After Batman v Superman was savaged by critics—and, more importantly, after its box office took a historical second-weekend nosedive—Warner Bros. went into damage control mode. Not only did it fly journalists to the set of Justice League, which was planned as the cornerstone of the DC Comics cinematic universe, but the studio took the unusual step of encouraging them to write, en masse, about the film while it was still in production. One after another, the film’s stars and its director, Zack Snyder, assured fans that Justice League would step away from the relentlessly bombastic gloominess of BvS and strive to be more, you know, enjoyable.
Nine months later, the first trailer for Justice League has arrived, and if your idea of fun is bombastic gloominess leavened with the occasional dully barbed quip, have I got an obligatory blockbuster for you! It would seem and Snyder and company’s takeaway from the last year is not to be more like the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s relatively fleet and lighthearted films, but to be more like Suicide Squad. Where Suicide Squad used the driving beat of the White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” to disguise its incoherent editing, the Justice League trailer swaps in “The Hardest Button to Button,” along with a thudding hard-rock cover of the Beatles’ “Come Together,” because this is the movie in which the DC Extended Universe’s heroes, like, join into a cohesive unit. (The trailer does score a couple of points for at least not using a mopey, slowed-down version of a popular song.) The trailer also shows off some hilariously janky images of Ray Fisher’s largely computer-generated Cyborg and a shot of Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman that’s a virtual copy of one in Batman v Superman, suggesting that Snyder still thinks enough of his work on that little-loved movie to plagiarize himself. (Critically missing in action: Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL’s Wonder Woman theme, which is the single best thing the DCEU has yet produced.)
The sole bright spot is Jason Momoa’s Aquaman, who along with Ezra Miller’s Flash seems to have the job of periodically reminding Ben Affleck’s Batman that he needs to lighten up just a tad. Affleck, who increasingly seems to regard his contractual commitment to the superhero game as something akin to a prison sentence, looks positively miserable here, even when he’s delivering what are supposed to be wry one-liners. But perhaps it’s all laying the groundwork for Justice League 2: The Search for Ben Affleck’s Joy.
