Photo: Warner Bros. / DC Entertainment
With the release of the first full Justice League trailer, audiences are reminded that Zack Snyder is making the same movie we already hated
Beware what you ask for, because almost always, you end up getting it, and you immediately regret that decision.
Such is the case with the new trailer for Justice League, a film that continues the horrible slog that began with casualty porn Man of Steel, and rolled through the implausibly bad Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Every bit of the washed out colors and egregious slow motion director Zack Snyder built his reputation on is here right on cue, and in full display for our viewing displeasure.
Now, instead of Batman and Superman bonding over their moms having the same first name, we finally get the whole team together to fight a horde of creatures that Batman previously saw in a dream, because nothing says superhero drama like existentialist psychodrama.
Joining Ben Affleck in his return as Batman is Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), The Flash (Ezra Miller) and Cyborg (Ray Fisher). Notably missing from the trailer is Superman (Henry Cavill), who audiences were led to believe (I mean come on, really?) was dead at the end of Batman v Superman.
But of course Superman is not dead. We know he’s in the film, but it is interesting that none of the scenes allude to him being in the film or in what state he might be, as if there’s some sort of surprise waiting to be revealed outside of the fact that he’s still alive or will be rising from the dead at some point.
In fact, the trailer shows us very little outside of slow-motion hero shots taking up more than a third of the trailer.
According to the film’s synopsis:
Fueled by his restored faith in humanity and inspired by Superman’s selfless act, Bruce Wayne enlists the help of his newfound ally, Diana Prince, to face an even greater enemy. Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat. But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes—Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash—it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.
So much of what is shown in the trailer gives that eerie feeling that we’re seeing the same film we hated before, and while much of that was to be expected, it’s hard to say at least this early in the marketing what sort of film we’re in for.
We do know that the film’s antagonist is supposed to be minor DC character Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds, not the 60’s band), the uncle of Thanos-like villain Darkseid. This seems to be a bit weak as far as main villains go, but it also lends credence to the notion that the real villain of Justice League may be Superman himself.
Because the Justice League trailer shows the Parademons of Apokolips as featured in the “Knightmare” sequence in Batman v Superman, then it also stands to reason that the portion of the dream which featured a time-travelling Flash warning Bruce Wayne about Superman could also be true.
Of course we don’t know what we don’t know, so any other explanation is little more than reckless speculation, but a lack of Superman, coupled with what we already know, including a lack of both Superman and Steppenwolf in the first trailer certainly makes it look like audiences can look forward to more superheroes fighting other superheroes, because that worked out so well in the previous film.
In either case, audiences are still likely to show up to be disappointed, because let’s face it, it’s Justice League, a film fans have been waiting to see for years now, and with the success featured in films from Marvel Studios, why not?
If Justice League is every bit as bad as Batman v Superman, and chances are it could be, then this could be the death knell of the current DC Entertainment Universe, regardless of plans for separate films for Aquaman, Flash and Cyborg in the next couple years.
Justice League was originally planned as a two-part film, but following the critical drubbing of Batman v Superman, Warner Bros. announced that this would be the only Justice League film for the time being (provided the film is unsuccessful).
Time will tell whether or not Justice League will be a good movie, but it’s clear we’ll need to see much more to get behind a film that at this point cannot get by on surprise alone.
Justice League limps into theaters November 17.
Hashim R. Hathaway (Shimbo) is the host of the Never Daunted Radio Network, and proud father to NeverDaunted.Net. You can reach him on Twitter @NeverDauntedNet