Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
[Warning: contains spoilers]
Oh what can I say about this movie? It's true what they say: Wonder Woman really was the best part of this. Must I say more? I love superhero movies, but I did not love this. It was dark, it was dull, it was unnecessarily long. Or maybe it just felt long because I was bored. That's right, I was bored watching a superhero movie! Those two things should never go together, superheroes and boredom share an innate antipathy toward one another, and yet they came together to kidnap three hours of my life that I will never be able to get back.
I had skepticism about this movie, knowing that Man of Steel has some questionable reviews, but I figured that Ben Affleck as Batman might be pretty good. It had to be better than Daredevil, didn't it? I'm not so sure about that anymore. They're both kind of bad, but in very different ways.
The colour palette in this movie sets the tone for everything else. It is all very dark and pale colours, bridging on sepia tone, with the addition of black, blue, and red. The whole thing was a little depressing. It starts with Bruce's tragic backstory pushing him to become a hero. The conflict comes when Superman comes to town. Basically, they both think that the other is dangerous. Superman has superhuman powers, so people are afraid that no one will keep him in check. Batman is a vigilante, so people fear that his actions and motives are not always so pure (and they're not). Lex Luther decides to pit the men against each other, but he hopes to ultimately destroy Superman because he does not like seeing a man with so much god-like power.
In the end Wonder Woman saves the day by joining the fight, and Batman changes his ways because his mother has the same name as Clark's mother. Really? These guys go through all of this conflict for these women to just show up and immediately put an end to all of it? And then Superman dies. I know we're supposed to feel bad for both superheroes after the personal trauma they've gone through in this movie, but Superman got the shitty end of the stick. Batman lost his parents as a child. That's really tragic, but he's moved on (if you call turning the rest of your life into some kind of personal vengeance mission "moving on") and it has made him stronger. But Superman is equally idolized and feared. No one sees him as a regular guy, they all think he's some kind of god. For crying out loud, he's an alien, not a god! I feel like somebody watched Thor too many times and decided to work the whole alien/god thing into Superman's story in an inverted way. Anyways, because of this Lex tries to kill both of the women he loves, Lois and his mom. And even though they are saved, he gets killed. And yet I didn't really feel bad for him...I maybe felt bad for Lois, but I didn't see Man of Steel so I think I was perhaps missing some important character development. Not that I plan on watching any DC movies after this. I'll stick to their TV shows, thank you very much.
The most off-putting part about this movie was the out-of-place, confusing dystopic future vision Bruce has. That was totally lost on me. I just figured it was some kind of weird dream he had about how much he feared and hated Superman. Why is no one a good guy in this universe, by the way? Why does the Flash think that Superman can't be trusted? Why do none of these superheroes want to be found out, even by each other? Why isn't Grant Gustin playing the Flash? Oops, sorry, that one didn't really have anything to do with my rant, but it would make these movies better, I bet.
Maybe the whole thing was too artsy for me. Maybe you have to be really familiar with the comics to get it. Or maybe knowing the comics would only make me more frustrated, because this feels like somebody's rewrite of the DC universe in order to convey some kind of message about power and control and anonymity - like a super-deep, thought-provoking, head-hurting version of the X-Men idea that those who are different don't belong.
I don't know, but I'm crossing my fingers that Wonder Woman is better because she is the only part of this that I enjoyed.
Oh what can I say about this movie? It's true what they say: Wonder Woman really was the best part of this. Must I say more? I love superhero movies, but I did not love this. It was dark, it was dull, it was unnecessarily long. Or maybe it just felt long because I was bored. That's right, I was bored watching a superhero movie! Those two things should never go together, superheroes and boredom share an innate antipathy toward one another, and yet they came together to kidnap three hours of my life that I will never be able to get back.
I had skepticism about this movie, knowing that Man of Steel has some questionable reviews, but I figured that Ben Affleck as Batman might be pretty good. It had to be better than Daredevil, didn't it? I'm not so sure about that anymore. They're both kind of bad, but in very different ways.
The colour palette in this movie sets the tone for everything else. It is all very dark and pale colours, bridging on sepia tone, with the addition of black, blue, and red. The whole thing was a little depressing. It starts with Bruce's tragic backstory pushing him to become a hero. The conflict comes when Superman comes to town. Basically, they both think that the other is dangerous. Superman has superhuman powers, so people are afraid that no one will keep him in check. Batman is a vigilante, so people fear that his actions and motives are not always so pure (and they're not). Lex Luther decides to pit the men against each other, but he hopes to ultimately destroy Superman because he does not like seeing a man with so much god-like power.
In the end Wonder Woman saves the day by joining the fight, and Batman changes his ways because his mother has the same name as Clark's mother. Really? These guys go through all of this conflict for these women to just show up and immediately put an end to all of it? And then Superman dies. I know we're supposed to feel bad for both superheroes after the personal trauma they've gone through in this movie, but Superman got the shitty end of the stick. Batman lost his parents as a child. That's really tragic, but he's moved on (if you call turning the rest of your life into some kind of personal vengeance mission "moving on") and it has made him stronger. But Superman is equally idolized and feared. No one sees him as a regular guy, they all think he's some kind of god. For crying out loud, he's an alien, not a god! I feel like somebody watched Thor too many times and decided to work the whole alien/god thing into Superman's story in an inverted way. Anyways, because of this Lex tries to kill both of the women he loves, Lois and his mom. And even though they are saved, he gets killed. And yet I didn't really feel bad for him...I maybe felt bad for Lois, but I didn't see Man of Steel so I think I was perhaps missing some important character development. Not that I plan on watching any DC movies after this. I'll stick to their TV shows, thank you very much.
The most off-putting part about this movie was the out-of-place, confusing dystopic future vision Bruce has. That was totally lost on me. I just figured it was some kind of weird dream he had about how much he feared and hated Superman. Why is no one a good guy in this universe, by the way? Why does the Flash think that Superman can't be trusted? Why do none of these superheroes want to be found out, even by each other? Why isn't Grant Gustin playing the Flash? Oops, sorry, that one didn't really have anything to do with my rant, but it would make these movies better, I bet.
Maybe the whole thing was too artsy for me. Maybe you have to be really familiar with the comics to get it. Or maybe knowing the comics would only make me more frustrated, because this feels like somebody's rewrite of the DC universe in order to convey some kind of message about power and control and anonymity - like a super-deep, thought-provoking, head-hurting version of the X-Men idea that those who are different don't belong.
I don't know, but I'm crossing my fingers that Wonder Woman is better because she is the only part of this that I enjoyed.
Comments
Post a Comment