Batman v Superman - Dawn of Justice - Cultivating Apathy

[Worgen]

Its weird how dc movies are the dark ones and Marvel are the more light hearted. Since dc is the weirder comic universe which would really benefit from a lighter tone. But Marvel tends to have more complex characters who have to deal with the weirdness of growing up or alcohol dependence or abuse or being discriminated against. Marvel could go much darker and still be good, but the well known DC heroes are essentially Greek gods. Being dark doesn't help that.

In these pages, someone once wrote that characters need to be who they are. Batman can be dark and that is OK. Superman should not be! Batman is about angst, Superman hope. Instead, they're trying to be "The Dark Knight" and should not be.

They should all be forced to sit in a room and watch "Captain America: Winter Soldier" on loop with "Clockwork Orange" eye openers until they get it. Let your hero be who he is rather than trying to be some other popular character from another movie. And you can have a sense of real urgency in a fantasy movie while keeping it fun.

The last five Superman movies have not gotten it right. That's a lot of whiffed at softballs.

Even batman should't be that dark. I mean part of his moral compass is not killing people. If you make his badguys to bad then him not killing them just looks sillier and sillier. Plus if batman didn't kill them then the cops sure as hell would.

I did love Winter Solder. Although it was so stupid how they made pretty much every bad thing in the 20th century be part of hydras master plan. That was lame.

 

[gorfias]

Even batman should't be that dark. I mean part of his moral compass is not killing people. If you make his badguys to bad then him not killing them just looks sillier and sillier. Plus if batman didn't kill them then the cops sure as hell would..

I see this tomorrow with my nephew and I had heard that in this, Batman does have a casual attitude about not killing which undermines his character. One of the best depictions of him was "Kingdom Come" where he is a dark, snarky old bastard and he is turning down helping Superman. In reality, he is not being cynical, he is acknowledging that he is human and will be of limited assistance. Superman reminds him that he knows, deep down inside, Batman doesn't want anyone ever being killed.

 

[Worgen]

Even batman should't be that dark. I mean part of his moral compass is not killing people. If you make his badguys to bad then him not killing them just looks sillier and sillier. Plus if batman didn't kill them then the cops sure as hell would..

I see this tomorrow with my nephew and I had heard that in this, Batman does have a casual attitude about not killing which undermines his character. One of the best depictions of him was "Kingdom Come" where he is a dark, snarky old bastard and he is turning down helping Superman. In reality, he is not being cynical, he is acknowledging that he is human and will be of limited assistance. Superman reminds him that he knows, deep down inside, Batman doesn't want anyone ever being killed.

I haven't seen it but apparently he doesn't have a casual attitude to not killing, he goes out of his way to rack up a rather large body count.

 

[fix-the-spade]

I'm looking forward to the directors cut.

Just remember, the directors cut of Green Lantern actually made it worse.

I still don't get why Warner Brothers haven't just looked at the various animated series from 1993-2006 and collectively exclaimed oh my God that's a movie franchise. But then I assume none of the people making the big decisions would lower themselves to actually watching super hero anything, least of all cartoons.

 

[Sixcess]

Warner/DC just need to stop.

Green Lantern was supposed to be the launch of their cinematic universe, and then that got airbrushed out of the history books in favor of Man of Steel, and now this surely has to be the end of the line for that delusion, even if it does manage to make enough money to justify its own existence.

They just need to drop this entire thing, at least until someone comes up with an actual vision that isn't "let's just keep trying to make The Dark Knight again" or "Let's just do what Marvel does."

 

[Diablo1099_v1legacy]

Having a dark or more mature story does not mean your characters need to be dark and broody. You can have a serious Superman story without all the angst at a high school prom. The tone of the story doesn't need to be the tone of the characters, they can be mutually exclusive. The people making the current DC live action films don't seem to understand that.

The Justice League cartoon nailed this with the Justice Lords subplot, which spanned longer than an entire season without having to make any sort of major sacrifices.

Totally, I mean, I kinda started re-watching the entire series when I was in my first year of college, a lot of it is less like a cartoon and more legit good viewing at times.

 

[Diablo1099_v1legacy]

I'm looking forward to the directors cut.

Just remember, the directors cut of Green Lantern actually made it worse.

...Really? I thought I heard it made it better?

Granted, a polished Turd is still a Turd, but this is the first I heard about the Directors Cut being worse.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

I have no stake in these films, since Nolan did the grounded trilogy, it makes the CGI fest all the more jarring and irritating. So much money, advertisement and over-excitement. Can't even muster the excitement for Marvel movies either now. Getting burnt out on these "safe bet" superhero adaptations. This review hasn't changed a thing. I'm sure it'll be an alright bit of dumb entertainment to pass the time around a particularly boring person's house when the only other option is Miss congealed reality 2. The trailers remove any mystery that could've intrigued me to go, but no. Why does marketing not understand the importance of mystery?? Does anybody remember seeing the original Matrix trailer for the first time and thinking "What the hell did i just experience? I must find out more!"?

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

So, almost everything we were worried about from this movie came true. DC/Warner Bros. is trying to catch up to Marvel. They are still attempting to do in 2-3 movies what Marvel did in 5-6 movies. Lois Lane is still being treated like a plot Macguffin in an RPG. They cast Jesse Eisenberg to play Jesse Eisnberg pretending to be a well known super-villain character. The darker take on the story still hasn't worked past the Nolanverse Batman films. The general cinema audiences still aren't very interested in the darker mood when Marvel has set a lighter tone for most of their films. Maybe the JL movie can find the right balance between the two. It's all another typical chapter in DC's cinema history.

I'm not saying I am automatically assuming this is a horrible movie from those points, though. I still have to read more reviews, but it just sounds like another case where I'd be sort of pissed that I wasted $12 and 3 hours to find out Warner Bros still hasn't learned any discipline while making these movies. I might try to watch it when it hits a streaming service, though I still have to catch up with every superhero movie from Iron Man 2 onward.

I guess one good thing I can take from this review is they didn't completely botch Wonder Woman's introduction. It's still a shame that they pushed this movie to the forefront instead of giving her and other DC heroes their own intro movies to help build up Justice League. (Also, here's to hoping the JL movie doesn't have some shitty subtitle.)

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

So, almost everything we were worried about from this movie came true. DC/Warner Bros. is trying to catch up to Marvel. They are still attempting to do in 2-3 movies what Marvel did in 5-6 movies. Lois Lane is still being treated like a plot Macguffin in an RPG. They cast Jesse Eisenberg to play Jesse Eisnberg pretending to be a well known super-villain character. The darker take on the story still hasn't worked past the Nolanverse Batman films. The general cinema audiences still aren't very interested in the darker mood when Marvel has set a lighter tone for most of their films. Maybe the JL movie can find the right balance between the two. It's all another typical chapter in DC's cinema history.

I'm not saying I am automatically assuming this is a horrible movie from those points, though. I still have to read more reviews, but it just sounds like another case where I'd be sort of pissed that I wasted $12 and 3 hours to find out Warner Bros still hasn't learned any discipline while making these movies. I might try to watch it when it hits a streaming service, though I still have to catch up with every superhero movie from Iron Man 2 onward.

I guess one good thing I can take from this review is they didn't completely botch Wonder Woman's introduction. It's still a shame that they pushed this movie to the forefront instead of giving her and other DC heroes their own intro movies to help build up Justice League. (Also, here's to hoping the JL movie doesn't have some shitty subtitle.)

1. So it being called Dawn of Justice and Wonder Woman being introduced was not enough for you to realize that this is just a set up movie to Justice League? I feel sorry for the people that still thought this was going to be merely a Batman vs Superman slugfest.

2. Ok out of the criticsms this movie got, complaining about the title just confuses me? Dawn of Justice, what is wrong with that title? Does not sound that bad.

 

[Callate]

Well.

Shit.

I'm still probably going to have to see it, at some point, but perhaps I'll wait for the $3.50 ticket.

I'm sorry to see the film going down so hard, but I'm not exactly surprised. I think I started having misgivings when I got wind that Doomsday was in it. It's not unlike the inclusion of Bane in Batman and Robin as an all but throwaway character- his presence carries a strong implication that the powers that be don't get it. Doomsday (or Bane) is the guy associated with taking the plot-armored hero out- showing, after a lengthy establishment of the hero's overall competence and character development, that there are some threats that can even cause them to stumble. Despite Man of Steel, Dawn of Justice is very much an origin story, making it the wrong time to pull out such a big gun.

I hope Godot still gets her Wonder Woman movie.

 

[chocolate pickles]

'You can't do much acting behind a mask'

Gunnar Hansen and the guy who played V would like a word with you.

 

[sXeth]

If it'd been cut into Batman v Superman as Act 1, and Doomsday (via Lex) in Act 2, maybe it would've worked? I dunno. Lex kind of pointlessly threading all through the film and engineering Batman to fight Supes when Batman already was going to fight him just wasted a lot of time on a pointless thread (as he ultimately let Doomsday out anyways). It became a jumbled mess of two characters half-jammed together despite being two separate characters.

The psychic dreams and stuff all really didn't serve it very well either. Set up your Darkseid sequel bait in a stinger or something rather then shoving it in the middle of an already overcrowded script.

 

[Blood Brain Barrier]

Anyone could tell this would be shit from just looking at the stills.

Why on earth would Superman have such overdeveloped musculature? If anything it should be the opposite, because he's on a planet with much lower resistance than he's used to and your muscles don't have to work as hard.

 

[Li Mu]

Wow. 1.5 Stars.
I had no interest in this film, but 1.5 stars is way below what I was expecting it to recieve. Yikes.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Anyone could tell this would be shit from just looking at the stills.

Why on earth would Superman have such overdeveloped musculature? If anything it should be the opposite, because he's on a planet with much lower resistance than he's used to and your muscles don't have to work as hard.

Because he is just as beefy in the comic books and Cartoons:

https://40.media.tumblr.com/f5fc574f2ef8a31f4d97675d24a33692/tumblr_msexcalR671r1icqao1_500.jpg

http://www.tomosygrapas.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Superman-For-Tomorrow.jpg


http://comicattack.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/superman-batman-public-enemies-026.jpg

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Saw the midnight showing last night. Pretty terrible. As bad as moviebob said? Nah. He exaggerates. But its REALLY fucking bad! Like its not lube-less anal rape painful. But its certainly lube-less anal sex painful.

 

[chozo_hybrid]

Copying and editing what I said in another thread (Was late when I got home)

Saw it last night, I thought it was okay. That said, I thought Man of Steel was okay too, but this film definitely has its problems. Pacing is a big issue, you could shave about 15 to 20 mins of the run time I would feel, and the film would be better for it.

I liked that the last films consequences were at least addressed in this, but the story is kind of all over the place. They are definitely planting the seeds of future movies in this, and over all I think they did that too much. They just haven't earned their expanded universe yet I guess is what I am trying to say. That stuff takes a lot of work.

I think Ben's Batman was pretty good and I was okay with Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman.

Like I said, I was okay with it, but I can't say much impressed me.

 

[Ldude893]

I knew this movie was going to flop critically, and oh am I drinking it in. Never since EA's Sim City was a media franchise train-wreck so delicious.

Warner Brothers and DC was trying so desperately to copy the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and while I appreciate them trying to distinguish themselves by painting their films in a darker tone, they did so in all the wrong ways and we all fucking knew it. Every single moronic decision they made built up to a wonderfully flammable assemblage of a movie. They earned this shitshow.

Now, we just have to wait a decade or two when some smarter people in Warner Bros can actually make a good DC cinematic universe.