However, the movie did have almost so much fan service in it, that it was almost over whelming at times. Also, he tried to fit so many stories into one movie, that could also be it.
Overall though, I enjoyed it. And I was entertained, and that's all that really matters right?
It wasn't the best movie. But it was not the worst.
From a video I watched before, they described it best. Batman Vs Superman was a "Beautiful action packed, extremely ambitious, just...okay film."
Actually, it's not if you bothered reading or listening to any critical reviews of the movie Caliga. Many cite the exact same reasons they were highly disappointed with the movie and they were going in hoping to love it.
I haven't seen it yet, and I'm not in any rush to. I thought Man of Steel was a good fun movie, but I've seriously had it with all the dark dark dark darkness these movies all have. More TV Flash, less Goth Batman.
I can't really explain into detail some of my problems with the film without giving away spoilers.
What I can say that is spoiler-free;
I hated what they did with Lex Luthor. If you're going to do something with the character that deviates from the comic source, make sure it works. This version of Luthor sure was given a quirky personality, and it comes off as annoying and often uncomfortably awkward instead of endearing and amusing. People are calling this version of Luthor a Joker-wannabe and it's not hard to see why.
This version of Batman kills, without reservation or any real effort to make it a "last resort" thing. It kind of ruined it for me since the whole "no killing" personal vow about him has always been one thing that sets him apart from being just some violent murderous vigilante.
The musical score in certain scenes. Talk about over-the-top and unfitting for the supposed dramatic tone of the scene. Was I supposed to feel like laughing when listening to the music used during a scene where Luthor was walking in slow-mo and attempting to look all bad-****? No? Yeah, then something is wrong.
Ham-fisted superhero cameos that feel forced and out-of-place in the film, and I'm not just refering to Wonder Woman. Gal Gadot does a great job at potraying WW but she feels pretty irrelevant to the story itself considering she doesn't do anything of significance prior to her big reveal, and is just there because "Oooh Justice League guys! JUSTICE LEAGUE!".
Batman's motivation in wanting Superman out of the equation and how he justifies it based on emotion instead of logic, especially considering the warning signs around him that hint at manipulation and that Superman might not be the sole problem. Superman and others like him are like gods and they're a dangerous liability and must be taken down. Full Stop. Hey Bruce, aren't you supposed to be a genius and the world's greatest detective? Oh look, there's this huge explosion, a lot of people died and it was confirmed publically that Superman was not behind it even when he was present. Maybe urm...investigate? But nooooope, BAT RAAAAGE! SUPERMAN'S GOING DOWN!
As for the fight between Bats and Supes that's supposed to be the highlight of the film? It plays out exactly as you'd expect. Supes holds back because he's the noble superhero-type. Bats plays dirty in the obvious way. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it feels like the grand fight itself is just "there" as a setup to the real fight that takes place. Yeah, the one that gives Wonder Woman an excuse to be in the film in the first place.
------------------
Is the film worth a watch? IMO sure. It does have its shining moments. Jeremy Irons as a sharp-witted, sardonic Alfred is a delight to watch. I couldn't find anything really wrong with Affleck's performance and thought he did a good job being Bats. I thought the fight scene involving Batman vs many goons was very well done, as well as the Batmobile one. The film does have a very strong opening that sets the tone of the film nicely.
Oh and if haven't and intend to go watch it, don't stay and wait till after the credits. There's nothing there.
I think, as with most comic book movies, that a lot of comic book fans get upset when it's not their favorite version of a character shown on the bigscreen.
I will also agree that there is some of this involved:
After surveying the reactions of fans of the characters, both in my community and online, the overall consensus on BvS appears to be, "Good, but not great." Critics as a group have largely hated on it, but there's a sharp difference between critical and audience reactions, as highlighted on the Rotten Tomatoes website: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/batman_v_superman_dawn_of_justice/ . Not the first movie I've seen that difference of opinion over.
Online movie reviewers that I find to usually be even-handed, and who are familiar with the source material, have hewed closer to the above audience response.
Not... really. The way Rotten Tomatoes is set up, on a five-star rating system a positive review would be something like 3.5 stars, so there's no difference between a 1-star review and a 3-star review, they're both counted as a negative review. Metacritic (which does treat a 1-star and a 3-star differently) gives it a 44, which is not particularly good but is not hate.
I think the glaring issue people are ignoring, that the critics are blasting it for, it's an incoherent story that has at least two points that have been tread so many times over that, let's face it, if you don't know the origin story of Superman or Batman by now you either lived under a rock or are just highly ignorant. A good forty-five minutes of this two-and-a-half hour movie was devoted to a backstory we've seen, remarkably, multiple times since the beginning in `89 on the big screen. Regardless of what some people think, people are not that quick to forget the last re-telling of that same story, three times that came out in a trilogy only a few years ago.
Then there is the problem of the story in general. It's all over the place. Regardless if it is an action flick or not, you have to have a decent narrative to know what the hell is going on. If you are changing the story fine, then make it clear what you are changing. It's like Man of Steel, it was a fricken mess in the story department, and people gave it a pass because it shows not-Superman being an incompetent accessory to genocide, in what they think is finally good super being slobber knocker... that was rife with product placement and got dull after the 50 billionth time you watched either not-Superman or the Zod elites get knocked through another building in the last length of the movie.
And let's not forget the glaring issue that most critics point out readily; people came for a movie that promised Batman versus Superman, and they barely even got that much. I won't spoil things, but Batfleck was not Batman that anyone has known from the comics, even Miller comics and not-Superman was so easily duped the entire reason of the BvS fight was stupid and over before it began that it just felt terribly rushed.
And the ending of the movie, it basically took away any weight of suspense for the rest of the franchise going forward. Say what you will, and if you know your comics and who the villain is, then you know what is happening, but when you pull your ace card like that, you've removed all tension and weight for all your movies going forward.
Okay. I don't ever read online reviews because I usually don't agree with them (usually because I like stupid-funny stuff and most reviews are like "low brow = bad, all the time"), and I also don't watch lots of movie trailers. I like to experience as much of the movie in one go, straight out of the box, with as little previous knowledge as possible. And usually, if a movie is at least visually entertaining or humorous, I can let a lot of bad stuff pass just because I was entertained. If I have a few good laughs or see lots of "whoa! did you see that? so cool!" stuff, I mark it down as an entertaining movie.
All that said, I found the movie to be very bland. No big laughs, no really cool action stuff. Compared to my Star Wars viewing experience, which had me smiling, laughing, and "whoa! cool"-ing it just about the entire time, this movie just fell so flat. And no, it wasn't because of Ben Affleck. He was the least of this movie's worries. I think he did a fine job.
I'm probably gonna say very spoilery things now, so let's see if the spoiler tag works!
So, I mentioned "whoa, cool!" moments, and the only time I was wowed was when Wonder Woman made her in-costume appearance. Dunno why, but that was the most impressive thing. She was blocking stuff with her wrist thingies, she shot lasers from them, then she cut a flying car in half. Those were my only wow moments, in a movie about two other characters. Like, what?!
The end part, I had the exact same reaction that silverspar had; Superman just died, that's supposed to be huge. He's dead for five minutes and you already tell the viewers "ha, just kiddin'!" Seriously?! The one impactful part of the movie that you could have let linger until the next movie trailers, and you just blow that? No next-day "Damn, did you see that? I can't believe they killed him!" watercooler moments. Just "yeah he'll be back." The comic fans know that he'll be back, obviously, but don't tell everyone that. Leave it a freakin' mystery!
I did think Flash's cameo was kinda neat, but if you're gonna deliver an ultra-important message through time travel, get to the point, don't be all friggin' vague about it! It's like you get time travel abilities and decide to do what everyone says, go back in time and kill Hitler. But when you get there, you waste years trying to subtly hint at him that the holocaust is probably a shitty idea and not to go through with it, and then watching as it happens all over again because you didn't just kill him or otherwise prevent him from doing so. What the heck?!
I usually don't dig deep into movies and their plots, and I can let plot holes go, but how did everyone at the end just know that Doomsday was Kryptonian and that they should go find the spear? The only person who saw what Lex did was Superman. Batman does a fly-by on the monster and he's like "Oh, I see, he's obviously Kryptonian. Let's go get the spear which I just left in a rotten building unceremoniously after trying so hard to get it." Maaaaaybe the techy stuff in his weird-looking Batwing said "Hey, he's Kryptonian." So okay, let's maaaaybe let that slide.
BUT WHO THE HELL TOLD LOIS?! Why is she suddenly like, oh crap there's a monster, let's get the spear! WHAAAT?!
Also, the whole thing where Batman is like WHY DID YOU SAY THAT NAME?! Like really, he says your mom's name and you stop killing him? If I was hell-bent on killing someone for causing thousands of deaths, and the guy said my dead mom's name before I put a bullet in his ****, I'm just gonna kill him. If bat-mom was still alive, then he could take that as some sort of threat and then stop killing him to get some info, but no, it took Lois to tell him that it's his mom's name.
That scene could have been good if Superman was actually able to talk and clearly say that his mom's will be murdered. Then Batman has his little flashback of bat-mom being murdered and gets this very pivotal and important "Oh crap, if I let his mom die, I'm no better than the guy who killed my mom." But no, that scene was just scrambled eggs bananas.
Speaking of Lex, good lord, why is he so damn annoying? It was like some crazy method-acting Jesse Heisenberg playing Lex Luthor playing Michael Cera playing the Joker. What the hell is this??
I also found a lot of the parts of the movie very predictable, like the ring in the envelope. I mean, what a predictable throw-away scene.
I didn't really like Alfred in the movie. He seemed a lot more like the techy ally character, not so much the butlery type guy. I guess most of that is owed to the fact that the only time you see him, it's during Batman scenes, not a lot of Bruce. Even when he's not in costume, he's doing Batman stuff or talking about Batman stuff. And him flying the Batwing and being so ho-hum about everything just was like, is this supposed to be endearing or funny? Because it was just dull.
Anyway, that's all for now. I wouldn't tell people not to watch it, but I wouldn't watch it on purpose again.
Decent enough Batman movie with a rubbish Lex Luthor and meh Superman. Batfleck was actually good though. Its suffers the same problems of the big budget Marvel movies ..they think a big budget, explosions and destruction make a good movie.
Movies such as Dredd and Deadpool show a good comic book movie can be made without these things.
Post edited by nepht on
Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
Decent enough Batman movie with a rubbish Lex Luthor and meh Superman. Batfleck was actually good though. Its suffers the same problems of the big budget Marvel movies ..they think a big budget, explosions and destruction make a good movie.
Movies such as Dredd and Deadpool show a good comic book movie can be made without these things.
Speaking of Deadpool... I have a pretty great way to really sum up how Batman Vs Superman hit me:
It's a movie about two superheroes that I never really cared too much for, but I went into it wanting to like it. I walked away from it fairly underwhelmed.
I saw Deadpool today. I know, I know, we all know I hate Deadpool already, but my brother was persistent, and I just wanted to see Colossus because he looked friggin' awesome in one of the previews. So I was like, okay fine.
It's a movie about a superhero that I absolutely hate, and I went into it wanting to hate it. I walked away from it absolutely entertained and wanting more. Deadpool, people. It was fun, it was funny, and had amazing action sequences. Seriously laughing through most of the thing, wowed at the action. I even laughed at the credits! DEADPOOL, of all characters! Hollywood, this is how you make a movie. Of course now, Hollywood is thinking "Well, we just have to make everything rated R and with lots of foul language and gore to be successful" but the lesson they need to be taking from it is to stick to what the source gives you and make a movie for the fans, not make a movie for the marketing committee you try to sell your own product to at every turn.
I mean, Deadpool! WHAT! Next thing you know they're going to make a Wolverine movie that I like! Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!
I hated what they did with Lex Luthor. If you're going to do something with the character that deviates from the comic source, make sure it works. This version of Luthor sure was given a quirky personality, and it comes off as annoying and often uncomfortably awkward instead of endearing and amusing. People are calling this version of Luthor a Joker-wannabe and it's not hard to see why.
I've not seen the movie yet, but one person said that Lex feels more like Alexander Luthor, IE classic Lex's son. Same money, same genius, but he's a more extroverted guy. Also he tried seducing Supergirl(but Matrix, not the Kryptonian one). :P
It is Lex Jr in the movie , that Lex Luthor the rubbish one no one likes. The actor that played Lex Jr (Jesse Eisenberg) is good actor its just the character thats garbage. The movie seriously needed the bald frowny one.
Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
Hmm... one thing I talked about with my coworkers this weekend was the movie and one mentioned that the original release of the movie was around 30 minutes longer than the final theatrical release... Allegedly this would have made the plot better.
Yea a lot of "supposed" rumors about actual length of the movie going around and how much was cut. Over all the budget was up in the $800 million range, so considering the 81% drop from opening it looks like BvS might be lucky to break even.
Honestly I won't feel like sitting through two and a half hours of boring for another potential 30 minutes or more of the same. I don't care how much was cut, I'm just saying what I heard.
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Silverspar on PRIMUS
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However, the movie did have almost so much fan service in it, that it was almost over whelming at times. Also, he tried to fit so many stories into one movie, that could also be it.
Overall though, I enjoyed it. And I was entertained, and that's all that really matters right?
It wasn't the best movie. But it was not the worst.
From a video I watched before, they described it best. Batman Vs Superman was a "Beautiful action packed, extremely ambitious, just...okay film."
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Actually, it's not if you bothered reading or listening to any critical reviews of the movie Caliga. Many cite the exact same reasons they were highly disappointed with the movie and they were going in hoping to love it.
Silverspar on PRIMUS
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What I can say that is spoiler-free;
I hated what they did with Lex Luthor. If you're going to do something with the character that deviates from the comic source, make sure it works. This version of Luthor sure was given a quirky personality, and it comes off as annoying and often uncomfortably awkward instead of endearing and amusing. People are calling this version of Luthor a Joker-wannabe and it's not hard to see why.
This version of Batman kills, without reservation or any real effort to make it a "last resort" thing. It kind of ruined it for me since the whole "no killing" personal vow about him has always been one thing that sets him apart from being just some violent murderous vigilante.
The musical score in certain scenes. Talk about over-the-top and unfitting for the supposed dramatic tone of the scene. Was I supposed to feel like laughing when listening to the music used during a scene where Luthor was walking in slow-mo and attempting to look all bad-****? No? Yeah, then something is wrong.
Ham-fisted superhero cameos that feel forced and out-of-place in the film, and I'm not just refering to Wonder Woman. Gal Gadot does a great job at potraying WW but she feels pretty irrelevant to the story itself considering she doesn't do anything of significance prior to her big reveal, and is just there because "Oooh Justice League guys! JUSTICE LEAGUE!".
Batman's motivation in wanting Superman out of the equation and how he justifies it based on emotion instead of logic, especially considering the warning signs around him that hint at manipulation and that Superman might not be the sole problem. Superman and others like him are like gods and they're a dangerous liability and must be taken down. Full Stop. Hey Bruce, aren't you supposed to be a genius and the world's greatest detective? Oh look, there's this huge explosion, a lot of people died and it was confirmed publically that Superman was not behind it even when he was present. Maybe urm...investigate? But nooooope, BAT RAAAAGE! SUPERMAN'S GOING DOWN!
As for the fight between Bats and Supes that's supposed to be the highlight of the film? It plays out exactly as you'd expect. Supes holds back because he's the noble superhero-type. Bats plays dirty in the obvious way. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it feels like the grand fight itself is just "there" as a setup to the real fight that takes place. Yeah, the one that gives Wonder Woman an excuse to be in the film in the first place.
------------------
Is the film worth a watch? IMO sure. It does have its shining moments. Jeremy Irons as a sharp-witted, sardonic Alfred is a delight to watch. I couldn't find anything really wrong with Affleck's performance and thought he did a good job being Bats. I thought the fight scene involving Batman vs many goons was very well done, as well as the Batmobile one. The film does have a very strong opening that sets the tone of the film nicely.
Oh and if haven't and intend to go watch it, don't stay and wait till after the credits. There's nothing there.
I will also agree that there is some of this involved: That being said, the movie did have it's flaws, for sure...but overall, I really liked it.
VARIANT
"Nearly all men can withstand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."
-Abraham Lincoln-
Online movie reviewers that I find to usually be even-handed, and who are familiar with the source material, have hewed closer to the above audience response.
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Then there is the problem of the story in general. It's all over the place. Regardless if it is an action flick or not, you have to have a decent narrative to know what the hell is going on. If you are changing the story fine, then make it clear what you are changing. It's like Man of Steel, it was a fricken mess in the story department, and people gave it a pass because it shows not-Superman being an incompetent accessory to genocide, in what they think is finally good super being slobber knocker... that was rife with product placement and got dull after the 50 billionth time you watched either not-Superman or the Zod elites get knocked through another building in the last length of the movie.
And let's not forget the glaring issue that most critics point out readily; people came for a movie that promised Batman versus Superman, and they barely even got that much. I won't spoil things, but Batfleck was not Batman that anyone has known from the comics, even Miller comics and not-Superman was so easily duped the entire reason of the BvS fight was stupid and over before it began that it just felt terribly rushed.
And the ending of the movie, it basically took away any weight of suspense for the rest of the franchise going forward. Say what you will, and if you know your comics and who the villain is, then you know what is happening, but when you pull your ace card like that, you've removed all tension and weight for all your movies going forward.
Silverspar on PRIMUS
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All that said, I found the movie to be very bland. No big laughs, no really cool action stuff. Compared to my Star Wars viewing experience, which had me smiling, laughing, and "whoa! cool"-ing it just about the entire time, this movie just fell so flat. And no, it wasn't because of Ben Affleck. He was the least of this movie's worries. I think he did a fine job.
I'm probably gonna say very spoilery things now, so let's see if the spoiler tag works!
So, I mentioned "whoa, cool!" moments, and the only time I was wowed was when Wonder Woman made her in-costume appearance. Dunno why, but that was the most impressive thing. She was blocking stuff with her wrist thingies, she shot lasers from them, then she cut a flying car in half. Those were my only wow moments, in a movie about two other characters. Like, what?!
The end part, I had the exact same reaction that silverspar had; Superman just died, that's supposed to be huge. He's dead for five minutes and you already tell the viewers "ha, just kiddin'!" Seriously?! The one impactful part of the movie that you could have let linger until the next movie trailers, and you just blow that? No next-day "Damn, did you see that? I can't believe they killed him!" watercooler moments. Just "yeah he'll be back." The comic fans know that he'll be back, obviously, but don't tell everyone that. Leave it a freakin' mystery!
I did think Flash's cameo was kinda neat, but if you're gonna deliver an ultra-important message through time travel, get to the point, don't be all friggin' vague about it! It's like you get time travel abilities and decide to do what everyone says, go back in time and kill Hitler. But when you get there, you waste years trying to subtly hint at him that the holocaust is probably a shitty idea and not to go through with it, and then watching as it happens all over again because you didn't just kill him or otherwise prevent him from doing so. What the heck?!
I usually don't dig deep into movies and their plots, and I can let plot holes go, but how did everyone at the end just know that Doomsday was Kryptonian and that they should go find the spear? The only person who saw what Lex did was Superman. Batman does a fly-by on the monster and he's like "Oh, I see, he's obviously Kryptonian. Let's go get the spear which I just left in a rotten building unceremoniously after trying so hard to get it." Maaaaaybe the techy stuff in his weird-looking Batwing said "Hey, he's Kryptonian." So okay, let's maaaaybe let that slide.
BUT WHO THE HELL TOLD LOIS?! Why is she suddenly like, oh crap there's a monster, let's get the spear! WHAAAT?!
Also, the whole thing where Batman is like WHY DID YOU SAY THAT NAME?! Like really, he says your mom's name and you stop killing him? If I was hell-bent on killing someone for causing thousands of deaths, and the guy said my dead mom's name before I put a bullet in his ****, I'm just gonna kill him. If bat-mom was still alive, then he could take that as some sort of threat and then stop killing him to get some info, but no, it took Lois to tell him that it's his mom's name.
That scene could have been good if Superman was actually able to talk and clearly say that his mom's will be murdered. Then Batman has his little flashback of bat-mom being murdered and gets this very pivotal and important "Oh crap, if I let his mom die, I'm no better than the guy who killed my mom." But no, that scene was just scrambled eggs bananas.
Speaking of Lex, good lord, why is he so damn annoying? It was like some crazy method-acting Jesse Heisenberg playing Lex Luthor playing Michael Cera playing the Joker. What the hell is this??
I also found a lot of the parts of the movie very predictable, like the ring in the envelope. I mean, what a predictable throw-away scene.
I didn't really like Alfred in the movie. He seemed a lot more like the techy ally character, not so much the butlery type guy. I guess most of that is owed to the fact that the only time you see him, it's during Batman scenes, not a lot of Bruce. Even when he's not in costume, he's doing Batman stuff or talking about Batman stuff. And him flying the Batwing and being so ho-hum about everything just was like, is this supposed to be endearing or funny? Because it was just dull.
Anyway, that's all for now. I wouldn't tell people not to watch it, but I wouldn't watch it on purpose again.
Silverspar on PRIMUS
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Its suffers the same problems of the big budget Marvel movies ..they think a big budget, explosions and destruction make a good movie.
Movies such as Dredd and Deadpool show a good comic book movie can be made without these things.
Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
They all thought I was out of the game....But I'm holding all the lockboxes now..
I'll......FOAM FINGER YOUR BACK!
It's a movie about two superheroes that I never really cared too much for, but I went into it wanting to like it. I walked away from it fairly underwhelmed.
I saw Deadpool today. I know, I know, we all know I hate Deadpool already, but my brother was persistent, and I just wanted to see Colossus because he looked friggin' awesome in one of the previews. So I was like, okay fine.
It's a movie about a superhero that I absolutely hate, and I went into it wanting to hate it. I walked away from it absolutely entertained and wanting more. Deadpool, people. It was fun, it was funny, and had amazing action sequences. Seriously laughing through most of the thing, wowed at the action. I even laughed at the credits! DEADPOOL, of all characters! Hollywood, this is how you make a movie. Of course now, Hollywood is thinking "Well, we just have to make everything rated R and with lots of foul language and gore to be successful" but the lesson they need to be taking from it is to stick to what the source gives you and make a movie for the fans, not make a movie for the marketing committee you try to sell your own product to at every turn.
I mean, Deadpool! WHAT! Next thing you know they're going to make a Wolverine movie that I like! Dogs and cats living together! Mass hysteria!
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Nepht and Dr Deflecto on primus
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Silverspar on PRIMUS
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Yea a lot of "supposed" rumors about actual length of the movie going around and how much was cut. Over all the budget was up in the $800 million range, so considering the 81% drop from opening it looks like BvS might be lucky to break even.
Silverspar on PRIMUS
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I did survive. Was hard to stay awake.
Seriously? After BvS I no longer feel that liking Bayformers is my guilty pleasure.
At least Optimus ripping off spines and faces is a watch-the-trainwreck kind of fun.