Wednesday 27 July 2016

Batman V Superman; Dawn of Justice Ultimate Edition: I think you mean Batman in Blue vs Batman in Black; Dawn of the Jesus Symbolism Cluttered Edition

The overly long name for the review of the overly long movie is entirely intentional.

Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. What many regard as the most dissapointing movie of this year. Panned by many, though more people wanted to see it, so many debate weatehr Ghostbusters is worse. Some think I may not have much to say about the movie that hasn't already been said. But, my view of the movie? Well, let me tell you what I think, and probably in less time then the movie itself. Oh and one thing, spoilers ahead.
No idea why, but for some reason the concept reminds me of the last part of Acadeca


Getting straight to the point with the plot, no, this did not need to be 3 hours long. BUT, I hear you say "yes it did because the one in the cinema was awful", and from what I've heard, I agree. Have I seen the theatrical cut? No, this was 3 hours to itself, it didn't need to be 5 and a half. Taking the movie at face value, its not padded in terms of scenes that could be cut. What it is padded in, is story ideas. This movie wants to be the build up for a Justice League movie, their version of The Avengers. The reason Avengers works? Is because to get to the Avengers, we had two iron Man movies, one in cannon Hulk movie, one non cannon Hulk movie, a Thor movie, and a Captain America movie. Those gave us the characters, meaning Avengers could focus on its story. Dawn of Justice only had Man of Steel, so it tries to do a lot of prep work in one movie so that DC could do what Marvel did in half the time. But when you have a movie that has ideas that could be 8 different movies, being a sequel to Man of Steel, a Batman movie to introduce this new Bruce Wayne, a Wonder Woman movie to introduce Diana Prince (a character who has never seen the silver screen before), be Batman V Superman, The Dark Knight rises which some consider to be the same thing though for this argument's sake I'm seperating, the Death of Superman (so yes, Superman dies in movie 2, but we already know he's coming back so killing him off is completely redundant and only exists to be more f#&@!*# jesus symbolism.), and introduce Cyborg, The Flash and Aquaman, which is three movies in themselves. I'm not even at the plot and there's already issues here. This is why the movie aparently sucked when it was cut from 3 hours, the movie didn't know what it wanted to be.

As for the plot itself, the world is on edge thanks to General Zod's attack in Man of Steel, to capitalize on it, Lex Luthor (I'll get back to him), wants to try and envoke enough fear into the world to cast Superman not as a hero, but as a demon (and just saying that to myself has made me look up Snyder's career, and for some reason he hasn't done a religious movie). Batman, being the paranoid, overly causious and planning psycho that he is, takes the Kriptonite from Lexcorp that was going to be used so that Lex could kill Superman to... let Batman kill Superman... Yeah I know, "what else are you going to use Kriptonite for?" but that is really redundant when you think about it. The two fight it out, Lex creates Doomsday by mixing his blood with the corpse of Zod, who as someone who doesn't know much about Doomsday as is, even I agree that's stupid. Superman kills Doomsday and saccrifices himself in the process and the world morns for the death while Bruce begins hunting other Metahumans to form the Justice League. Oh and Wonder Woman is in this movie, and Lois Lane is only really hear to be the exposition, and make the situation more complicated then it needs to be in regards to Batman's Kriptonite Spear. Oh I know that sounds forced, no joke, that's how it comes off in the movie too, same for Flash, Cyborg and Aquaman. To add insult to injury, I'm debating which is worse, this, or the Bayformers use of Devastator, the Matrix, Shockwave, Arcee, Elita-1... or to be shorter, every transformer that isn't named Optimus or Bumblebee and who isn't the main villain.

I will say that I did find this movie more tollerable then Man of Steel, in editing, writing and minimal bloom lighting, but please can we have a rule of "Zack Snyder (and other just as guilty directors) cannot shine lights directly into the camera"? There are still some bits of Bloom lighting, but at least they aren't taking up the whole dam screen when they do it, thank Arceus. The shoved down your throat Jesus symbolism is also toned down in comparison to Man of Steel, because we actually have characters who don't just talk in bland exposition! HALLELUJAH!!!! Praise the movie gods people, we have a DC movie that knows there are more emotions out there then depressing, weight of the world bland! Those characters being: Bruce Wayne (Ironically) Alfred, who's allowed to talk in something other then speaches again after the Nolan films, Diana Prince, who, in the battle against Doomsday, even goes so far as to *gasp* smile, and finally: Lex Luthor. Before you go after me for saying that, going against the consensus that he was a bad thing in this movie. Let me just say this. This video perfectly summarises my view of this Lex Luthor: (link here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuNPuJ9Q_4E  for those who haven't updated your browsers on phones)


Yup, I think the performance is hilariously bad. Yes I agree with the Joker comparisons, but this comes off as Jesse Eisenberg hamming it up to 11. This is cartoon show levels of hammy performances and I find it hilarious. This is in the camp of gloriously bad, and being honest, I don't want it to change, but I know it will because everyone else online has ripped this performance a new one. "Thanks guys...".

Visual and sound design wise... its the same as Man of Steel, which granted means that characters look like they've come straight from the comics (unless you name is Lex Luthor), but it's covered in a bland, grim, bleak coat of """""""""""realism"""""""""". Can we please change that definition to what it really is, depressing. That's not realism, that's realism in the eyes of depressed emo's in the eyes of corporate, all things can be explained with charts types who were probably controlling the money on this movie... though that probably explains why I'm more lenient to the CGI ghosts in the new Ghostbusters then others.

While Dawn of Justice is a better movie then Man of Steel, make no mistake, that does not mean it can be considered good for most cases. It is a step foreward, but its big issue is that it is still so depressingly bleak. That being said, I'd rather they not go down the Marvel "cheerful" route, that has its flaws too. As I've said before, some of the harshest things to view in movies are glimmers of light, glimmers of hope, in something you know is only going to get worse. If DC can fix the balance of light and dark moments, this movie universe will get a lot better, leading to the chance to potentially see great DC comic arcs given cinematic treatment. It's not a lost cause, but it still needs some tweaking. Well. I'm sick of bleak, how does a blue hedgehog, some LEGO, and the merc with a mouth sound for upcoming posts?

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