This blog covers Movies, TV, and other Geeky things...... Movie Reviews (over 3,400 movies rated so far) Countdowns of my top movies by year.... and much more.
After the absolute disaster that was Batman vs Superman my hopes for a good Justice League seemed slim. Then the Wonder Woman movie arrived which was actually pretty good. Then Zach Synder --(who in my book has been an extremely hit or miss director) was replaced for family reasons and the reigns were handed to Joss Whedon (one of my favorite creative people) and my hopes got higher. Still the trailer didn't really excite me in the way it should have, being someone that grew up watching the Super Friends. I was much more aware of Woder Woman, Batman, Superman and Aquaman then I ever was with the Marvel characters. I skipped this movie in the theaters -- knowing I would rent it somewhere down the line. After Batman Vs Superman and Suicide Squad DC hadn't earned a trip to the theaters. For this "Review" I decided I'd mix things up and just re post my Facebook posts while watching the film. Change it up a little. Here were my thoughts while watching the film.
So I was let down again by DC. This should have been an incredible movie if they had done it right. Aside from some of the dialogue with the Flash and Aquaman I didn't notice Joss Whedon's influence on the film. He did the first Avengers after all which was classic. The sad thing is if DC had done things right the DC Universe should and could be as good as the Marvel Universe. The characters to me were a lot more recognizable. Yet somehow they found a way to screw it up. Here were my thoughts on The Avengers: Infinity War over on my Disney Blog. A much more satisfying superhero film. https://themouseminute.wordpress.com/2018/05/11/my-spoiler-filled-avengers-infinity-war-review-2018-9-out-of-10/
I'll start by saying that I wasn't among the people dying to see Batman v Superman. I was uninspired by the trailers for this film and was nervous about the director since I didn't really like Watchman. I wasn't dying to see Batman and Superman fight because the Batman and Superman that I remember fondly are the Super Friends cartoon. Plus as far as I was concerned Superman would wipe the floor with Batman. The shot in the trailer where Superman throws a punch and Batman blocked it made me laugh.
(Ok so they explain that in the film).
So I figured that I probably wouldn't see this movie until it came out on Netflix. But this past weekend I found myself in San Diego checking out of a dreadful hotel (that is a whole different story) while the girls were at a cheer competition. After finding a new hotel, my stepson and I needed to kill some time until the girls were done. There were no new movies out worth seeing so I figured that he might want to see Batman v Superman.
I figured it couldn't really be as bad as all of those terrible critic reviews? What to critics know right... And the angry nerd reviews that came out afterwards were just typical angry nerd reviews.
I had avoided actually reading the bad reviews choosing to decide for myself when I finally got around to seeing it. Well I guess critics and nerds were right.
I was over an hour into the movie when I realized that nothing interesting had happened yet. Weren't Batman and Superman supposed to fight at some point? The movie was just very dull and mindnumbingly boring. I started shaking my head in frustration as another dream sequence was thrown in to delay the much awaited throw down. When they finally get to the fight between these heroes, I had kind of stopped caring. The fight itself was good, ubt then the filmmakers destroyed that moment. So basically they are telling us that if Superman's mom had been named Bernice instead of Martha --Batman would have killed him??? Hey our mom's have the same name....let's stop fighting each other and be best friends. This pivotal moment in the film was beyond stupid and ruined any hope of me liking the film. The battle at the end was a nice cartoon superheroes meets the 300 visual moment---but the story up until that moment lost me completely.
Here are 6 Things I hated about Batman v Superman and 1 thing I liked.
6. The reason that Batman and Superman wanted to fight
Batman and Superman wanting to fight each other felt very forced. I get that Lex was trying to set them up --but half the movie was spent with each of them complaining about each other. I wasn't buying it. When Lex held Superman's mom hostage to try and force the fight ---Superman would have addressed that immediately with Batman before fighting him. Instead of cutting to the chase with this important info he ends up almost killed.
5. Superman and Lois get naughty
What was up with the unnecessary Lois Lane in the bathtub scene. Seriously. Not that there is anything wrong with Amy Adams in a bathtub. Batman v Superman is just not the place for it.
4. Lex Luthor
Lex was always a genius in every other version of Superman. In Batman v Superman he came off as more of a psycho. Less genius and more Joker or Riddler. This version of Lex Luthor was terrible.
3. The Kevin Costner Field of Dreams scene:
The dialogue was terrible and I was half expecting Shoelace Joe Jackson to walk out of the cornfield.
2. Batman's parents die again
I'm on the record in the Podcast and many of my movie reviews that I'm not a fan of Reboots and retelling origin stories. For example when they recently rebooted Spiderman in the Amazing Spiderman a few years back, I felt like I was just watching the same movie I had already seen a few years ago......I'm sick of having my time wasted with original stories of characters everyone in world should already be aware of. That goes for the Batman's parents getting gunned down scene followed by him in the cave with bats.....We get it ---we know who Batman is.
1. Martha---Hey that is my mom's name as well moment
This was one of the most contrieved and stupid plot moment.
This was just terribly lazy writing to get from Superman and Batman throwing punches at each each to working together. This was definitely the worst moment in the movie.
The 1 Thing I actually liked
1. Wonder Women shows up mid fight with Doomsday.
Her appearance in the fight was the most epic moment in the movie. Despite the fact that I wasn't happy with the casting of Wonder Woman... her entry into the fight was one of the best moments in the movie.
My final thoughts: Batman v Superman was one of the most disappointing big budget movies I've seen in years. Even going in with low expectations --I can't believe how bored I was watching this movie. The picture below that I saw a friend post on facebook sums up how I felt about the movie.
I would say skip it and wait for Captain America --which will probably be a much better film.
The Dark Knight Rises made me wonder if Batman hasn't gotten too dark. I found myself 2 hours into this big budget Batman movie wondering why Batman isn't fun anymore. Batman was trapped at the bottom of some jail doing push ups like a training scene from a 1980's Rocky movie, while the main villain Bane was mumbling through a mask while terrorizing the city of Gotham. I actually missed the Adam West's Batman for a moment at this point, because I was wanting Batman to be at least a little bit of a comic book movie instead of a dark look at terrorism and class warfare. The movie has a great cast of amazing actors that for me felt mostly wasted in this third movie in the Dark Knight Batman series. One of the great things about the previous movie was the excellent performance by Heath Ledger as the Joker. Unfortunately Tom Hardy as Bane is hidden behind a mask the entire movie, which leads to scenes of Bane and Batman mumbling at each other (I still can't stand Bale's annnoying Batman voice). The movie is way too long, which left me bored by the time anything interesting happened near the ending. The ending itself was well done, I just didn't care as much by the time it rolled around. I just felt that Batman is maybe taking himself just a little too seriously and becoming too dark to where it isn't enjoyable anymore. I'm not saying bring back the Zoinks and Blaps of the Adam West Batman, but maybe Tim Burton had it right with Batman. Tim Burton's first shot at Batman was dark and gothic, yet still had that element of fun that the original comic books and Batman TV series had. I know it is probably not a popular opinion, but The Dark Knight Rises was kind of a disappointment for me.
Remember the last time Batman was running around trying to get a bomb away from the city? Here it is speed up with Benny Hill music
