Mythobeast
just some guy, you know?
Title: Zack Snyder's Justice League
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction
Director: Zack Snyder
Cast: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, Ezra Miller, Ray Fisher, Amy Adams, Jeremy Irons, Connie Nielsen, Diane Lane, J.K. Simmons, Ciarán Hinds, Amber Heard, Joe Morton, Ray Porter, Jesse Eisenberg, Jared Leto, Willem Dafoe, Kiersey Clemons, Peter Guinness, Harry Lennix, Karen Bryson, Marc McClure, Sergi Constance, Michael McElhatton, Lara Decaro, Ryan Zheng Kai, David Thewlis, Samantha Jo, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Julian Lewis Jones, John Dagleish, Francis Magee, Doutzen Kroes, Brooke Ence, Hari James, Ann Ogbomo, Russell Crowe, C. Amanda Maud, Ágústa Eva Erlendsdóttir, Björt Sigfinnsdóttir, Salome R. Gunnarsdottir, Kristbjörg Kjeld, Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson, Védís Vífilsdóttir, Snæfríður Rán Aðalsteins, Charlotte Comer, Serene Angus, Anna Burgess, Alison Chang, Constance Bole, Shahla Ayamah, Chris Courtenay, Heather Imbeah, Carla Turner, Grace Cookey-Gam, Matthew Bates, Gary Reimer, Robbie Gee, Jim Sturgeon, Eleanor Matsuura, Anthony Wise, Jérôme Pradon, Richard Clifford, Rebecca C. Perfect, Vincent Riotta, Edward Mitchell, Mark Arnold, Martin Troakes, Aurore Lauzeral, Lucy Briers, David Mara, Wil Coban, Stewart Alexander, Christy Meyer, Granville Saxton, Gianpiero Cognoli, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, Kevin Mathurin, Joyce Veheary, Taylor James, Hadrian Howard, Victor Gardener, Bruce Chong, Orion Lee, Oliver Gatz, Rachel Blenkiron, Lynne Anne Rodgers, Oliver Powell, Kelly Burke, Keith Simpson, Omri Rose, Will Austin, William Atkinson, Sam Benjamin, Shalini Peiris, Carla Gugino, Adam Forman, Peter Brooke, Peter Henderson, Bruce Lester-Johnson, Katia Elizarova, Gemma Refoufi, Leila Reid, Suan-Li Ong, Tina Balthazar, Penny Lane, Stephanie Haymes-Roven, Gary A. Hecker, Steve West, Laura Waddell, Kevin Costner, Swaylee Loughnane, Robin Wright, Billy Crudup, Zack Snyder, Craig Douglas, Clem So, Greg Draven, Joe Manganiello, Nick McKinless
Release: 2021-03-18
Runtime: 242
Plot: Determined to ensure Superman's ultimate sacrifice was not in vain, Bruce Wayne aligns forces with Diana Prince with plans to recruit a team of metahumans to protect the world from an approaching threat of catastrophic proportions.
We watched the Zack Snyder Justice League on Friday. I think that this is a victory of artistic vision over studio bureaucratic idiocy. DC finally has a decent live-action movie, in spite of the people who own the rights to make such movies.
I particularly liked the expansion of Barry Allen's character. He no longer feels like a neurotic twit. Aquaman and Cyborg were too imo for my tastes, but that's just me. It meshed. It didn't have any thematic holes, and it all came together at the end.
However, it did spawn a new bit of terminology for me. Most of you have heard me talk about Fight Porn -- the kind of video that has just enough plot line to hold the fight scenes together. John Wick is, in my mind, the reigning champion in that category, and most superhero fiction falls into that genre.
The primary problem with fight porn is that things like romance and touchy-feely dives into the emotional realm are jarring. If they'd have inserted a long emotional exchange between John Wick and (anyone, really) that involved green scenery, horses, and white linen, it would have been immersion breaking.
Because I'm not the most reverent person in the world, I've decided to call this "twaddle." Twaddle is the slow parts that are needed to hold an action flick together. We often have conversations over the twaddle, simply because we know that it won't really impact our enjoyment of the fight scenes. We go and get a beverage when the twaddle drags on too long.
ZS's Justice League had a lot of twaddle. It wasn't bad, and the regular insertion of it built up the expectation that it would continue, but it was distracting. I think he might have thought that the conversation between Lois Lane and Martha Kent would be a good counterpoint to the action, but it dropped the emotional level too low for too long, creating a pacing problem in a movie that was four hours long.
