Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Discussion in 'Off Topic Area' started by aikiMac, Apr 3, 2016.

  1. John Titchen

    John Titchen Still Learning Supporter

    An interesting emotional take on the movie.

    [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKRmMQaLZz8"]Batman v Superman: How I surprised myself & fell in love with this film - YouTube[/ame]
     
  2. Fish Of Doom

    Fish Of Doom Will : Mind : Motion Supporter

    i'm basically with jwt on this one, i loved the movie. i see reasons for why they did many of the things they did, and i find them valid, even if perhaps not executed in a completely ideal manner.

    superman by nature is a character whose powers are not given to particularly interesting storylines, because he can basically do anything physical (AND shoot pew pew laz0rs, fly, etc), so you have to deal with the non-physical aspects of the character, such as his thought processes and those of the people who surround him. here they do that by dealing with: the collateral damage from his fights in man of steel, his attitude towards his powers, the attitudes of others towards him, and his attitude towards the aforementioned, in light of the aforementioned. it ain't high drama, and it could have been fleshed out more, but for me, it was enough, particularly given that the same movie has to also reintroduce batman, introduce wonder woman, and pave the way for the appearance of multiple other characters in both standalone and joint movies.
    batman-wise, it has been stated multiple times that this is not a "newbie" batman such as in nolan's movies where the character first starts being known and noticed in gotham and public opinion to him is still building (which is actually superman's character arc in man of steel + dawn of justice), but is actually an old batman, now in activity for many years (i think they actually gave a number in the movie, but memory's failing on that one), is well-established as a very rough vigilante in his city, and has dealt with many events that have hardened him and made him more cynical throughout his crimefighting career (consider that he had had enough time to take in and train a robin, who the joker then killed, mocking batman in the process). also consider that the batman who never kills is not actually the original manifestation of the character, and that in this movie we already have a character who is staunchly opposed to killing under the vast majority of circumstances: superman, who actually has the invulnerability and physical near omnipotence that allows him to deal with otherwise lethal situations with little to no issue, whereas batman knows he is mortal and normal, albeit badass normal, knows that even though he has tremendous physical prowess he is still old and will only keep getting older, and has had very painful wake-up calls about the danger of the situations to which he is exposed, right from the moment where he sees his parents die in front of him, let alone having his adopted sidekick killed by joker, and later even having the people from his company maimed and killed by superman's fight against zod. at some point, pragmatism and cynicism won and priorities changed.

    HOWEVER, batman and superman's story arcs at those points intertwine, and character developmemt happens that relies precisely on the nature of both characters as presented in the film: batman considers superman a cold blooded murderer and potential existential threat, who cares nothing for collateral damage in his vigilantism (whereas batman is shown using lethal force in extremely high risk situations such as vehicular gunfights against military gradesmall arms and explosives), while superman (who himself seems to make careless use of his powers, confident in his own invincibility and with few or no extremely stressful events outside of zod's invasion) sees batman as little more than a violent thug who brutalizes criminals for no reason in his own vigilante activities. superman, in his naiveté, still approaches batman to ask for help, but fails to anticipate batman's reaction and thoughtlessly starts fighting him instead of more efficiently trying to communicate with him, and batman then uses the kryptonite and massively weakens him. here superman starts to know fear and despair for his own safety, and the feeling of one's life being at the mercy of someone else, and yet at the moment when he's about to finish him, lois intervenes, and batman starts to realize that HE was now becoming a cold-blooded murderer, about to kill someone who was at that moment actually trying to save his own mother. this sets the stage very nicely IMO for further development in future movies both of batman and of supes if/when they revive him, potentially having them revise the way they go about their vigilantism, the methods they employ and the way they go about it, especially since presumably they will form the justice league and need a cohesive set of rules for how to conduct themselves as part of a formal, if clandestine, crimefighting/global defense organization. and since we're presumably getting darkseid as well, tough new chpices will then have to be made in light of this potential new "civilized" batman and superman and co., as they then have to contend with a truly evil invasion force that will effect wanton destruction no matter what and require much more extreme measures to be dealt with, while having the caveat that darkseid's soldiers are not human and can therefore likely be disposed of on-screen with no remorse from the JL's part.
     
  3. John Titchen

    John Titchen Still Learning Supporter

    Remember those things called paragraphs Fish? :)
     
  4. Fish Of Doom

    Fish Of Doom Will : Mind : Motion Supporter

    ... i'm fish man.

    *punches you and runs off into the night*
     
  5. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    But the Iliad isn't a monster movie. You don't reveal the monster until the end, that's the rules!

    The only way to get around that is to have intermediate monsters - like face-huggers in Aliens or the hunting hound thingies in Predators. Predator is essentially The Thing mashed-up with the Rambo franchise. If Billy were to have a bigger part in the film, it should have been during the assault on the guerrilla camp.

    I'm with Philosoraptor on this one - I actually love that scene where we just hear him scream, and would find it much less poignant (if I can use that term about an Arnie movie?) if we saw the fight - not to mention the amount of tension it would take out of the final fight and big reveal.

    I'd hazard a guess that you identified with Billy as a character more than the average movie goer ;)

    PS. nothing to add about Batman Vs. Superman. I quite like the Adam West Batman series for it's trippiness, and watching Marlon Brando drunk in the first Superman film was amusing, but the only Superhero film I've seen that I actually liked was Super.
     
  6. Knee Rider

    Knee Rider Valued Member Supporter


    Super was... super! Not many people I know have seen it, which is a shame.

    Agree with all other points to :)

    GODDAMN IT!!! I was thinking of Special not super. Ignore me.

    Although that is the best superhero film. Scientific fact.
     
    Last edited: Apr 8, 2016
  7. David Harrison

    David Harrison MAPper without portfolio

    Just watched the trailer for Special. Looks awesome, I'll definitely watch it soon :)

    If you haven't watched Super, do it. It's what would transpire if the movie version of Kickass were to really happen (in a nutshell).
     
  8. Knee Rider

    Knee Rider Valued Member Supporter

    I watched super! You were not wrong :star:
     
  9. waterway

    waterway New Member

    An excellent review. I watched if for a 2nd time and I agree. It has it's flaws but overall it's a very good movie, and for the life of me I can't understand the negative reaction to the movie. One thing I noticed too is that for a supposedly "bad" movie that is 2.5 hours long, no one I know complained about being bored, which is a feat in itself.
     

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