Sunday, July 12, 2015

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Comic Con Trailer - Review

Batman v Superman fight scene Dawn of Justice poster wallpaper image picture screensaver DC Cinematic Universe

Dear Readers,

The Comic-Con trailer for the upcoming DC Comics movie has been released.

Directed by Zack Snyder (Man of Steel300), the movie stars Henry Cavill as Kal-El/Clark Kent/Superman, Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman and Gal Gadot as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman.

Supporting cast includes Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth and  Laurence Fishburne as Perry White.


The trailer focuses primarily on why Ben Affleck's Bruce Wayne/Batman has a grudge against Henry Cavill's Man of Steel.

In the first movie, Man of Steel, we only got a quick look at one of Bruce Wayne's satellite that was damaged in the climactic fight between Superman and General Zod (Michael Shannon). But it seems, Bruce Wayne was more directly impacted than what the movie suggested.

As seen in the trailer, Bruce Wayne loses a number of his employees, when his office gets trashed in the battle between the two nearly invulnerable Kyrptonians. This convinces Bruce that he needs to step up to the alien, before he inflicts further destruction on the human race.

Alfred tries to convince his master that Superman is not their enemy, but fails to succeed. Hey, we need them to fight to justify the movie's title after all...

Click on the link below to buy the movie:



We also get our first look at Gal Gadot as the Wonder Woman, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, Tao Okamoto as Mercy Graves and Holly Hunter as a US Senator. 

Lex seems to have convinced Holly Hunter's Senator to initiate legal proceedings against the Man of Steel. I am sure she will change her opinion at the end of the movie.

After romancing Hugh Jackman's Logan as Mariko in The Wolverine (2013), Tao Okamoto has entered the DC Universe as Lex Luthor's assistant/bodyguard, Mercy Graves.

The two new major players who get a lot of screentime are Gal Gadot and Jesse Eisenberg as the Amazon and Lex Luthor respectively.


Ben Affleck Gal Gadot Bruce Wayne Batman Diana Prince Wonder Woman Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice poster wallpaper image

Gal Gadot's character does not get to mouth any dialogue and is reduced to looking beautiful as Diana Prince and then in full battle mode as Wonder Woman. It is too early to judge her performance right now.

Jesse Eisenberg seems to be miscast as Lex Luthor. His dialogue delivery seems to be modeled on Kevin Spacey's version in Superman Returns. He also seems to be channeling his usual arrogant genius shtick that we have already seen many times (The Social Network, Now You See Me).


Jesse Eisenberg Lex Luthor with hair Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice poster wallpaper image picture screensaver

At least, his evil plans seem to be different. Instead of the usual land grabbing scheme we have seen in Superman (1978) and slavishly repeated in Superman Returns (2006), Lex seems to be experimenting with General Zod's corpse. My guess is that he is going to create Doomsday, the unstoppable Kryptonian villain who killed Superman.

This would also explain the reason for DC Comics Trinity to band together to stop Doomsday. And of course, other superheroes include Cyborg (played by Ray Fisher), Aquaman (played by Jason Momoa) and The Flash (played by Ezra Miller) can also lend a helping hand.

As interesting as all this sounds, the trailer indicates that the movie suffers from two major problems, that can potentially prevent the movie from being the pop culture behemoth that it intends to be.

The first one is that none of the actors/actresses seem to be in character. The only exception might be Holly Hunter and she is not playing a DC Comics character at all.

Every one from Ben Affleck to Jeremy Irons look and act in a one-note mode. Ben Affleck is all angry and Jeremy is all serious. Henry Cavill is bland as ever and for some unexplained reason, still gets to play the most iconic superhero ever. As I mentioned earlier, Eisenberg seems to be miscast. Even the reliable Diane Lane looks bored as Martha Kent, while giving some motherly advice to Clark.


New Batmobile Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice poster wallpaper image picture still

I guess one possible reason is that Zack Snyder is not an actor's director i.e. one who gets some great performances from his actors. Zack's strengths seem to be in the special effects department, which brings us to the next point: Bad Special Effects.

I had hoped that this sequel would improve on the shockingly bad CGI that was quite obvious in the previous movie. Unfortunately, that does not seem to be the case here. The special effects look as bad as ever. Perhaps, the finished product will look better when the movie releases in March 25 2016. But history does not inspire confidence...

Irrespective of the box office success, in my humble opinion, the reason this movie will suck big time is because this is a studio product, as opposed to being a passion project for a visionary filmmaker. Richard Donner and Christopher Nolan made amazing movies that will stand the test of time.

This one has been made with the sole purpose of making money. Just for the sake of competing with rival studios, Warner Bros. is doing a big disservice to these classic comic book characters.

Well, looks like the late Christopher Reeve and Christian Bale will continue to be the definitive real life impersonators of Supes and Bats respectively.

Click here to read all my posts about DC Comics.

If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to this blog by email or RSS by clicking here.

Image Sources: DC Entertainment, Dune Entertainment, Syncopy, Warner Bros.

4 comments:

  1. I'm glad there's plenty of people beside me who are unimpressed by this Dawn of Justice ridiculousness. There is no way I would like this movie. I might not even be able to watch it -- every time I watch a new trailer I get more and more angry at the terrible contrived forced terribleness, so watching the whole film may be dangerous to my and/or other people's heath. :P

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Sarah. The movie looks terrible indeed.

      B2B.

      Delete
  2. What I find endlessly fascinating, and which no one apart from me appears to mention, is that Cavill in this trailer has no dialogue at all (despite being one of the two title characters). Batman has plenty to say, and Alfred, the Senator that Hunter is playing, and even Mama Kent speak, but Superman...not a word. All he does is strike poses.

    My theory: that as an actor, Henry Cavill makes a wonderful model. They know it, and want to downplay the fact that he'll have to speak (which is where he usually falls apart). Save perhaps for The Tudors, I don't think Cavill has been good in anything.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The fact that I did not notice that Cavill has no dialogues only serves as a reminder that he is too bland to even register on any level.

      Since I have not seen The Tudors, I cannot comment on his performance there. But I have seen his "performance" in the trailer for Immortals and even in those few brief minutes, I could make out his complete lack of charisma/acting abilities. But somehow Warner Bros. execs seem to sense something in him, which is why he is the lead in the upcoming The Man from U.N.C.L.E..

      B2B.

      Delete