To be fair, I am. And because I love superheroes so much (especially DC) I am extra hard on superhero movies. It may well be that I just can't be pleased as my hopes are always so high. I loved The Dark Knight though. I also loved Batman Begins though it took some warming up to and I enjoyed the final Bale/Nolan movie pretty well too. Of the Marvel movies, I've liked or loved Iron Man, the first few X-Men movies plus X-Men First Class, the first two Spider-Man movies, and Winter Soldier. I thought The Avengers was way overrated and found the sequel to be a real bore. Partly because of my expectations and hopes Batman v. Superman has probably been the biggest disappointment of them all but it's possible there might not have been any way to satisfy me. All those caveats aside though, I'm not alone. This is a poorly executed film from nearly any POV. It's just dang clunky. One overlong, overwrought scene follows the next as we rotate from one boring storyline to another again and again and again. If you look under the hood you'll see that most of the RT reviews marked fresh are mixed (leaning toward pans actually) with a few nice things to say. They tend to be 3/5 reviews. You'd be hard pressed to find many of even the "fresh" reviews that gave it 5/5 or even 4/5. And some of the critics are huge comic book fans like me. In fact of all the reviews I've read (and I've read a lot because I'm obsessed) the one that most closely matched my response was from Comic Book Resources, a site run by comic book fans that have everything invested in loving these movies. I may have already posted that link but if I didn't here it is. Nobody on earth wanted to love this movie more than I did. A lot of people might have wanted it as much but none wanted it more. And I believed in it too right up until I was watching it. Here's the review that best reflects my feelings: http://www.comicbookresources.com/a...t-save-dull-batman-v-superman-dawn-of-justice
Lol I don't understand why everybody is making a big deal about the damn reviews. People can't think for themselves anymore. If you wanna see the movie then see the movie. If you don't then dont. I couldn't care less about what a critic has to say about a movie. If it interested me, i watched it. Some were good, some were bad, life went on. I mean jesus. I'm a comic nerd but these movies are just the worst to look forward to because no matter what, half the people just want them to fail. DC and Marvel is like the new crips and bloods out here. ****s real in the field.
People want a DC movie to be respectable. Aside from Nolan's trilogy, when's the last time a live-action DC superhero movie did well? Green Lantern flopped, Superman Returns and Man of Steel weren't great. At this point, people just want DC to do well, for once. Marvel rolls out B-list superheroes like GotG and Ant-Man and do well, while BvS, DC's BIGGEST superheroes, get a paltry 40% on Rotten Tomatoes. What a joke.
Maybe Brett Ratner can take over for Justice League. Snyder and him must have compromising photos of Hollywood power players.
I'm definately going to enjoy this movie. I liked man of steel, dawn of the dead and many more of his flicks.
The problem is Snyder. Marvel gets good directors. Good director + good script + good actors = good movie. I can't speak to DC's scripts, but I trust Ben Affleck as a writer at this point, and I certainly don't think the cast is the problem. That leaves...the director. The dude makes mediocre movies with great action scenes. He is a rich man's Michael Bay, and I use the term loosely.
Batman, I am curious to know what your opinion of Snyder's Watchmen is. Honestly I think that was an amazing movie, considering how difficult and ambitious the source material is, especially the Directors Cut which pieces in the Tales of the Black Freighter. Don't mean to derail the thread.
I loved Watchmen, probably the only Snyder film I can say that about. Like I said earlier in this thread, a lot of the critics are laying the same criticisms on BvS that they did on that film. I'm seeing it tonight, so I'll be able to decide for myself. Reviews be damned, still looking forward to this.....
I think that is why Marvel is so successful. The general audience knows a lot less about the heroes that Marvel has been pushing, so the audience doesn't have an expectation going in. They can't compare what's happening on screen to what they're used to because it's pretty new to them. They're used to x-men, superman, batman, spider-man, etc. Batman and Superman have a die-hard fan base, and that fan base is most of the market. They will go through EVERYTHING with a fine-tooth comb. Antman has a much much smaller market niche of die-hard fans. Most of the people had no prior knowledge of the origin of Antman. It was introduced in the movie, and Marvel knows what to do when it comes to telling a story. I'm very interested to see if the Spider-Man movie by Marvel will get great reviews. The expectations of the fan base are so high. We will see. But also Zack Snyder. That's another reason why I think BvS is getting bad reviews. All dark everything formula isn't working, DC!!
I'm pretty sure the next Spiderman movie will be made by Sony again. They just loaned him to Marvel for Civil War.
It's been sad watching Batman Jones' excitement for this movie slowly build over time then evaporate in a single post. I had low expectations because I'm not a Snyder fan and this version of DC first had to prove something to me before I bought in. But his enthusiasm (and the enthusiasm of others) gave me hope. This is an epic comic story. Oh well. In 2 years people are probably going to think Batman Jones' moniker is a Jessica Jones reference. I guess the Bat is dead.
I think Zack Snyder did a fine job with The Watchmen. I've never been a comic book fanatic but I did read the GN before I saw the movie. What an incredible piece of story-telling it is. My main problem with The Watchmen was the uneven performances of the cast. I liked what the actors who portrayed Rorschach, The Comedian, and Dr. Manhattan were able to do, but Malin Ackerman was absolutely horrid as Silk Spectre II and it hurt the movie. The awkward sex scene with her and Nite Owl with Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah (arguably the greatest song of all time) playing was laughable. So while The Watchmen had some glaring flaws, I thought Snyder actually was able to weave it into a somewhat coherent final film. If you're familiar with the source material, you can appreciate what a difficult task that is.
I never liked Snyder. He's the Michael Bay of the comic world. Paper thin movies. But I never discredited him for Watchmen. I simply ignore it. The consensus has always been that Watchmen couldn't be done on film, so good or bad - he'd get a pass from me. I didn't like Watchmen. It should be done as an animated film.
For a long time it had generally been considered 'unfilmable'. Agree that it was a very good GN, with one glaring problem, which I will get to in a moment. The movie was well made, but I have no idea what they were thinking with the casting. Akerman is possibly the worst actress of all time, and while Matthew Goode is a perfectly serviceable actor, he was in no way a correct choice for Ozymandius. Had they cast those two very important roles properly, it would have elevated the movie to a much higher level. The 'glaring problem' I mentioned with the GN? Dr. Manhattan. The entire thing hinges on that one character. Which would be fine, except that there was absolutely no way, no reason at all, that Dr. Manhattan - essentially a newly-formed GOD, would have ever even thought of the notion of joining up with the Watchmen group in the first place. And since that joining up was the singular event upon which everything else hinged, both in the book and the movie, it made the whole thing preposterous. Simply put, there is just no reason or motivation at all for such an all-powerful character to become a member of a group of completely non-powered costumed do-gooders. The character was literally a walking Deus Ex Machina, from beginning to end. Maybe that not-so-subtle absurdity was deliberate on the part of the author, but if so, there was no particular payoff, either in the book or the movie. Having said all that, at least the Director's Cut version of the movie improves on the original experience, especially with Silk Spectre, ALMOST making her character tolerable. But the choice to do away with the giant alien squid and replace it with Dr. Manhattan himself did not work for me, it changed the entire tone. Anyway.. Liked 300, liked MoS ok, hated Sucker Punch.. I suspect I will like BvS more than most, plan on seeing it tonight, so I will let you guys know my honest reactions. Some of you remember how I eviscerated DKR, and I think my PoV on that has been validated over the years, at least more-so than at the time. And while I totally respect Batman Jones, being a theatre person myself, he himself said he was probably going to be impossible to please when it came to the movie, and so he sort of set himself up for disappointment there. As always, temper your enthusiasm, that's my best advice. Don't let other people tell you what to think.
So using that same logic, why in the heck would Wonder Woman, Superman and Aquaman join forces with the likes of Batman, since technically they are Gods, to form the Justice League?
I understand your question, but seriously, Dr. Manhattan was on such a different level than even those three that it's really not a valid question. Dr. Manhattan was capable of existing in multiple times simultaneously, capable of creating life, of manipulating matter at the quantum level. None of those three you mention, as powerful as they are, can come close to the character of Dr. Manhattan. Which is, as I said, the problem. Dr. Manhattan was so far beyond humanity that he bore no more resemblance to human beings than we do to an aphid. And I just can't see any reason for a being like that to join with a group to combat petty thugs in bars, as depicted in the GN and the movie. As for why Superman and the others would join to form the Justice League? I haven't seen the movie, so I don't know what case the movie makes, but DC has gone to great pains to make Kal El feel very loving and caring toward his adopted parents, their nation and their race. And I understand that Diana is a member of a powerful race of being which were created specifically for that purpose, but again I don't know yet exactly how the movie portrays it. And as for Aquaman, I have no idea. Will find out soon enough I guess.
I'm going to see it this weekend, but I just wanted to get a word in about critics' reviews. Some people love them. Some people hate them. Every time a big blockbuster production is universally panned by critics, fans are quick to dismiss and claim either watch it or leave it ultimatums. I for one do not side with this mentality. I enjoy reading critics' reviews and making informed decisions even when it comes to my weekly entertainment. Sure, I have often enjoyed stuff snobby critics might not, but more often than not, they are right. If it looks like a turd, smells like a turd, then it is a turd. The last movie I saw was 10 Cloverfield Lane. Went to see it solely because of the certified fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and universal praise given to John Goodman's character in every critic's review. I came out of the theater in love with the movie. Not because critics told me, but because the film was well-crafted in all aspects and critics were in agreement as well. With that said, it's a legitimate concern for viewers to discuss negative critic reviews without being constantly reminded to either watch it or stop complaining. I understand some have decades of fanboyism to defend here, but stop trying to convince others by discrediting the reviewers or those who point out the flaws in such movies. Sure, I will go see BvS. That decision was made long ago. But I'm tired of the constant spin presented by fans. I have realistic expectations of this film, but the reviews helped lowered them to the point where I won't be disappointed and neither should anyone who continues to claim the film to be something other than what it is - a turd.
Plenty of room to debate when it comes to critics, but one thing is for sure with me - if a movie is rated in the 30's on RT it has got to be terrible. I cant think of a movie I liked that was rated that low.
