Hesitant to get excited about these because of the fact that everyone who has already seen it were probably super hyped for it already. That said, if these reviews are accurate in their descriptions then oh man I am going to love this movie. 4 more days!!!!
Since we haven't seen BvS is almost here and rather than just waiting, what do guys think about Zach Snyder saying that Grant Gustin would not be a good fit for Flash in the movie-verse? Personally, I understand the reason why Grant Gustin was not chosen for the movie universe because of the fact that he is already Flash in the TV show. If WB wants to separate the shows and movies, I think that would the smartest thing to do. Not sure so much on the fact that he would not be a good fit. I think that by the time 2019 comes around I think Grant Gustin would not only have aged to fit the age where I want Flash to be but I think he's a good enough actor to fit into the movie universe. Roven has said they are not doing origin stories for Flash and Aquaman so I think Grant Gustin could easily have fit a more veteran Flash even if it was darker than tv show Flash. Not sure how Ezra Miller will hold up but he's been in a couple of good movies that have high critic scores so we will see. Him, Eisenberg and Gadot are the castings that i have had concerns about but I imagine that WB is well invested enough to not have randomly picked them and from what I hear Eisenberg and Gadot kill it so here's to hoping Miller can come out from the shadow of Gustin.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/batman_v_superman_dawn_of_justice/ http://www.metacritic.com/movie/batman-v-superman-dawn-of-justice?ref=hp Currently at 39% at Rotten Tomatoes, and 48 on Metacritic. Reviews are mixed just as I expected. General consensus is that the acting is great, Wonder Woman is fantastic and it is visually stunning, but it's very compressed, all over the place and it's the usual Zack Snyder overload.
Well, there were two ways this could have gone lol. Still hyped but I am going in with tempered expectations.
Here's my spoiler-free review, if anyone's interested. It's a weird one http://www.lpassociation.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41153&page=25&p=1396082&viewfull=1#post1396082
Just got home from the film. I won't spoil anything, but as a quick review to leave on the matter..... I went with a group of 6 friends. We all came to the same consensus. BvS was a great film that left us very excited for the upcoming Justice League movie. Now, it isn't without its faults. The biggest complaint being the first 45 minutes - hour of the film. Fans of the way Watchmen was told may enjoy this film's setup. It starts off very bumpy, as if its made up of compilations of clips jumping back and forth from different scenarios rather than one individual story (which is completely true because it keeps switching off between Clark and Bruce's struggles rather than merging them together, at least until the midpoint). Another bother was how the stories elements were actually told. Without mentioning specific scenes, it seemed like there were blanks to be filled, at least for the average viewer (being a comic book nerd, I already picked up on all the references without them being fully explained) which I could see would leave the audience possibly confused on the result of a moment without a thorough cause. Those of you that are fans of Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns will certainly pick up all the easter eggs throughout the scripting and on screen action and leave you wanting more. That said, Ben Affleck 100% nails this adaptation of Bruce Wayne/Batman. There are literally no complaints any of us could come up with on how he plays The Dark Knight. A major plus is his introduction which is actually pretty creepy. Almost horror film like. These great portrayals go just as well with Cavill as Superman (whom we are familiar with in MoS), and Gadot as Wonderwoman (definitely a fan favorite from the clapping going on during her introduction scene). Casting of the Trinity was done in a very exceptional manner. Now, one key character to note is Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor. With the initial backlash on his casting, I could see how fans of the character could be very split on this take. Imo, he is the best on screen Lex we have received yet. Traits that easily tied into this character are those of Heath Ledger's Joker. Almost like we were dealing with Ledger, but in an absolutely threatening manner, more so than any DC villain to date. You get the tension Lex has for Superman, with an added Joker twist that creates a brilliant and devious spin. There is so much more grounds to cover, but leaving it as this for now, we all said we'd give this film an 8/10. I'd give it a good replay value, mostly for the second half of the film, The action sequences will have your jaw dropping to the floor big time.
So, according to Zack Snyder, if I blow up a car and people happen to be in said car, I'm not killing those people. No, that isn't the same as actually killing those people. What that really is, is that I just happened to blow up a car and those people just happened to be in the wrong car. I take everything back I said, about not putting all blame on him: the man's a nutcase.
When did he say that? Also, this movie is such a mixed bag. It's like 5 different movies combined into one.
SPOILERS, OBVIOUSLY 1:35 [video=youtube;h0ZD6Wmu2L8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0ZD6Wmu2L8[/video]
I've heard Affleck is great. It's a shame he devoted himself so much and the movie ends up being total garbage. I'll never understand how Hollywood has so many incompetent writers and directors. [youtube]cwXfv25xJUw[/youtube]
Huge disappointment. Just as I dreaded, they tried to cram in 5 movies in one and it failed gloriously. What a mess this is, my God. I was actually somewhat hooked the first 50 minutes when it was mostly dealing with the politics of Superman. The pacing was alright, the idea of Superman being held accountable for his actions seemed interesting, Batfleck was good. But then the second and third act takes a complete nosedive. It becomes completely unfocused and just jumps from scene to scene with no real sense of story progression or build-up/payoff. Nothing gels. It feels like random scenes were shot and spliced together to make something sensible. I feel like there was a really compelling movie only about Superman and Batman somewhere deep in here. It could've explored their differences and build that into a big climax leading into JL and the DCCU. But I think the studio got greedy and wanted to catch up with Marvel with their world building, instead of delivering on a streamlined story. Ben Affleck was great. In fact all these people are great actors and can carry roles but sadly the material they were given to work with is in complete shambles. Watching Superman fight Batman should have me on the edge of my seat but instead the only thing I was thinking was "This fight does not seem earned. They can easily resolve it with a talk." And that's how most of the movie's big climaxes are. They all fall short because the build ups don't have any weight behind them. No amount of Hans Zimmer's bombastic score and the excessive and unnecessary flashy CGI can make up for the lack of character motivations, arcs and depth. Things are looking really bleak for the DCCU. Although Suicide Squad looks good so far, I now have no excitement for JL. I think Zack Snyder doesn't get these characters at all and his only focus is putting comic panels to screen and calling it a day. Maybe giving it to a better director could change things up. But with at the helm again, it could be disastrous.[/center]
So apparently a major DC character showed up as a cameo in the movie and was immediately offed just because Zack Snyder felt that there's no room for him among their characters.
So just saw it. Based off the reviews, I had expected an absolute disaster but was pleasantly surprised. While not as good as I was hoping, there was a lot of potential here. I don't want to blame Zach Snyder for all of it but some of the criticisms of the movie have to go to him. The first half of the movie is mixed for me. Every scene was good individually except for the South Africa scene. That scene could have been a lot different and worked a lot better.The editing of scenes for some reason just did not come together right. There was a lot of times that I felt like the scenes kept cutting away from scenes that had no business being interrupted with in the first place to scenes that would have flowed better alone and focused. I think the weakest part of the movie definitely comes from the story though. I agree the movie felt like 3 movies stapled together. When the ideological differences started coming up, I started getting pumped but ultimately we never got that amazing scene between Batman and Superman like we got between the Punisher and Daredevil where the emotional context is set. If we had just 1 or 2 scenes where Batman and Superman just spent like 5 minutes talking to each other, the second half of the movie could probably have saved this movie. I don't know if this was Goyer's fault or maybe Terio's but I felt like the movie did not have the focus on Batman and Superman like it should have. There were a lot of scenes that had a lot of potential to lead to a great movie but did not come together to culminate into that great movie. The fight really was ultimately a series of misunderstandings. There's also the matter of the oner that Snyder did during the Knightmare scene. The oner was not bad but I do not feel like it was not anything special. And Snyder's take on Batman bothers me a little. As mentioned above, Snyder's interpretation of Batman's no killing rule is too liberal for me. Now, what I have said so far does not overshadow the goods part of the movie. While Snyder may not be a good story director, credit is due where credit is due and the action in this movie does live up. The Batman/Superman fight was brutal. Especially inside the building. Snyder really does know how to shoot action properly. The final fight with Doomsday was also pretty awesome. All the action in the movie had that epic feel to it like you know you're watching a fight involving gods. I just wished they carried that emotional level with it. There are a lot of cool shots throughout the movie as well, one for me was Batman returning to the Batcave right after the "Do you bleed" scene. I like the design of his Batcave a lot. The acting I think was top notch in this movie. Ben Affleck played a great Batman. I only have issue with the scene at the beginning with the car in Metropolis. But very minor. Every scene he delivers. Henry Cavil once again delivered in this movie even though the script really didn't give him much range to begin with. But he delivered. The script did nail Perry White. Laurence Fishbourne's Perry White is closer to the comic book in this movie which was a nice addition. Jesse Eisenberg was not an issue in this movie. I think that based off the character he was playing he delivered. The issue is of course is if the character he was portraying really fits as a Lex Luthor. Jesse Eisenberg delivered his scenes well but I am not 100% sold on the Lex Luthor he is portraying. He's definitely a villain that's for sure but is he necessarily a Lex Luthor villain, I am not sure. There are several scenes in the movie where you got the classic Luthor with scheming which I thought were great. But some scenes did not feel like the Lex Luthor but rather a more bland villain. Surprisingly, the Dawn of Justice parts of this movie were what got me excited the most. If it wasn't for the brief cameos and the ending fight scene, I would be really worried for the rest of the DCEU movies. The cameos were great. They felt natural for me and still developed the characters in the cameo. You got a little bit of their character in the cameo and a hint at their abilities. I am super looking forward to the upcoming solo films that coming out. Conclusions: I do not believe the box office for BvS will reach expectations but I do believe it will have the box office that won't kill the universe. While this movie did not reach the heights it was hoping to achieve, it had enough that I am looking forward to what's next for DCEU. I am however concerned with Justice League. I don't who to blame more, Zach Snyder or the script. Honestly, I am hesitant to get pumped for Justice League with Snyder at the helm because I don't think he has the ability to tell the story in a way that is going to highlight the characters in the Justice League especially considering he has to introduce them all at once. In his defense, I hope that behind the scenes it was just Snyder working with a script he was given. And here's hoping it was mostly Goyer who led it astray. Who knows? Overall, I am happy that Chris Terio is coming to write the script and am hoping that with him on the script solo, we get a quality one. I do believe that Zach Snyder should look for help in making sure that the movie is coherent. I don't know what happened in the three years since Man of Steel because I really love that movie for its great focus but this movie just completely fails on its focus. Overall, I think I'll probably sit at 6.5-7. 1 or two more viewings will solidify it. The good news is that I do want to see it again. There's a lot to process. I will say this, for me, a comic book and movie fan, I did get emotional with the ending. I still look forward to DCEU but I do believe that WB needs to put together a stronger team leading the helm. TL;DR- The me that got excited walking into the movie came out happy. I enjoyed what I saw. There was substance but not coherent substance. However, the me that's been waiting for this movie for 3 years is ultimately disappointed because I wanted this movie to be my instant favorite movie. This movie does not kill the DCEU, however. I look forward to the solo films of the other JL members more than ever before and I look forward to the solo Batman and MOS sequel. But I do believe that Snyder's weaknesses were apparent this movie. He's a great action director and the action delivered but I think co-direction with someone who is more story focused like Nolan would lead to a great movie. I mean imagine a Batman who has the emotional delivery of the Dark Knight and the action of the Batman in BvS. Man oh man that would be awesome. Go watch it, form your own opinion. Anyone who is a fan of comic book movies should see this movie to appreciate the good and the bad of comic book movies. Wow that TL;DR is still long lol.
This film was just wasted potential. There's definitely some good ideas going on in the film, but they're just bogged down by such crap. 1) Ben Affleck might just be my favorite portayal of Batman yet. The dude fucking killed it. Everything pertaining to Batman was pretty great. 2) Wonder Woman has no place in this movie. Her character could have been taken out of the film entirely, and nothing would be different. All she was, was Justice League set up. 3) Speaking of Wonder Woman, that email she got from from Bruce Wayne that had the Aquaman, Flash, and Cyborg cameos was fucking laughable. "Hey guys. there's a Justice League film coming out next year. DON'T FORGET!" 3) The CG for Doomsday was fucking shit, and his place in the film wasn't well done either. He's literally just a plot device. 4) My god, the editing was shit. 5) The film had way too much going on. And even though there were so many plot threads going on, they never converged in any meaningful way 6) I liked Jesse Eisenberg's character, but as a Lex Luthor, holy God, was he terrible. He was a sniveling coward who literally had snot running down his nose at the end. Jesus Christ. 7) If you're going to kill Superman, at least pretend to be ballsy, and let us think he's still dead. What a weak way to end the film. 8) Speaking of the end of the film, it took WAY too long for it to wrap up. 9) Batman's nightmare should have been cut entirely. The only thing it was good for was having what I'm sure was The Flash appear to Bruce Wayne to warn him of the future. 10) I didn't give a shit about Superman and Louis Lane's scenes. What a fucking drag those were. Especially Louis Lane's. I'm excited for a solo Batman film, I'm excited for Suicide Squad, maybe even the Wonder Woman film, anything that isn't being made by Zack Synder. Even though way too much was going on in the film, I never got the sense that the plot was ever progressing forward. It felt so disjointed and hollow, that I was actually taken aback when the fight between Superman and Batman was occuring, because it seemed like the film was just starting to get somewhere. There's so much elements in this film that could have been cut entirely. Warner Brothers, drop Snyder. NOW.
Maybe they should have made a good movie first before they decided to create a whole universe of shitty movies. There's no way Suicide Squad is good either. The whole studio is clueless. Marvel killed it with Iron Man and that set the tone for everything that followed. Even their crap movies like Thor 2, Iron Man 3, and Ultron aren't totally incompetent and are still enjoyably bad.