Showing posts with label Man of Steel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Man of Steel. Show all posts

Monday, March 28, 2016

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) - Review/Reaction

batman v superman movie picture poster image wallpaper screensaver

The long awaited movie has finally been released. There will be spoilers throughout and the readers who are yet to watch the episode are recommended to skip this post.

Directed by Zack Snyder (Man of SteelWatchmen), 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 Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth, Diane Lane as Martha Kent and Laurence Fishburne as Perry White.

The movie starts off with a funeral procession of Thomas Wayne (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and Martha Wayne (Lauren Cohan). A traumatized Bruce Wayne (Brandon Spink) is seen running wildly and falls into a cave full of .... bats (what else can one expect?).

Flash forward to the climactic battle of Man of Steel. Bruce is rushing through the Metropolis streets to save his employees/friends working in the Wayne building. He manages to save an injured employee, Wallace Keefe (Scoot McNairy) and an unnamed girl from the rubble.

But instead of spending a few minutes with Bruce, we again jump to an underwater excavation under progress in the Indian Ocean. The object being retrieved is a considerable chunk of Kryptonite.

Senator Finch (Holly Hunter) wants Superman to be held accountable for his actions. She is being cleverly manipulated by Lex Luthor, who wants to get his hands on all things Kyrptonian, including the corpse of Zod (Michael Shannon).

holly hunter senator finch batman v superman movie picture poster image wallpaper screensaver

But Finch is the not the only one, Lex is toying with. He is also setting up both the Man of Steel and Batman to a no-holds barred brawl.

In the midst of all these developments, Diana Prince is hanging around the same social gatherings as Clark Kent and specifically Bruce Wayne do. Bruce can sense that she is up to something.

The movie meanders around till it gets to the much-hyped battle of the superheroes. Like The Dark Knight Returns, the graphic novel on which the movie is partially based on, Batman ends up defeating Superman with the help of Kryptonite.

He is about to kill the Man of Steel, when Clark mentions a name: Martha. This triggers an emotional trip down the memory lane for Bruce. Lois stops by and informs Batman that Martha is the first name of Superman's mother.

Yes, that is how stupid Ben Affleck's Batman is. He does not even bother to check out these details of his enemy before he goes to fight him. For a character supposed to be the “World's Greatest Detective, he is mindbogglingly dumb. That is probably good, as only Sherlock Holmes can rightfully claim that title.

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The movie finally comes to a conclusion with the DC's Trinity facing off against Doomsday, the monster created by Lex from Zod's corpse. This confrontation is pure CGI and is boring as hell. Except for Wonder Woman, neither of the other three combatants make no impression.

Superman and Doomday kill each other, again echoing the story-line of the 1992 series: The Death of Superman. The movie ends with yet another funeral scene, this time for Clark/Superman. In the comic book universe, no one stays dead for long and neither will Superman.


batman v superman batcave daily planet movie picture poster image wallpaper screensaver

This was a major disappointment. The movie fails on almost all possible levels: acting, action, direction, music.... The saving grace is Gal Gadot's performance as Wonder Woman and her theme music. In the final fight, she is the only one who actually fights back against the villain. Batman is busy jumping around desperately trying to save himself. Superman gets pummeled around like a toy.

The only other enjoyable scene in the movie is at Luthor's party, which also features her. Diana and Bruce eye each other warily as they attempt to steal Lex's secrets.

This is a movie that is not about the DC Universe and characters like Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. This is a movie about Warner Bros. and how the studio is desperate to create an inter-connected universe to rival the massively successful one owned by Walt Disney/Marvel Studios.

Superman is as bland as he was in Man of Steel. In this movie, he saves Lois Lane more than any other human being. It is as if he was sent from Krypton only to the guardian angel for Lois and not humanity itself.

As emotionless as Cavill is throughout the movie, the standout is his reaction after the explosion during the hearing that leaves everyone around him dead. Cavill just looks around as if nothing happened. At least that is the impression that I got from his acting. In the history of worst casting decisions in superhero movies, this has got to be near the top of the heap.

Ben Affleck is either angry or snobbish. Batman's action scenes are heavily inspired by The Arkham series of Batman games and it shows. The actions look quite cartoonish both in their content and the way they are executed. Both Kevin Tsujihara (current CEO of Warner Bros.) and Zack Snyder have a strong background in video games and this works against the movie's best interests.

Except for the Batman vs gang of thugs fight sequence, both the Batman v Superman and the climactic sequence are as generic as possible. There is no element of fun behind the way these scenes have been designed. A fight scene showcasing each character's unique skills/fighting styles would have been so much fun. But this is a studio mandated product that has no time for imagination or fun.

Hopefully Suicide Squad will be much more fun than this self-serious piece of nonsense that pretends to about some of the world's most iconic superheroes.

This movie solely exists for the reason of setting up the DC Extended Universe. The best proof of this would be the cameos for The Flash, Aquaman and Cyborg. These have to be the most shoehorned in scenes in the history of Hollywood or any other cinema for that fact.

I had hoped that at least with the critical drubbing this movie has received would make Warner Bros. reconsider their decision to retain Zack Snyder's directorial talents (?) for Justice League Part One and Two due in 2017 and 2019 respectively. Now that the movie has grossed 424 million USD worldwide, it looks increasingly possible that Snyder would continue to taint the DC Universe with his vision.

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

Monday, February 15, 2016

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Final Trailer # 3 - Review/Reaction

ben affleck bruce wayne henry cavill clark kent picture poster image wallpaper screensaver

The final trailer for the upcoming blockbuster 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.

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

After a good Comic Con trailer and a disappointing second one, Warner Bros. and Zack Snyder do a decent job of selling the movie.

Check out the trailer:


The trailer starts off with Batman taking down a bunch of bad guys in a building. Based on online comments by others, the fighting style employed by the Dark Knight is supposed to be very similar to the Arkham series of video games. Having not played any of those games, I can only take their word for it.

The rest of the trailer features scenes we have already seen in the previous trailers. The remarkable thing is that Gal Gadot's Diana Prince speaks for the first time. We also get to see the sassy side of Jeremy Irons' Alfred Pennyworth.

The trailer ends with Batman blocking Superman's arm and we can see the surprise register on Supes' face.

The action sequence with Batman vs the gangsters looks good. But the special effects still look suspect. The coloring for the overall movie is another eyesore: Just because the last two Dark Knight movies made a billion dollars each does not mean, all DC comics based movies have to be dark. I guess the studio executives are averse to taking risks, if making a sunny and hopeful movie about the Man of Steel can be considered a risk in the first place.

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Acting wise, Ben Affleck comes off as arrogant and self-righteous. And considering the fact his Batman might well become the lynchpin of the expanding DC Extended Universe (DCEU), he is Warner Bros.' own version of a RDJ like prima donna.

Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman comes off more like Selina Kyle than the regal Princess of Themyscira/Paradise Island. Hope, I am wrong on this count.

My personal favorite scene in the trailer is the last one featuring Henry Cavill showing his surprise at being blocked by the Caped Crusader.

I am still not sure about this movie. Suicide Squad looks to be a winner. As for this one, we will know the answer on March 25.

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

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...

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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.

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

Saturday, April 18, 2015

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) - Teaser Trailer

Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice teaser trailer review


Dear Readers,

The teaser trailer for the upcoming action blockbuster has been released.

Directed by Zack Snyder (Man of Steel, 300), 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.

Other superheroes include Cyborg (played by Ray Fisher), Aquaman (played by Jason Momoa) and The Flash (played by Ezra Miller).

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



The trailer focuses primarily on Ben Affleck's Bruce Wayne/Batman. Having enjoyed Chris Nolan's The Dark Knight Trilogy, I was a bit skeptical.

I have to confess that Affleck's Batman looks impressive. His is a bulked up version, like the one found in The Dark Knight Returns series by Frank Miller. I have read reports that this movie might be inspired by Miller's popular work.

Ever since this movie was announced, I had pinned my hopes on Affleck's Batman to be the savior. Looks like I was not off the mark as Henry Cavill remains as bland and uninspired as he was in Man of Steel

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I am curious to see the other four superheroes in action, especially Ezra Miller's Flash. He has the unenviable task of being compared with Grant Gustin who portrays the Scarlet Speedster on the wildly successful CW show The Flash.

Here's hoping that the movie will live up its hype as the first live action movie to feature both Superman and Batman.

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

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Ben Affleck is the new Batman!


Ben Affleck is the new Batman and Bruce Wayne in Henry Cavill's Superman Man of Steel sequel in the DC Cinematic Universe after Christian Bale

Ben Affleck has been announced to be Christian Bale's successor to play the Dark Knight in Zack Snyder's sequel to Man of Steel.

I personally consider Chris Bale's performance as Batman/Bruce Wayne in The Dark Knight Trilogy to be definitive and as one of the best by a leading actor in the superhero movie genre.

Ben Affleck has won Oscars for his work for Best Writing (Good Will Hunting, 1997) and Best Picture (Argo, 2012). He is one of the most talented people of his generation.

Interestingly, Ben also portrayed the Marvel Comics superhero, Daredevil in the poorly received Mark Steven Johnson directed movie in 2003. He is one of the few actors to play characters from both DC and Marvel Comics, along with Halle Berry (Storm in the X-Men movies and Catwoman) and Ryan Reynolds (Green Lantern and Wade Wilson/Deadpool in X-Men Origins: Wolverine).

I am not still sure about this casting decision. I am interested to hearing from readers about their thoughts.

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Image Sources: Warner Bros. Pictures, Wikipedia

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Justice League: War - Review
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Batman: Assault on Arkham - Review

Monday, June 17, 2013

Movie Review: Man of Steel (2013)


Henry Cavill Man of Steel movie review 2013

The movie combines the plots of Superman: The Movie (1978) and Superman 2 (1980). The opening prologue of Man of Steel shows Krypton's destruction and Kal-El being sent to Earth. Similar to Superman 2, General Zod travels to Earth. Throw in some parts of Batman Begins and hey presto, you get Man of Steel.

I am not going to the plot details as there is not much to write about there. The plot has a number of holes though, which I will avoid to keep this review spoiler free.

The movie, if nothing else, shows the power of marketing. The marketing campaign for this movie has been nothing short of brilliant. The trailers and TV spots did an amazing job of presenting the movie as a must watch summer movie event. Unfortunately, the movie fails to live up to its hype. And I mean failure on an epic scale.

Russell Crowe as Jor-El on Krypton in Man of Steel (2013)

Kryptonians are supposed to be an advanced civilization but fly on dragon like flying beasts. There are flying spacecrafts too. The movie cannot decide whether it is belongs to the science fiction genre or the fantasy genre. Oh wait, it is a superhero movie, featuring Supes.

The acting is surprisingly weak, considering the star cast. Characterizations are either non-existent or just wrong.


Diane Lane as Martha Kent in Man of Steel (2013)

Take the example of Martha Kent. Diane Lane's performance is limited to her wardrobe and her only effective scene is the one where she gets to counsel a very young Clark (Cooper Timberline) who is terrified after a manifestation of his x-ray vision.

Ditto for Amy Adams' Lois Lane. One of the main appeals of Clark-Lois dynamics is the fact that Lois is unaware of Supes' secret identity. 

Amy Adams as Lois Lane and Laurence Fishburne as Perry White in Man of Steel (2013)


As silly as Supes' secret identity is, it is still one of the benchmarks of the Supes mythology. Man of Steel gets rid of this aspect and this pretty much removes any scope for the classic Supes-Lois romance.

Henry Cavill as Clark Kent Kal-El Supes in Man of Steel (2013)

On the other end of the writing spectrum are the characters of Supes himself and Jor-El. Henry's version of Supes/Clark Kent is a dullard. Moping around like Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne does not a Clark Kent make. Neither does Henry Cavill's school of acting that alternates between 2 expressions: blank faced or constipated.

Dylan Sprayberry and Cooper Timberline as a younger Clark Kent in Man of Steel (2013)

To put Henry's performance in perspective, I would say that both Dylan Sprayberry and Cooper Timberline make a better impression as younger versions of Clark, even though they have a fraction of the screen time compared to Cavill.

Henry is quite a handsome looking chap and looks brawny when he goes shirtless. In my humble opinion, his is the most boring version of Supes and possibly the worst as well. Without giving anything away, I will direct the readers to the movie climax to drive home this point.

Russell Crowe as Jor-El in Man of Steel (2013)

Equally nonsensical is Jor-El's characterization. To the best of my knowledge, Jor-El has been a scientist on Krypton. Marlon Brando's version captured that aspect. Russell Crowe plays Jor-El as a scientist version of Maximus Decimus Meridius from Gladiator. Russell's Jor-El kicks, punches, shoots, dives and jumps on the back of flying dragons. Quite an all-rounder indeed. The less said about Jor-El's later appearances the better. Still, Russell delivers a watchable performance.

Michael Shannon as General Zod in Man of Steel (2013)

Michael Shannon is on auto-pilot mode and gives a one-note performance as General Zod. His is a glare-stare-shout performance and nothing else. The actors, especially Michael Shannon and Ayelet Zurer seem to be at line reading sessions. Perhaps, performing going against green screens did not inspire them to do anything beyond simple line reading exercises. Interestingly, Henry Cavill and even Amy Adams resort to such antics in their scenes together and it is quite a stretch to believe their romance subplot.

Kevin Costner as Jonathan Kent in Man of Steel (2013)


The best performances are by Kevin Costner as Jonathan Kent and Antje Traue as Faora Ul. Kevin gives a believable performance as Jonathan Kent, who wants the best for Clark. He consistently advises Clark to hide his powers (another red flag as far as the comics is concerned). Still, Kevin's performance is one of the best ones.

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Antje Traue as Faora-Ul in Man of Steel (2013)

But the true scene stealer is Antje Traue. As Sub-Commander Faora-Ul, Zod's right hand, she exudes arrogance and pure evil. Hers is a fun performance and the movie comes alive when she is onscreen. The casting department definitely made the right choice (atleast) for this role.

The same cannot be said for the special effects department. It is painfully obvious that we are watching a computer generated special effect flying around, when it is supposed to be Henry Cavill as Supes. This happens a number of times in the movie and makes one wonder where did all the (supposedly) 200 million dollar plus budget went into.

I suppose a significant amount was spent on the Krypton sequence. For my money, I would have skipped that sequence and instead spent the budget on getting the Supes flight/fight scenes executed in a believable way. After all, this is the 21st century and Man of Steel should have more believable flight/fight sequences than the Chris Reeve movies. Between a Chris Reeve on wires scene vs weak CGI superman shots, I would gladly choose the former.

Henry Cavill as Superman in Man of Steel (2013)
The special effects in Man of Steel are not always this good
Hans Zimmer's nonstop bombastic score is one of his least effective works in recent times. I could make out only one theme being repeated aloud or quietly, depending on the scene in question.

One way to get through the movie is to play the "Spot the Product placements" game. I spotted Nikon, IHOP, 7-Eleven and Sears. There are some more and I encourage the readers to look out for these.

This is lazy movie-making at its best. Warner Bros. must be desperate for a new franchise (now that The Dark Knight Trilogy and the Harry Potter series are over). Marvel's continuous success probably did not help either.

Marvel Studios did the right thing in getting directors who delivered adaptations with appropriate tone for each comic book character. For a fun character like Iron Man, they brought Jon Favreau on board. For a mythological character like Thor, they hired respected Shakespearean actor/director, Kenneth Branagh.

Chris Nolan and Zack Snyder on Man of Steel (2013)
Christopher Nolan and Zack Snyder
Warner Bros does not seem to care about these basic but crucial points. The critical and commercial success of The Dark Knight Trilogy seems to have become the Kryptonite of Man of Steel. The similarities between Man of Steel and Batman Begins are quite obvious. The back and forth narrative structure that worked so well in Batman Begins, results in an uneven tone for Man of Steel. No surprise there, as Zack Snyder is no Chris Nolan. The movie is all about (unimaginative) visual spectacle and (badly executed) special effects.

The horror story is set to continue as Warner Bros. has already signed up Snyder and writer David S. Goyer for the sequel.

DC Comics has been the major player on the animated scene. Its dominance in Hollywood has been eclipsed in the recent past by Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). I am sure Warner Bros/DC Comics wanted to challenge Marvel Studios' lucrative MCU movies with a new franchise that was supposed to be kicked off by Man of Steel and presumably lead to a Justice League movie. MCU fans can relax. Man of Steel may be a commercial success, but is no match from a critical perspective. This is just a boring movie with no humor, weak script/characterizations and very poorly executed special effects.

I have been a lifelong fan of Supes and Bats. As surprised I am to write this, I will be lying if I put it in any other way: Skip Man of Steel and watch the classic 
Christopher Reeve movies or Smallville or Superman/Batman: Public Enemies or Superman vs. The Elite or All-Star Superman instead. One of these even features Bats. And of course, there is the always enjoyable and far superior The Dark Knight Trilogy. 

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Image Sources: Warner Bros., Legendary Pictures, Syncopy