Justice League — Post Mortem: Is the DCEU finished?

With Justice League’s mixed reactions, what could it mean for DC’s universe?

Justice League is currently at this moment been released in the United States for at least three weeks and it is not looking quite good for the DC Extended Universe as a whole. Please check out our own review of the film.

As a native of the United Kingdom, I was fortunate to watch the film down a local cinema with my father in London. I had low expectations going in before I entered the cinema, but decided to ignore the reviews from the likes of Collider and The Guardian.

Before I continue, I would like to point out that even though I had grown up with Marvel such as content from Spider-Man and The Incredible Hulk, I have watched content from DC such as the Richard Donner era Superman films, Tim Burton and even Joel Schumacher Batman films. I also studied and honing my craft in writing, film and the arts.

Without spoiling too much of the film for those who have not seen it, Justice League takes place roughly a year after the death of Superman and there has been a sense of hope lost within the world post–death during the Gotham Battle in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. The calling of the Man of Steel’s death apparently caught the attention of the alien warlord, Steppenwolf (Ciarán Hinds) and treasured artifacts such as the Mother Boxes across Earth: Themyscira, Atlantis and the home of Mankind.

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Bruce Wayne under the guise of Batman (Ben Affleck), aware of the oncoming threat from across the stars is doing what he can fight crime in his hometown of Gotham and comes across a Parademon, a race of beings from outer space in Apokolips. Diana Prince/Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) does her part in crime fighting, preventing a group of terrorists blowing up the Old Bailey in London, England during a school field trip.

Wayne and Diana reunite to assemble a team of meta–humans, such as Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa), Barry Allen/The Flash (Ezra Miller) and Victor Stone/Cyborg (Ray Fisher) to fail against Steppenwolf’s plans to bring about the age of Darkseid upon the planet.

That is the gist of it. My verdict? It has been just about watchable, but in the worst kind, a late coming popcorn-popper of a movie that does not help to expand the genre. In fairness, the film had the visuals to only just carry audiences through, but the framing of shots was uninspiring and the CGI and VFX did not blend well with the live–action footage. The only thing, which is the superior aspects of the picture were the performances from the likes of Ezra Miller and Jason Momoa. These new additions to the DCEU, who made their full appearance, did enliven the mood a bit but it did not prevent Justice League from having tonal issues. Plus the punch–lines that were presented often did not land as well, while at some points did.

Performances aside, although I was saddened by the absence of Kiersey Clemons as Iris West (even less so for Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor), I felt the core members of the group including Ray Fisher as the fourth member of the team gave all they had, Gadot, it can be debated on whether she carried the weight of being an opposing force as Wonder Woman – the altruist that tried to shed the darkness in Wayne. However, due to Zack Snyder and Joss Whedon’s colliding visions, in writing (alongside Chris Terrio) and direction, some actors’ performances were not given a chance to flourish such as J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon.

As expected, as reported by Variety, there has been a reshuffling of management at the DC Films arm of Warner Brothers. Snyder, although still has a production deal with Warner, there are no plans for him to direct another DC property, though he will be producing or executive producing several like Wonder Woman 2 and Aquaman. Affleck will appear as Batman in the new solo Flash film, as for Matt Reeves’ standalone Batman film, he may unlikely reprise his role, but that does not mean he may not be involved as a producer behind the camera, renegotiate his deal or make his contributions of some kind.

What the heads at Warner are likely to do is sit and evaluate the landscape of these interconnected movies thus far, assess the damages that has been done to the brand including what is working and continue. Flashpoint is their soft reboot failsafe in case Aquaman does not perform to their expectations. At the time this is being published, JL sits at $613.4 million worldwide. They have broken even in terms of production budget; marketing though, is another story. I predict it will gross around $650 million, but it will not make as much net profit for the studio.

It has been suggested by Snyder’s son, Jett Elin, there was studio meddling. Regardless of the finger–pointing on whether it was Snyder or Whedon (that being not the fairest assessment), at the end of the matter, it was doomed from the start. The end product comes down to decisions being made, time, work, quality and money.

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Writers like Terrio, no matter the acclaim given, can only do so much. It was Snyder’s vision that suggested his draft of the script was ready to be shot. It was Whedon’s decision that suggested making the necessary production re-writes bearing in mind Snyder remade it twice already.

If the current operation run by Chief Creative Officer Geoff Johns and a new person to replace Jon Berg is not under control by the time Aquaman hits theaters, you may see a complete abandonment of the DCEU continuity following Flashpoint under the new slate of films that have just been announced and quite possibly the end of that particular interconnected shared–universe in cellular form.

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