Film Bits: ‘Justice League’ Looks Great but So Did its Predecessors

‘Justice League’ Showcases More of the Same from DCEU

The drama behind the scenes of the DCEU has been considerable. The Flash can’t seem to keep a director on board and the script they had has been thrown out and revised several times; The Batman has lost Ben Affleck has director and new director Matt Reeves has insisted on having final say on the script, leading to potentially significant rewrites; rumors of on set strife have plagued Wonder Woman for months now ahead of its release this Summer. All of this, plus the fact that neither of last year’s releases, Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad, were as successful as anticipated.

Even with all of this working against them, WB is forging ahead. Late this year we can expect Justice League from director Zack Snyder, who’s been meeting some heavy resistance from the fans. Fair or not, he’s the man most likely to catch the brunt of fan ire as the DCEU continues to fail at being great, and whether or not the DCEU can continue lies squarely on the shoulders of Justice League, which released its first official trailer over the weekend.

Doubling down on the Snyder aesthetic that’s been so divisive up until now, Justice League looks strikingly similar in tone to Dawn of Justice. That will work, so long as WB doesn’t do too much post-production meddling. That, more than anything, has been the major faults with the DC movies thus far. No one seems to have the courage to let these movies be what they’re going to be, and in the editing process any magic they might have offered is lost. We’ll never know what we lost with the Suicide Squad reshoots, and there’s no denying that the Ultimate Cut of Batman v Superman fixed most the problems that film’s theatrical release had.

As such, it makes it difficult to judge what we’re going to get by the trailer. As a trailer, it works and is cool, but who knows how much meddling the film will take before its release? Are trailers even an accurate portrayal of the DC films at this point? The Man of Steel, BvS, and Suicide Squad trailers were all pretty awesome too. Who can tell? We won’t know for sure until November 17, when Justice League hits theaters.

(Warner Brothers)

Disney Continues Dominance with ‘Beauty and the Beast’

Beauty and the Beast continued its box office domination for a second weekend in a row, earning $90 million in ticket sales and towering above its closest competition, Power Rangers, which took in $40 million in its opening weekend. Coming in third was Kong: Skull Island with $14 million in its third week while newcomer Life brought in $12.5 million. Rounding out the top five was Logan with $10 million. For the full top ten seen below.