To an infamous degree, the DC Comics cinematic universe has had somewhat of a dark and dreary tone to its proceedings, starting with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and even extending to Suicide Squad to a certain extent. But when Wonder Woman took the field, the mood lightened, and now it looks like Justice League is about to follow in those footsteps. At least, that's what Ben Affleck seems to be telling people.
Justice League is a big change tonally because you now have the personalities of all these different characters coming together and it gives you a chance to infuse a lot of humor into the scenes. For Bruce, he's having to open up and play well with other because he knows he needs them, so while he doesn't lose sight of how serious the threat is, he's humanized by the Flash's earnestness, Diana's warmth, even Aquaman's needling.
So in other words, the grimdark tone that Batman brought along on his cape in Zack Snyder's divisive movie has officially dissipated in favor of something a little lighter in the making. More importantly, it's definitely going to be funnier than any of the other DC movies to come along. Whether that was always part of the plan or a result of the reaction to previous film, is uncertain at this point. What is clear is that tomorrow's unveiling of the new Justice League trailer just might show us a very different film than what we were expecting.
More than likely this change in tone came when Joss Whedon came into picture, as he's been shepherding Justice League to completion. Naturally, the guy who made The Avengers a fun ensemble film in 2012 is going to leave a mark on this big ticket superhero collaboration. Ben Affleck's comment to Geek Magazine (via ScreenRant) is setting up Justice League as an exercise in the audience getting familiar with the various personalities of its members, just as Batman has to play with others that have various abilities and quirks. And if the previous trailers are any indication, Bats and Jason Momoa's Aquaman are going to be quite the unlikely team. If that doesn't produce killer jokes, we don't know what will.
Which all circles back to the big question: can Justice League right the ship and put DC and Warner Bros back in the cinematic game? Optimistically, we'd like to say so, because Wonder Woman did really feel like a step in the right direction for the overall game plan of the studios involved. Even the hiring of Joss Whedon feels like an admission that changes were necessary to the survival of the film. This just nurtures our presumed belief that Justice League could be the hero film we deserve. But we've been burned before, so a cautious eye will be cast in this film's direction until its unveiled on November 17th.
In the meantime, you can check out the rest of the2017 release schedule, if only to distract yourself from thinking about Justice League too much.
