe where a group of terrorists storm a building full of children on a field trip with the intentions of blowing it up and killing everyone inside. They claim to want nothing more than to return the world to the dark ages, and they seem to think blowing up four city blocks will do just that. Though the action scenes with Wonder Woman destroying them is exciting, it's a bit silly in retrospect to think that this small terrorist group would think blowing up such a small section of a city would be sufficient enough to revert the entire globe back to the dark ages.

Now we head to Metropolis, where we spend a brief few minutes with Lois Lane, who is visiting a memorial site for Superman. The camera makes sure to focus in on the engagement ring adorned on her finger.

The remainder of part one takes place in Themyscira, returning us back to the cracked mother box under guard. Steppenwolf appears suddenly with an army, and the war for the box explodes. Though they fight valiantly, in the end the Amazonian fighters are no match for the power of the villain, and he escapes with the box in hand. The battle itself is devastating to the women who lose several sisters as a result, and it is very apparent that Queen Hippolyta feels each loss personally. The chapter ends in defeat, but with the Queen informing her soldiers to light the signals.

Overall it was a very exciting chapter, and a great start of the film. As I said above, it was a little silly that the terrorists felt their minimal explosion would have such world changing results, and I also thought that sections with CGI, such as Cyborg's face, and some of the groups of Amazonian women very much so looked fake. These moments didn't throw me out of the film, but definitely stood out as out of place. I was thoroughly invested after just thirty minutes, and I am very much so chomping at the bit to jump into chapter two, which I think I'm going to do as soon as I wrap this post up.

It is difficult to choose one specific scene that stood out as the best, because really each section stood on its own, and brought with it something either fun or interesting to watch (or both). I really have to say that chapter one was solid. Hopefully, the remainder of the film can meet the expectations of the high bar set with the film's intro.

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