The first full-length trailer for Justice League left so little impression with me that I actually had to go back through our archives to see if the trailer had even come out yet. It came out in March and I COVERED IT. The trailer was BAD. So bad that my mind promptly deleted it from my memory bank. Here’s the trailer again:
It’s just so bad. The trailer didn’t bring any good buzz for Justice League, and it seems like Warner Bros wasn’t too happy about it either. “It” being… the trailer, the film, the direction, the story, everything. So in an exclusive new story, Splash Report says that WB has poured money into an endless series of reshoots. You can read the Splash Report story here. Some highlights:
“Serious reshoots.” The reshoots are not just for a few scenes, or a few action sequences that didn’t quite work out. The reshoots are described as “serious” and “significant.” Their source said “that in the 17 months between the start of principal photography and the final cut arriving in theaters in November that the film will have essentially been “remade…twice.”
WB is pouring money into this. It’s a good money-after-bad situation because WB doesn’t want to admit that they never should have put this franchise into Zack Snyder’s hands, basically. Now WB is on the hook and they really need Justice League to deliver, especially given the lackluster critical response to Batman vs. Superman. Splash Report’s source claims that WB put so much money into BvS that most of the box office receipts were just covering production costs, and that “Warner Bros. actually made more money off of Suicide Squad than they did on the epic first-ever cinematic confrontation between Batman and Superman. Yes, that other 2016 DC release brought the studio $158 million.”
WB kept bringing in more and more people. I don’t really care about all of these details, but the basic gist is that WB wanted Snyder to have handlers and one of those handlers was Ben Affleck, which I’m sure worked out great! Then WB just kept on bringing in more people and they all said different things and thus, crazy reshoots.
Jason Momoa’s schedule. Momoa officially wrapped on Justice League last summer, but sources say he’s spent much of the past year in reshoots and it’s shredded his schedule. Plus, his own stand-alone Aquaman movie has gotten pushed back too.
More reshoots are coming. Like, WB still isn’t done reworking this movie. They have more reshoots planned for the coming months.
This is not giving me faith that Wonder Woman is going to be the amazing experience I had been hoping it would be. If they’ve f–ked up Justice League this badly, what hope does WW have? But seriously, a lot of people at Warner Bros. need to lose their jobs. Enough.
Photos courtesy of WENN, promotional images courtesy of Warner Bros.
Momoa’s looks and Ezra’s talent deserve better than this.
It does fully encapsulate the spectacular mediocrity of Afleck’s ability to act versus the hype about him acting.
Wonder Woman is not a mess like say Batman v Superman, Suicide Squad or say how bad Justice League will be and that is all thanks to Patty Jenkins BUT it’s the same problems. The action scenes are too dark so you can’t see much, the editing/story looks like someone else interfered with it. It’s just not good. I feel like these directors make the films and then Warner Bros gets someone to edit them and they become a huge mess. Wonder Woman is probably on the level of Man of Steel, in my opinion. It’s just there and not really memorable, to be honest. I just find it baffling that Disney Marvel can put out 2-3 really good comic book films a year, Fox has managed to put out some really good ones (Deadpool, Days of Future Past and Logan) too in the last couple years and yet Warner Bros can’t make ONE single good one. The last good comic book film they put out was from Nolan’s Batman trilogy and that was more Christopher Nolan being a great film maker than Warner Bros having anything to do with it. Sad.
Miles, do you think it has to do with casting? MARVEL always does such a good job with this. I always say when you can see great Shakespearean actors playing heroes and villains, it’s never a bad thing.
I think WB has too many cooks in the kitchen. When you hire a director, you need to have faith, step back and let them do their jobs. I do think some of it is casting but much is too many opinions on the direction the film should take.
Also they need to stop making these films so dark (emotionally and light-wise.) The reason Thor, Avengers, even Deadpool work is there is humor amongst the action. It’s a damn comic book, lighten up a little!
I think casting IS a part of it. I think Marvel has done an excellent job in finding actors who truly embody the characters that they’re playing. For example, there is no one I’d see as Iron Man besides RDJ, no one I would see as Wolverine besides Hugh Jackman, no one I would see as Deadpool besides Ryan Reynolds….the list goes on and on. I do think Warner Bros has made some good casting choices. I think Margot Robbie was excellent as Harley Quinn and I think Will Smith was a really good Deadshot, but then you also find out for example that in Suicide Squad they were really really trying to get Blake Lively to play Enchantress and it’s like but why? I just don’t get the same feeling with their acting choices as I do in regards to the actors that Marvel gets to play their characters. Having said all of that….it’s clear that whoever is running WB doesn’t get the DC comics and is interfering with these films and isn’t allowing the film makers to just make their films. Where as at Disney/Fox(in recent years for Fox)….they have allowed the folks who get the characters to make the films. That’s why they’re movies are good and do extremely well. So it truly goes beyond just the casting, which is a part of it…but just a small part.
Miles, thanks for the reply. You make an excellent point. If there is no overall vision for a film, it does not work.
I think it has less to do with casting and more to do with Zack Snyder. Dude’s an epic hack, and his involvement spells disaster for any future movies.
“Wonder Woman is probably on the level of Man of Steel,…”
Which is why it is so bizarre that WB didn’t/isn’t learning from their OWN mistakes, along with Disney/Marvel’s success. With MoS, BvS, & SS one (of many) complaint was pretty much across the board: TOO DARK . Yet here we are w/ the overuse of desaturation & darkness AGAIN w/ WW & JL:DoJ. Ridiculous. These reshoots are probably because of Geoff Johns (an actual succesful DC WRITER, creator of the wildly successful 52 series) taking over and trying to redeem the otherwise unredeemable…
Wasn’t word already in the pipeline that WW was not good in some sort of letter by a disgruntled ex-employee?
To be fair to Patty Jenkins and company, that employee said all of that stuff very early on. Having said that, there is some truth to what that ex-employee said. But yes, Wonder Woman is dark. And I don’t mean dark in tone…I mean it lacks color. I think you can make a mature comic book film without taking all the color out of the film. Look at Logan. Even Suicide Squad, a film that was supposed to be upbeat, was dark…dark to the point where I didn’t know what the heck was going on during the action scenes. Wonder Woman is similar to that…but like I said it’s not a disaster or a mess. It’s a serviceable comic book film, but it’s not on the level of any of the Marvel films and it’s clear that there really is no clear cut vision.
For all the crap Suicide Squad gets, it is the one DC film I actually went to. I thought it was fun and had some moments of lightness and humor. They can reshot this a third time and it still won’t get my money because the whole DC look is dark and depressing. Real life is depressing enough, I don’t need to go see a downer movie where everyone growls at each other.
Snyder can’t adapt a comic to the silver screen? I . Am. Shocked.
Affleck needs some mascara
Or a bigger back tattoo.
WB needs to
1.) put these films out at a slower pace as Disney/Marvel did and build the universes slowly and develop the characters (i.e. DON’T put a bunch of mostly c-list villains together in one film and expect audiences to care about them without having built them up in other films!)
and
2.) stop trying so hard to make their films the antitheses to the Marvel films. You can’t really take a guy who flies around in blue and red underwear THAT seriously, after all. Liven the films up, for chrissake.
Oh, also dump Snyder.
And from a superficial standpoint, Ezra is way too pretty to play Flash.
I will for sure see Wonder Woman since I’ve loved her since I was a little girl, and I will definitely see Justice League because my husband, Jason Momoa, is in it, but I don’t have high hopes for either film. Putting Snyder at the helm was *not* a good idea. Why is it they can’t seem to do DC properly? Marvel manages to put out quality (ish) movies.
Guess that’s why they’re bringing in Joss Whedon. Snyder can’t get a read on this universe to save his life and Geoff Johns isn’t helping much either.
No worries for these guys. The majority of them are white men, and they’ll never not have chances. It’s Wonder Woman we should worry about. If that fails, they’ll use it as an excuse to curtail any future female-driven projects.
I’m a little less worried about the prospects of future female-led superhero flicks even if WW bombs, since DC’s films have all been lousy, and have all included involvement from Snyder. If it were the one bomb among a group of wonderful films, then yeah, I’d be worried.
When will people realize Affleck is ruining this story. Get HIM OUT!
This should be the moment where I say something like; to be fair huge sections of the Force Awakens and Rogue One were reshot and both turned out good to great (opinions will vary)…..but nope sorry, this is WB and DC movies, I have zero faith this will turn out well.
Just don’t screw up Wonder Woman too badly…please!!
Lol that was literally my first thought when I heard about Rogue One/TFA reshoots – Disney, unlike WB, knows what they’re doing and Hack Snyder isn’t part of Star Wars, thank god.
Seriously, you’d think WB could learn their damn lesson and fire him already instead of going back for more of the same.
Fatfleck is the worst-looking Batman we’ve ever had. He’s an embarrassment to the brand.
Of course it needs reshoots, because Warner Bros was never interested in truly mapping out a real cinematic universe in the vein of Marvel. They just wanted a piece of the Marvel Money Pie. But they have absolutely no vision for any of their DC movies.
Whereas, the DC TV shows, OTOH actually DO have thought and creativity behind them.
As someone who has been a DC fan since she was little (and was never into Marvel, and still isn’t for the most part), the whole trainwreck that has been the DC Cinematic Universe has been both heartbreaking and angering to watch.
Wonder Woman actually looks good based on the trailer. It looks like there’s actually a storyline. I think Justice League has problems because the studio, etc are more interested in action scenes than making a good movie. Plus things can get tricky with ensembles – doing multiple storylines, giving all of the characters enough screen time, etc. But Marvel has done well in producing solid movies.