DC dropped an action-packed, four-minute long trailer for Justice League at San Diego Comic Con last weekend. The hype train is well and truly on the tracks, but whether it’s going in the right direction, no-one knows.
Joss Whedon has, understandably, taken over from Zach Snyder, and the results are plain to see. Justice League is now a Whedon movie, with ‘extensive reshoots’ ordered, but that might not be something to rejoice about yet. Sure, the colour palette is much brighter than Snyder ever let us see, but there are still a few issues that we need to discuss.
Dawn of Joss-tice!
CREDIT: DC Entertainment
Joss Whedon is renowned for showcasing strong women and ensemble heroes… but for every quick-witted Wash, there’s a Xander masturbating to a room full of potential slayers next door. For every fun science bromance, there’s a Tara being thrown under the Bury Your Gays bus. Then of course, there’s that Wonder Woman script, but the less we say about that the better.
Whedon has a habit of making his female characters inherently ‘feminine’, which isn’t a bad thing when it suits the character. Buffy was a blonde babe, a Valley girl who kicked butt while wearing stylish and affordable boots. That worked for her. However, telling Scarlet Witch to calm her face during fight scenes in Age of Ultron, because angry faces are unattractive, doesn’t quite work.
Granted he’s not the first director to do so; no female character in the Arrowverse is allowed to be unapologetically angry. Men can rage and rampage while the women are left to pout and, on occasion, frown while pointing. Even back in Rise of the Silver Surfer, Jessica Alba was told to ‘cry pretty’.
A New Dawn for Superheroes
CREDIT: DC Entertainment
This year, a new type of superhero burst onto the scene, and she screamed when she had to. Patty Jenkin’s Wonder Woman was the first female led Superhero movie in 32 years, and it did not disappoint. It was groundbreaking in a way that a modern movie should not have to be.
It should’t have been a revelation that women do not need to be sexy when they fight, walk or, you know, stand still. Black Widow and River Tam are graceful when they fight, they dance as they destroy. Peggy Carter at least fought like someone in a bar-room brawl. Peggy wasn’t shot to be sexy, and yes, she did use her feminine wiles when necessary, but then she was battling overt sexism in 1950s America.
So when Gal Gadot graced the screen in Wonder Woman, it didn’t just rock the boat, it tipped it over. Here we had a female character who wasn’t sexualised, who didn’t have to be viewed through the male gaze, who’s not the sidekick, not the love interest, and not the funny friend, but the lead character; the hero.
The Worrisome Justice League Trailer
This is were the cracks begin to show. Whether thanks to Joss’ influence or not, Diana of Themyscira has been thrown to the forefront, which makes sense as the Wonder Woman movie was a global phenomenon. Yet it feels as though no matter how progressive Patty Jenkin’s film was, Justice League appears to have taken a step back, subjecting the only woman on the screen to be viewed through perv-vision.
Aquaman surfs an enemy through a building, the Flash quips, Cyborg hacks some stuff and Batman chats to his butler. Every moment that they fight, it’s just a cool, normal fight. Every time Diana fights or leaps, it’s a bit too graceful, she’s pirouetting, not kicking. She is shot from ‘sexy’ angles. In fact, there were many shots in which her derriere was right at the centre of the screen.
Your leading hero’s butt should not be the focal point of a fight scene.
It’s almost as if they said, ‘there you go, you’ve had your female empowerment movie, now let’s get back to the real stuff.’ Back to a world where casual sexism reigns supreme and anyone who identifies as female gets to have one character out of five represent them.
Justice League hits theatres November 17, let’s hope DC sort this out before then.
