Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

[TU 'cane]

Discuss!


Also, please be mindful of spoilers and place appropriate notices or black out your text.

Two pieces of advice for anyone going or thinking about it: 1) place the critics at the back of your mind and see it for yourself (most people I've talked to and read are saying they don't see how the movie has been rated so poorly) and 2) know very well that this isn't Disney/Marvel, there are vast differences.

[Martin]

seeing it tomorrow night and trying to keep an open mind... -M

[Rover]

Saw it yesterday and was not impressed. It is long and constantly frenetic. I personally was offended by the heavy handed use of Christian imagery and an attempt to turn God into myth. I know it is very popular to try to turn the Bible into just another fiction book, but I thought it was heavy handed and totally unnecessary. Other than that, it is getting kind of numbing to go to these shows for 2 to 2 1/2 hours of action with little real story development. It is becoming cliche except to the young teens who have A.D.D. I don't think many over the age of 15 or of that maturity level will really enjoy it.

Personally, I thought it was a waste of my time and money. Just my humble opinion. However, I always enjoy going to movies with the kids.

BTW, Gal Gadot makes sitting through it a little easier.

[Ginkasa]

Saw it yesterday and was not impressed. It is long and constantly frenetic. I personally was offended by the heavy handed use of Christian imagery and an attempt to turn God into myth. I know it is very popular to try to turn the Bible into just another fiction book, but I thought it was heavy handed and totally unnecessary. Other than that, it is getting kind of numbing to go to these shows for 2 to 2 1/2 hours of action with little real story development. It is becoming cliche except to the young teens who have A.D.D. I don't think many over the age of 15 or of that maturity level will really enjoy it.

Personally, I thought it was a waste of my time and money. Just my humble opinion. However, I always enjoy going to movies with the kids.

BTW, Gal Gadot makes sitting through it a little easier.

I find it ironic you speak of being offended and then turn around and make a broad personal judgement of everyone who enjoys this movie.

[TU 'cane]

I imagine some people just saw it or are still waiting to see it, but I'll go ahead and give my take, spoiler free first.

If I had to put my ranking on a generic numerical scale that many critics do, I'd give this a solid 7.5/10. Really only for the reasons that I wasn't disappointed in the main characters and I thought they all did much better than I was anticipating. On top of not being thrown off along the plot line like many people have claimed. Having already read some of the source material, I was able to follow along and noticed so many Easter eggs in the movie that I was like a little kid. This was truly a shout out to all of the comic and graphic novel readers as my best way to put it was that I thought the movie was a comic book turned real life. Also, it was relatively philosophical for a movie, especially a super hero movie. I think this was what a lot of people felt boring and resulted in the slow pacing of the first half of the film. Lastly, there were plenty of one liners in this movie. So to say it was humorless is completely unfair. I chuckled at quite a bit, in fact more than I thought I was going to.

My biggest complaint is that they showed way too much in the trailers. There was one part in particular that if it was left out of the trailers, it would have made that particular part so much better. First line in the spoiler section below for what I'm referencing.

***SPOILER SECTION: (in white text, scroll passed if you can still vaguely see)



-Wonder Womans entrance to the Doomsday battle.

-I wasn't thrown off by the "Knightmare" sequence, it was clear to me having already knew a little about big baddy Darkseid that the Omega symbol was his symbol. And that sequence was a potential world he had taken control of with Superman being in "control" or at least ruling humans to some extent. Also, the scene with the guy popping out in a big white flashing aura was The Flash from the future, at least that's my take. In the comics he can travel through dimensions when he runs fast enough. Perhaps unnecessary especially for people who may not have had any idea what it was.

-Doomsday wasn't that bad. I thought Ultron (since everyone's comparing with Marvel, although I don't think they should) looked on the same level CGI-wise. Although overall I didn't think either were particularly bad in any way. I do think Doomsday should have been on screen a few minutes longer though.

-Lex Luthor - he's Lex Luthor Jr., so he's different from the comics and from what we know traditionally. He's kooky, he's crazy, and he sold it well. My hat is off to Eisenberg for his portrayal, but what I will also say is that I thought that type of persona wasn't needed. So it's a double edged sword but I'll give him credit for going 100% in that role.

-A lot of people are confused about why Luthor pinned Superman against Batman. Well, I thought it was pretty clear when Batman stole the Kryptonite and left his Bat throwing star where the rock was. Luthor is then shown smirking after seeing it. My take is that he wanted Batman dead for stealing it and then he'd be able to deal with Superman with kryptonite or Doomsday. Bam, two super heroes taken care of by Lex.





***

[MitchellCole]

Saw it yesterday and was not impressed. It is long and constantly frenetic. I personally was offended by the heavy handed use of Christian imagery and an attempt to turn God into myth. I know it is very popular to try to turn the Bible into just another fiction book, but I thought it was heavy handed and totally unnecessary. Other than that, it is getting kind of numbing to go to these shows for 2 to 2 1/2 hours of action with little real story development. It is becoming cliche except to the young teens who have A.D.D. I don't think many over the age of 15 or of that maturity level will really enjoy it.

Personally, I thought it was a waste of my time and money. Just my humble opinion. However, I always enjoy going to movies with the kids.

BTW, Gal Gadot makes sitting through it a little easier.

Maybe b/c God is a myth?

[SouthsideSooner]

Maybe b/c God is a myth?

Only for those who have never come to know God...for those that have...

New Living Translation...Philippians 4:7

"Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus."

Sorry, I'm really not trying to turn this in to a debate on the existence of God but I just couldn't let this one go without a response...

[Mel]

I will probably buy this flick when it comes out on DVD. I have already read so many spoilers that I know what happens but that does not effect how I will think of the movie when I see it myself.

[BBatesokc]

Saw it this morning in 3D at Penn with my wife.

Gotta say, we both left disappointed. Slow paced and a little all over the place. I wasn't expecting much, but it failed to entertain us on any level, let alone keep my attention. I found myself planning the rest of my day by the time the action finally started.

[Questor]

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS

You know, I understand why this movie has been getting the ratings it has, but for what it is it isn't that bad. If you go in with the right attitude it is going to be fun.

The Good: Two words... Wonder Woman. Wow, that actress pulled it off big-time. I loved the "Amazonian" music theme that played whenever she showed up in full regalia. I'm ready for the WW feature film. I liked the fact that the Superman characters in this movie are from the same universe as the recent Man of Steel movie... I thought it was very underrated for what it was... I enjoyed the very "alien" take on Superman it provided and was happy to see that theme continue in this movie. I also really enjoyed the fact that they were using some of the most epic storylines from comic books from the 1990s... basically the ending of the movie and the lead-up to it. And of course the last 45 minutes of the movie is what we all went to go see... that was just epic. Did I mention Wonder Woman?

Most Surprising: Ben Affleck. You know, when this film starts its focus is on Batman, and for the first 20 minutes I just felt angry seeing Affleck on the screen, lol. I kept unfairly comparing him to Christian Bale, and kept comparing the writing of what I was seeing in his segments to The Dark Knight trilogy. I finally decided that was an unfair comparison because TDK movies may be some of the best superhero movies ever made (and maybe delete the word "superhero" from that last sentence and replace it with "action" or whatever). When I got past that, I realized that Affleck was actually doing a pretty great job as Batman. I just kept in mind that this was supposed to be a post-"Dark Knight" / pre-"Batman Beyond" era Batman, an older Batman who might be looking to pass the torch on in a few years, and I found myself surprisingly good with it.

The Bad: The directing sucks, that is what I finally concluded. Here's why... Jessie Eisenberg is a fantastic actor, but I really kind of hated him in this role. Especially his acting, which I can only conclude was directed to him. I thought the writing was heavy-handed and terrible at points. I thought some of the non-CGI cinematic shots were awful (yes, I was comparing it mentally to TDK but come on, surely the director had to realize this would happen). I thought some of the storyline transition points were confusing and convoluted and I am someone pretty familiar with the source material and where they were headed. I hated the fact that Batman used guns (I know he has in past comics but come on), and I thought the lengthy intro showing Bruce Wayne as a boy and the whole bat cave thing was so overdone... we are all familiar with the story, we don't need that anymore. Yes I understand they had to reference back to the Wayne parents because of what happens later on in the film, but there were better ways to do that. So when I see awesome actors who are miscast and given poor direction, bad writing that isn't dealt with through effective editing, terrible cinematography and weak transition points, the only thing I can conclude is that there was just a horrible job of directing done on this film.

So this was a pretty shaky performance for a movie that is supposed to kick-off an entire slew of DC movies, but if I'm like most people then I think a lot of folks are going to go see that Wonder Woman movie regardless, and so I think they have one more shot to pull it off. If WW is terrible though I think they've lost their audience for good.

[Thomas Vu]

I was entertained.

I heard it was the best "DBZ live action movie"

For those who knows what that would mean, I agree with that

[TU 'cane]

Well, it seems people decided to put the critic opinions to the side for at least this weekend. This movie set some box office records already. Question now is, will it continue into next weekend and avoid a severe drop?
Even if they were to simply double over the theater life span, this would sit over $800 million worldwide, which is what many analysts were saying was needed to turn profit after all the advertising and general budget.

$424 million worldwide: 'Batman v Superman' takes huge $170 million at the box office

I've been debating going to see this movie a second time, but that's generally not my style. I'm just a big fan of the DCU, so maybe it's just my inner geek that thinks this movie wasn't near as bad as it was made out to be and would like to go back a second time to analyze a little more.

[Ozmondo]

seeing it tomorrow night and trying to keep an open mind... -M

I'm seeing it Thursday and doing the same.

[David]

As a DC comics universe fan who can look past the "but Batman wouldn't do 'X'!" issues, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie.

[Martin]

saw it saturday...


i can live with the first 75% of the movie... it's disjointed and the pacing is off, but not horrible. the last two acts of the movie are, in my opinion, horribly written and directed.

i will say, though, that affleck as batman was watchable... it's a different take than bale's rendition but it worked for me. with better writing and direction, i think it could actually be good. on the other side of the spectrum, i don't think that eisenberg was the right choice for luthor... or at least the way that the script called for the character to be played. -M

[gopokes88]

As soon as they made DOJ batman look and act like Lego batman I was out

[Geographer]

Initially, Zach Snyder (Director) talked with Bryan Cranston to play Lex, but after meeting with Bryan he talked with Eisenberg about the role. Eisenberg was initially supposed to play a different, minor role in the film.

If you want analysis and inside information and how this fits into the DC universe, check out the youtube channel Emergency Awesome.


For the record, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. I loved all of the comic book easter eggs and all of the easter eggs for the future DC films and how it will all fit together similar to the Marvel cinematic universe.

[Martin]

nope. sorry. the movie was a big ol' glass of granny's peach tea. -M

[Roger S]

Maybe I saw a different movie than the rest of you but I was thoroughly entertained and loved Eisenberg as Lex Luthor.

And at the risk of throwing us off topic.... The trailer for Suicide Squad looked pretty good too!

[jerrywall]

One thing is for sure, is there's not much middle ground. People either loved the movie, or loathed it.

[hoya]

Haven't seen it yet. Is it okay to take my 10 year old nephew to see it? He was very upset when I told him "no no no" about seeing Deadpool.

[Martin]

Haven't seen it yet. Is it okay to take my 10 year old nephew to see it? He was very upset when I told him "no no no" about seeing Deadpool.

hard to say as it depends on the kid... i'd think that if he could handle the last superman movie, then this one would probably be ok. it's definitely not in the same realm as deadpool... but i'll say that the movie earns its pg-13 rating for violence. -M

[TU 'cane]

Haven't seen it yet. Is it okay to take my 10 year old nephew to see it? He was very upset when I told him "no no no" about seeing Deadpool.

hard to say as it depends on the kid... i'd think that if he could handle the last superman movie, then this one would probably be ok. it's definitely not in the same realm as deadpool... but i'll say that the movie earns its pg-13 rating for violence. -M

Smart decision with Deadpool, I heard Ryan Reynolds took issue with parents taking their kids, or at least he made fun of them for it. Which, to each their own but it has a pretty hard R rating for many reasons.

Pretty much agree with Martin here. If he's seen Man of Steel, it probably won't be much worse overall in terms of inappropriateness.
This was more of an adult superhero movie compared to Marvel, in my opinion. He'll be super bored with the first 1.5 hours of the movie, but it really picks up and has some sweet actions scenes for the last hour or so. If he's even remotely close to being a fan of Batman and/or Superman and/or Wonder Woman, it'd probably make his day. Being 10, he probably won't understand some of the philosophical elements or the story arcs, just assuming (not meaning to insult him).

But I do have to agree with some of the comments, there's very little middle ground with this film. It seems to be you really enjoyed it, or it was very bleh. I question my perspective because I loved the movie.

And speaking of, I just got done reading this article: http://www.vox.com/2016/3/30/1132988...ew-zack-snyder

Which, we can nitpick and bring up so many bad actors and directors as well, it just seems Snyder ticked someone off. But anyway, I read the whole thing and towards the bottom I had to roll my eyes and stopped reading (well, it was already the end anyway, but still):

***MINOR SPOILERS BELOW

The trend of prioritizing strength over substance has reached its nadir in Batman v Superman, his worst film to date, and one that suggests, once again, that he can copy the surfaces of beloved comics — in this case, Miller's The Dark Knight Returns — but can't quite figure out why so many comics fans hold it as a sacred truth that Batman never kills anyone.

Arguably half of the so called "kills" in the movie occur in the dream sequence in a completely different reality.
Furthermore, Batman has killed in the comics, and I think every Batman movie beginning with Burtons, people are killed directly or indirectly by Batman and/or Robin. So this point is moot and is a very cheap way to knock Snyder and the film. Lastly, it clearly explains in the movie that this Bruce/Batman has become jaded with all the years fighting crime with little to show. He's older, wiser, and more brutal to get the job done quicker.





***

[Roger S]

I did have to wonder one thing during the movie... Especially the fight scene when Batman is rescuing Martha.

How many of you were sitting there adding "KeeRACK!" "WHAMMO!" "POW!!!" in your heads as Batman was slugging it out with the baddies? I know I was... lol

[jerrywall]

While Batman has indirectly or directly killed in the past movies (albeit very limited), the modern comics have had a fairly strict "no kill" rule, which is where some people see the disconnect. This movie features some pretty intentional, extensive, and in some cases brutal killing and maiming. It's also a nostalgia thing. I, for example, liked Man of Steel, but a lot of people went into it wanting to see a modern Donner/Reeves style Superman movie. Personally? I've already seen that film. I have multiple versions of it. I don't need to see the same old Superman again, so I'm happy to see an updated take. I treat the DC movie verse as an "elseworlds" (to use DC's parlance) story.

Of course, I also enjoy the Transformers movies, even though I wouldn't describe them as quality. Sometimes it's fun to just watch and enjoy something.