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    The Justice League (also known as the Justice League of America or the JLA) is a team comprised of the premier heroes of the DC Universe.

    How I would do the Justice League Movie

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    the_stegman

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    #1  Edited By the_stegman  Moderator

    Okay, first and foremost, yes, we have all heard the news of the alleged 2015 release date for the Justice League film, and many fans are excited, however many other ones (as is the natural trend in comic book fans) are cynical. Some say that Warner Bros are rushing it, that the lack of Tie in films will make the movie fail, that people won't know who's who, well, I respectively disagree. If I was in charge of making the movie, here's what I would do. 
     
    1. Tie in movies are NOT necessary! 
     
    Now don't get me wrong, I'd love to see the likes of Flash, Wonder Woman and Aquaman get their own much deserved movies, but I believe that with the success of Marvel's The Avengers, many people think that ALL superhero team movies now need tie in ''prequels'' in order to be a success, this is not the case. The thing about the Justice League is, THEY AREN'T THE AVENGERS, and what worked for the Avengers, may not need to be done for the JL, many people already know at least, a bit about the main cast. The average movie goer, knows Superman, Batman and (perhaps to a lesser degree) Wonder Woman's origins; they don't necessarily need to see a tie in movie to know who they are. Now Flash and Green Lantern, while not AS big as the Trinity, still have some fame. GL, thanks to the movie (no matter how bad it was) has at least some commercial acknowledgement, and the Flash's backstory can easily be hinted at in the film.   
     
    First, the plot of the Justice League film. At first, I was thinking an alien invasion, but yeah, been there, done that, so how about an alien infiltration? The White Martians could have been on Earth for decades, replacing important people with their own spies in order to observe the Earth's defenses for a /potential/ Invasion, Batman, having caught one (the mayor of Gotham) could take it back to the Batcave for analysis, where he is confronted by Martian Manhunter who explains what they are,that he has had a run in with them before and what their plans may be. It is at this time when the Martians make their move, having replaced many world leaders with their own, they can start wars among nations, civil wars inside countries,(causing both Themyscira and Atlantis to reveal their existence) and plan on weakening the Earth's defenses by starting nuclear war. They also make another discovery, that ''metahumans'' exist, with Superman already well known worldwide, and rumors of a Scarlet Speedster in Central City, the White Martians seek to study them, sending drones after them. Having defeated their opponents in individual combat, Batman, along with J'onn could find the heroes, WW, Superman, Green Lantern and a very reluctant Aquaman, and bring them together to prevent the White Martians from winning. After the fight is won, the heroes go their seperate ways, however, Martian Manhunter meets with Batman and asks what will they do if the world is threatened again, thus, giving Batman the idea of creating a "Justice League" 
     
    Run time:2hrs 45mins 
     
    Now, what /I/ would do, is the opposite  of what Marvel Studios did. Instead of making the tie in movies first, make them after the JL film. We already have Man of Steel, coming out next year, and it could (although given Nolan's opinion on continuity, probably won't) be the first of the JL related films. We can then make the Justice League film, and make WW and Flash afterwards, both characters can make their "debut to the world" in the film, the world would now know they exist, and their own films can deal with the consequences of that. For instance, Now that Central City knows Flash is their, his movie can introduce the Rogues and their unease about the new masked hero. The same can be said for Wonder Woman, it could focus on her adjusting to living in Man's world after living Themyscira to work with the League; It can also focus on Ares as the main antagonist, and having Diana realize he is the main reason that "Man's world" is in so much war and turmoil.  
     
    An Aquaman film could also be sort of like this. With the World now knowing of Atlantis' existence (again, which can be shown in JL) It could deal with the government's need to learn more about this nation that lurks below, and introduce Black Manta, him being hired by the government to bring Atlantis down after their refusal to meet at the U.N .  A Martian Manhunter film could take place in the past, showing Jon Jones as a detective in the 1950's, trying to solve a slue of disappearances that are caused by the White Martians who are abducting humans for experimentation. It could end with him stopping them, for now, but wondering what the world would do, if they ever returned. This could be a call back to the JL film that has already happened, and give us some nice continuity. 
     
    Now, as for a cast, that is tough, but I think I've come up with a decent one. 
     
    Superman: Henry Cavill, As stated, Man of Steel could be the first tie in film, and he could fit the bill 
     

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    Batman: This could vary, as I heard that they are rebooting the series, if so, whoever the actor in the reboot is, could very well be apart of the Justice League, if not, I vote Michael Fassbender 
     
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    Wonder Woman: I think that Gina Carano could definitely handle the physicality of Wonder Woman, as well as the stunt work required, and she has acted as well, so she wouldn't be completely inexperienced. 
     
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    Flash(Barry Allen): Ryan McPartlin. You may recognize him from "Chuck" I think he fits the look of Barry, and could definitely portray Barry's Nice guy attitude.  
     
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    Green Lantern (Hal Jordan): Chris Pine, as seen in Star Trek, he can easily portray the ''high flying'' Hal, the dreamer who wants to visit the stars and explore the universe 
     
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    Aquaman: Ben Foster. He could play a very, harsh, distrusting of the outside world Aquaman, who reluctantly agrees to team with the League for the sake of Atlantis 
     
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    Martian Manhunter: Giancarlo Esposito....He's just an awesome actor,(watch Breaking Bad for proof)  and could totally nail J'onn's seriousness and character traits. 
     
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    And that....more or less, is how I would do a Justice League film 
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    Twentyfive

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    #2  Edited By Twentyfive

    Awesome!

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    the_stegman

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    #3  Edited By the_stegman  Moderator

    bump, anyone else?

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    cameron83

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    #4  Edited By cameron83

    Eh,it's pretty good.Although I loved ryan reynolds as hal.The crappy thing was how it was written,but ryan was amazing.Just bad script

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    deactivated-5a4e0e8ea3dfb

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    I agree with your idea about not doing prequel movies. With luck now that DC has won its lawsuit in regards to Superman they will not follow Nolan's thinking of continuity and use the events of the Man of Steel to lead into the Justice League film, especially as I don't see them replacing Cavrill in the role unless MoS completely bombs.

    Instead, my opinion is that in the six months leading up to the film DC/WB should have an aggressive marketing campaign where instead of trailers that show movie footage they should create individual character trailers for each member of the League.....sort of a quick bio on each hero with scenes prepared specifically for those introductions vice showing them in the film itself. This way audiences can get a glimpse of each character (yes, even do Superman and Batman just to keep everything rounded and with Batman you'd want to show you the actor is going to be anyways) and what their respective origins are without needing to waste time in the film explaining anything. The sole exception to this would be Martian Manhunter (if it was a story like a White Martian invasion/infiltration) as his origin should tie directly into the plot of the film and thus his presence be explained through the explaination of the enemy (much as it was in the Justice League tv series).

    However, I don't agree with three of your points.

    1) Gina Carano as Wonder Woman. I understand where you're coming from, and to be honest I didn't see Haywire so I've never seen her act, but just from pictures of her I'm wondering if she would be too jacked and need to actually trim down to play the role. Though Wonder Woman is a warrior (and in the 90's was drawn pretty well jacked) an aspect of her character is that her great strength is based on the magic of her creation and thus why she's so strong given her slender frame (even though Power Girl retained a bodybuilder frame through the years until the new 52). So I'm not sure if the role needs to go to a fighter like Carano who is a well-trained and skilled fighter and athlete simply to be a realistic Wonder Woman for the screen or if another actress willing to put in the training time (such as Scarlett Johanson did for Black Widow in both Iron Man 2 and Avengers) would be better suited as a regular actress would have the slender frame and overall beauty of Wonder Woman and just need to put on a bit of tone to emphasize the warrior aspect.

    2) Michael Fassbender. My only concern is he wouldn't be able to get big enough for the role. His height is perfect, as he's an inch shorter than Cavrill as Batman is slightly shorter than Superman, but he's always had such a lean figure he'd definitely need to get bulked up to play the part. Even then he might not appear as intimidating as Batman would need to not look out of place alongside everyone else but at least we could definitely believe in the intelligence and detective aspects of the character with Fassbender in the role than a lot of other potential actors.

    3) The story. I don't think enough people will be able to split apart the idea of a White Martian infiltration to a White Martian invasion. I also don't think the White Martians should be used, as it can get confusing for general viewers what the difference is between White and Green Martians and why there are so many White Martians compared to J'onn J'onzz being the only Green Martian left. Instead I would go with Starros as the invansion race where they were discovered by an expedition to Mars in a stasis prison (the same one that J'onn was residing in as their warden) and accidently released by the mission crew, who were taken over and brought the remainder back to Earth so that the race could re-populate by taking over the human race. This way it brings in a more classic JL villain as well as follows a similar story idea to the Justice League tv series. J'onn, awakening after the expedition has left, follows their trail to Earth to try and discover the location of the Starros, as they were the race that caused the genocide of the Martian race and the destruction of Mars. This all takes place right after the events of Man of Steel, so giving them two years of time on Earth prior to the actual events of the movie.

    At the same time the film can show the human reaction to the rise of superheroes and metahumans. Leading out of what happens in Man of Steel, the governments of the world begin to worry about the impact Superman will have (and of course how they could possibly stop him should he turn hostile) but at the same time his world debute has sparked a new wave (emphasis on new as a way to hint to the audience of the prior existence of the Justice Society and that metahumans aren't actually a new phenomena but something the world governments have been monitoring for some time) of metahuman activity and the introduction of Atlantis (a fledgling nation of only a few hundred people finally brought together from their nomadic lifestyle) and Themyscira. As a way to study and potentially counter this activity, two multinational funded organizations are created; Checkmate, whose tasked with gathering intelligence and analysis, and Cadmus, whose tasked with creating countermeasures against potential metahuman threats. All of this information is being given to us by Amanda Waller, who we meet as she's giving a brief to a UN commission about the state of metahuman affairs and current Cadmus projects. Of note is the Amazo Project, advanced androids (emphasis on more than one) designed by Professor Ivo that can be configured to deal any metahuman threat based on the abilities documented on the target. One of the people on this commission is controlled by a Starro, and having learned of these androids they infiltrate Cadmus to begin preparing an army of androids to take out the metahuman population as they are the only real threat to their plans. This is where the story can go to your idea in regards to Batman, who has been investigating strange occurences dealing with defense installations and communication programs and believes a larger conspiracy is at hand (again, much like the Justice League tv series did in the first episode). This leads him to become the first target of the Amazo androids, but he is saved by the Martian Manhunter and Batman and the audience learn of J'onn's history with the enemy. As this explanation is happening, Amazos are appearing all over the world and attacking known metahumans (a bit of a Sentinel idea but can be a nice montage of action and fear as people are being attacked seemingly at random). Not to drag this out but the rest of the film would basically go the same way you had it, where Batman is able to get the other members together some way (probably show Batman calling Superman personally and thus establishing a prior working relationship with the two) and having him move fast enough to get Wonder Woman and Flash (showing each of them in action before Superman gets there and then finishing their respective android groups with his help) while J'onn grabs Aquaman from the ocean (same type of action sequences). Then they all get up to speed on the threat, fight a few massive battles, round up the Starros (maybe?) and that's a wrap.

    Now, you say, "where does Green Lantern fit in?" Honestly, probably right towards the end of the film rather than at the start. He's there because the Guardians detected two new alien presences on Earth (J'onn and the Starros) and he was sent to investigate and determine if they were a threat (it could be explained that much like Star Trek's "prime directive", which if Pine was used could be a bit tongue-in-cheek humor, the Guardians don't allow intergalactic migrations to planet's that haven't joined the intergalatic community, i.e. can travel through space, and a GL has to determine whether the being is allowed to stay or has to be arrested). He shows up just as the team is being brought together and helps (which actually throws the android programming for a loop as his abilities are not documented by either Checkmate or the Starros and thus can't be effectively countered accept in large waves). Thus he's part of the team and seen as part of the team, even though at the end of the film its implied he is a "reserve" member as his GL duties take him all over the galaxy and thus he'll only be around for alien threats more than earth-based ones.

    It might be a bit too much, and the film will definitely have a lot more action than character development in it (which was my only real problem with Avengers.....too much set-up for a single big battle), but that might be what the film needs. Like you said, these characters are better known than the Avengers, so it shouldn't require a lot of character set-up to get people into the story. That's why I think character trailers would be a good idea as well. The character development can be in the second movie, where we get to see more of the team dynamics and how they interact with each other after being together for a year or two rather than the problems they have coming together in the first place. Might actually make for a better sequel that way as it will bring needed tension to the story rather than just more action against a big threat.

    Ah, one more things. Martian Manhunter's power set should be changed for the film. He should only have; shapeshfting (which includes invisibility and phasing), telekinesis, flight (through telekinesis), and telepathy. No "superman-esque" powers in the least. He fights using his shapeshifting and telekinetic abilities, so his action scenes would show him phasing to avoid an enemy attack while using telekinesis to rip one or two androids in half and hurl those pieces at other enemies. This way his powers and look are very distinct compared to Superman and Wonder Woman. I thought about giving Aquaman more developed hydrokinetic abilities, but if the JL movie shows Batman using gadgets and martial arts and the Flash darting all over the place I think Aquaman's traditional power sets will be enough to look distinct from the other two ground fighters.

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    TheCannon

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    #6  Edited By TheCannon

    @cameron83 said:

    Eh,it's pretty good.Although I loved ryan reynolds as hal.The crappy thing was how it was written,but ryan was amazing.Just bad script

    This.

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    AtPhantom

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    #7  Edited By AtPhantom

    @ltbrd said:

    3) The story. I don't think enough people will be able to split apart the idea of a White Martian infiltration to a White Martian invasion. I also don't think the White Martians should be used, as it can get confusing for general viewers what the difference is between White and Green Martians and why there are so many White Martians compared to J'onn J'onzz being the only Green Martian left.

    All of which can be solved with a few expository lines of dialogue and not treating the audience like morons. C'mon. If you want evil cosmic starfish to be the villain, just say you want evil cosmic starfish to be the villain. Otherwise those are terrible reasons to scrap a villain.

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    SUNMAN

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    #8  Edited By SUNMAN

    so not what I want for the first Justice League movie

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    Superdork

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    #9  Edited By Superdork

    @SUNMAN said:

    so not what I want for the first Justice League movie

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    CrimsonCake

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    #10  Edited By CrimsonCake

    The Chris Pine Idea could actually work.

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    Cap10nate

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    #11  Edited By Cap10nate

    @The Stegman: This looks really cool. The question I have about the film is how they are going to handle the cinematography with Flash. Any time you want to show him doing something during a fight, they will have to put everything else in super slo motion. How often do you have to do that without it getting annoying. same question when they are regular speed. Do you just show a blur going around. He is great on paper because you can draw him 10 times in 1 panel to show everything that he is doing while the fight is going on. In a live action movie, it will be one or the other.

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    tahmidk

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    #12  Edited By tahmidk

    Ok gus isnt playing martian manhunter end of. and that dude does not suit aquaman. i vote chris hemsworth to play aquaman

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    queenfrost_

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    #13  Edited By queenfrost_

    'Gina Carano' can't act for sh*t. She doesn't look like Wondy either.

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    EdBlank

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    #14  Edited By EdBlank

    If they NEVER use alien invasion/infiltration again it'll be too soon. Why are the aliens invading? If you can explain that in a way that makes the viewer empathize then: maybe. Most movies these days are so worried about giant robots that they totally skip over what actually makes movies good. Think Ghost Busters. Prolly better than 95% of 'comic book' movies. Not becuase of Slimer or Stay Puft, because of Rick Moranis, Bill Murray etc. The Ghost Busters spend most of the movie kind of chatting it up and it's golden. More intimacy, less alien motherships. Now you do need one or two giant robots, but use sparingly.

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    moywar700

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    #15  Edited By moywar700

    The JL are in the watchtower.Bad guy shows up.They have a hard time.They win.They go back to the watchtower.

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    FlashKnight

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    #16  Edited By FlashKnight

    This probably won't happen, but I could only imagine how great a Samuel L. Jackson Martian Manhunter would be lol.

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