PART 2: The Age of Heroes
I like how the various threads are starting to build. We still only get a taste of Cyborg, but they're seeding in his connection to the Mother Box. Our intro to Silas Stone and STAR labs is good, and the tension moment with the janitor and the Parademon is effective. I'm pleased he was only captured instead of brutally slaughtered, though we still don't know what the conditions of that "capture" entail.
I see what people mean about Steppenwolf getting extra depth, but he's still a pretty one-note heavy for me. Yeah, he's tired of conquering and wants to return home, but is stuck in a loophole over some past betrayal. Okay, but I'm still not engaged in his story in any way, and him being shot down by a rock-o-gram of DeSaad is again pretty typical "henchman bullied into subservience" stuff.
I love the Aquaman sequence, saving the sailor and berating the seamen at the bar. You can argue the indulgence all you want of Arthur hammering a bottle of whisky as he walks into the massive waves in glorious slow motion as "There is a Kingdom" (yet more Nick Cave!) wails on the soundtrack, but damn is it a glorious moment that tells you all you need to know about Momoa's take on the character. Honestly, I'm surprised they had this scene play AFTER the earlier one of Bruce trying to recruit him, as his silhouette reveal on the sinking boat would make for a hell of a stronger introduction, and the recruitment scene ending with him slinking back into the waves as the local girls sing a shirt smelling ballad to him would have more impact if we'd already seen the ways he looks after this community.
When we go underwater, I like that the lush sealife and choral colors of Atlantis gel well with the James Wan spinoff film. While still a bit saturated, Snyder manages to convey warmth from his greens and blues, even as it's a home Aquaman keeps at bay, never poking in beyond the outskirts. Vulko showing up is typical hero's journey stuff, and I'm still not sure if a trident is still a trident when it has five prongs instead of three, but I guess it sounds better than quident. Still, well played by Dafoe.
Speaking of wailing on the soundtrack, Holkenborg is going for a lot of ambience in these early chapters, when I'm more used to melodic themes from him. Especially with the Amazons, with a woman's choir straight out of Hans Zimmer's Gladiator score. That one time during the museum scene where Wonder Woman's electric cello theme kicked in felt very sudden (if very welcome) because it was such a departure from the rest of the score, so I'm curious how this will play over the rest of the film. I remember Danny Elfman's score from the Whedon cut making strong use of established Batman and Superman themes. I doubt we'll get that here, but it's definitely a thread I want to keep watching for.
The scene of the Amazons does add the level of mourning it needs to reflect on the slaughter of their battle with Steppenwolf, mixed with their anxiety over crossing a line to reach out to manworld in a way they haven't for thousands of years. While it's a bit of Tomb Raider silliness, I enjoy Wonder Woman descending into an abyssal crypt where the arrow acts as a key to a chamber showing the entire story of Darkseid's past invasion, which she traverses without getting a smudge on her crisp white fashionable outfit.
I like this warmer personality of Bruce, which appears to not entirely be a reinvention of the Whedon cut. By shifting his obsessive commitment from defeating Superman to honoring him, he feels looser, challenging himself to open up and reach out to others more, when he could have just been wallowing in his guilt. Not only does this lead to more fun Alfred interplay, but I really like the partnership that's being forged with Diana as they put their heads together.
I loved the Age of Heroes backstory sequence in the theatrical cut, and I love it even more here. This is pure Snyder mythological iconography craftsmanship, and the mix of Amazons, Vikings, Mongols, Zulus, Atlanteans, and scaled up bodybuilder gods taking on a blend of alien scifi and sorcery straight out of a Leigh Brackett novel is such grandiose goodness. Darkseid is played well in his power and fury, as well as his defeat and humiliation. The Green Lantern bit continues to amuse, even with the added gore. It's a really exciting piece of filmmaking.
PART 3: Beloved Mother, Beloved Son
Enter Barry Allen. The Iris West sequence is really quite nice, with a lovely use of his powers (even if Iris should be shattering from such sudden changes to her momentum) and some great humor with the dogs. I very much enjoy Ezra Miller's take on Barry, as someone scattered, yet committed, who's still always late everywhere because he's constantly flinging himself in 100 different directions with a hyperactive desperation. The scene with Billy Crudup as his father is nice, giving us a fuel behind that desperation and his sense of justice. As a viewer of the Flash tv series, we've seen all these beats before, but there's nothing wrong with seeing them again, and this executes them well.
When Barry returns to his stronghold, I'm surprised how much of the dialogue between him and Bruce came from this original cut, as much of it has the bouncy wit I'd more typically expect of Whedon. Barry instantly signing on, saying he needs friends, my favorite exchange ("What's your superpower?" "I'm rich.") all sing just as well as they did in the theatrical version. I love that, of all the heroes, Barry isn't brooding over the fact he has powers. His conflict is that he's fighting a system which requires time and patience, which his powers can't push any faster. And while I wasn't originally a fan of his suit design, with it's busy and chaotic plates and straps, it's growing on me, and I like that Zack is allowing the red to be vibrant.
Cyborg finally gets his much celebrated fleshing out. Amidst all the slow mo football fetishization and brooding over absent fathers, I like how they slip in the revelation that he hacked the schools computer system, not to benefit himself, but to support a student struggling with issues outside of school. This will be a theme, him pulling for the underdog, even as he sees himself as a monster beneath them, who can't help himself, so he'll help who he can. As the accident happens and he loses his mom, suddenly becoming the main concern of the father who's unhurt just because he wasn't there, that's great stuff. Even then, Silas remains absent. He has so much he wants to teach his son about who Victor now is and can be, but the only way he can say it is by leaving behind a tape recorder instead of talking to his son face-to-face.
I have my concerns with just how uber powerful they've made Cyborg, giving him a near god level access to computer systems so he could bankrupt the world or wipe it out in a nuclear holocaust if he wanted. Yet, I like how this gives even more weight to their spin on "With great power comes great responsibility." In a sense, it's an echo of Pa Kent telling Superman to hold back, to not use his abilities, but it plays better here as it's a push for Victor to experiment and explore, but to hold himself to certain lines that could have apocalyptic consequences if he recklessly crosses them. And I like how this is illustrated, with him parsing through all the data, all the millions of people and billions of transactions which swirl through any given day, to focus on one woman, one waitress, struggling to raise her boys, with groceries she can't afford and an apartment she's being evicted from, even as she donates tip change to those who need it even more. His solution is a little pat and breezes over broader complications which could result from a sudden spike to her bank account, but I like that she's someone in Victor's area that he can see, that he can physically witness as the change he's capable of bringing to the world. I also like how this is all set against him learning how to fly for the first time, showing the many paths he's starting to take to become comfortable with who he is.
The confrontation with Diana is okay. The "f-bomb" felt overly snippy after the spurt of growth he'd just gone through, and Diana's story of Steve doesn't really parallel Victor's situation enough to be a motivator for changing his mind. No, it makes sense that he'd back off. It gets a bit weird with his hiding place of choice for the Mother Box being to dig up his own mother's grave, but the reversal of violating her ground almost kinda fits the reversal of him being motivated by the abduction of his absent father? I guess? It's strange.
The Atlantean thread is more Steppenwolf being Steppenwolf, splatting people against stones and hacking them to pieces, with Zack especially reveling in the under water blood clouds. Mera's powers are well used in how she thwarts Steppenwolf with air bubbles and collapsing vacuums, and I always love the body horror of peeling the water out of someone's body. Arthur's arrival gives us some more good Momoa shots, and despite some gripes I had abbout effects earlier, they're nailing everything in this chapter. The interplay between Arthur and Mera is nice, with her revelations setting up his spinoff film without feeling like too dangling of a thread.
Steppenwolf uses the two Mother Boxes to create the dome around the nuclear town he's hijacked in Russia, and I know people complain about Whedon's addition of the holed up family, but where are the people? Is this town uninhabited, or have the parademons already picked them clean? Diana and Alfred get a lovely scene with tea and Kryptonian tech, paralleling a thread in STAR labs, and I'm curious where this tech is going. There's a moment with Lois and Superman's cape, but it's brief. Still waiting for her grief to be more deeply explored. I like the scene with JK Simmons as Commissioner Gordon, doing a clever spin on media sightings of vampire bat men from Tim Burton's first film.
A lot happened this chapter, dancing around the various new teammates and furthering of our threads, but it legitimately is pulling together well. I'm engaged.
No comments:
Post a Comment