Praise4Media #67 - Aquaman

Apparently, I’m on a superhero kick, let’s take a look at DC’s offering with Aquaman

I think most of us agree that Justice League wasn’t good (and the Snyder Cut won't be either, I guarantee it), and Aquaman isn’t immune to criticism when it comes to the performance of Jason Mamoa but let’s be honest, he could’ve given it his all, and it would still have been sh*t so no love lost there. I don’t mind the casting of Mamoa and it’s time to give him his time to shine, and shine he did in his solo movie.

Production of an Aquaman movie can be traced back as early as 2004, but with studio mandates, recasting and the usual stuff that goes on behind the scenes with this kind of movie, it was 2018 before we saw it as part of the already very shaky DC Extended Universe.

The story was written by comic veteran Geoff Johns (who has written Aquaman before), mostly horror writer/director James Wan, and writer of Gangster Squad Will Beall, who co-wrote the screenplay with David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick. Clearly Geoff Johns is the big name when it comes to writing, as most of the others are fairly niche. James Wan is an interesting choice as director as this brings him well out of his comfort zone, not necessarily a bad thing though is it can provide a fresh perspective that the DCEU sorely needed.

The film had a mixed critical reception but was well received commercially, making over $1bn at the box office, making it the DCEU’s best outing to date. So where do I stand on this film? Let’s take a look.

Guilty Pleasures #46 - Justice League

Over the course of 10 years and over a dozen movies, it’s all been building up to this, this is… wait no, that was Avengers: Infinity War, let’s take a look at Justice League

DC comics do not have a good track record with movies. Since launching the DC Cinematic Universe, only one of their movies has a been a critical success. But most made money at the box office, here we’re looking at DC’s first bonafide flop. The movie was a bit of a mess behind the scenes thanks to Zack Snyder quitting the project and being replaced by Joss Whedon, who rewrote parts of the script and that entailed intensive reshoots.

For the record, I hold no ill will to Zack Snyder for his decision to step down. The loss of a loved one, especially under those circumstances, is a horrible thing to go through and I totally understand his decision to step aside. Then studio then mandated the film be under 2 hours long and wanted it released by the end of 2017 so executives could get their bonuses before the merger of WB and AT&T, this in spite of some hiccups in post-production.

The extent of the reshoots brought the budget up to $300m, making it one of the most expensive movies ever made. It made $657m at the box office; once marketing was factored in that lead to an estimated $60m loss for the studio. So, where did this movie go wrong? And did it deserve to fail?

4 issue Test #12 - JLA (Justice League of America)

So, time for another continuity bubbled Justice League. The regular continuity with the Justice League titles is one giant clusterf*ck. The way I see it, Geoff Johns’ League is a pre-convergence story, since it features Bruce Wayne as Batman and a fully powered Superman (although I haven’t seen him do his super-solar flare (yeah, that was added recently because if there’s one thing Superman really didn’t need it’s another new power)) this I can only imagine takes place in the 5 years between the opening Justice League story, and the second, that’s a 5-year gap, give or take.

How does this story hold up? Let’s take a closer look