PART 6: "Something Darker"
Ah, so it IS an abandoned ghost town! So why the family then, Joss?
It would be interesting, just once, to see a filmmaker try to portray Superman through the Jewish iconography of his origins rather than the Christianity he's been glommed to since. Zack sure does lay it on thick, with the resurrected deity returning home with the Magdalene bride who witnessed his resurrection at the tomb to meet his "virgin" mother whose name begins with an M. It's lush, it's lyrical, it's mythic. But it's another man's myth. Tell Superman's own. Regarding the black suit, I don't understand why. I mean, I totally understand why, because Zack Snyder thinks it's cool. But this is the point where Clark has rediscovered himself, has returned to the world he died to save, is reasserting his place as protector and spreader of hope. This is when his mythic iconography is more important and necessary than ever, not an edgy makeover. I mean, granted, he does more brutalizing than hope-inspiring in the next half hour, so maybe it's not ill fitting.
They've had a thread running for a while of Batman's troop carrier which he and Alfred spend the bulk of the film toying on in the background in order to make it work. Victor is the one it needed, apparently, to sort out its software and "make it fly". Is this a necessary act on Victor's part given how much of the story already revolves around him and the huge role he'll play in the climax? Of all the things you could cut, that troop carrier thread is just begging for the scissors. At least when we're on the carrier, we get the nice sequence of the team warming up, which is a fun bonding moment.
The whole charge to battle is great, even if a lot of it is Batman again mowing down innocent mind-controlled parademons with machine guns, and other heroes slicing them in half or impaling them on debris with giant splats of blood. This movie loves its blood splats way too much. The heroes do make a good team and play off one another nicely while all getting their big moments to shine. I'm glad Aquaman still has a "My man!" in there and still gets to surf down the collapsing building. I like that Batman is the perimeter guy, taking down enemy defenses and turning the weapons against them. He has no ability to take on Steppenwolf, so he's just clearing the way.
Another big issue with Steppenwolf is there's no real strategy to combating him. He's just a big strong guy with a very straight-forward plan and motivation, and the only plan is for everyone to hit him as hard as they can before Superman shows up to hit him even harder. There's no real out-maneuvering, no out-thinking him. It's just punch, get punched, punch, get punched. And Superman is in pure "Paint is Zack" mode, with his eyes blazing, black suit rippling, just pounding the absolute snot out of Steppenwolf and slicing his armor and bits of him off. It's certainly not a reasserting of hope and inspiration. It's just brutality.
Whatever other issues I have, Flash and Victor get some beautiful focus in this climax. From Flash's massive buildup of energy, brutally interrupted by an injury, to Victor all set to do his part until the clock ticks too far and Unity is complete. Flashpoint is astonishing, with Flash witnessing the instant annihilation of everything, and pushing himself to literally reverse the flow of time; the city, the fortress, his friends literally rebuilding from their destruction. And I love how his moment instantly passes to Victor, entering the unity, confronted with the family life he'll never again have as he literally has to rip his lost family apart in order to separate the Mother Boxes, personified in their vision as literal mothers, literal witch-like crones of their sorcerous alien technology. This sequence alone is worth the entirety of this trilogy existing. Other scenes are too, but this was heads above the highlight of Zack's entire run, and I sincerely applaud him for it.
I love the opening of the final Boom Tube, with Darkseid and his horde (hi, Granny! Wish we had more of you!) gathered for the moment of his victory only to be handed the humiliation of his fallen grumper pupper and the death of his three mothers. I'm not sure why the Mother Boxes would be destroyed instead of just going into hibernation mode again, but ok. And Zack again revels in the spilled bodily fluids as Aquaman and Wonder Woman inspirationally and heroically skewer and decapitate Steppenwolf as he sails back to his master. Even though Darkseid would have probably finished him off, too, which would at least take the blood of the act off the heroes' hands.
The day saved, we get not one, but two hero shots of the entire team, mostly so they can include Batman who was just hanging somewhere for some reason and wasn't able to participate in the group staredown with Darkseid. Which is a very silly missed opportunity on Zack's part, now that I think about it. Regardless, our league has indeed meted out justice!
EPILOGUE: A Father Twice Over
I see that they were making an arc out of Victor's emotional expression and delivery, that he was acting like a machine because he felt like a machine, but between the climax and the epilogue, he can finally be happy and comfortable in his own second skin. Which I get, but I still wish we'd gotten more glimpses of the broken heart within instead of bottling everything up in full Spock mode for most of the movie. Little moments of loss, of hope, of camaraderie with the team. Something. I am glad he finally reached that point, though, and I regret that the hell Ray Fisher was put through means we'll never likely see him get to continue Cyborg's growth, especially since he's already been excised from Flashpoint in a dick move on Warners' part.
Aquaman gets a quiet sendoff to a film I really enjoy. Diana gets to long for a home Steppenwolf told her was destroyed, and after looping back for two prequel films (I dig both), I'm hoping we'll get to see at least a third adventure for her where she does return to Amazon Island. Bruce, despite an arc that grew him out of the petulant grouch Frank Miller rendition, is shown returning so far back to that version that he's got the giant tank with that famous group of mutant punks roped up before him. I get the impulse to recapture that image, Zack, but how did that fit with where we've gone? More charming is the quiet scene of Bruce meeting Martian Manhunter, even if it is out of the blue and makes one wonder where J'onn was during the whole climax if he feels this is all worth fighting for. Superman gets his classic moment of shedding his glasses and opening his shirt to reveal the logo, though I'm still bummed it's the black suit.
What I do love is how this all plays out under the words from a father, Silas Stone, words Victor once crushed out of existence so he wouldn't have to hear them; words about heroism, sacrifice, how far people need to go to fight for what they love. It's a lovely montage, and I'm glad Zack went that route instead of just another music track.
The Lex/Deathstroke scene is largely the same as the theatrical cut, if I'm not mistaken. Shame we'll never see that Affleck film this was setting up.
Then we return to Zack's fever dream, the Knightmare, the post-Apokalyptic landscape where Bruce, Barry, and Victor have some new friends. While Amber Heard is ick, I love the idea of Mera being on the team in Arthur's absence, especially given how much she carried the Aquaman film alongside him. Deathstroke is amusing, especially the jump following the prior Lex scene. And then we get Joker. I still haven't seen Suicide Squad, so I don't know how in character Leto is to that portrayal, but I like him here, completely unable to resist needling Bruce on and on, even as Batman grumps right back at him. This is an interesting concept, a Bruce who needs the Joker to save the world from what it's become. I wonder if this was Zack's original plan, that saving the world here isn't what prevented the Knightmare, but that its possibility stretched beyond, to Darkseid's inevitable Invasion! of Earth. We've still got our corrupted Superman. Lois is still the key (a thread which certainly hasn't played out here yet). I'm curious, if this does well, will Warner give Zack the chance to see that next stage through? Or will elements just be folded into Flashpoint, which we already know features Affleck's Batman in some capacity.
And we're done. For all the jokes many (myself included) have made, Allison Crowe's cover of "Hallelujah" which plays over the end credits, in tribute to Zack's daughter, is an absolutely lovely rendition in its long instrumental build and harrowing emotion. It's perfectly bittersweet for this project reaching its culmination.
Stick around, though, as I've still got a few more posts left in this writeup. You'll see.
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