Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice

[RickR]

I know I'm very late to the party, but I finally saw this movie last night on DVD.

 

My grade:  C. 

 

The bad:

• Cinematography - They used a very sharp film style, and you can very clearly see every pimple and bump on everyone's face.  It's just an ugly movie to look at.  Poor Kevin Costner looks like hell.  Holly Hunter, Amy Adams, Diane Lane...not a flattering look for any of them.  Or the male stars either. 
• Too much fluff - did we need a Batman weight-lifting montage?  Lex Luthor putting a jolly rancher in some dude's mouth?  Cut out all the fluff.  Give us more Wonder Woman.
• Story is kind of bad.  If they didn't tell you the whole Africa scene was to frame Superman, would you know?  Lex Luthor blows up the Senate chamber...yet everyone blames Sup?  CIA knows Luthorcorp is behind the Africa scene, yet does nothing?  The whole wheelchair-guy story line.  Lex Luthor gets completely unaccompanied access to Zod's ship?  Puh-lease. 
• Overall - it's not a very well made movie.  They should have hired Christopher Nolan.

The good:

• Acting all around is pretty good.  But no one has much to work with. 
• Wonder Woman - can we get more of her please?  This character comes off as a complete badass. 
• Jeremy Irons makes a decent Alfred. 
• The special effects are outstanding. 
• It isn't 3 hrs long. 

What did you all think? 

[RickR]

I checked out the DVD from my local library.  I think my review would have been much worse if I'd paid to see it. 

[Rowsdower70]

I give it a B, but I'm a huge DC nerd.   I love Affleck as Batman and I didn't think I would.   I think they tried to cram too much crap into one movie, and I feel like the the rivalry between Superman and Batman was very forced.  By far my biggest complaint is Lex (who is actually probably Lex Luthor's son Alexander, or whatever).  He should have been the calm, charming, brilliant villain, but instead he's a kid who went off his ADHD meds.
I didn't mind the cinematography, I thought the fight scenes were well done, the acting was decent.   I agree that the standout is Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman, and I think her movie is going to be the best DC movie in a long time. 
The biggest plus coming out of this movie is that I'm excited for a Justice League movie!

[RickR]

You are right on the money about Lex.  The characterization was bad, and they gave him way too much screen time.  Example:  his sinister laugh at the end.  Did it really need to go on that long?  Or the ADHD speech at the party...way too long and flat. 

 

Also agree with you with Affleck as Batman.  He did a good job.  Again, I wish they would have skipped the sharp filming and muted color.  Even a handsome guy like Ben Affleck was made to look shabby. 

 

And yep, those fight scenes were great.  <Spoiler alert!>  Batman defeating Superman was done believably.  Well done. 

[Rowsdower70]

When they finally all fought side by side, I got some goose bumps.  They can make a good franchise out of this if they learn from their mistakes.

[RickR]

Have you seen Suicide Squad?  Worth watching?

[Rowsdower70]

Have you seen Suicide Squad?  Worth watching?

Not interested at all in Suicide Squad.  Nothing I've seen entices me, and the Leto Joker makes me want to hurl.  

I've heard mostly bad things, but I can't say.

[RickR]

When they finally all fought side by side, I got some goose bumps.  They can make a good franchise out of this if they learn from their mistakes.

Totally agree, and wish they'd made this movie more about them together than the whole attempt at making Superman "bad", which does not work.  Too forced. 

 

I read that an earlier script attempt had Batman going a little out of control in chasing down a villain, which caused Superman to oppose him and get him back in line.  I sure think that would have worked a lot better. 

[Atari Adventure Square]

Saw BvS in theaters weeks into its release, with no interest really because of the more descriptive reviews that laid out the inane script.

A longtime, hardly-seen friend asked to go see it, and as an outing with an old movie bud it was okay, but mostly comprised of eye-rolling presentation of some beloved staples of the DC universe that covered my floors in comic book format (mostly Detective comics and a few Super Spectacular 100-pagers).

 

It's rough seeing movie studios missing the point of retro franchises these days, although unsurprising given the thoughtless studio heads' need to insert themselves as cooks to an already thick broth.

Hey! Just let it make money! Take the Robert Evans approach to hire cowboy directors, let 'em go wild and claim it was all your doing after the fact.

Works for me, as a moviegoer.

 

BvS and Suicide Squad both suffered from overstuffed pre and post-production overthink, rather than take a single idea person and backing them along the way.

 

Suicide Squad is not a good comic book movie, does no fan service to its characters (from what I read - never knew this was a thing before the movie) but it's an okay action movie.

I like Robie and Will Smith in this (and love them in the 'con game' movie Focus). They make the most of the characters so you can follow along for most of it, a bit less detached than you'd expect.

But the ending is a mess, a generic portal-to-doomsday Big Bad which makes little use (and no sense) of the squad's powers and why they should be doing this.

 

For a better taste of the best Batman vs Superman scenario, read (or watch the animated version of) Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns, the stellar 80s comic shock treatment that revived Batsy, gave Tim Burton something to chew on for the dark approach on the big screen, and is the definitive 'retired superhero makes good' story.

It's sooo sad this new mediocre Batman movie actually took this storyline and botched it in so many ways by not even bothering adapting it, just slashing it to bits and making a clunky collage out of a few pages.

 

 

For a better taste of Suicide Squad (if you care at all), watch the DCU Batman: Assault on Arkham animated movie (it's on Canadian Netflix), which is really good, makes tons more sense and is cool to look at (compared to the ugly camera work Rick accurately pointed out).

 

Both cases show how a story with a single mind behind it is enjoyable to get into, even if it doesn't thoroughly satisfy (though in this case, Miller's book and the DC animated movie are top notch).

Fan catering with longstanding characters is incredibly difficult, but I do hope the DC crew get it right eventually.

[MaximumRD]

• Wonder Woman - can we get more of her please?  This character comes off as a complete badass. 

 

Well you will get a lot more of her in her Solo movie as well as her in the Justice League Movie. Speaking of that -

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-iRQHQZtfM

[RickR]

We need to start a topic on Star Wars 7, as I loved it. But would love to hear your reasoning.

 

I just checked out "Man of Steel" from the library, which is the Superman movie right before B vs. S. I'll try to watch it this weekend and let you all know how it is.

[RickR]

Just watched "Man of Steel". 

 

My grade:  B

 

The bad:

• Indestructible characters get boring after a while.  Flying punch, rinse, repeat.
• So much destruction -- would Superman really allow it?  Does it really need to go on for so long?
• Too long.  Cut the fluff. 

The good:

• Excellent acting all around.
• Plot is tired, yet they still pull it off.

Overall, much much much better than Batman v. Superman.