Wonder Woman & Justice League Trailers Debut

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Some thoughts on the new trailers for Wonder Woman and Justice League

Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman

The San Diego Comic Con was the setting where DC & Warner Brothers revealed two glimpses of their expanding cinematic superhero universe movies – Wonder Woman and Justice League. Everyone is reacting and talking about these trailers, so here’s my two cents.

First the Wonder Woman trailer – I liked it. Gal Gadot was one of the few bright spots in Batman v Superman. Her casting was initially met with more raised eyebrows than hand-clapping, but I thought she was pretty decent. Maybe not the best acting on display, but she looked really good and showed some charisma in her brief time in that muddled mess of a movie.

I’m still not sure how Gadot will be headlining her own solo film. Some of her dialogue comes off somewhat stiff. She looks quite fetching and the action scenes that we get a glimpse of look exciting and fun.

Finally getting to see Diana Prince leaving Paradise Island, stepping foot into our world and flirting and bantering with Chris Pine’s Steve Trevor is a mighty promising story. Her fish out of water character is ripe for some humorous situations, which looks like the film won’t ignore. I have to admit I’m anxious to see how director Patty Jenkins handles it.

Gal Gadot Wonder Woman WWi trench battle action sceneOverall it looks promising. I have a soft spot of seeing period stories and watching Wonder Woman run through WWI trench warfare looked awfully cool and made me want to applaud. I loved seeing the old fighter planes too.

I’m curious to learn why they set this version of Wonder Woman’s story during WWI rather than WWII. I’m thinking it might have something to do with Marvel covering that ground with Captain America already. Maybe later in a sequel Diana will get to beat up some Nazis.

This was a tantalizing taste of what has been hoped for all these years. If the movie actually delivers on the expectations and how encouraging the movie looks so far Wonder Woman costumes will reign supreme for little girls everywhere the following Halloween! I’m really looking forward to Wonder Woman. Which is more than I can say about DC/WB’s big mammoth super group Justice League.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League,the big followup to Batman v Superman. Ben Affleck’s Batman and Gadot’s Wonder Woman set out to recruit a team to fight a big looming threat on the horizon. Cue Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Ezra Miller as The Flash, Ray Fisher as Cyborg and although we haven’t seen him yet, Henry Cavill as the returning from the dead Superman.

Ezra Miller as Flash costume Justice League trailerAre they calling this a trailer or just a series of clips or compiled footage? It really wasn’t too much of a trailer, more like a series of scenes. I guess this was a lot of the same footage DC/WB showed to the press a short time ago for that set visit. Eh, whatever they want to call it nothing I saw got me on the edge of my seat for this one.

I really don’t have much to say about it. I could easily just shrug my shoulders and go back to talking about that Wonder Woman trailer. But this is a blog so I have to write something.

Ok, it’s really clear they are now trying to change the tone of these DC films to have a little bit more humor and levity. A lot more jokes get cracked and flippant one-liners are dropped in this three minute teaser thing than both Man of Steel and Batman v Superman combined! I didn’t find much of it very amusing though.

I’m not sold on Miller as Flash. I didn’t think he was as funny as I think he’s supposed to be with his awkward one-liners. His costume did not impress me either. They’re really trying to push the fact that Momoa is a badass Aquaman. This ain’t the Super Friends orange-shirted guy. I didn’t think he came off very interesting or made me want to learn more about him though.

Jason Momoa as Aquaman in Justice League trailerFisher’s Cyborg…I have no opinion on. I’m going to assume they have some more work to do on his look – at least I hope they do! The special effects on him looked really rough. I was thinking how The Terminator in 1984 gave Arnold a glowing red eye with half his face sheared to expose his robotic interior and that looked better than this Cyborg. But ok, they’ve only been filming for a short time and there’s a lot of work to be done.

Oh and Affleck and Gadot were there as expected. The music chose to accompany it didn’t add anything to it. There really wasn’t any action or special effect scenes. They will eventually be there probably in the first official trailer and fanboys will probably love all the big ‘splosions, CGI and slo-mo fight scenes.

The crazy thing is that finally seeing all these superheroes share the same screen together did not thrill me in the least. There just didn’t feel like anything special was happening. It didn’t help almost all the scenes take place in cramped rooms. That didn’t help get the feeling across that this is one epic joining of heroes that fans have been waiting for.

I’ll admit I watched this Justice League footage with arms crossed. Snyder has an insurmountable amount of my optimism to win back. I don’t trust his vision, I don’t trust his take on these characters, I don’t trust the stories he wants to tell with them or anything that’s he’s done in this DC Cinematic Universe.

Zack Snyder Henry Cavill Man of Steel comic conThis is the third time around for him with DC characters and I am not expecting to be surprised with a radical turnaround in the finished product and no amount of PR will make me anymore hopeful about that.

2010. Hey, everyone Zack Snyder is going to direct a Superman movie called Man of Steel! Henry Cavill is going to be the new Superman! Coming soon! Everyone get hyped up!

2013. Man of Steel gets released and it stinks.

2014. Hey, everyone Snyder is going to do a Batman versus Superman movie! Ben Affleck is going to be Batman! And Wonder Woman is going to be it too! We’re doing a whole cinematic DC universe. Let’s all get hyped up for it!

2016. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice gets released and it stinks.

2016. Uh….Snyder is already shooting a Justice League movie. It comes out in 2017. Here’s some footage of it. Can we get hyped up for it? We promise the hype will deliver this time!

Yeah, right.

Wonder Woman movie Gal Gadot magic lasso action sceneCount me out for falling for any of the hype that they’re going to try to build for the next year and half for Justice League. The real cynical part of me is viewing Justice League as something of a speed-bump. It’s something we just have to get through to make our way to possibly better solo movies and before DC can say sayonara to Snyder once and for all.

Impress me with this movie when it’s done and I’m sitting there watching it. Until then save the promotion and buildup for other fans who aren’t as jaded as moi.

So back to that Wonder Woman trailer. Her theme song is really growing on me….

 

1 thought on “Wonder Woman & Justice League Trailers Debut

  1. Do you think Paul Fieg, Paces back and forth in front of his computer, with the Wonder Woman trailer up, watching the dislike count, and hoping and praying that the numbers will Spike so that he could be proven right and show that he didn't screw the pooch.

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