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The New JL Trailer is Everything Wrong With DC's Dark Movie Universe

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L

LionPride

Banned
ARTICLE:
https://www.wired.com/2017/03/new-justice-league-trailer/?mbid=social_twitter

ALMOST EXACTLY ONE year ago today, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice hit theaters. Fans liked it, kinda; critics didn't. But one refrain was consistent across audiences: God, that was bleak. Some of that felt like the imprimatur of the director, Zack Snyder, a man who embraced the darkness in movies like Watchmen and 300 and who has never met a rain-soaked alley he didn't like. Still, in response to the BvS reactions, Snyder promised that his follow-up, Justice League, wouldn't be quite so dark.

Well, Justice League‘s first trailer landed over the weekend—and while there are laugh lines scattered throughout its two and a half minutes, it seems as though Snyder missed the point. Honestly, Zack: Would it kill you to turn on a light sometimes?
Click to expand...

To be clear, this is a DC/Warner Bros. problem that predates Snyder. After the success of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, the studio seems to have assumed that moviegoers wanted all characters to go dark—when what they wanted was a Christopher Nolan movie. Seriousness is nice, but the direction the DC Extended Universe films have gone since Nolan stepped away from the director's chair have bordered on self-serious, somehow becoming cartoonish with barely a primary color in sight.
Click to expand...

The strategy makes sense, in a way. Marvel already has the market cornered on bright, happy-go-lucky heroes: The Avengers and their ilk were wearing red and cracking wise from the beginning. In order not to look like cinematic copycats, DC's only option was to focus on the fact that its movies had the brooding, ”real" heroes, the ones with dysfunctional home lives and drinking problems who only come out at night. (Shout out to Suicide Squad!) One need only to look at two big comic-book movie teases of last week—the Justice League trailer and the new Spider-Man: Homecoming poster—to notice how different the optics are between the two. The aesthetics couldn't be more different, but while the DCEU has managed to get some daylight between it and the MCU, the actual daylight is scarce.
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Thoughts?

I don't particularly agree, but it's interesting.
 
D

Discotheque

Banned
The sun rises with Superman.

Nerds can stay crying about cloudy skies

Also trashy aquaman is a fun take on the character tbh.
 
A

Ahasverus

Member
WTF is this shit? It's full of humor and non existencialism, do people really want every movie to be Guardians of the Galaxy? Disgusting. This is just clickbait.
Justice League trailer and the new Spider-Man: Homecoming poster—to notice how different the optics are between the two. The aesthetics couldn't be more different,
Click to expand...
Well yeah, one looks like a tv show and the other like a movie.
 
E

EdibleKnife

Member
It is a problem. The only brightly lit portion of that trailer that sticks out in my mind is the WW sweep kick and somehow there are still other scenes that are filmed outside in day time that look darker. Nothing inherently wrong with it but it's highly emphasized in the trailer and makes the world seem so harsh and cold in a way that would work for a horror movie but not a hype superhero movie.
 
B

billy beane

Banned
It's my biggest problem with Snyder's DC films. At the end of the day superhero comics are goofy and dumb, and trying to make a guy in blue tights and red underwear a serious, brooding character comes off as hilarious, in a bad way.
 
T

TheRealTalker

Banned
I liked the JL trailer to the luke warm, safe spiderman trailer

I am sorry but I disagree with this drivel

will the movie be good though? who knows
 
E

Enduin

No bald cap? Lies!
I said in the trailer thread, but the tone and look of the film seemed super at odds with one another.

Things started out pretty grim dark and serious in the trailer but then the dialogue and interactions became pretty light hearted and comedic throughout, but the actual lighting, framing and overall aesthetic is still really grim dark and serious. Which clashed a ton for me. It felt really obvious they were trying to capture that Avenger's magic while still being a DCU film. And it didn't fit.

I always found the criticism that the films were too serious to be somewhat unimportant. Yeah they could use a bit more brevity here and there, but the main issue with MoS and especially BvS and SS is the fact that the writing, character development and overall plots are not good. So much dumb stuff happens that it takes you out of the experience. They're mediocre to bad movies because they have bad writing and plots, not because they're too serious and don't have enough jokes.
 
S

SpaceWolf

Banned
Ahasverus said:
WTF is this shit? It's full of humor and non existencialism, do people really want every movie to be Guardians of the Galaxy? Disgusting. This is just clickbait.
Click to expand...

This really made me laugh.

Ahasverus said:
Well yeah, one looks like a tv show and the other like a movie.
Click to expand...

Eye-Roll-gif-6.gif
 
S

Slayven

Member
Read this earlier

Visual consistency is important in movies, but there’s a chance if you watch the Justice League trailer wearing sunglasses you might not actually see anything.
Click to expand...

/Died
 
N

Ninjimbo

Member
I was under the impression that when people complained about MoS and BvS's darkness, they were talking about its grim tone and more grounded depiction of the heroes.

In the first few sentences, the author seems hellbent on criticizing the aesthetics of the film. Personally, I think it looks phenomenal in JL compared to "made for tv" look of Homecoming.

Anyways, I don't think DC making serious films is a problem. Some people want their hero films to be goofy. Some people want their movies to be more serious. There's an audience out there for both. The same goes for aesthetics. I don't have more to say on the matter.

It is what it is.
 
J

jelly

Member
I don't even mind the dark, it's this life sucking dark Snyder does with dense imagery which makes it total shit.
 
V

Violater

Member
Batman really needs to be the only miserable brooding ahole in the movie.
Aquaman should just come off as a dick.
Cyborg should yell BOOYAAA every chance he gets on screen.
 
E

Eidan

Member
Ninjimbo said:
I was under the impression that when people complained about MoS and BvS's darkness, they were talking about its grim tone and more grounded depiction of the heroes.

In the first few sentences, the author seems hellbent on criticizing the aesthetics of the film. Personally, I think it looks phenomenal in JL compared to "made for tv" look of Homecoming.

Anyways, I don't think DC making serious films is a problem. Some people want their hero films to be goofy. Some people want their movies to be more serious. There's an audience out there for both. The same goes for aesthetics. I don't have more to say on the matter.

It is what it is.
Click to expand...

Honestly the color palette of the Snyderverse reminds me of the first Twilight movie.
 
DOWN

DOWN

Banned
I like the darkness. I find Marvel films pretty intolerable with their basic ass visuals and The CW levels of humor. Marvel looks like it uses TV sitcom cinematography rules.

D.C. needs some humor but they shouldn't take one damn look at Marvel for how they should handle their own lane
 
S

Slayven

Member
If you had told LiL Slayven that Marvel will be the birth and hopeful universe while DC was the dark and flawed one, he would have laughed.

DC and especially the JL is suppose to be about the gods among mean, raising above humanity in order to save it
 
J

- J - D -

Member
There were lots of day scenes in BvS though. A few - spoilers for bvs:

1. The Africa scene where villagers were burned alive and Superman killed that guy
2. The courthouse scene where like dozens of people were incinerated by a bomb
3. Superman's funeral.
 
A

Ahasverus

Member
I'm 100% sure Snyder will use the "Join you in the sun" line literally. That's how he rolls.

Justice-League-first-image.jpg


Fits the trailer's dawn shot.
 
P

Principate

Saint Titanfall
Ninjimbo said:
I was under the impression that when people complained about MoS and BvS's darkness, they were talking about its grim tone and more grounded depiction of the heroes.

In the first few sentences, the author seems hellbent on criticizing the aesthetics of the film. Personally, I think it looks phenomenal in JL compared to "made for tv" look of Homecoming.

Anyways, I don't think DC making serious films is a problem. Some people want their hero films to be goofy. Some people want their movies to be more serious. There's an audience out there for both. The same goes for aesthetics. I don't have more to say on the matter.

It is what it is.
Click to expand...

I think the likely issue is that Fox's take is also serious and so far comparatively their films are reviewed better and do a better job of it. DC's not so much.
 
V

Veelk

Banned
Bleh. It's the usual tripe about not enough colors and dark and not fun. I don't usually say this and I'm not trying to shitpost, but I genuinely don't see why an article that lists complaints that are at this point a cliche among the hatedom of the DC universe deserves a thread.

And I say this as a pretty well recognized hater of the DC movie universe.

I'm just gonna reiterate what I've said before: The lack of color, bleakness, and so on are, at best, symptomatic of the larger problem that is the fact that Zack Snyder is a terrible storyteller. Mandating colors and humor to a director that doesn't know how to effectively use them won't ultimately help the movie that much. Keep in mind that the most memorable instance of comic relief in BvS was MARTHA! ribbing Batman about how he dresses like her son....right after she was about to be burned alive by Luthor's mercenaries and Batman just killed them all. And in Man of Steel, Superman comically crashing a drone to a complaining general was just after Superman's emotional anguish at killing Zod. Snyder's films do have comedic relief, they're just placed in horrible points of the film. Meanwhile, while Nolan's movies definitely are lighter than Snyder's, they're not that much lighter or joke heavy or anything, yet still manage to be good because the director knew how to tell a story.
 
F

frothystout

Member
billy beane said:
It's my biggest problem with Snyder's DC films. At the end of the day superhero comics are goofy and dumb, and trying to make a guy in blue tights and red underwear a serious, brooding character comes off as hilarious, in a bad way.
Click to expand...

This is an incredibly limited way of looking at comics and superheroes. Truly great comic stories treat the characters seriously and with respect. If you haven't, I suggest reading All Star Superman, Kingdom Come, or the Dark Knight Returns for some intelligent, mature, and serious takes of heroes.

Edit: not to say I'm defending Snyder here, I actually really dislike him and think he's ruining the DC movie franchise. But I don't think making Superman goofy is the solution--just better writing and editing.
 
H

HeartlessNobody213

Member
Yeah, nothing wrong with the tone of the films in my opinion. The world just seems so detached.

One reason I'm looking forward to Wonder Woman a bit more is the look of the film.

In the Justice League trailer, I think the only hint of sunlight was when Wonder Woman did the leg sweep, other than that, nothing.
 
K

Killer Queen

Banned
There's really nothing wrong with DC being dark, and its good to set themselves apart from Marvel. How they handle it is a different story. But I think the notion that DC has to follow Marvel and be bright is a poor one.
 
U

ultracal31

You don't get to bring friends.
- J - D - said:
There were lots of day scenes in BvS though.

1. The Africa scene where villagers were burned alive and Superman killed that guy
2. The courthouse scene where like dozens of people were incinerated by a bomb
3. Superman's funeral.
Click to expand...

Shhh don't mention that and focus on the issues :p

Jokes aside I'm fine with how JL looks as movies don't need to look all the same
 
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