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Batman > Superman: Dawn of Justice |OT| Enter the Knightmare
- Thread starter MisterHero
- Start date
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most of the time you see scenes like this in movies the character is either dying or the movie sets it as plot device early and often to me it just came out of nowhere maybe a second viewing will help me understand better
Their fight sequence is pretty fantastic. The last half of the movie is quite strong actually. I thought it was much better then MoS and I think this is the biggest disconnect I have ever had between critics and how I feel about a movie. This is one you need to see for yourself to judge. Its not trying to be a Marvel, its a different tone. Go in expecting that and I think you will like it much more then the critics.
Simply put. YES! You'll be entertained.
mattiewheels
And then the LORD David Bowie saith to his Son, Jonny Depp: 'Go, and spread my image amongst the cosmos. For every living thing is in anguish and only the LIGHT shall give them reprieve.'
What's Irons' Alfred like in this one? I really liked what Nolan did with him, did they go in a different direction this time?
It's funny thinking about Alfred from the Burton movies, dude was barely on Bruce's side half the time. They didn't get him at all unsurprisingly.
It's funny thinking about Alfred from the Burton movies, dude was barely on Bruce's side half the time. They didn't get him at all unsurprisingly.
He's really good in this movie and one of the best things about it.
He's good, though there isn't a ton of him in it. He's much more of a partner for Bruce than a caretaker.
……forgetit
Member
He's my favorite Alfred, cynical and a bit off an ass. He has some if the best lines on the movie.
KoruptData
Member
I'm a big fan of DC comics so I'm biased but here I am at home after seeing the movie tonight. I'm sitting in my study, sitting Indian style on the floor, looking at my bookshelf, and I'm just pulling out New Frontier and flipping through it, pulled out my Alex Ross Absolute Justice, Kingdom Come, JLA Vol 4, Final Crisis and some Bat books and I have a smile on my face. My wife, who I saw the movie with, is next to me playing The Sims on the PC, and I'm just talking about the stories with her and she is asking questions and wanting to learn. This movie did that, this movie was not perfect if you want to dissect the traditional narrative structure of stories. But to me, it's fucking comic books man, it boxes on a page with the action coming out of the frames, it mind warping double-page spreads where you don't know what direction to read the dialog. It was that with my absolute favorite characters. How could I not love it? So now I trust Snyder when he says he made this for comic book fans.
lol, no one clapped at the end where I was, and a few booed when it became clear there was no post-credits scene.
For real,
her journalist stint came out far better in MoS than in here, where she traces the bullet and finds out it's from LexCorp because the General tells her... and that's it? The other thing she does is having her ass saved by Supes 3 times in the movie.
Pandora012
Member
I enjoyed it, but my main problem was the flow. It would jump from character to character instantly.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
He's pretty much Alfred + Lucius
paragonpro
Banned
Im torn, alot of it was bad, like really bad. but i loved this miller inspired batman and I thought wonderwoman and the fight scenes were kinda cool. But still, they need to push back justice league if they need to and get zack snyder the fuck out of there. There was a lot that was bad here, and he is to blame for most of it.
Question about the Knightmare for people who've seen it. Is there any indication that it's not a reality happening right now (if that's even the case; mostly talking about the WW1 looking Batman from the trailers)? I mean, I guess I don't know much about the scene itself other than it's kind of out there, but I mean is there anything like Bruce waking up at the end of the scene or some kind of indicator or something?
Same with me i caught a few review titles and got the feeling it was going to be a turd but it was worth the money easy.
Irons as Alfred for me was great.
I have to wait until Wednesday to watch this, and the wait is killing me. No matter how bad this may or may not turn out, I just have to know for myself.
Questions for those who've seen it:
If I don't mind certain changes made to the morals of the characters and enjoy Snyder's action scenes, will I dig the second half?
That shot of Batfleck emerging from what appears to be rubble, from the initial teaser, is that in the movie?
Is Lois as annoying as she was in MoS? Amy is an excellent actress, but she had most of the worst dialogue in MoS.
This has to be a yes, but is the dialogue better written that it was in MoS?
And lastly, please tell me this is better than ASM2 and GL. Please.
Questions for those who've seen it:
If I don't mind certain changes made to the morals of the characters and enjoy Snyder's action scenes, will I dig the second half?
That shot of Batfleck emerging from what appears to be rubble, from the initial teaser, is that in the movie?
Is Lois as annoying as she was in MoS? Amy is an excellent actress, but she had most of the worst dialogue in MoS.
This has to be a yes, but is the dialogue better written that it was in MoS?
And lastly, please tell me this is better than ASM2 and GL. Please.
For Batman's action scenes, definitely. Every other fight was meh.
Yeah. It's near the end.
Her dialogue isn't bad but it's like Man of Steel where she's just forced into every situation.
Much better.
Slightly better for me.
yeah he wakes up after it but they don't explain why he has it
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
So, now that I'm home more thoughts.
This was boring. Really, really boring. It just drags on and on until the end.
Outside the Batman v. Superman part of the film, the fights were not impressive.
Reviewers were right that Batfleck was a good thing about this movie. He did a nice job. Don't really get where all the praise for WW comes from, she's barely in it. I guess what little she did has me interested in her movie, but she hardly stood out.
Also, if I didn't know better I'd say there was some old Superman film with Jesse Eisenberg that got buried, and they just edited him into this film, because he did not fit in with this film at all.
End spoiler:
This was boring. Really, really boring. It just drags on and on until the end.
Outside the Batman v. Superman part of the film, the fights were not impressive.
Reviewers were right that Batfleck was a good thing about this movie. He did a nice job. Don't really get where all the praise for WW comes from, she's barely in it. I guess what little she did has me interested in her movie, but she hardly stood out.
Also, if I didn't know better I'd say there was some old Superman film with Jesse Eisenberg that got buried, and they just edited him into this film, because he did not fit in with this film at all.
End spoiler:
I don't know why they bothered with the Superman death tease. It's like they wanted to pad the movie another 10 minutes.
Okay, that's fine by me. It's just from the way people were talking I thought this scene just showed and it cut to the next scene like it never happened, lol. The indicator makes me feel better. I thought I was going to have to explain beforehand to the people I am watching the movie with that it's a nightmare or vision Bruce is having.
DrForester
Kills Photobucket
same here.
ArgyleReptile
Banned
Two big reactions in my theatre.
People clapped
People laughed
People clapped
when Wonder Woman showed up ready for action.
People laughed
during the Man Bat Dream Sequence.
Cheers
I'm still holding out hope. If I can find something to enjoy about Jurrassic World, I'm thinking I'll have an okay time here.
That's pretty much the Lois Lane character though in a Superman story. She's always getting herself in bad situations. At least its when she's doing bold, brave, and dangerous things. There is no point in having her on the sidelines.
WAR recon zero
Banned
It was fucking good
A weird movie but great imagery
First third was great. Great scenes and imagenery
Second third was weird as fuck
Last third was awesome. The trinity in silver screen
Fuck the reviews.
A solid 7/10. Different than mcu. No shit. And this superman is DIFFERENT AND INTERESTING.
Mos was a 7/10 too for me. This is better than the soulless ultron and the formulaic antman. Oh and juvenile van wilder pool.
Its different. No shit.
Will see again
A weird movie but great imagery
First third was great. Great scenes and imagenery
Second third was weird as fuck
Last third was awesome. The trinity in silver screen
Fuck the reviews.
A solid 7/10. Different than mcu. No shit. And this superman is DIFFERENT AND INTERESTING.
Mos was a 7/10 too for me. This is better than the soulless ultron and the formulaic antman. Oh and juvenile van wilder pool.
Its different. No shit.
Will see again
Still can't believe Ben nailed Batman (outside of the stupid shit that was beyond his control). I'll give Snyder that. He did good in picking Ben.
There's a reason why WB pushed this movie up to March.
Cross posting my impressions from the DCEU thread.
It was everything I wanted from a Man of Steel sequel, and more. It had structure problems in the first third, but once the major players and motivations settled into place the movie took off and never stopped entertaining. I'm dying to see if the Ultimate Cut smooths the structural kinks out. Once I realized we were basically getting
Batman I was completely fine with Bruce's methods, and Affleck knocked the role out of the park. Superman and Wonder Woman were also great, and I can't wait for Diana's solo film.
I never had a problem with the time Marvel uses to setup the following films, even in Iron Man 2, and I don't have a problem with it here either. It's really a necessary evil that Marvel themselves turned into the standard practice. Speaking of Marvel, I love the MCU to death, but this was a better and more honest effort than most of their films. BvS had something to say, something which really only the Winter Soldier can claim. I left the theater thinking about the issues and themes the film addressed, and not about when the next film in the phase is coming to tie up loose ends only to create many more. I appreciate that Snyder gave me something to chew on.
Screw the critics, go see the film and make up your own mind.
Also put an order in for the Sideshow Collectibles Premium Format Armored Batman when I got home. I have to have that suit on my shelf. Give it to me now.
It was everything I wanted from a Man of Steel sequel, and more. It had structure problems in the first third, but once the major players and motivations settled into place the movie took off and never stopped entertaining. I'm dying to see if the Ultimate Cut smooths the structural kinks out. Once I realized we were basically getting
Dark Knight Returns
I never had a problem with the time Marvel uses to setup the following films, even in Iron Man 2, and I don't have a problem with it here either. It's really a necessary evil that Marvel themselves turned into the standard practice. Speaking of Marvel, I love the MCU to death, but this was a better and more honest effort than most of their films. BvS had something to say, something which really only the Winter Soldier can claim. I left the theater thinking about the issues and themes the film addressed, and not about when the next film in the phase is coming to tie up loose ends only to create many more. I appreciate that Snyder gave me something to chew on.
Screw the critics, go see the film and make up your own mind.
Also put an order in for the Sideshow Collectibles Premium Format Armored Batman when I got home. I have to have that suit on my shelf. Give it to me now.
I hated Man of Steel, thought it was mess.
I'm indifferent to this, I liked the first half with the blowback from Metropolis getting wrecked and wondering if Supes can be trusted, Affleck is GOAT and dude outacts everyone, he is too good for this movie. Wonder Woman is good too but she's the DOFP Quicksilver of this. Junkie XL did a damn good job scoring this.
But...
-Lexenburg sucks, I could not take him seriously.
-Supes gets his own movie stolen from him and it's easy to see why, dude is bland as fuck.
-The actual fight is okay but how it ends...man, Dusty Finish.
-The climax is okay but it's a clusterfuck. The ending is gonna be up for debate.
-The film wants to tell 4 different stories and trips over itself doing so.
This film isn't a 33% RT, it's not awful but it's not good either, it's meh.
C+
I'm indifferent to this, I liked the first half with the blowback from Metropolis getting wrecked and wondering if Supes can be trusted, Affleck is GOAT and dude outacts everyone, he is too good for this movie. Wonder Woman is good too but she's the DOFP Quicksilver of this. Junkie XL did a damn good job scoring this.
But...
-Lexenburg sucks, I could not take him seriously.
-Supes gets his own movie stolen from him and it's easy to see why, dude is bland as fuck.
-The actual fight is okay but how it ends...man, Dusty Finish.
-The climax is okay but it's a clusterfuck. The ending is gonna be up for debate.
-The film wants to tell 4 different stories and trips over itself doing so.
This film isn't a 33% RT, it's not awful but it's not good either, it's meh.
C+
Just got back. Movie was alright overall - definitely wasn't wasting its time cutting to the chase in establishing events, and the future of the DCEU.
There were a lot of things happening that should have been left for another movie. If anything, BvS should've happened after a solo Batman movie.
Casting for Batman and Wonder Woman was perfect. Ben Affleck and Gal Gadot nailed it. Gadot didn't have as much work as Affleck and Cavill, but she had great screen presence throughout, and Affleck played an effortless Wayne/Batman. Cavill didn't really have much time as Clark Kent and maybe have more than one expression (anger/displeasure).
Huge props to Jeremy Irons for maybe being the best Alfred yet. Irons was utilized well, and his Alfred isn't just Bruce's butler, they seemed more like partners in fighting crime. I really liked this aspect of the movie.
Jesse Eisenberg wasn't bad either. Really nailed the manic genius role, along with unique mannerisms and speech.
Amy Adams got the short end of the stick with her own plot, but I ain't even mad at this. Whatever time she lost made more time for more pressing matters.
Soundtrack was on point. "Is She With You?" is fucking awesome.
Going back a little to what I said about BvS coming too early: I feel like the movie would have a larger impact, and less bloat, had they done a solo Batman and solo Wonder Woman movie beforehand. Basically, take a page out of the MCU.
The Avengers was a great payoff to the years of buildup from Iron Man to Captain America, and BvS was trying to fast-track to that level or going about it backwards (establish the team, branch out). Not saying the DCEU should take its time like the MCU - if anything, the DCEU has its work cut out with the MCU already selling the unified cinematic universe to audiences.
Overall, it was an enjoyable movie. Certainly could've been better (maybe the extended cut will be better), but I had a lot of fun with it. I'll give it a 7/10. I'm hyped for Wonder Woman next year, and looking forward to the future of the DCEU.
There were a lot of things happening that should have been left for another movie. If anything, BvS should've happened after a solo Batman movie.
Casting for Batman and Wonder Woman was perfect. Ben Affleck and Gal Gadot nailed it. Gadot didn't have as much work as Affleck and Cavill, but she had great screen presence throughout, and Affleck played an effortless Wayne/Batman. Cavill didn't really have much time as Clark Kent and maybe have more than one expression (anger/displeasure).
Huge props to Jeremy Irons for maybe being the best Alfred yet. Irons was utilized well, and his Alfred isn't just Bruce's butler, they seemed more like partners in fighting crime. I really liked this aspect of the movie.
Jesse Eisenberg wasn't bad either. Really nailed the manic genius role, along with unique mannerisms and speech.
Amy Adams got the short end of the stick with her own plot, but I ain't even mad at this. Whatever time she lost made more time for more pressing matters.
Soundtrack was on point. "Is She With You?" is fucking awesome.
Going back a little to what I said about BvS coming too early: I feel like the movie would have a larger impact, and less bloat, had they done a solo Batman and solo Wonder Woman movie beforehand. Basically, take a page out of the MCU.
The Avengers was a great payoff to the years of buildup from Iron Man to Captain America, and BvS was trying to fast-track to that level or going about it backwards (establish the team, branch out). Not saying the DCEU should take its time like the MCU - if anything, the DCEU has its work cut out with the MCU already selling the unified cinematic universe to audiences.
Overall, it was an enjoyable movie. Certainly could've been better (maybe the extended cut will be better), but I had a lot of fun with it. I'll give it a 7/10. I'm hyped for Wonder Woman next year, and looking forward to the future of the DCEU.
Spine_Ripper
Member
I just came out of the theater. Acting is mostly great across the board. I can understand people hating Luthor, but I thought he did well. There's some pretty great cinematography in this as well. Batman centric scenes come off as film noire at times. There's some cringe shit in this movie, but it's not emo Peter Parker in SM3 cringe. Action scenes are pretty awesome, and the conclusion of the movie surprised me. I think some people will love it and others will hate what they did.
The main criticism of editing and pacing problems is right. It moves very fast at times. It's not impossible to follow, but I also wouldn't blame anyone, especially casual fans, to get lost from time to time.
Overall, I give it a 7. The highs are so goddamn high. If you can look over some of the bullshit, you got a good popcorn flick underneath
The main criticism of editing and pacing problems is right. It moves very fast at times. It's not impossible to follow, but I also wouldn't blame anyone, especially casual fans, to get lost from time to time.
Overall, I give it a 7. The highs are so goddamn high. If you can look over some of the bullshit, you got a good popcorn flick underneath
Razgriz-Specter
Member
Man I ended up loving this,
An awful Lex and wet blanket Superman are the only real bad things about it.
An awful Lex and wet blanket Superman are the only real bad things about it.
+Ben was great
+Gadot was surprisingly good, covered her thick accent well
+Score for the first half of the movie was great
+Amy Adams really tried.
+2 funny moments
+very pretty in some parts
Too many cons to list. My opinion not that important anyway.
This is one of the movies where I would recommend to children and casual adults.
+Gadot was surprisingly good, covered her thick accent well
+Score for the first half of the movie was great
+Amy Adams really tried.
+2 funny moments
+very pretty in some parts
Too many cons to list. My opinion not that important anyway.
This is one of the movies where I would recommend to children and casual adults.
breadtruck
Member
Even though Ive joked in this and other threads about being worried, the truth is Im not, and what you all said is why.
Critics are a snobbish bunch who like movies I typically dont, and hate movies I do like. Sure there is a rare convergence, such as Fury Road, but mostly I dont take much stock in a critic's review.
I am pretty confident this will be the same. Sure, there may be a few flubs in the movie, but I will be surprised if I come out of the theater disappointed.
manfestival
Member
Did anyone else get the feeling like this movie was going for comic book like cuts of scenes without the effects or attempts to give us a sense of fragmentation like other movies that have done so before?
At the beginning, yes. Less obvious after about half an hour, but I can see what you're saying.
thehypocrite
Member
I think you'll like it a lot. I never felt annoyed by Amy Adams, she does good here on her limited time. The answer to all your other questions is yes.
The last thing I expected was to write a positive review about this film.
Some quick background knowledge about my tastes in superhero films: As you may be able to tell from my avatar, I am a huge fan of the MCU. With the exception of Hulk, I think every MCU film is good (Yes, even Thor 2 and Iron Man 2!) to great (Iron Man and Winter Soldier are awesome films) to GOAT tier (Avengers is my favorite of them all).
Internet logic would tell you that I hate DC and want them to fail.
But, believe it or not, my favorite comic book movie of all time is, in fact, The Dark Knight. My second favorite is the Sony-produced Spider-Man 2. Rounding out my GOAT tier trifecta is Avengers.
I was raised on Batman. The 1989 film was my first comic book movie. I watched the hell out of the other 90s Batman films, and even though going back and watching Forever and Batman and Robin is slightly painful now that Im a bit more mature, I can still appreciate the cheese factor and ice puns. Speaking of cheese, dont forget the 60s TV show! Watched the hell out of that too. Of course, theres the animated series. Possibly the finest incarnation of Batman ever, and I think has only gotten better with age. Last but not least, you have the Dark Knight trilogy. Begins and Dark Knight are bonafide classics that have gone on to irreversibly change the comic book movie world for the better. And despite what GAF says, Rises is still a great fucking film, too.
So yeah, Im a bit of a Batman fanboy. But it doesnt stop there. I loved the Superman animated series too. Im obsessed with Gotham, Flash and Green Arrow at the moment.
The question has to be asked, though: Do I just love everything? Am I incapable of being critical and do I just eat up all of the shit these corporations pump out at the movies?
Enter 2013. Marvel movie after Marvel movie, I come out of the theatre loving, despite many of them being heavily criticized on forums like GAF and on social media alike. Nonetheless, the Marvel Cinematic Universe is firmly established and DC wants in on some of that sweet sweet pie. Enter Man of Steel.
The Man of Steel trailers are honestly some of the best Ive ever seen to this day. Coming off the Dark Knight trilogy, I was hyped beyond belief for a similar, darker depiction of Superman. I had no reason to doubt that the film would be great going into it. DC was about to start playing with the big boys and kick off their Cinematic Universe!
And then I watched Man of Steel. And I fucking hated it. And I went to watch it again, because maybe I missed something. But no it was shit. Crushing disappointment in an era where Marvel was not only pumping out banger after banger, but DC just put out three of the best movies I had ever seen with the Dark Knight trilogy! Id like to elaborate on why I hated Man of Steel, but I havent even watched it since that second time in the theatres. It was that painful. I remember it being boring, paced poorly, having a very weak payoff, crappy, unlikable characters, cringe worthy dialogue and story the list goes on. It was pretty looking, and the fight scenes were cool, but thats about it.
I was in San Diego for Comic Con in 2013, so turning on my phone and seeing Batman v Superman as the film that would kick off the DC Cinematic universe was literally electric. Probably one of the most exciting announcements I was ever a part of. But the hype soon became pessimism, as I found out that the same team of writers and Zack Snyder would be behind the film.
They were going to ruin Batman like they ruined Superman. Fuck me.
So the months went by and the announcements started coming out. Ben Affleck. Well, he was good in Argo, but I dont know about Batman! Hell never be able to follow Bale. Eisenberg as Lex Luthor. Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. These sound like horrible choices! Man of Steel had tainted this film before I even saw the first footage. My hype was at an all time low, and I pretty much expected the movie to be shit.
Fast forward to 2014. I went to comic con again, and this time, I managed to get into Hall H on Saturday, where Snyder, Affleck, Cavill and Gadot would appear and show us the first footage EVER of the film, along with promo art for Batman and Wonder Women in their suits. Honestly, everything looked great but I still couldnt get excited for the film.
Eventually, though, just weeks ago the hype got to me. The trailers had enough cool shit to get me excited about seeing fucking Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman together on screen. SURELY they wouldn't fuck this up. SURELY they wouldnt rehire Snyder just to make another stinker. SURELY they realized their mistakes with Man of Steel and wont make them again with this film, which will not only be a huge film for them, but the KICKSTARTER for their cinematic universe! Warner Bros had way too much riding on this.
And then the reviews hit. Crushing. Terrible. I braced myself for the worst. Could this be... worse than Man of Steel?
Im here to tell you no.
The reviewers are crazy I tells ya. Crazy. I enjoyed the film from beginning to end. Despite all the criticism of the film being way too dark, I actually found myself smiling for a lot of the film!
Ok, obviously the reviewers arent crazy. While I havent had a chance to sit down and read through some of the more hate-filled writing, Im not going to sit here and tell you THE REVIEWERS ARE JUST OUT TO GET DC or THEYRE JUST MARVEL FANBOYS AND HATE ON ANYTHING THATS NOT MARVEL. Remember kids, these are the same people who rated the Dark Knight trilogy in the 90s. As much as I enjoyed the film, I can certainly see where the criticism comes from. Rest assured, this film is very much flawed I just think the good outweighs the bad. I must have put less emphasis on the things the critics really fucking hated and more emphasis on the stuff the critics couldnt give a shit about.
Keeping this spoiler free is going to be tough, but here we go. This will be SPOILER FREE, but Im going to edit this post with FULL SPOILERS in the spoiler thread in a few minutes moments.
Let's start with what I liked about the film, just off the top of my head. I know Im going to miss stuff (Its a long film! Theres a lot going on here!) but here we go:
From the first five minutes, theres more heart in the film than the entirety of Man of Steel. Batman doing heroic shit. YES. I was nodding in approval right from the start. AWESOME. Thats what I like to see. I felt like Batman was an analog to me in this scene, honestly. Hes running through the final events of that piece of shit Man of Steel movie and going WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS ASSHOLE DOING. UGH. And just saving people like a hero. God damn, fuck Man of Steel. Batman is going to make things right. If there was one thing I was excited for coming out of this film, it's a full, solo Batman film starring Ben Affleck. He absolutely killed it in this film. Too soon to say he's better than Bale, but he was great!
How many times have we seen the Batman origin story? Did it need to be shown AGAIN in this film? Probably not. But honestly, if theres one thing Snyder does right, its a slow motion, cinematic-ass intro to a film. That Watchmen intro set to Bob Dylan was legendary, and the Wayne murders evoked similar feels for me. This is one of those things I can see critics going Why did they waste time on this again! Everyone knows the Batman origin story! Wasting time!... whereas I take it for what it is. A visually stylish retelling of the most important origin story in comic book history.
Something we already knew from the trailers, but the Batman and Wonder Woman suits were fantastic, and seeing them in the film was so great. Again, I found myself smiling just seeing them on the big screen. The damn near perfect Batman suit. Wonder Woman played by a beautiful actress who, despite all odds, looked the part damn well and played it well too! Once again, I think these are things critics really dont give a shit about when reviewing and attaching a score to a film. But just seeing them all together. Seeing the money shot. Pure fanboy glee. We got our DC equivalent of this:
And it was AWESOME.
The pace of this film was fast and furious. Once again, one of the big complaints I heard about the film was that it dragged and I just didnt feel it at all. I was into everything on the screen. I wanted to see this new Batman. His gadgets in this universe and how they compared to the other incarnations of Batman. Similar to the Dark Knight? How much would Dark Knight Returns influence the film and the character, as youd expect from Frank Miller fanboy Zack Snyder? What about Alfred? Then wed go to Superman. Then wed go to Wonder Woman. Then Lois Lane. Then Luthor. And back and forth. I honestly never felt bored at any point during the film.
They did a lot of world building for the cinematic universe in this film. But again, while many would take that and turn it into a negative (It's just a big commercial! There's no plot it's just setting up shit for the next films!) thats exactly what I was looking for going into the film. How were they going to establish this new cinematic universe? Could they get me excited for the solo Batman and Wonder Woman films? The Justice League films? The answer is YES! I left the film dying to see a new solo Batman film with more Affleck and Irons Alfred. Can they pull off a solo Wonder Woman film? Id love to see them try!
Gal Gadot is no Academy Award nominated best actress. There was concern from the day she was cast for the role, and rightfully so... But they absolutely worked to her strengths with this film. They kept her dialogue to a minimum (and even some of the lines she delivered were a bit wooden, but she was mostly fine) and let her eyes, body language and ass kicking do most of the talking. And my god does Wonder Woman kick ass in this movie. Soooooo awesome to see. They nailed it.
Speaking of ass kicking, the fight scenes. Oh my god. One of the few things they did right in Man of Steel, and they definitely didnt drop the ball here. Batman and Superman beat the shit out of each other. Wonder Woman, as I mentioned, AMAZING. But best of all was Batman. Gone is the often criticized fight choreography of the Dark Knight trilogy (even though I didnt have much of a problem with it), and here comes Arkham Asylum Batman come to life. Jesus Christ this dude hits HARD, and it is incredible to see. If I can credit Snyder for anything, its that he knows how to shoot action scenes, and frame things perfectly at times. There were some awesome shots that looked like something straight from the pages of a comic, and fight scenes, as I mentioned, looked like something straight out of an Arkham game or Dragon Ball Z, in the case of Superman.
Rapid fire:
-Doomsday wasnt amazing, but not offensively bad either. Baby spoiler:
He was there to make the heroes look awesome, especially Wonder Woman.
-Laurence Fishburne provided most of the humor in the film, and I laughed quite a bit. Just a constant barrage of
-People shit on Eisenbergs Luthor, even going as far as to call him Schumacher-esque cheesy, and I just didnt see that at all. Did he do the character justice? Was he menacing enough? No. Were his motivations made strong and clear? Kinda, but not really. But he was not awful, or even bad. Just okay. I'm sure we havent seen the last of him. Again, I just come out of this film excited to see this universe formed and ready to take on some of the other big bads of the DC universe, maybe working with Luthor?
Now the dislikes. Im going to avoid nitpicking here, because theres a ton of stuff to nitpick, but once again, the good outweighs the bad so follow my posts in this thread if you want to hear my thoughts on random nitpicks as they come to mind.
My number one complaint isnt even in the movie itself, amazingly. Its the trailers. Oh my fucking god the trailers gave away WAY too much of this film. Thats all Ill say for the spoiler free post. Its really unfortunate, but Im going to go into more detail with the spoiler version of this post.
Sometimes the fast pacing of the film worked against it. Some of the cuts were absolutely jarring. Like woah how did we just get here? That was really fast. It was a bit hard to wrap my head around some of those jumps. The film being too long and dragging seems to be a common criticism, but honestly, Im dying to see that extended R-rated cut to see if they can fill in any of those blanks that I felt the movie had.
As I mentioned, the villains could have been better, and I imagine their lack of menace/threat is a big reason why the scores for this film are so low. I understand that and I do wish they did a better job here with Luthor and Doomsday.
And honestly thats really it that comes to mind right now. Again, Im sure Im going to read some reviews/posts and agree with some of the flaws pointed out, but major things that come to mind? Thats about it. Perhaps the biggest problem with the film, that prevents it from reaching the upper echelon of superhero films, is that is just lacks the highs of a Spider-Man 2. Of a Batman Begins. Of a Winter Soldier. But it certainly doesnt reach the lows of a Man of Steel or Daredevil or Batman Forever like the Rotten Tomato score would lead you to believe. The positives outweigh the negatives, for sure.
Closing thoughts:
I think they did a disservice calling the film Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Ive already had friends who disliked the film tell me that they werent happy with how short the fight was between Batman and Superman. I think maybe a lot of people went into this film expecting more fighting between Batman and Superman, honestly, as youd expect from the title. But it didnt hurt the film much for me. The fighting that did happen between them was great. Imax footage just added to the spectacle. Of course they were going to work together in the end and eventually form the Justice League! And in that, it's the second part of the film's title that they really nail: Dawn of Justice.
I really enjoyed the film, and it has left me super excited for this DC Cinematic universe. While it feels different from the awesome MCU, that is not a bad thing. Its different in a good way. I cant believe they managed to pull this shit on a Man of Steel hating kid with a MCU Spider-Man avatar. If Im not living proof that you have to see a movie and judge it yourself despite what critics/everyone says (The movie is shit! If you didnt like Man of Steel you wont like this!) I dont know who is. Bring on the R rated directors cut.
If I had to give it a score after one viewing, it would probably be a 7/10. For reference, Dark Knight Rises is an 8, Begins is a 9, and Dark Knight is a 10. Thats pretty good company, I think. And I ranked Man of Steel a 4/10.
So... you still with me after 3500 words? What did you all think? I'm not crazy, right?
Right?
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