Whedon Works Wonders

There's hope for the DC Extended Universe: Justice League is a fun movie to watch

Justice League is a solid 7.5 out of 10.

Courtesy photo

Editor's Note: ESPN97.5's Jong Lee, who co-hosts the popular podcast, Comicast, which discusses news and rumors from the world of comic books and movies, got a sneak preview of the new Justice League movie and offers this analysis.

“What’s the ‘S’ stand for? It’s not an ‘S.’ In my world, it means ‘hope.’” We finally have a glimmer of hope in the DC Extended Universe.

For a long time, the DCEU has been struggling to find some footing. Man of Steel was okay, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice wasn’t great, and Suicide Squad was horrendous. Wonder Woman was a pleasant surprise but isn’t anything near the best of what the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been producing for the past 10 years.

The best way to describe Justice League is fun. It's a fun movie to watch. It’s not a movie that will go down as one of the best 10 comic book movies of all time, but it’s nowhere near the bottom. In the ranking of all the DCEU movies, I place it second after Wonder Woman. For people who didn’t enjoy Wonder Woman, this may be your favorite DC movie to date.

My biggest gripe going into the movie was "How do you introduce three new characters into a universe and develop a good plot?" Well, gee willikers, Batman, DC got it right.

For all the negative comments I had against director Zack Snyder for Batman V Superman, he did a great job with Justice League. The pacing of the movie is much better than Batman V Superman, the character develop is good (not great) and the clutter was cut out. In fairness, I don’t know how much Snyder was involved in post-production. Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon was brought on board to finish Justice League after Snyder stepped down when his daughter passed away. Whedon scheduled a fair amount of reshoots and Warner Brothers mandated a two-hour run time for the flick. And it works.

Justice League starts off with a bang and takes you through much needed character development for Aquaman, The Flash and Cyborg. As we get to learn about the characters, the movie picks up with fight set pieces that are action-packed but concise, although it does seem a little formulaic as the movie progresses.

Ezra Miller's Flash brings a lot of levity to the movie as he absolutely steals every scene he’s in. He’s the perfect complement to the seriousness of Batman and Superman. Jason Momoa’s Aquaman has his moments as well, but he comes across more like a brooding badass with a few one-liners more than a comedic character. Ray Fisher’s Cyborg is vital to the success of the team, but he doesn't stand out, although he wasn’t a drag on any character development or plot.

There are a few misses in the movie. Some of the computer graphics aren't great. Without getting too much into spoilers, there’s one particular scene that really bothered me and you’ll definitely be able to see it.

Steppenwolf is a decent villain, but as someone who is supposed to be one of the strongest villains in DC, he falls a little short. He starts with a bang but finishes with a whimper. Batman's role also could have been written a little better. He's the type of character who's always a step ahead of everyone. He has his moments throughout the movie but comes up a little short during key scenes.

Justice League is a solid 7.5 out of 10. Go watch it in theaters, but it's not a must-watch opening weekend.

Final Note: There’s one mid-credit scene and a post-credit scene. Both have Whedon written all over them and both are worth staying an extra five minutes to see.

Catch the latest Comicast podcast, where Justice League is the center of attention:

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Movie Review

Meta-comedy remake Anaconda coils itself into an unfunny mess

Photo by Matt Grace

Jack Black and Paul Rudd in Anaconda.

In Hollywood’s never-ending quest to take advantage of existing intellectual property, seemingly no older movie is off limits, even if the original was not well-regarded. That’s certainly the case with 1997’s Anaconda, which is best known for being a lesser entry on the filmography of Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez, as well as some horrendous accent work by Jon Voight.

The idea behind the new meta-sequel Anaconda is arguably a good one. Four friends — Doug (Jack Black), Griff (Paul Rudd), Claire (Thandiwe Newton), and Kenny (Steve Zahn) — who made homemade movies when they were teenagers decide to remake Anaconda on a shoestring budget. Egged on by Griff, an actor who can’t catch a break, the four of them pull together enough money to fly down to Brazil, hire a boat, and film a script written by Doug.

Naturally, almost nothing goes as planned in the Amazon, including losing their trained snake and running headlong into a criminal enterprise. Soon enough, everything else takes second place to the presence of a giant anaconda that is stalking them and anyone else who crosses its path.

Written and directed by Tom Gormican, with help from co-writer Kevin Etten, the film is designed to be an outrageous comedy peppered with laugh-out-loud moments that cover up the fact that there’s really no story. That would be all well and good … if anything the film had to offer was truly funny. Only a few scenes elicit any honest laughter, and so instead the audience is fed half-baked jokes, a story with no focus, and actors who ham it up to get any kind of reaction.

The biggest problem is that the meta-ness of the film goes too far. None of the core four characters possess any interesting traits, and their blandness is transferred over to the actors playing them. And so even as they face some harrowing situations or ones that could be funny, it’s difficult to care about anything they do since the filmmakers never make the basic effort of making the audience care about them.

It’s weird to say in a movie called Anaconda, but it becomes much too focused on the snake in the second half of the film. If the goal is to be a straight-up comedy, then everything up to and including the snake attacks should be serving that objective. But most of the time the attacks are either random or moments when the characters are already scared, and so any humor that could be mined all but disappears.

Black and Rudd are comedy all-stars who can typically be counted on to elevate even subpar material. That’s not the case here, as each only scores on a few occasions, with Black’s physicality being the funniest thing in the movie. Newton is not a good fit with this type of movie, and she isn’t done any favors by some seriously bad wigs. Zahn used to be the go-to guy for funny sidekicks, but he brings little to the table in this role.

Any attempt at rebooting/remaking an old piece of IP should make a concerted effort to differentiate itself from the original, and in that way, the new Anaconda succeeds. Unfortunately, that’s its only success, as the filmmakers can never find the right balance to turn it into the bawdy comedy they seemed to want.

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Anaconda is now playing in theaters.

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