Batman. The "Bird" Gotham Actually Needs

SPOILER ALERT
Superman dies
2:15  of crap
:15 of fight
Aquaman Cameo

That's the movie in a nutshell. I was so excited to see the movie and it was a big ol' waste of time. I think there are multiple reasons for this movie not being good. For one, I think the movie tried to cover more material than it could handle. Way too much information was shoved into the 2:30 movie, making it hard to separate the important information from "crap."
Another reason that I didn't enjoy the movie was because of how much of a build up there was for a very anticlimactic final battle. I am not lying when I say there was 2:15 of nothing but talking until the final fight. The only fight that you do see prior to that happens to be a dream that batman is having so its like it didn't even happen. And then batman and superman fight for like 5 minutes, wonder woman comes in and fights for 5 minutes, and then they all fight together for 5 minutes. Thats it.
But honestly, I think the main reason this movie was a flop is because, believe it or not, bats are not actually birds, they're mammals. This tactic of using a bird in the title of the film has been well investigated in a previous blog done by a student here at IC, and the results showed a shocking amount of evidence that by putting a bird's name in the title, the chances of if winning best picture increase by almost 45%. I think that the director of Batman V Superman was well aware of this too but missed the mark just by a hair and didn't do enough research to realize that bats actually aren't birds.

BVS

I just got home from seeing Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice...

I didn't like it...

At all...

But I wanted to so bad.

The problem with the movie was that it wasn't a horrible movie. It was so middling that it made me so goddamn frustrated thus why I hated it so much. It had really cool and interesting parts but also really stupid and unnecessary parts. 

I'm probably going to spoil a lot of the plot but who cares.

THE GOOD

- Ben Affleck. I thought he was a great Batman. Tortured, dark and brutal. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing him in solo films. 

- Gal Gadot. She was awesome. Probably the best part of the movie. Especially when she was introduced in the final fight against Doomsday. 

- Jess Eisenberg. A lot of people gave him shit about playing Lex Luther. He's not the macho brute that Lex is usually portrayed as, but instead, he was smart, conniving and insane. I thought he was great. 

- Zack Snyder. Let's get one thing straight here. A lot of people give Zack Snyder shit about his films. But just stop. He is a great director. Everything looked great in the film. The opening scene (showing Bruce Wayne losing his parents in Crime Alley) was awesome. The fights were awesome. Special effects - awesome. He also (like in Watchmen and 300) knows how to make a movie look like you're watching a live action comic book - which I find very impressive. The problem does not lie with the direction but in the writing. The character arcs were lazy. The plot had many holes. And some of the dialogue was just stupid. Get some better writers for Snyder and he'll take the rest.

THE BAD

-  A weird scene with the Flash (maybe). There's an extremely unclear scene where a mysterious man in a red suit surrounded by lightning comes to the Batcave to tell Bruce information about Superman. But this information is never used later in the film and is completely pointless. 

- Pinning Batman and Superman against each other. Lex Luther is trying to get Batman and Superman to fight. But why? How? What? Yeah, none of those questions seem to be clear in the movie.

- Lois Lane retrieving the Kryptonite spear. Batman makes a spear of Kryptonite in order to defeat Superman. But after Batman and Superman realize that they’re not enemies, Batman throws the spear away in anger. Later, when Doomsday shows up, Batman realizes that he needs to get the spear back. But Lois is already on it. She’s already on her way to retrieve the spear. How she knows that the spear will help? I don’t know. It seemed like the writers just thought she needed more screen time.

- Superman's dumb death at the end. In the final battle, Superman must plunge the Kryptonite spear into Doomsday in order to kill him. Because Superman is weak against Kryptonite, he obviously can't carry the spear for very long periods of time. Nevertheless, instead of giving it to the super-powered Amazonian warrior woman who is clearly adept at all kinds of combat and basically invulnerable, or Batman who is also completely capable, Superman decides to charge at Doomsday to impale him with it and dies in the process. It's a completely avoidable death, and one that Superman will undoubtedly be resurrected from in the first Justice League movie.

THE UGLY

- Doomsday. He was pretty ugly.

- The future of DC movies...

The Problem with Dark Superhero Films.

Ever since it was announced, there has been much speculation on whether Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice would be any good. Would director Zack Snyder be able to do better than the overly long, stupidly grim, terribly paced Man of Steel?

Nope

Much like it's title, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice appears to be overly long, awkward, and dumb. I feel like this is a troubling sign for the DC Cinematic Universe. All the films seem to be trying to go as dark and serious as possible, which causes them to forget the most important aspect of a superhero film; it's supposed to be fun. 

That's the biggest problem with Zack Snyder's films. They're not fun. Now that doesn't mean you can't be serious and dark, we all know what happens when a movie goes too far in the other direction...

Garbage

But look at the Nolan Batman trilogy. It was able to be a dark and serious superhero film but it allowed itself to have fun while doing it. It's hard to take a world where there are a bunch of people running around in spandex, or in this case a man dressed like a bat, too seriously. That's partially why I think the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been much more successful. They are able to tackle serious topics and have very emotional moments and still have a lot of fun. 

Take a look at the first Avengers film. Throughout a massive battle on which the survival of Earth hangs in the balance, the heroes are still able to smartly quip at each other or even crack a joke. Even Captain America: The Winter Soldier which is perhaps the most serious of the MCU films still finds time to for fun and bits of humor. These bits of humor don't take away from the film, in fact they often help it out. If you have constant dismal darkness (cough cough Man of Steel cough cough) The audience will get so bogged down by the sullen teenager that is your movie that they won't be able to enjoy it. 

There are however instances where trying to be both dark and fun backfire. 

Civil War

If you've been online in the past twenty four hours, then you've probably already seen the new trailer for the next Marvel movie installment - Captain America: Civil War.

If not, here it is. Enjoy.

If you're a Marvel nerd like me, then you're probably shitting your pants. 

All your favorite characters, plus some new ones, fighting each other in a battle for righteousness. 

We got the Captain himself, Falcon, Scarlet Witch, Bucky Barnes, and Hawkeye versus Iron Man, Black Widow, War Machine, The Vision and (introducing) Black Panther. And then there will be cameos from other characters like Ant Man, Baron Zemo, Crossbones, and the new Spider-man played by Tom Holland (who I hope will redeem the catastrophe that cry-baby Andrew Garfield gave us). 

Anyways, a lot of people have been asking - why are these heroes, who are supposed to be on the same side, fighting each other?

The same applies to Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Why are these heroes fighting?

Well, if you haven't read the comic book, Civil War, (which I highly recommend before seeing the movie), the government has issued a Superhuman Registration Act, a legislative bill which requires the mandatory registration of any person based in the United States with super powers. The act arose due to public pressure for accountability following a series of superhuman-related events causing significant damage and death within the Marvel universe. Iron man thinks this is a great idea. Captain America does not. This then escalades into a great battle between those in favor and those opposed.

The comic books features a lot of characters that probably won’t make the movie – including the Fantastic Four, Punisher, Tigra, a lot of the X-Men (who are owned by Fox) and many, many more.

But the thing I’m most concerned about is if Marvel will have the balls to really make this a good and gritty story. (Hopefully, they’ll learn from the success of Deadpool) But I don’t mean that there needs to be dick jokes every thirty seconds or Tony Stark has to say fuck a lot. What I mean is that you have two of the mightiest heroes in the Marvel Universe going at it in a war. And, in war, there is always a loser, and there are always casualties.

From the looks of the trailer, it looks like War Machine will definitely be one of these casualties thus making matters more personal for Iron Man.

I personally can’t wait for the movie.  And I can’t wait to see how they’ll end it. Because, we have two of the most beloved Marvel characters fighting, but one of them has to lose.

WHO WILL IT BE?!

I guess we'll just have to wait until May 6th...

The Fun Left in Hollywood

Hollywood has always been known as the cutthroat heart to the American film industry, usually filled with professionals and never much room for laughter. And all of this is totally acceptable when many budgets cross over a hundred million dollars and studios are looking for the biggest bang for their buck. But it was the seventies and the rise of the American auteur that gave Hollywood some of the most iconic films and at the same time showed that directing is really just about the inner child's imagination. George Lucas and Steven Spielberg both created so many films that will be ingrained into film history for the rest of time. And as they dominated the seventies box office looking back it almost seems as if they were playing a game with each other.

In the late seventies George Lucas was nervous about his new release Star Wars. So when he turned to his friend Steven Spielberg and saw that he was was working on Close Encounters of the Third Kind it just made him feel worse. Lucas believed that Spielberg was creating "the biggest hit of all time" and that Star Wars would fail miserably. So as a small bet at the time Lucas bet 2.5% of Star Wars in exchange for 2.5% of Close Encounters. What was a small bet at the time turned into a forty million dollar investment for Spielberg. But even that wasn't the end to their game.

For the next decade the two would play box office ping pong and when it came to video rentals the two would send letters to each other publicly about the others success. 

The two showed that what they were doing was something that was fun no matter how serious it was, and that through the millions of dollars it wasn't about money. 

For a long time in Hollywood I feel like we have lost that. The sense of fun behind the movie making and that no matter what, film should be about making something that you feel should be made and having fun with it. But hope is not lost! There has been a new resergence in the industry and in a way it comes from the same franchise, Star Wars. 

J.J. Abrams is deep into production on the new trilogy and is bringing the same atitude as Lucas once did. Meanwhile on the other spectrum Zack Snyder is working on Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and between the two films they are both approaching the situation just as the original duo did. With a twenty first century twist the two have been crossing their respective franchises in a way to respect the massive amount of pressures they both hold. It's the fun that Hollywood was missing and I hope it continues to stay. 

                                     
These images have been sent back and forth to each director. And the video below is the most recent gag from J. J. Abrams.

Here's to hoping the fun is still alive. 

Batman vs. Superman: not just a 2015 event

There's been a lot of buzz going around recently about the new 'Batman vs. Superman' movie coming out in 2015. Much of it has been directed at Ben Affleck, who was just confirmed as the new Batman. These two characters are getting a lot of attention right now with the Dark Knight series well on their way and the Superman series just starting up again. Their history goes far beyond the last 5 years though, and I'd thought it'd be fun to take a quick peak at what these characters have gone through in the past.

Firstly, let's go back to the dinosaur ages of 1966. Phrases like "gee wiz" were actually said, as you'll notice only 4 minutes into this episode from the Batman TV series:

The series was never viewed as especially good though, and they clearly had a struggling budget. 

Okay, maybe they were struggling with a little more then their budget. But before this show even existed, there was the "Adventures of Superman" TV show that started back when the pyramids were being built. AKA 1952. 

Moving way ahead in time though, this cartoon was released just last year and features an epic battle between Batman and Superman. I feel like this may give us a good idea of what to expect from the new movie coming in 2015, except instead of a cartoon it's real people and a sh*t load of special effects.