7) Stop Saving Major Changes For Post-Production
Both Suicide Squad and Justice League went through notable struggles as reshoots and tone adjustments ordered by WB heavily influenced the films’ original structure. SS was initially darker, but because of the positive reaction to the more light-hearted “Bohemian Rhapsody” trailer, Warner Bros. lightened up the tone.
Justice League, meanwhile, was already going to be a far less serious movie than BvS, but because WB knew that previous films were criticized for their dark tone, they committed even further. They had Joss Whedon add in more jokes and replaced composer Junkie XL (who had worked on previous DCEU soundtracks) with Danny Elfman, who would have a “lighter” and “more fun” sound. These types of dramatic change should be planned and implemented early on, yet these two movies dealt with these major alterations after production had ceased.
Now, while the reshoots are (rarely) too noticeable, the way that a character’s personality would change simply to allow an extra joke became pretty jarring. Having a funny line at the end or in the middle of an intense scene isn’t bad, but if a joke is superimposed into a moment where it wasn’t meant to happen, then it loses a lot of authenticity in the process.
Regardless of what tone you want or even if you simply wish to just alter the mood of a particular scene, work out all the technicalities as you’re filming instead of when you already have the finished product and are simply trying to shamble together something that makes execs happy.
6) Meaningful Dialogue Never Goes Out Of Style
What happened to the long, purposeful monologues present in BvS? While there have been serious discussions of fate, true intentions and morality in previous movies, that’s mostly absent here. Too much of Justice League‘s dialogue lacks the same depth and purpose. BvS had many different conversation-driven scenes in which character motivations, important themes, and more were covered in natural, organic ways. In Justice League, character motivations and themes are explicitly stated and lack the same sense of nuance.
The tones (and intentions) between both films are undoubtedly different, so the script will adapt with the characters. However, it’s impossible to ignore how often the movie depends on banter and quick quips in favor of character-building dialogue. Maybe this issue came with Chris Terrio’s initial words lacking some needed personality or light-heartedness, so Joss Whedon attempted to course-correct in some areas. Moments like the “Save one person” exchange with Batman and Flash serve as an example of when Whedon’s light-heartedness added to the characters while still being enjoyable. More of these kind of scenes and less of the Martha-Lois “Thirsty” kind of scenes would have worked wonders.
Audiences like to laugh, but there’s no need to dumb down things to make it happen. Clever, well-written dialogue will always reign supreme over humor-reliant, improv-dependent scenes.