The King of the Seven has no time for Justice League reviews and their resulting negativity.
After the critical consensus slammed Zack Snyder’s blockbuster for its uninspired story and lackluster CGI – it’s a “big, beautiful mess,” as one review so aptly put – Arthur Curry himself, Jason Momoa, has leaped to the film’s defense. Not only that, but the former Game of Thrones actor has also addressed those Aquaman scenes that were left on the cutting room floor. Spoilers: they contained our first peek at Nuidis Vulko (Willem Dafoe), a key Atlantean who will now appear in James Wan’s 2018 spinoff.
But first, here’s what Momoa had to say about those scathing reviews:
I try to stay the f— away from what people say. Some of my friends said, ‘Justice League isn’t doing well’ and it kind of bummed me out. But I didn’t want to look it up. I don’t want to look up the bad and the negativity. I don’t think that’s useful; it doesn’t help.
Momoa continued by drawing attention to Zack Snyder’s unique take on the character of Arthur Curry, one who many considered to be unadaptable prior to Justice League‘s arrival.
I’ve seen [Justice League] twice. I loved it the second time even more. I’m actually going to watch it again with my kids and my godchild. I’m going to see it with the perfect crowd of people — a regular crowd instead of at a premiere. So I’m excited. You can’t get into the whole ‘why this, why that.’ I went to [Wizard World Austin fan convention] this weekend and got great praise. Now obviously, that’s a positive place, and I’m not only interested in the positive. But if people love what we did with Aquaman, it’s all [director Zack Snyder] — it’s his brainchild. He came in with, ‘I’m going to make Aquaman a badass and I’m going to change stuff, and change the myths about this guy.’ And I busted my ass.
The conversation then turned toward those cut Aquaman scenes. Rumor has it that Warner Bros. mandated a two-hour runtime just as Justice League was nearing the end of post-production – hence the petition for a director’s cut – so it’s not all that surprising to hear that Arthur Curry’s arc was trimmed.
The challenging part is [the Justice League story] is only about a weekend in Author Curry’s life. [Fans] might be like, ‘Why is he that grumpy? Why’s he hiding up there?’ We had it all planned out. A lot of things got cut. But it’s not my movie. It’s a huge movie introducing three new characters, and for myself and The Flash and Cyborg, there was a lot that was there we just couldn’t get in. It could have been two movies. We had some stuff with William Dafoe. The whole Atlantean part, about me being this reluctant king. There was no need for it because you’re going to see it in Aquaman. It’s not an Aquaman movie, it’s a Justice League movie.
Justice League initially hit theaters last Friday and has since collected $279 million worldwide. It’s the “dismal” domestic opening that’s the real stinger, though, given $94m puts JL rock bottom of the fledgling DC Extended Universe in terms of North American debuts. Even Wonder Woman managed to clear $100m back in July, which doesn’t exactly reflect well on DC’s team-up movie.