Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

Directed by Zack Snyder

This review of Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice will not be the mammoth dissection that was my review of Man of Steel three years ago [LINK]. This is just going to be a short statement of my own impressions, with no intent to argue or justify my points. What would be the purpose? The critics have spoken, and as happened with John Carter and Green Lantern both, what may have begun as legitimate criticisms seems to have started feeding on themselves as critics seem more interested now in outdoing their peers in showing how clever can be their criticisms than in providing reasoned analysis and evaluation. The audience seems to have received the movie more kindly. For what it’s worth, the Rotten Tomatoes scores are quite divergent (approximately 28/72), far more so than for Man of Steel (approximately 56/76). (I found it really interesting last week how the initial critics’ assessments were quite a bit more in line with Man of Steel than the ones that started coming out later – when the later critics had had time to figure out which way the wind was blowing and the piling-on had time to begin.) Don’t get me wrong. This is obviously not a movie for everyone, and it is a movie that does have its shortcomings, particularly an uneven pacing as well as a couple of things highlighted below. It is ultimately, I believe, less a movie for general audiences than it was a movie for me and someone like me – a life-long comic-book fan with a deep love for these characters (one I do not have for the Marvel Universe, which means I admittedly approach those movies with a degree of objectivity that is not possible for me in this case). I can easily see how someone who does not have that love – and the innate knowledge of myriad story-lines and images accumulated over fifty years of reading DC Comics – would be left cold by it. All I can ultimately say is that I enjoyed BVS:DOJ  very much and look forward to seeing future installments in the DC Movie Universe that is emerging from what I consider to have been a similarly – albeit not to the same degree -- maligned Man of Steel.

Man of Steel (2013)

Directed by Zack Snyder

All right, I've now seen Man of Steel for a second time, a few days after the first, after I'd had time to let things sink in and had thought of things to look for and pay attention to in a second viewing, and had a further week thereafter to reflect on it. The result is the longest blog post I've ever written on any single subject short of my monthly round-up of thirty or so DC Comics titles.

I want to lead off by saying my basic assessment, which I kind of soft-pedaled in my “First Impressions” post (link) in case I changed my mind, is that this movie is awesome. I was not at all disappointed in it as I feared I might be. In fact, I think I enjoyed it even more the second go'round, which is a really good feeling given how long I've been looking forward to it with a mixture of hope and dread born of my love for the character pitted against recognition of Hollywood's ability to completely miss the mark. As usual, this is not going to be some kind of carefully considered “review,” but more of a “Randomly Rambling” commentary on the things I liked, some things I didn't like so much – there were most definitely some – and so forth. Inevitably, there will be some repeating of points I made in the “First Impressions” post, but here I intend to develop them quite a bit more.

Although I'm not setting out to summarize the story, per se, do I really need to warn of Spoilers Ahead...?

Man of Steel -- First Impressions

I'm going to hold off a while before putting up a full blog-post with my "final" assessment of this movie, give myself more time to think about it -- and most likely see it again along the way.  Right now I'm just too close to it.  As I told a friend earlier today on Facebook, I've been looking forward to this movie finally appearing for so long, I'm not sure I can be anything approaching objective toward it.

I can put forth what are pretty much my immediate reactions to it, however, given only a few hours all told to consider it.  I saw it, of course, with pretty much the earliest "general release" viewers in the US, as part of the "Walmart" promotion last night at 7 pm.  

I must admit that the movie didn't exactly blow me away, at least in the short term.  Don't get me wrong -- I enjoyed it immensely, and so did my wife, who is not a comic book/super-hero fan -- at all -- and I intend to come back later with a full write-up of all the things I liked.  Among them will doubtless be the most fully developed treatment of a "realistic" yet very alien Krypton itself, as well as Jor-El and Lara, that I think has ever been seen in live action.  And, contrary to what some of the critics are saying, I think the story very much does have "heart," mainly in the portrayal of Clark's relationship with his earthly father and mother, Jonathan and Martha Kent.  And most definitely one of the strengths of this movie compared to any other Superman portrayal in the past is a real sense of the horrific devastation that would be caused by such super-beings engaged in an all-out, knock-down drag-out battle.  It's almost overwhelming.  If I would put forth an immediate criticism of the movie, it's that the full-on, relentless fighting that is basically the back half of the movie is downright mind-numbing.  That's kind of what I mean that it didn't "blow me away."  I was more stunned than anything else by the end of the two-hours-plus.  

Superman: Birthright (DC 2005)

I was motivated to reread Mark Waid's retelling of the Superman origin for the 21^st century by my growing awareness to near certainty that the upcoming Man of Steel movie is going to depend heavily upon it, much as the Nolan-helmed Batman Begins drew a great deal from Frank Miller's Batman: Year One. Having done so, I must say I am astonished that it does not appear among the “Six Must-Read Superman Stories” posted on the DC Comics website and blog just a couple of days ago.

Just to mention a some themes that the 2003-2004 miniseries and the 2013 movie obviously have in common: It was in Birthright that the \S/, which originated simply as a stylized “S” but with the 1978 movie became the crest of the Kryptonian House of El, was first explained as a Kryptonian symbol meaning “Hope”; the Kents exhibit a very realistic sense of trepidation and unease as to what might be the consequences should their son reveal himself to the world; Lois Lane tracks rumors of some kind of mysterious guardian angel; Kryptonians invade the Earth. Especially the latter element seems to be handled differently in the movie, where it appears that the invasion is very real, rather than being an elaborate ruse on the part of Lex Luthor, but the previews could themselves be deceptive. Part of me hopes not – if that is indeed a plot twist in the movie, it could be compared unfavorably to Iron Man Three even though Man of Steel is based on a prior source. And, to be sure, Zod doesn't play any part in Birthright. Some lines from Birthright seem to have made their way into Man of Steel, albeit differently: Ma Kent – “'Are we alone in the Universe?' is a question man has asked since time began … and you're the answer” (trade paperback, p. 74); Here it's Clark who assures Pa Kent, “You are my [father]” (p. 81). There are plenty of visual images, some of which are iconic and not at all original to Birthright, but striking nonetheless when reading it in light of the Man of Steel previews that have been appearing of late (Clark lifting part of a building on p. 40 is exactly the same angle as the movie's image, albeit without the flames). I hope we'll get an homage to the cover of the original Action Comics #1 in the movie as Birthright gives us on p. 50.

MAN OF STEEL Trailer 3

I think this is the first post I've ever made just for a movie trailer, but I want to a) call attention to it (and be able to get back to it easily and quickly -- because I'll be wanting to do that, and frequently, over the next few weeks); and b) make just a couple of off-the-cuff comments.

My comments, in no particular order...

1)  I like it.  My comment on a Facebook thread was simply "WOW.  Just ... WOW."  It looks great.  It does not completely allay my worries, that were just last week rekindled by an Internet article regarding this week's Entertainment Weekly issue.  But in itself, it does seem to strike the right tone and balance of down-to-earth character development and slam-bang super-heroics.  Look at that last scene -- You will believe that's two Kryptonians fighting!

2)  Along those lines, I approve of the excision of the lines from an earlier trailer, where Clark asks Jonathan, "Should I have just let them die?," and Jonathan replies, "Maybe."  I just cannot imagine Pa Kent saying such a thing.  No.  Just No.

3)  I'm always a bit leery when the Christological elements of the Superman mythos are pushed too far (as all too frequently happened in Smallville).  They're very clearly present in the mythos, and very clearly here in this movie, though.  But I really wish a single word had been added to Jor-El's response to Lara:  "How [will they kill him]? -- He will be a god to them."  Yes, I know it's very personal, but I would not have cringed so if Jor-El had said, "He will be like a god to them."

There's plenty else that could be said, but these are my quickest comments.

The Comic Book Blog has a good breakdown of the scenes and images in the trailer.

14 June seems a long ways away....

Cheers! ... and Thanks for reading!