On paper the movie seems like it would be amazing, but unfortunately some of the directors choices and possibly the studio intervention hold it back from being the Batman vs Superman movie we all deserve.
Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert!
Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert!
You've Been Warned!
Grade: Matinee Showing
Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert!
Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert!
You've Been Warned!
Grade: Matinee Showing
The Awesome:
+ Batman! BATMAN! FREAKING BATMAN! That one time when Batman was driving the Batmobile grapples a car, swings it to hit an object and launches it onto another enemy vehicle. OH MY GOODNESS! Or... or the time when he's saving Martha Kent... ahhhhh! Taking out bad guys. Grappling a wood box into a guys face. AHHHH! Amazing!
+ Wonder Woman! Lasso of truth! Bracelets of Submission! Standing toe to toe with Doomsday! I honestly can't wait for the Wonder Woman movie because she is officially amazing!
The Ehhh:
~ Mopey Superman... again. Superman is a beacon of hope. I understand that some people find that boring, but when you have brooding Batman, Superman acts as a foil to help push the story along and give the Justice League a moral compass much like Captain America in the Avengers (I may have just committed DC movie review Taboo, bring it on). Not only that, why the heck was he standing on a mountain talking to Johnathan Kent?
~ So... what was Lex Luthor's plan and motivation? I was able to deduce that he wanted Batman and Superman to fight... and that's about as far as I've gotten. Please someone fill me in. And don't use deleted scenes, there were no deleted scenes in the movie (Ergo "deleted") so you can't use those to justify motivation.
~ The Senator. I don't even remember or care to look up who played her. It was a completely forgettable plot point that could have been so much more interesting if they didn't freaking blow up the capital. Speaking of the Capital being blown up, could you hear the price is right losing horn when Superman is shown surrounded by fire... I think I heard it.
~ Lois Lane... what happened to you? You use to be such a bad a**. Even in Man of Steel you were able to take on Zod's men in the space ship or shoot down the kryptonian terraformer machine from a plane. Why are you getting captured in Africa now? You seem to serve no purpose other than given Superman a reason to return from his moping.
~ Superman's death. I honestly didn't care. He already "died" once after the atom bomb blew up. He then came back to life after feeling the warm sun on his face. Why wouldn't I think he can't come back again? Honestly, I still would have killed him, but this is how I would have done it... 1) Bomb blows up Superman and Doomsday. 2) They both fall to earth. 3) Bodies roll away from each other with Superman on left and Doomsday on right. 4) Doomsday gets up... charges/becomes more rocky. 5) Superman strains to move. 6) Doomsday sees that Superman survived and pounds on Superman till he's dead. 7) Batman and Wonder Woman have to use the spear to kill Doomsday and of course they succeed. I realize that is only a slight change, but by having Superman already "die" and come back 5 seconds later makes death feel useless.
The Ugh-ly:
- Don't throw away the spear! Lois you're an idot! Granted... hindsight is 20-20 and she didn't know she would need the spear again. But why throw it into... a well... maybe. If she was truly worried about it hurting Superman in the future, you think she would have hid it away so that someone else won't find it. Then you freaking almost drowned! Ugh... you are absolutely completely pointless to the plot.
- The first hour and 45 minutes. What was even going on? Who cared? There was no character development, just moping around and searching for some Portuguese guy. The movie honestly could have started with Batman turning on the Batsignal and it still would have made the same amount of sense.
- Terrible editing. Within about 20 minutes of actual time (from when Batman and Superman fight to Wonder Woman's reveal) this is what happened in Wonder Woman's story line. 1) Wonder Woman is out on the town wearing a white gown and sees the electricity coming off of the spaceship. 2) She is sitting at home in a robe looking at meta-human files. 3) She is now walking into a plane (for some reason) and sees that Doomsday has appeared. 4) She lands in front of Batman right before he become Bat-b-cued. Now... I know she's super and all and can do amazing things. By why the change of location and wardrobe between every scene. Couldn't she have just been at home... What was the point. Sometimes I give movies leniency because movie time is different than real time, but since we were literally seeing them fight inter-cut with those scenes, we know about how long it was.
- More terrible editing. 1) Superman's funeral. Bruce is talking to Diana about building the Justice League while Lois scoops up soil in her hand. 2) Cut to Lex in prison. Lights flicker. Batman is seen behind him.. that scene happens. 3) Shot of painting in Daddy Luthor's office. 4) Cut to Lois dropping sand on Clark's coffin. Now... this is the nitpicking I mentioned. I realize that these events aren't chronological. But it is just bad editing to jump around timelines like that. When it is done in other movies, let say Pulp Fiction, it is to strategically reveal character traits, plot points or motivations. In BvS it is just lazy.
- Martha! You mean the only reason why we had to sit through Batman's origin again? So that they could stop fighting when Batman realized that their mom's share the same name? It just doesn't make sense.
Overview:
I really hope that the 3 hour extended cut. I'm hoping that plot points are fleshed out more so that motivations can be realized as I think the movie intended.
Enjoyed your review!
ReplyDeleteI give this movie a solid C on its way to a C+. It has issues but I can't take away the fact that I came in with lowered expectations and I was entertained. I wish it was amazing but it's not.
Things I think they could have done to streamline the story: cut out the Africa scene, the public would already be divided on him. Cut out the useless Lois storyline. Any scene she isn't in with Supes is wasted screen time for this movie. Add: screen time to develop the Superman, Senate philosophical debate, Do we need Superman.
The Martha point, I disagree. It wasn't about being friends. Supes became human in that moment to Bats. He had a mother, Bats couldn't let her die, leaving him an orphan. Then, Superman had to die. This showed to Bats that Supes was good. Bats feels guilty then, and only then, that he should have given the guy a chance and he's not going to make that mistake again with the other metas.
Lex was not desirable... Emily commented that he was a little too close to being Joker. And I agree, after she said that, anytime he was on I was pulled out of the movie.
But, with the release of more movies and the extended cut, I think this movie will age well. And it'll be fun to watch Wonder Woman first appear in the universe after seeing her movie. Supes may actually get some time to show that he's a good Supes and seeing him mope in this one will be tolerable because the arc of the character will fulfill in future movies. I wish this movie was better. But it's not a crappy movie.
I honestly couldn't agree more. We will probably look back on the movie and it will be better than it is now. Especially after all members of the Justice League are established.
DeleteAnd I think C creeping to C+ is a fair grade. Seeing it in Matinee is essentially my C grade.
And I do like almost every "idea" in BvS, including the Martha scene. I just feel it wasn't handled or explained well enough to have earned the moment. I just think BvS, with the characters available, deserved to be much better, and probably would have been if it was in better hands.
But overall I would never tell anyone not to see it, just to not have too high of expectations.
For sure, it just hurts a little bit to see such a rotten score, knowing that people are choosing not to go see it based off of that. It definitely isn't THAT awful.
DeleteHere's to hoping they stick with their gut and not screw up suicide squad by cutting 30 minutes out of it so they can make me money opening weekend...
I actually was thinking that was what the Matinee meant. I liked your presentation. What are your plans with this review blog?
*On rotten tomatoes.
DeleteNow that is a very good question.The truth is that I do have a few long term goals, but right now I’m just seeing if I can prove a concept of releasing movie reviews and editorials on a semi regular basis around my current work and life schedule. Also I’m trying to hone a format that works for my writing style that also is appealing to other.
DeleteSoon I’d like to actually start posting YouTube videos. The plan is a short 5-8 minute video is easier to consume than a written piece. My hope is that I can have that up and running before the end of the year. It will probably be earlier, but I’m being conservative.
My long term goal is actually a podcast. I have been listening to a lot of movie review podcast this last year and I feel that a lot of them are too “critic” focused and less about the overall enjoyment of the movie. The podcast idea is currently the last thing on my list of wants, but is also the one i’m most excited about. So if it became available earlier, then I’d get it started.
Mainly I just love movies and I want to talk about them as much as possible. Now that my schedule has cleared up a bit, the time has finally come to nurture this passion. Haha.
So yeah, that’s kind of my plans. Right now I’m just hoping that the blog grows in popularity (as small as that will probably be) and maybe one day I’ll take a step toward something more.
Now that is a very good question.The truth is that I do have a few long term goals, but right now I’m just seeing if I can prove a concept of releasing movie reviews and editorials on a semi regular basis around my current work and life schedule. Also I’m trying to hone a format that works for my writing style that also is appealing to other.
DeleteSoon I’d like to actually start posting YouTube videos. The plan is a short 5-8 minute video is easier to consume than a written piece. My hope is that I can have that up and running before the end of the year. It will probably be earlier, but I’m being conservative.
My long term goal is actually a podcast. I have been listening to a lot of movie review podcast this last year and I feel that a lot of them are too “critic” focused and less about the overall enjoyment of the movie. The podcast idea is currently the last thing on my list of wants, but is also the one i’m most excited about. So if it became available earlier, then I’d get it started.
Mainly I just love movies and I want to talk about them as much as possible. Now that my schedule has cleared up a bit, the time has finally come to nurture this passion. Haha.
So yeah, that’s kind of my plans. Right now I’m just hoping that the blog grows in popularity (as small as that will probably be) and maybe one day I’ll take a step toward something more.