BQB here with a review of “Office Christmas Party.”
It’s a challenge to make a movie set during Christmas time. People who don’t see it in the theater won’t feel like watching it until the next Christmas. No one wants to watch it in say, August of the next year.
Moreover, it’s got to be memorable, somewhat touching and if it is, it may very well become a staple of any movie buff’s yuletide Christmas watching.
“Office Christmas Party” is fun, though not laugh out loud funny. Frankly, now that I’ve seen it once, I doubt I’ll ever watch it again and don’t feel a need to watch it every year.
The set-up – Justin Bateman is the right hand of TJ Miller. Together, they oversee the regional branch of a computer company. Miller reprises his role as basically the same dopey, happy fun time party boy he plays in “Silicon Valley.”
When Miller’s sister, played by Jennifer Aniston, the head of the company, threatens to cut jobs if profit demands aren’t met, Bateman and Miller team up to wine and dine a corporate executive, throwing a wild, lavish Christmas party in the hopes this will convince him to hand over a lucrative account that will save the day.
As you can imagine, the party gets progressively out of control and wacky chaos ensues.
Honestly, I judge comedies by one single rule – did it make me laugh uncontrollably? No. No, it did not. It’s fun but it’s not going down in the laughter hall of fame.
I had the chance to watch this classic the other day. It’s been years since I’ve seen it and as an adult I noticed a lot of things. Most good, a few just me being my typical jerky self.
Without further ado:
#10 – Literally everybody in the film is frigging dead.
And not just dead but dead for like, a long ass time. The movie was made in 1939 and its still a staple of childhood viewing for kids today.
It just makes me sad to see all these people in costume, singing and dancing, having a good time, then thinking about how they are all dead, many of them died before I was even born.
I mean, holy crap, the actors who play Oz, the Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion were all born in the late 1800s. Frickin’ Abraham Lincoln was tooling around in the same century.
Sigh. Such is life. Here one minute…
(EDIT: I found a reference on the Internet that says Jerry Maren, an actor who played a munchkin, might still be alive. Hang in there, Jerry.)
#9 – Toto is the best dog actor ever.
I feel like there must be cut footage in a vault somewhere of the dog playing Toto taking a dump on Dorothy’s slippers or something. Maybe not. All I know is as I watch the movie, the dog playing Toto is like, the best train, most well-behaved on-screen dog I’ve ever seen. The little guy walks in a straight line, following the actors, going where he needs to go, and does this even in scenes where like there’s hundreds of people behind him.
#8 – It’s a special effects bonanza.
People credit “Star Wars” for unleashing the special effects tidal wave, but I don’t think the movie industry would have gotten there without this picture. While it pales against today’s standards, there are still some effects that are interesting to watch and probably made jaws drop in its day. It was no doubt ahead of its time. Dorothy looking at the twister out her window and seeing two dudes rowing through the wind in a rowboat is one example.
#7 – The Wicked Witch of the West is Justified in Her Anger.
I’m sorry, but the green bitch’s sister had a damn house dropped on her and then when she tries to collect the slippers, i.e. the property that should go to her as she is the rightful heir, Dorothy keeps them and Glenda threatens her that a house might drop on her too.
I mean. Holy shit. Is there any doubt that ugly people are treated like shit? Imagine if the Wicked Witch were pretty. Do you think people might, I don’t know, be like, “Um, yeah someone kills my sister and steals her shit, I’d be pissed too.”
I get that both witches were wicked and up to bad shit so the house drop was probably a good thing. It’s kind of like if you were drunk driving and run over Hitler…yes, it’s good that Hitler died but still, you were drunk driving.
Then again, I suppose it wasn’t Dorothy’s fault her house went out of control.
By the way, Margaret Hamilton is having way too much fun playing that witch.
#6 – Judy Garland was better beyond her years.
She’s only 17 in this role but she’s just amazing, full of heart and perfect pronunciation. So sad that she became a pill fiend. I guess Hollywood will do that to you. She performs better than any adult could have in this role.
#5 – Dorothy disses Tin Man and Lion.
I know that “I’ll miss you most of all, Scarecrow” has come to be thought of as a really heartwarming line, maybe something even tell people when they’re saying goodbye, but as a kid watching the movie pointed out to me, “Lion and Tin man are right there!”
Seriously. How would you feel if you and two friends said goodbye to a fourth friend and she singled one friend out for extra missing?
Dorothy might as well have said, “Yeah furball and rustbucket, I’ll miss you guys I guess but holy shit, Scarecrow, I will miss the shit out of you. I mean, Lion and Tin Man, you assholes were ok, but Scarecrow, I’m going to be balling my eyes out every night until I see you again, buddy.”
#4 – It’s possible for make-up to be better than CGI.
Scarecrow looks more like a talking scarecrow than a computerized version would, in my opinion. I don’t know what they did. They perfectly blended his head with whatever he was wearing to make his head look like a bag full of straw.
Tin man is no slouch. He looks like an ancient attempt to construct a robot.
Lion basically looks like a dude in a lion costume which, ok, CGI might do better there. Then again, why can’t people where lion costumes now?
#3 – I doubt a remake would be as good.
I’m surprised with all the reboots and remakes, Hollywood hasn’t remade this one. Crap, I hope I didn’t just put that idea out into the ether. Oh well, only 3.5 people read this blog anyway.
This movie has so much heart and is basically Hollywood’s first special effects extravaganza (I think, correct me if I’m wrong.) A remake would be like that kid who has his mom do his art project vs the kid who does his best with macaroni and string. Yeah, the more polished version would be better but the macaroni has more heart.
#2 – Dorothy and Friends Get Stoned
They can call them poppy flowers all they want but we all know that Witch got our favorite quartet stoned on opium. Oz and Afghanistan, two places to avoid if you’re an opiate abuser.
#1 – “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead” is the Most Profoundly Emotional Song Ever
Did you write it off as cheesy fluffy? Think about it some more.
No…actually, think about the worst person in your life. Surely, there is someone who lives to make you miserable. They make fun of you. Mess with you. Hurt you. Ruin you.
If that person were to die, you might secretly be glad on the outside, but out of sheer respect for the value of life, you’d probably feign an, “Oh that’s too bad” when someone tells you of the bully’s untimely demise.
The Munchkins, on the other hand, don’t just hate the Wicked Witch of the East, they despise her, so much that when a house is dropped on her head, they break out into a spontaneous song and dance number, engaging in perfect choreographic precision, expressing to Dorothy just how happy they are that she capped the Witch.
Literally, the song and dance routine goes on for several minutes. Munchkins young and old take part. There are interludes where various munchkin groups and dignitaries opine on the happiness they have over the witch’s dead, the coroner is consulted just to make sure that the celebration is in order, and the Mayor provides a joyous decree.
I mean, I don’t know what that witch was doing but imagine how awful she must have been to those munchkins for them to have broken out into such a dazzling, Broadway style revue to express their happiness at the hag’s death. It’s almost as though those literally people were secretly rehearsing the routine in anticipation of the Witch’s death.
Can you imagine it? All those little people huddled together in a back room. “Oh man, we hate that bitch so much that we have to totally nail the song and dance routine we’ll give when she finally kicks the bucket. Ed, you get the costumes ready and Fred you call the Lollipop Guild. We are going to rock this house when that hag croaks.”
I believe there is a line about bondage so the East Witch must have been enslaving the munchkins…or forcing them into a perverse BDSM lifestyle. Either way, they’re happy she’s dead and they have a song to prove it.
Kinda makes you think, doesn’t it. If you can honestly say that all the people who know you will break out into a song and dance number when you die, then you might want to make a few positive lifestyle changes while there is still time.
Ahh, nerds. We do love to bitch and moan about our nerd movies.
Oh well. Let me add to the bitch fest.
From BQB HQ in fabulous East Randomtown, here are the Top Ten Things Wrong With Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
SPOILERS ABOUND!!!
#10 – A Lost Opportunity for Rey and Ren
There’s a scene where Kylo Ren turns on Snoke, then offers Rey an opportunity to join with him. Screw the First Order. Screw the Resistance. Perhaps they are just two opposing forces who live to destroy. Together, they could unite and bring peace to the galaxy.
Rey refuses but maybe that would have been more interesting if she had accepted? The franchise does eventually need to go off in a new direction. This could have been it. Perhaps some gray area of who the bad guy is would be a cool development. Would Finn have to fight his friend?
#9 – Luke Was a Whiny Bitch
He always was, but there was too much whining and not enough training. Rey and Luke never bond or form a master/trainee relationship.
#8 – Who the Hell is Snoke?
Snoke is basically a poor man’s Emperor. Sounds like him. Acts like him. Who is he? What’s his background? Where did he come from? We never learn much about him. For an all-powerful being, he is dispatched a little too easily.
#7 – The Force Belongs to All of Us
An appeal to modern sensibilities but it forgets rules. I mean, the mitochlorian thing was always stupid, but once a rule is made, i.e. Jedis have special blood, then the rule is made. Or forgetting mitochlorians, because it always was stupid, there was always at least the idea that only special people can control the Force. Now Luke accuses the Jedi of hoarding Force power that should have been used by all? Sigh.
#6 – Stick with the Rules
Speaking of rule breaking – the Force requires training. Some discover they can use it, but to use it to a large degree has always required training. Did Leia train to pull herself out of space? Cool scene, but without an explanation of her training, it’s breaking a rule.
#5 – Casino Planet
Seemed like a weak attempt to blend Star Wars and James Bond.
#4 – Why Project?
Why did they have Luke project his form if he was just going to die anyway? Lame.
#3 – I Hope Rey Isn’t the Last Jedi
In the years to come, the franchise can go in all sorts of directions. Perhaps there will be stories that branch off from the original trilogy, the original characters, etc. New heroes rise, new villains and new threats emerge. At any rate, you’ll always need Jedis. Sorry, but to the average Joe, “Jedi” is a word that means “person who uses the Force.” Gotta have Jedis. No one wants to see uh, I don’t know, the uh “Kadoobie Doobie Warriors” or what have you.
#2 – Rey Has No Training
Remember how Luke had to train with Obi Wan? How Anakin had to train with Obi Wan?
Remember when Rey got training and…oh wait, no she just picked up a lightsaber one day and was a master at it. Huh. Odd. Sounds like a rule break.
#1 – Master/Apprentice
Speaking of, the Master and Apprentice roles have served Star Wars well. Kylo’s master is Snoke. Rey has no Master but could use one.
YOUR THOUGHTS
Did you see something wrong with Star Wars? Discuss in the comments.
BQB here with a real review of the new Star Wars flick. Be forewarned of SPOILERS.
At the outset, I must say that I don’t think the magic of the original films, now dubbed “Episodes 4-6,” will ever recreated. You see, from the early days of cinema in the 1930s up until like, 1970, films were basically recorded plays. Then the young baby boomers took over and directors like George Lucas and Steven Spielberg upped the special effects game.
“Star Wars” was unlike anything ever seen before on film but since then, we have been spoiled and the biggest, most intense scenes fail to wow us.
If, “The Force Awakens” was a modern rehash of “A New Hope,” then “The Last Jedi” is a lesser version of the film many say is the best of the “Star Wars” series, “The Empire Strikes Back.”
However, while “Empire” say Luke grow and train under the wise tutelage of Yoda, “Last Jedi” gives us a rather lackluster dynamic between Luke and Rey.
The ending scene of the last film, where Rey meets Luke in a sweeping view on a remote island, gave us hope of some really intense training and wisdom passing-on, such that would turn Rey from a naive young girl to a badass, as Yoda did to Luke years before.
Alas, instead we get a very whiny old Luke, lamenting how his life has been wasted, that the Jedi Council was a lame hoarding of Force power and really the force should belong to us all and if that’s the case then they’re rewriting history because the whole premise of the series has been that only special people can control the Force and just as in life, some people when given power will use it for good and others will be corrupted by it and turn evil.
For me, it was just too much whining. I’d hoped that we’d see Luke in some late life Obi-Wan Kenobi badassery. Sir Alec Guinness never whined so much but Old Luke is whinier than Young Luke who just wanted to go to Tashi to pick up some power converters.
We were promised epic training and instead Luke just whines to Rey…and whines…and whines. I mean, give this script to your most basic writer and he/she would have put in some Mr. Miyagi style training montages but there was none of that. Luke just bitches and moans about how he wasted his life being a Jedi and then eventually Rey like, just leaves.
Seriously, maybe I fell asleep but one minute Rey was on the island listening to Luke’s sobfest and then the next she’s on a ship entering the space battle. It’s like, she just got tired of the bullshit and was like, “I guess no one’s teaching me any badass light saber moves here even though the audience would have enjoyed seeing that so I’ll just leave this depressed old fucker and go into a space battle now.”
Overall, I feel like Hamill could have been put to better use.
SPOILER – the ending, Luke does get some awesomeness in, I’ll admit that. But I didn’t quite get the point of it. Ren has his army blast the ever loving shit out of Luke and Luke just dusts himself off. It’s cool and funny and then we learn that Luke’s only there in a ghostly form. At first, I thought Luke had died in the blast and become a ghost like so many Jedi before him, but then we learn that Luke was projecting a spirit form of himself from his home on the island the entire time…which doesn’t really make sense. And then he dies anyway so…I thought the point of him projecting himself was to keep him alive for future movies so if he’s going to die while projecting himself then why not have him die in battle?
Then again, maybe he didn’t die. Maybe he disappeared. Preserve a possibility he might return? Who knows?
I have to say I think there’s a lot of back story the writers have us assume. I think a three movie arc where the Galaxy is at piece and then Ben Solo, Luke’s nephew, trains under Luke and turns to the dark side and fucks up the galaxy by the end of the third movie would have been more interesting than just jumping into where we are now. We are told through flashbacks that Luke became forlorn after his nephew turned evil but that story would have been better in a film than what we are seeing now.
Meanwhile, the subplot with Finn and Rose going on an adventure to a casino planet to find a hacker was silly, an attempt to give sort of a space Bond vibe, except Finn and Rose just show up in their regular clothes and look rather silly. We learn late in the film Rose has a crush on Finn, but perhaps the two gussying up in fancy duds to infiltrate the party and Finn getting confused, maybe realizing he has options, maybe he could be with Rey, maybe he could be with Rose or what have you, might have been interesting. Maybe not. It all seemed out of place.
Like many of the characters, Benicio Del Toro’s DJ (the hacker) is sort of cookie cutter stock. He’s got an odd lisp but we don’t know why he’s so weird and eccentric. Admittedly, he has the most interesting lines of the film, pointing out that evil arms dealers make their money by selling not only to the First Order but also to the Resistance. Whereas past films showed the Empire as bad and the Rebels as unwaveringly good, this part leads us to wonder whether or not both sides are not just two faces of the same coin, that because neither will back down, the death and carnage continues and the galaxy remains in ruins while arms dealers profit.
Further, we were promised a big reveal about Rey’s parentage and what we got was a let down. There were some clues that led us to believe that Rey was Luke’s daughter, i.e. why else would Luke’s lightsaber call to her, and if Ren’s claim that Rey’s parents were just trash who sold her for beer money is true, then there’s a lot of clues just left on the table, a lot of build up just to let us down. I’m hoping in the third film we’ll find out Ren lied.
I don’t know if the initial “Star Wars” genie can ever be let out of the bottle again. Although, last year’s “Rogue One” was impressive to me, so perhaps it is possible.
I think the long term problem for the franchise is the creation of a post-Vader, post-original character world. Vader is the baddest-ass villain ever created. Admit it. When you first saw him force choke a subordinate, you immediately thought about the worst, nastiest boss you ever had and it scared you.
Eventually, the franchise will have to enter a post original movie world – one without the original characters, without Vader, without the Skywalkers, without the Empire….will they be able to create villains and heroes who are just as riveting?
Time will tell…but they had one shot to provide us with some Luke on screen awesomeness and they blew it. Rey and Luke never bond, never develop any kind of friendship or master/trainee relationship…he’s basically a guy she meets who whines to her. You’re not really left with the impression that Rey got anything out of her meeting with Luke, that she’s better for it, that she has any connection to him, that she’ll ever think about him again and and honestly, that’s a failure.
STATUS: Shelf-worthy but I mean, I’m not really in a rush to see it again.
So, as you recall, our last film ended with Rey meeting Luke in a sweeping scene on a remote island. I have to be honest, I liked the last film initially but after awhile, it did seem lame, a pile of fluff, a rehash of the old film.
They really outdid themselves this time, from the immediate space battle that ensues as Luke and Rey escape to the remote planet of Baatha Fisk, to the riveting fight scene in which Poe Dameron’s fate is left unclear. That cliffhanger is left unaddressed and it seemed odd to have such a big question so early in the film go unanswered but I suppose there were clues throughout the film. The helmet that was found on Cheeops is perhaps a sign that Poe might live to fight another day.
Snope’s origins are revealed and it does make sense that he was trained by Yoda. The ghost scenes featuring Yoda, Old Anakin and Obi-Wan Kenobi seemed cheesy at first, a patronizing throwback to something that seemed lame in the original films, but then after awhile I thought about it and I’ll give some slack to the writers there. But for ghostly involvement, I’m not sure how certain plot points could have been given.
I don’t really want to give it away but I have to admit, I found it lame that the lightsaber “called” to Rey in the last film. I mean, it’s an inanimate object but the explanation makes sense. I’m not sure Rey’s added power will hold up in future films but within this film it worked.
I don’t really buy that Finn could have bested Kylo Ren in a fight but then again I talked to other fans and they indicate that the love Finn feels for Rey is what drives him, giving him extra adrenaline and that’s what allowed him to defeat Ren, just has he managed to escape Captain Phasma earlier.
Chewie remains the heart of the story and the beloved wookie finally gets some character development. Who knew the wookie was gay all along, despised by his own family and thrown off his home planet just for being who he is? Admittedly, it does seem like social justice pandering and I think the point could have been made without the five minute male wookie on male wookie sex scene. Yikes! So much violence.
Further, I think the movie’s downfall is that it tries too hard to go with the “ripped from the headlines” trope. Personally, I think it is bad writing to take current events and news items and work them into science fiction, especially when sci-fi allows for so much imagination to be explored. For example, Wax Fassa, the businessman that double crosses Luke and Rey, offering them free passage to Sverador is an obvious Trump clone. Although it was humorous to see an alien with fake hair and it gave the audience a good laugh, it cheapened the whole series. Come on Disney. There are plenty of opportunities to make fun of the President, it doesn’t need to be done during our much loved franchise.
Finally, it seemed lame that Luke was thrown off the last remaining vestige of the Jedi Council. Sure, he made a pass on Mara Jade but it seemed unclear whether or not they were in love or just mere colleagues on a mission. Did Luke go too far in his affections? Was he misunderstood? Was he falsely accused or did our hero fall and make an unwanted sexual advance toward a fellow Jedi? Look, I get it, just because Luke is our favorite Jedi doesn’t mean he gets free reign to abuse women so if he did it then he has no place on the council but I just think the council didn’t give Luke due process or a right to have a say.
I mean, Jek Fanna had a point. “Keep your robot hand off the ladies’ asses, buddy.” That’s wise advice that hopefully Luke will remember in the future. Will he redeem himself? I suppose we’ll find out in the next film.
Or maybe we won’t because literally everyone died at the end of this one, murdered by Jar Jar Binks, who was narrating the story based on items pinned to a bulletin board in an intergalactic police station the entire time. #mindblown.
I like this trailer. It looks like a very original concept. The idea is that miniaturization is invented and it allows people to live like billionaires…i.e. your small investment is all you need to live like a King. One bottle of vodka is a lifetime supply of booze. You can’t afford a mansion but you can afford a model of a mansion and that will look big to you when you’re small.
Basically, you can live large because you’re tiny. What say you, 3.5?
So, in 2003, a man named Tommy Wiseau put out, “The Room,” what is widely considered the worst film ever made. Bad writing, bad acting, bad dialogue, a plot that goes nowhere, subplots that are never tied up and for some reason, during rooftop scenes, the city skyline is added via green screen even though, you know, getting to the rooftop of an NYC building is fairly easy for a movie crew to do. Add in a bizarre sex scene where Tommy appears to get freaky with his female co-star’s stomach of all places and yeah, you’ve got a bomb that later became a cult classic, just because people have so much fun goofing on it.
Tommy Wiseau was over the hill, odd and awkward, using an accent no one could quite place, but somehow he teamed up with a much younger acting class student to get his movie made.
Yes, his movie sucked but then again, here’s a question for you. Where’s your movie? Yes, Tommy’s movie sucked the big sucker, but he can say he made a movie. You should also strive to make a good movie but getting the movie made is half the battle.
James Franco’s, “The Disaster Artist” tells the story of how “The Room” was made. Honestly, I don’t think I have 2 hours to devote to watching the room. There are “worst of the Room” clips on YouTube that tell me what I need to know. Somehow, this movie about the movie looks like it will be good.
I always like it when an underdog somehow comes out ahead. Ironically, this film will probably give Wiseau more fame than the sucky film he made.
The Logan Brothers (Channing Tatum as Jimmy and Adam Driver as Clyde) hail from a family with a long string of bad luck. They believe they are cursed, destined to always be poor, broke, miserable, and never, ever happy.
Jimmy slaves away in a West Virginia coal mine only to be fired over a limp his company’s insurance carrier wants nothing to do with. He barely sees his daughter because his ex-wife, Bobbie Jo (Katie Holmes), traded up and married a richer man. Clyde tends bar and laments the loss of his arm while he was serving in Iraq.
In short, they are fed up and want better. Well, Jimmy does. Clyde does too but he’s not interested in breaking the law, but ultimately does to make his brother happy. From thereon, the brothers devise a scheme to rob the box office of a Nascar race.
First, they’ll have to bust veteran safe blower-upper Joe Bang (Daniel Craig) out of prison, no easy feat. I have to admit, I was a little bummed as the promos for the film made it look like Craig was the star, whereas he’s a side character. He’s a very interesting side character and ultimately, it’s kind of fun to watch a British man who is so British he was tapped to play James Bond morph into an angry redneck.
Overall, the movie is full of wit and comedy, giving us a glimpse of what life is like for poor, downtrodden Southern folk. Seth MacFarlane has a cameo as a British billionaire who sponsors a race car but doesn’t know the first thing about racing and just comes across as a dick.
While I did like the movie, I have some complaints. There’s a lot going on and I’m not sure I understood half of it. There are a lot of leaps…a lot of planning and you wonder why people are doing things. Sometimes you find out…sometimes I’m not sure if we find out or if I missed it.
There are some plot holes. For example, Tatum, long suffering over the loss of his wife yet having to show up to her new husband’s mansion and accept he will never be half as good a provider, has a brief flirtation with a doctor. SPOILER – the relationship never blooms and I mean…why? My only guess is that the actress playing the doctor was, well…she was pretty but real life pretty, not Hollywood pretty…I can only assume Channing Tatum has a rule that he must only kiss Hollywood hot chicks. (Probably not a rule but it would be funny if he did.)
The movie runs a bit long. Hillary Swank is introduced towards the end to wrap up a pointless investigation that goes nowhere. She feels almost wasted as a character. Ultimately, I’m left confused about a lot of things, as well as the future of the characters.
Even so, it made me laugh enough and think enough that I can recommend it.
When I was a kid, I loved the “Rampage” video game. It was popular as an arcade game and later they made console versions. You played as your choice of a giant ape, lizard, or werewolf and you made your character climb buildings, bash them, eat people, complete mayhem and destruction. It was all very cartoonish with humor, i.e. you could eat people while they were sitting on the toilet. Your character was usually a human that turned into a monster, so if you were injured, you’d turn into a human without clothes and slink away embarrassed.
With the occasional exception, video game based movies usually suck. So, when I heard they were making a “Rampage” video game, I thought Hollywood was really scraping the bottom of the barrel. I mean, the game was fun, but it was pretty mindless and devoid of any plot whatsoever.
Then I saw the trailer and I have to admit, it looks pretty awesome. Partly because they went all out with the special effects, but mostly because of the Rock. From GI Joe to Fast and Furious, The Rock saves all.
Well, it only took two years and four films, but Warner Brothers has finally figured out a winning formula.
BQB here with a review of “Justice League.”
Character development. It’s what the Marvel Cinematic Universe excelled at and what Warner Brothers failed at, even though the winning formula was clear – make a bunch of films starring the individual heroes, then make films starring the heroes working together…repeat.
Warner Brothers went a different way in March of 2016 with the pathetic flop that was “Batman vs. Superman.” Technically, they started with “Man of Steel” years back, though at the time it didn’t appear as though there was an intention for that particular version of Superman to stick around…as far as I know anyway.
In B v S, we were flashed quick versions of Batman and Wonder Woman. The plot was hacky, like Man of Steel, it was riddled with product placement, and Lex Luthor, greatest villain of all time, was turned into a nerdy wiener played by Jesse Eisenberg.
While critics despised “Suicide Squad,” I enjoyed it, though looking back on it, I’m not sure it really capitalized on its main asset – Harley Quinn. A Joker and Harley movie is long overdue.
Bottomline – Marvel’s characters weren’t as well known to general audiences. Thus, Marvel/Disney was able to make an Iron Man flick, a Hulk flick, a Captain America flick, a Thor flick, an Avengers flick, then press repeat, minus the Hulk flick because the green guy just can’t carry a film on his own, sadly.
But the character development in the individual flicks always paid off in the Avengers flicks. We would see the individual characters suffer and face their demons and then come together as a team.
DC’s cross to bear was that prior to this attempt to copy Marvel, Batman and Superman had been done umpteen million times. However, while I still maintain that audiences didn’t need another origin story for Batman or Superman, there could have been a film to introduce us to this grittier, older, depressed version of Batman starring Ben Affleck. We didn’t need to see Bruce Wayne’s parents get capped after a night at the theater for the 1000th time, but it would have been nice to have seen a film where we jump into the new Batman’s world and see what he’s all about. For example, a Batman vs. Joker and Harley film could have done just that.
Meanwhile, “Man of Steel” was yet another Superman origin film and as Supes and Zod punched their way through 7-11 signs and IHOP restaurants, the whole thing felt very forgettable.
June of this year’s “Wonder Woman” was Warner’s first critically acclaimed hit. Wonder Woman has appeared in TV form before in the 1970s, but generally, she wasn’t as well known as Bats and Supes, so Warner had a chance to introduce her and tell us what she’s about.
Thus, in “Justice League,” the main continuity payoffs come from references to the earlier “Wonder Woman” film whereas references to B v S made me want to hurl, as I’m still doing all I can to forget that epic fail of a film.
Honestly, I feared that character development was not Warner’s forte. It felt like they were rushing these films out, not taking their time, that we were a bunch of chimps who would put our butts into the seats no matter what so they just cared about money and not plot or telling us what made the characters tick.
Thus, it felt to me like “Justice League” was destined to fail. We were introduced to new Batman and new Superman, albeit poorly, and we were introduced to Wonder Woman well, but introducing us to the Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg all in the same film and somehow making us care about them seemed like a tall order and yet…they pulled it off.
Ray Fisher plays Cyborg/Victor Stone with just the right amounts of anger and sadness. Cyborg, a young man rebuilt as part-man but mostly machine by his scientist father, views himself as an abomination, subject to the will of the technology that controls him, tech that he has little control over himself. He must overcome self-hatred to serve a higher purpose.
Ezra Miller provides much needed comic relief as The Flash/Barry Allen. The Flash has appeared on TV in the 1990s to not so great results, though a more recent return to TV faired better. There were a variety of ways the film could have gone with Flash but here, they decided to go with an accidental bumbler. Hit by lightning, the kid can now run really fast. At the time of this film, he’s foiled a few petty crooks with his feet of fury, but he’s never gone toe to toe with a big bad and that leaves him scared shitless. He devours entire pizzas in one sitting without gaining weight because his top speeds leave his body depleted and a scene where he thinks he’s about to shine only to realize Superman can run as fast as he can is the highlight of the film.
I was on the fence with Jason Mamoa’s “Aquaman.” Aquaman, long panned as the lamest Justice League member due to his power of talking to fish, has always been a long haul to bring home. After all, the cartoon version featured Aquaman riding two dolphins under his feet as if they were water skis. Here, Aquaman is portrayed as a gritty merman, unsure of why he was cast out of Atlantis and left to protect a seaside community. This Aquaman is very “Point Break-ish,” an extreme adventurer type, enjoying badassery, boastful of his manliness and so on. I had mixed feelings about him throughout the film until a humorous scene with Wonder Woman won me over.
As in any film, there are flaws. Bruce Wayne doesn’t seem to give a shit about revealing himself as Batman to every new team member he meets, though I suppose if he’s going to work with these people, he has to. Also, the plot revolves around finding three boxes that hold the power to global destruction before the villain Steppenwolf (Ciaran Hinds) can. Something about those boxes made me think about Marvel’s tesseract, though I suppose similarities between comic worlds are inevitable. There’s only so much of this shit that can be done before it all seems to mold together.
Ultimately, it’s a good ride. Would independent Flash, Cyborg and Aquaman films helped? Maybe…maybe not. Honestly, I worried about that going into the film but somehow the movie manages to give us just the right amount of back story for these three heroes – not too much, not too little – perhaps independent films would have been overkill. Now that we’ve given small doses of them to see what makes them tick, we might root for them more independently.
Amazingly, the movie finally even gets Superman right. Superman has always been a tough one. He’s the ultimate boy scout who does no wrong and basically has no flaws, so its hard to relate to him. Further, even though he can fight like anything and survive, Hollywood rarely pits him against foes worth his time. Superman shines here, though I think long term, the franchise will suffer because of the earlier decision to let Eisenberg play a geeky version of Lex Luthor rather than go with the traditional comic book version were Lex is the ultimate cunning badass.
Good story. Good plot. Good characters. It had heart and humor. I finally care about these characters. It took awhile, but WB finally got it right.
Bookshelf Battle 