DC Extended Universe

burn587

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Finally finished the Snyder Cut and wow, that was quite great, and exceeded my expectations. This is coming from someone who loved Man of Steel and really did not like Batman v Superman. While I'm always optimistically wanting to like everything, I did not expect it to be as good as it was. Its hard to name one area it didn't improve on the first movie. While long, I'm surprised to hear myself say it kind of needed to be that long to get at the vision he was going for with rich character backstories. Regardless of how good it turned out in its current state, looking back, its still hard to imagine how this thing would have exactly worked in theaters without cutting it down decently. Then if it was cut down decently, I'm doubtful it would have been as good at is was. So, as it turns out, going to HBO Max might have been this movies best chance for success. I ended up watching it almost more like a season of a TV series than a movie, which I think is the best way to look at it.
I loved it as well, the first 30 minutes aside. I think it still could’ve been cut down to 2:30 had the WB taken the time to introduce the flash and Aquaman in their own films and not had to spend too much time in their backstories. WB rushing to keeping up with the avengers in having team up movies without having established characters really did the theatrical cut a disservice. Cyborg I feel had to have his backstory in this movie because it was so critical to the plot. I can see why Ray Fisher was so pissed about what the Whedon version did, it was basically destroyed his performance. Also cutting some of the Snyder indulgent tangential stuff would’ve gotten things to a manageable run time for a theater.

Random thoughts/gripes:

Henry Cavill really needs another shot at playing Superman. I’ve really grown to like him as an actor and he deserves another shot. That being said the Snyder cut didn’t fix the issue of “If we have Superman why do we need anyone else?” He could’ve ripped Steppenwolf in half immediately and the movie would’ve been over had he been around prior to him getting the mother boxes.

Neither Snyder nor Whedon had any clue how to visualize Barry’s powers into the group.Him slow-mo running while everyone else is frozen does not do it for me. Either does Ezra Miller, and with his issues of smacking that woman in Iceland I’d love to see them move on to Wally West.

I'd be stoked if WB realizes the error of their ways and goes back to this timeline. I loved Affleck as Batman, Gal Gadot is a great WW and I’ve grown to like Mamoa as Aquabro.

I began to dread every time WW was featured not because of her but because of the “oooo eee aaaa ooo ohhhhh” yodeling score they used any time she did something cool. It was insufferable.
 

Triggermv

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Interesting interview with WarnerMedia's Ann Sarnoff over the future of DC films/TV/Streaming. Lots of interesting tidbits in there.

One of the most interesting reveals of this interview is Ann stating they will not be developing an Ayer Cut to Suicide Squad. As you can see below, doesn't sound like Ayer is super excited about that comment.

 

Frak

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Just character design, I have never liked what they did with Cyborg. No idea why they went with all those little angled pieces instead of a flatter armor look like in the comics/cartoons. Also, I didn't really like that they made Martian Manhunter look like a reptile. Just seemed overboard.

That all said, I liked the Snyder cut and it was a huge improvement. Still think that they made Superman way too powerful. All the other characters are pretty much useless when he's around. I wish that they would have given GL a cameo and maybe Hawk Man/Hawk Girl at the end.
 
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Triggermv

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Just character design, I have never liked what they did with Cyborg. No idea why they went with all those little angled pieces instead of a flatter armor look like in the comics/cartoons. Also, I didn't really like that they made Martian Manhunter look like a reptile. Just seemed overboard.

That all said, I liked the Snyder cut and it was a huge improvement. Still think that they made Superman way too powerful. All the other characters are pretty much useless when he's around. I wish that they would have given GL a cameo and maybe Hawk Man/Hawk Girl at the end.

Interesting. I personally am the exact opposite. I loved both the Cyborg and Martian Manhunter looks.
 

3GenClone

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Finally finished Snyder Cut last night - it took 3 nights for my wife and I to get through it.

Stream of consciousness review/thoughts:

* This movie makes WAY more sense than the theatrical/Whedon version.

* Biggest improvement: Steppenwolf is actually a competent, and threatening, villain. In the Whedon version he felt like a loser the whole time: the Parademons rushed him away when they sensed weakness? WTF was that all about? This version he actually was a terrifying being, doing the bidding of Darkseid and visually matched up with the Amazons & Atlantians.

* Affleck was a great Batman. His motivation for creating the League makes way more sense as he take responsibility for the death of Superman.

* Snyder nailed the casting for the DC universe - every role was perfect...

* Except for maybe Amber Heard as Mera. What was the deal with the accent? Is it like a Princess Leia thing where she loses the accent when not speaking with royalty/authority?

* I actually think Aquaman's character felt a little clunkier in Snyder Cut than it was in the Theatrical version. It wouldn't have been noticeable if I had only seen the Snyder Cut. Also there was some conflicts between Atlantis to how it appears in the Aquaman solo film (but that's nit-picking).

* I wasn't really a fan of the Martian Manhunter reveal in the middle of the movie. I bet it would have made more sense for the trajectory of the JL Trilogy, but we'll never know. Saving that reveal for the post-credits would have been perfect to setup the JL sequel.

* The final battle was badass. All the heroes had a moment, but Superman got to show off how he is the most powerful.

* I actually didn't mind the way they showed the Flash's powers. Too often it's just an actor grunting or screaming to show how "I have to run faster than ever before." The way Snyder made it more meditative/yoga-like was a unique way to show off that power and I thought it made sense. Instead of a sprinter's-perspective it was coming from how a long-distance runner would tackle a race - more endurance focused than just getting to the finish line.



Overall recommendation: this is now one of the better DCEU films. It may actually be the best Snyder entry of the trilogy.
 

CloniesForLife

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Finished Snyder cut. That was a really big improvement. Instead of being meh about Justice League I now really want to see the next installment. Is this it? I feel like it is setup perfectly for a sequel.
 

simply1

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This was so much better than the theatrical release. It's not perfect, but much, much better. So glad those stupid townspeople weren't in this one.
 
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Triggermv

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First The Suicide Squad trailer just dropped. Gotta admit, while there were things I liked in the trailer, a fair amount of the stuff fell fairly flat with me too.
 

Triggermv

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A new in-depth interview with Ray Fisher about his Josstice League experience. I'm trying not to be insensitive to the matter, but this whole thing is just turning out to be exhausting. While I believe he did this interview to tell his side of the story in order to win more people over to his point of view, I'm not sure it successfully did that for me. If anything, I came out seeing a bunch of faults across the board with all parties. I hate to say it, but I'm just ready for this all to be over. Its turned into one big crap slinging contest, and the only thing guaranteed in those is that everyone comes out smelling like crap. For the fans sake, I wish they could all just work something out, as I'd love to see more Ray Fisher Cyborg in upcoming DC projects.
 

Triggermv

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Great long interview with Chris Terrio telling the whole story of writing both Batman vs Superman and Justice League. He delves a ton into what actually happened behind the scenes, which is quite fascinating. I personally didn't realize he didn't actually write the Batman vs Superman script, but rather just rewrote it using the previous script and a bunch of studio directive on structure and certain things that had to happen, which was really quite limiting. Only Zack Snyder's Justice League was really "his" movie. It also helped me a bunch to realize why and how Batman vs Superman turned out the way it did, for better or for worse. All of this only lends further credence to the joke of management and vision from that management that went into building the DCEU at that point. Talk about one big mess. I'd like to say the company is past all of this, but they still can't seem to help themselves from taking one step back after every step forward. Man, I really wish that whole studio would just relent and finally get their own Kevin Feige. They seem to be taking steps towards that direction, but they never seem to be full steps, but rather just half ones. /endrant
 
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3GenClone

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Shazam: Fury of the Gods has cast Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu to play two of the villains of the film. Mirren will play Hespera and Liu will play Kalypso, daughters of Atlas in Greek mythology and one of Shazam's powers is the Stamina of Atlas, so it stands to reason that this will play some role.



Also, the New Gods & The Trench spin-off films have been cancelled by Warner Bros.

 
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Triggermv

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Shazam: Fury of the Gods has cast Helen Mirren and Lucy Liu to play two of the villains of the film. Mirren will play Hespera and Liu will play Kalypso, daughters of Atlas in Greek mythology and one of Shazam's powers is the Stamina of Atlas, so it stands to reason that this will play some role.



Also, the New Gods & The Trench spin-off films have been cancelled by Warner Bros.


I'm not shocked in the slightest that both New Gods and The Trench got cancelled. With the Trench, I never saw the point of the movie anyway, at least not when there is so many other better DC options out there to pursue. As for New Gods, with the discontinuation of the Snyderverse, its hard to do New Gods without Darkseid, and that likely would mean continuing on with Snyder's Darkseid character he already establish. WB appears to want a bit more of a clean break in my mind from Snyder than that option likely proposes, right wrong or indifferent.
 

Triggermv

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First look at the Supergirl costume was revealed by Andy Muschietti. Clearly derived from the DCEU Henry Cavill Superman costume, which I'm digging so far. Say what you will about the DCEU movies, but I think we can all agree the costumes have been on-point, so it is good to see them lean into those existing ones rather than away. If anything, the costumes I haven't been bought into yet are the non-DCEU ones like what we seem to be getting in The Batman. I'm reserving final judgment there until I see the movie. Will be interested to see what the entire thing looks like.
 

Triggermv

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A little off track here, but is there a best site to go see the Animated Universe films?
Subscription sites are fine. I'm just curious about maybe taking a look.

While I'm not currently a member so I can't check, I'm pretty sure they are all if not mostly all on HBOMax, which is owned by Warnermedia, the owner of DC. If they aren't all currently on there, I'm sure they eventually will be once they clear all previous streaming rights agreements.
 
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CycloneErik

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While I'm not currently a member so I can't check, I'm pretty sure they are all if not mostly all on HBOMax, which owned by Warnermedia, the owner of DC. If they aren't all currently on there, I'm sure they eventually will be once they clear all previous streaming rights agreements.

Thanks.
Looks like a bunch are available to rent on Amazon Prime, too. I'd rather subscribe to something for a trial or short time than rent one by one.

But I'll keep poking around the library, too.
 

cyhiphopp

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A little off track here, but is there a best site to go see the Animated Universe films?
Subscription sites are fine. I'm just curious about maybe taking a look.

Helpful hint, there's an app called JustWatch that I have on my phone. Put in any movie or TV show and it will tell you if it's on any streaming services. You can also enter what streaming services/TV providers you have and it will show those first on searches to make it easier.
I use it all the time and have made a list of movies/shows I want to watch for when my wife inevitably asks what I want to watch and then just watches what she picks anyway. But I HAVE A LIST!
 
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