DCEU

 In previous entries I have done in depth reviews of Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice.  Since then I have seen some, though not all of the subsequent DCEU films but want to present some quick thoughts here.  If the MCU did not exist, these films might have a different tone but since the MCU is out there and each film has its own voice but feels part of a connected universe the DCEU can't help but be influenced by it even if it is to move away from it.  DC has some very rich and while overall I do not agree with Zach Snyder's dark interpretation of them, particularly Superman, he has made some good casting choices.  Note, I have not seen all of the films but here I offer some brief remarks on the ones I have.  Also, while I saw Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman in the cinema of the ones below I have only Wonder Woman 1984 on the big screen.

Spoilers below:

Suicide Squad (2016)

Full disclosure, I watched a half hour of this film on a plane and turned it off so I cannot offer a full review.  I found the characters repellant, overly wacky and completely uninteresting and could not give it any more time.  

Wonder Woman (2017)

Most would agree Wonder Woman is the jewel of this franchise and I will not disagree.  Director Patty Jenkins, shows us the young Diana Prince in her island of Themyscira, which is populated only by women before bringing her to the mainland during World War I alongside Allied pilot Steve Trevor and getting involved in the war effort to stop an old enemy Ares, who is developing a mustard gas.  

Gail Gadot is perfectly cast, with her slightly exotic look and accent projecting both strength and a little naiveté until she finds her voice, in a powerful sequence in which she enters No Man's Land.  Gadot's Diana is kind, caring, but also brave and determined.   She is a little out of place at first on the mainland but never appears foolish.  She blends perfectly with Chris Pine, who of course has headlined many films, most notably the rebooted Star Trek films so he is right at home in this action fantasy setting, as a rebellious but decent solider.  Connie Nielsen plays Queen Hippolyta, Diana's mother who has to be convinced to allow Diana to be trained as a warrior.  At the time I saw this I was immersed the House of Cards series where Robin Wright was playing the Machiavellian Claire Underwood.  It was a shock to suddenly see her as Diana's aunt Antiope, a veteran Amazonian fighter with a heavy accent who has a lot in common with Diana.   

The setting allows for some spy sequences and Diana learns to assimilate into Western society, which helps her after the film.  I did not expect the film to have such a powerful love story but it really drives the film and Diana then has to face off with Ares right after his death.  The final fight has a little too much CGI for me but in all aspects Wonder Woman is a winner.  ****

Justice League (2017)

The follow-up to Batman v. Superman, which began shooting soon after the release of that film, went through a metamorphous similar to Superman II in that it was largely shot but one director, reworked by another after the original left, and then a later original version surfaced.  Zach Snyder filmed this story about Bruce Wayne and Diana Prince recruiting Aquaman, Cyborg and Flash into the team in 2016, Warner Brothers, stung by the criticism of the darkness of Batman v. Superman, hired Joss Whedon, writer/director of the first two Avengers films, to rescript some scenes to lighten it up after seeing an early cut.  Snyder and his producer wife Deborah had to leave the film after a family tragedy and Whedon reshot several scenes and added some banter similar to some of the Avengers films.  The biggest changes supposedly were to Henry Cavill's resurrected Superman scenes.  While the reshoots were taking place in mid 2017 Cavill was filming Mission Impossible: Fallout in which he has a moustache and a half grown beard, which had to be removed digitally.  While watching the film I did not try figure out which scenes had a digital face and which were real but I figured the end, in which Superman races Flash, was probably a Whedon moment.  

The film had bad reviews, calling it mismash with forced levity mixing with the otherworldly threat of Ciaran Hinds' Steppenwolf.  For that reason I skipped it and watched it on TV a year or so later.  When I saw it I enjoyed the opening video of Superman as a slightly more optimistic character than had appeared until now, the bleak Leonard Cohen song covered by Sigrid over the opening credits, the character of Flash and the moments in which Lois and Martha reunite with Superman after he comes back.  Danny Elfman's score had some nice reprises of his own score for Batman (1989) and John Williams The Superman March.  I disliked Bruce manipulating Diana with Steve's death, and felt JK Simmons was underused as Commissioner Gordon. Overall I found the film a little sloppy and a little short for all the work and money that had clearly gone into it but the positives outweighed the negatives so I narrowly give it ***.

Aquaman (2018)

Jason Mamoa's Aquaman gets his own story of a man caught between his heritage in the sea and trying to protect the world from his own half brother who wishes to united Four Kingdoms by force in director James Wan's film that seems to throw every outlandish idea into the mix.  I only caught up with this one about a year or so ago.  When I looked into it I saw this film was actually by far the most successful of all the DCEU films having made over $1.1 billion, nearly twice what Justice League grossed.  The film is embraces its wacky premise in the opening scene in which Nicole Kidman's Atlanna has a very unconventional meet cute with Temuera Morrison (who is not often cast as romantic leads) which leads to the birth of Arthur.

Wan clearly recognizes that it is difficult to take a film with characters named Orm, Nuidis Vulko, and Nereus seriously and embraces the fun with his colorful production design and over the top action sequences.  Momoa looks a lot different than the pale skinned short haired blond from the Superfriends cartoon but he seems like someone who has lived near the water.  Amber Heard is fine as Mera, Arthur's romantic partner in the film, but the real love story is the one between Arthur's parents.  While he does not seems to have great depth as a performer he has a jovial charisma and an intense physicality that makes him fun to watch.  Willem Dafoe grounds the film as Arthur's mentor, even though he looks odd in his Atlantean costume.  Patrick Wilson, as King Orm, is cast against type as a supervillain, and seems out of place here but he has worked with Wan in the Purge films.  Dolph Lundgren, who was onscreen at the same time in Creed II, as is both fun and a secondary threat as King Nereus, who is being duped by Orm.  Julie Andrews lends her fantastic voice to a leviathan named Karathen.  Graham McTavish from Outlander is well cast as King Atlan, and looks the part with his demeanor and thick beard.

The film has some good, if violent, moments such as when Aquaman and Mera are attacked by Black Mamba in Sicily, the fight on the submarine, and the moments in which Aquaman and Mera fight off the Trench creatures.  I also liked that Aquaman does not fight the leviathan but manages to reason with it.  I never doubted that Arthur would find Atlanna alive and while I enjoyed Nicole Kidman in the part, she is a little young to play the mother of Patrick Wilson and Momoa (but did need to be young enough to handle the fighting in the early scenes and be the mother of a baby).    

Aquaman is a wild time in the cinema and is committed to its tone while not everything works, it is worth the viewer's time.  ***

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

This film brought back director Patty Jenkins and adds Kristin Wiig and Pedro Pascal play Barbara Minerva (who becomes the Cheetah) and Max Lord, respectively.  

The 1980s, which are remembered as the "Decade of Greed", is a good setting to take advantage of the fact that Diana ages far more slowly than other characters.  The theme of the film of people being able to indulge their every wish but at a huge price fits perfectly with that time. It is nearly seventy years after the events of the first film but over thirty before she meets the Justice League.  Diana is mature and content but lonely not only from the loss of Steve but her other friends from that time.   

The film has a problem with its tone and distribution of screen-time.  There are two villains and Barbara is by far the more interesting but Pascal's huckster dominates the film and the character is overplayed and many of his scenes are too long.  Max Lord's power grows exponentially and the film gets nasty in its tone in the second half.  It is also unbelievable that Wonder Woman manages to convince everyone in the world to give up their wishes.  If the story could have been worked to show less Max Lord and more of the effect on Barbara instead it would have been an improvement.

Wonder Woman 1984 does have many strengths though.  The opening sequence with the training games is superb.  The mall, a staple of the 1980s, provides for an exciting introductory Wonder Woman rescue.  Diana's polite resistance of Max's salesy attitude which is clearly working wonders on Barbara who likes the attention, shows how mature Diana has become.  The friendship between Diana and Barbara is nice and they both benefit from it.  The return of Steve and the resumption of that relationship is wonderfully handled.  Steve now being the one out of place contrasts nicely with Diana in the first film.  The scene where they fly the invisible jet is romantic and the scenes in the desert and particularly the White House where Diana is overpowered because she is losing her powers have an extra level of danger, apart from just the setting.  Their dawning awareness that Steve's presence is preventing Diana from solving this escalating crisis gives the White House fight extra stakes since we know if they fail it will be proof that Diana will probably have to let Steve go.

Many strong elements contribute to the success of that scene which we knew was coming in some form  since Steve was referenced as still being dead in Justice League.  The staging of the scene is extremely well thought out.  Steve is helping Diana, who is hurt after the White House battle.  The chaos in the street shows how vulnerable the situation is.  Steve needs Diana to make the decision.  He compassionately convinces her to let him go by reminding her that he probably should not even be there.  Diana's never says it out loud but Galdot expresses her acceptance through with her anguish by her tears, touching Steve's face and not looking at Steve as she leaves him.  Jenkins frames the shot of Diana literally leaving Steve behind as her powers come back and Diana literally runs through her emotions.  Hans Zimmer's use of the strings, solemn vocals, and brass give the scene an immense heartbreaking power that gets me every time.  

There is one troubling element with Steve's return that is never fully addressed.  Steve takes over another man's body.  The world would see this other man but Diana and the audience only see Steve.  It is not clear if Diana sees Steve because she is the one who made the wish or because of her supernatural powers but the rest of the world would just see this other man with her.  Steve's occupying another body is in line with the theme that the wishes come with a heavy price, but both Steve and Diana seem to ignore the fact that to be together they are robbing another man of his life.  Nonetheless Diana has a pleasant exchange with the same man at the end showing that she is maybe ready to move on and let her memory of Steve recede, as he asked her to.

The third act starts off with a fantastic fight between Wonder Woman and Cheetah but spends far more time on another extended Max scene.  Then the denouement shows Max reconciling with his son which I could have cared less for.  I would like to give the film four stars for its many strengths but the presentation of Max, despite the charismatic Pascal's performance, lowers it to a ***.

Zach Synder's Justice League (2021)

The stars of Justice League and fans pushed for a cut of Zach Snyder's version to be released since the Whedon version came out in theatres.  Warner Brothers finally went to Snyder and Snyder agreed to do it only if he could finish up the effects.  Warner Brothers begrudgingly agreed and amazingly shelled out about $70 million more for a film they had lost money on and put the finished four hour cut on HBO Max where it presumably recouped its investment.

In the end I found this version to be slightly superior.  Characters such as Aquaman and particularly Cyborg are developed much further and a lot of the banter is dropped.  Batman seems purposeful in his attempt to resurrect Superman but not reckless.  The battle after Superman is revived ends with Lois choosing to step in as opposed to a plan of Batman's which feels more organic.  The scene in which Superman hears both his fathers and reconciles the two is powerful.    

The weaknesses are small though many.  Snyder spends a lot of time setting up future films and a scenario which we will never see since these group films have been cancelled.  Marvel is much better at dropping a few crumbs but ultimately focusing on the film we are here for instead of showing long scenes for a film whose details we might not remember even if it were made.  The scene showing the Joker in this film reaffirmed my choice to never watch Suicide Squad since he is so unappealing.  Also, some of the visual flourishes are drawn out too much such as Flash's slow motion when he saves Iris.  

Obviously if this had been released in cinemas it would have been much shorter unless it was designed to be Justice Leagues Part I and II.  But it is more true to tone and is pretty watchable if not great filmmaking.  ***

Going forward Warner Brother is focusing more on the individual characters than the group meetups.  I think that is a good choice.  They are more interesting apart than together and I look forward to Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, The Flash, and the next Wonder Woman film.