Film Review : "Justice League"

This Review may contain Spoilers- 

The tone of "Justice League"  matched the tone of D/C's comic output, though this is also the reason that I read Marvel not D/C. That is not to say there are not many D/C characters I like...my favorites being Super-man, Aqua-man, Swamp Thing,Hawk-man and Martian Man Hunter. The problem the comic books have is there is tons of senseless fight with page after page of people piling in with nothing to connect you to the humanity of the character. This is why Bat-man tends to work best on screen as he is just a human not so godlike you can not relate. This movie was not as abysmal as I though it might be going into it, the end befell the same problem Wonder -Woman face where it devolved into a mindless splash of CGI being vomited onto the screen.

The number one problem with the movie seemed to take place in post-production as the timing was off due to terrible editing the part that should have been condensed drug on and the films coolest moments were too short live. The chemistry of the characters forming this team was lacking because the only character who felt comfortable in the role was Henry's Super-man. He has now had three films to grow into it. Hands down the movies best moment was when he kicked the shit out Wonder-woman. The fights with Steppenwolfe who was an awful choice for a villain, all felt the same. You really didn't care about the outcome, they never felt like they were in peril aside from Super-man's outburst. Cy-borg as a character was as flat as it got. The actor who might have been hindered more than helped by the excessive CGI , did very little to compensate for this. Aqua-man might have been the most disappointing, as he was like a dumb bro rather than regal. The Flash was ok but felt like he was trying to hard, with both Bat-man and Wonder-Woman's characters feeling like the took a step backwards in their development. The big crawling Bat-mobile thing had to be one of the film's worst moments.

I am unsure where they added more Wonder-woman and could not really tell where they did the re-shoots, so maybe in doing so they lost the story they were trying to tell. The film might have been better served with the impostor Super-men showing up to take the throne, like Eradicator, though they would have been even more outclassed. I did like the little glimpse of a Green Lantern at the beginning, and wondered why was he omitted. Another female on the team like Hawk-Woman might have made sense . It's not like they were trying to really develop anyone aside from the big three and solo movies from Aqua-man and Cy-borg are bound to be huge flops. Mera's three seconds on screen was cool but pointless. It's clear unless it's Bat-man, Super-man or Wonder-woman, D/C can never touch Marvel on screen. 

Film Review : Thor Ragnarok

The third installment of the Thor movies is the most entertaining of the three, but is that really saying much considering how flawed the first two are. The first well Thor doesn’t have his powers most of the movie, the depowering route means the writers don’t know how to handle the character in their true form. The second movie was better to some extent though we had elves in space ships. The third film is fun , but has major problems. I am a huge Thor fan, I have the Walt Simonson Thor tattooed on me. So the bar is high, but I want to see Thor on screen. I like Chris as Thor, I think the script he has to work with most of the time leaves something to be desired.

Clearly this movie was following a blueprint laid out by the Guardians of the Galaxy films.As it tried to inject more humor into the story. To the point of making the Hulk come across like Drax when he was given something to do aside from smash. Sometimes this worked better than other, using the Hulk in a humorous context worked better on the first Avengers movie , if the Hulk was going to have a sense of humor which he is typically to angry to have one, it should be handled more like it was there. But of the movie’s problems this was actually the mildest one. I can understand on following the comic books frame for frame. When it comes to the actual Norse mythology, the comics have been more faithful to it than others , but have adhered to the basics, aside from obvious faults like turning Jane Foster in a Thor. I get that Valkyrie was not Brunhilde, though I did like the wink to her in the flashback sequence. The problem is Valkrie’s are not sworn to protect Asgard they are sworn to take dead warriors to Valhalla, pretty basic core stuff.

Another big plot fail is the fact Hel is the daughter of Loki, not his sister. OOPS, that pretty much pisses on the point of the movie. Toilet flushing inserted here. So with the basic premise being foolish, let's look at what I liked. Dr Strange being way more powerful was cool to see. I also liked Korg and Meik being included in the wink to the Greg Pak “Planet Hulk” storyline. Funny how it made it into this movie after having Beta Ray Bill replacing the Silver Surfer in the cartoon adaptation. Why Beta Ray Bill wasn’t in the movie I don’t know , while the Hulk is my favorite superhero I would have prefered Beta Ray Bill fighting Thor in the arena if we had to go that route. I thought Hel looked good and Skurge was fairly true to the character. The film leads us up to where Thor and Loki are going to fall into the Infinity War. We already know the Hulk buddies up with Rocket Racoon. So it’s too bad the Thor films never got it right , but at least this one was fun getting it wrong.