Lets get one thing out of the way; Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice is not well liked here at Agents of GUARD. For most of us, it was the final nail in the coffin to just not trust Warner Brothers plans for the DC Cinematic Universe

I’m definitely not a fan of BvS:DoJ, as I felt the movie caused more damaged to Superman as a character then even Man of Steel. It was a mess of a film with an infuriating sense of editing and lack of cohesion in it’s script.

So when word got around that WB was planning on lightening up the tone for Justice League, I was skeptical on how successful it was going to be.

There were reports coming in that Warner Brothers flew out several film bloggers to the set of the film, showed some footage and the word that came back felt promising…but still…I remained skeptical.

But yet…I wanted to have hope. I know I’m gaga for the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies, but I grew up loving DC comics too. I hate that I hate these last few movies.  I want to LOVE a movie with Green Lantern, Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman.

Well last Saturday, WB let loose a TON of footage from many of their films and all of those trailers made  it online. What surprised me the most was seeing that Warner Bros also decided to release the Justice League footage too. That’s a first for Hall H presentations. No studio has ever released their sizzle reel of an early work in progress movie, but I guess they felt they had to let the world see that they are actively trying to improve.

So, lets look at together (if you are not one of the 17,000.000 viewers whose watched it already)….

While I’m not ready to scream to the heavens “THEY FIXED IT!!” I’ll be honest and say that it does feel like a vast improvement from the way they’ve promoted BvS. (Keyword I said here is PROMOTED.)

I’m sure they haven’t shot much of the action scenes yet, which means the footage is focusing on the characters and their interACTION. I do like the light exchange between Bruce Wayne and Diana concerning if Aquaman agreed to join them. Ezra Miller is a great and appealing actor and is very likable in our glimpse of Barry (though it seems that turning Barry into a geeky dork is now the norm.)  Thought I do think that this scene feels a little too close to the Tony Stark recruiting Peter Park scene in Civil War, it is fun and again, I like the exchange between the Bruce and Barry. All of this is MUCH better then the angry staring contest that they showed years ago when promoting BvS.

Sadly, my fear of what they are gonna do with Aquaman ended up coming true. When they announced Jason Mamoa as Arthur Curry, I feared they were going to turn Aquaman into a moody, Conan/Drogo type, to over compensate that Aquaman doesn’t suck, he can be “BADASS.” Sure enough, that’s what he’s coming off as here. Maybe he’ll lighten up too when we see more footage, but introducing him by polishing off a bottle of liquor is not instilling confidence in me.  For me, I would have loved an Aquaman that was closer to the Brave and Bold cartoon version of the character. That Aquaman was fun, brash, and a showoff and that would have been a fun contrast to the rest of the group.

Cyborg is also coming off very serious in this, but granted his origin is a bit on the rough side (as seen in his appearance in BvS.)

Superman is MIA, but obviously with Henry Cavill  being at the panel AND on that promo image you see above he’s gonna make his return in this film.

Like I said, there is stuff I did enjoy but none of this proves that the film will come together. I think it’s abundantly clear that Zack Snyder is the issue with these films and after BvS I just don’t trust him. The narrative, the tone, the flow, the visuals were ALL his choices and to put him in charge again and hope he can pull off a film that will be the 180 from the dour Batman V Superman is going to be an uphill struggle.

But…I want this to work. Like I said, I love these characters too much to see it burn to hell. I look forward to seeing more footage and personally, I really do see an improvement on how they are pushing this film over BvS. If the film will deliver we’ll have to wait till November 2017.