Man of Steel (2013) - Revisited

Back when I saw this movie in 2013, I found it to be a disappointment. I enjoyed exactly two scenes in the entire movie: the Superman flight scene and his aerial rescue of Lois (preceding the Smallville fight sequence). I also liked Antje's performance as Faora. Other than that, the movie did not impress me.

 

I found Man of Steel (MoS) to be the polar opposite of the Richard Donner/Chris Reeve 1978 Superman: The Movie:

• Cavill's Clark Kent/Superman is almost 100% humor/smile free (except for the last shot at the Daily Planet)
• Like Clark, the movie itself has a grim tone, which would befit Batman or Punisher or Spawn better.
• The cinematography choices is also dark and is probably one of the main reasons this movie did not strike a chord with me
• Lois Lane already knows Superman's secret identity, even before they meet. Plus the chemistry between Henry Cavill and Amy Adams is non-existent.
  
• Hans Zimmer's soundtrack does not have a single romance track. John Williams' love theme is still one of his best works.
• The action sequences are way overdone. The movie starts with one (set on Krypton), the second is set in Smallville and the finale in Metropolis. Except the first one, the special effects in the the remaining ones appear unfinished multiple times. We can overlook the lack of humor and the characterizations, but the way these action sequences have been handled is puzzling.
  

 

 

Revisited MoS after a long time and finally came to terms with it. This is a modern take on Superman in the same vein as BBC Sherlock is on the 20th Century Victorian detective. The obvious difference is that while the BBC show also takes deviations, it is a very well made show with great casting choices (among other things). MoS still remains a mixed bag. Yes there are some positives, but the movie still suffers from a number of weak spot. Let us get started.

 

The opening prologue on Krypton feels unnecessary and serves only to remind us that Warner Bros had provided only one mandate to Zack Snyder: make the movie as action packed as possible. If further proof is required, look no further than the casting and characterization of Jor-El. Clearly, Snyder is a fan of Gladiator - in addition to Russell Crowe, we have Connie Nielsen as Hippolyta and Hans Zimmer providing another bombastic soundtrack. One final link would Joaquin Phoenix who played Joker.

Back to the prologue - a good example of a prologue well done would be the one at the beginning of The Fellowship of the Ring. That was such a good beginning to the movie and the trilogy. The Krypton sequence on the other hand looks generic and Jor-El is a martial artist/scientist who can go toe to toe with General Zod (Michael Shannon) and ride dragon like beasts (reminded me of Avatar though). 

 

This entire sequence could have been done away with and the money would have been better spent on making the Smallville and Metropolis action sequences better. The city wide destruction and Superman snapping Zod's neck has been widely criticized and commented upon. I can understand that these were justified from a story point perspective, but the low quality of graphics in the fight sequences is something that Zack could have improved on.

 

 

To give Zack and the movie due credit, I liked the scene where Faora-Ul (Antje Trauje) gives special breathing gear to Lois Lane (Amy Adams) in the Kryptonian ship. Also Superman struggling to adjust to the Kryptonian atmosphere was another nice touch. I mention this point specifically for one main reason: When watching Avengers: Endgame, I was struck by how Tony Stark, Peter Parker, Dr Stephen Strange and other humans were able to adapt so quickly to the atmosphere on Titan and breath without the help of any special instrument/aid. So kudos to Zack and team.

 

The other aspects that the movie absolutely delivered are the flight scenes featuring Supes and the Kryptonian ships. The design of the alien ships is another strong point. 

 

The final and the best thing about the movie is Hans Zimmer's soundtrack. Following John Williams' iconic work is a daunting task. Hans delivers a great theme to both Supes and Zod. The movie would lose half its impact without the soundtrack. Superman's first flight scene and his aerial rescue of Lois are two examples. Some might complain that it is bit loud, but I nevertheless enjoy the soundtrack and think of it as a great companion piece to Williams.

 

I did find couple of loop holes in the plot:

• In Zack Snyder's Justice League, it is revealed that General Swanwick (Harry Lennix) is actually Martian Manhunter in disguise. The question is: why did Martian Manhunter not help Supes against the Kryptonian invasion? He could have helped and still maintained his secret identity. Related query: how come Supes did not see through Manhunter's disguise, considering that he would have some anatomical differences from regular human beings?
• Another thing to note is that probably half of Smallville know's Superman's secret identity. After being rescued by Supes, Lois arrives in a police car at Clark's home in Smallville and addresses Superman as “Clark” right within hearing distance of the cops. So what was the point of General Swanwick's 12 million dollar worth satellite to keep tabs on Supes. Plus, cannot Swanwick (as Martian Manhunter) just read Supes mind and know his true identity. 
  

All in all, MoS is a better Science Fiction movie than a Superhero movie featuring Supes. I think of it as an alternate universe take (similar to JL: Gods and Monsters). 

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Image Sources: Warner Bros., Legendary Pictures, Syncopy

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Justice League Comic Con Trailer - Review/Reaction

Warner Bros. has released a sneak peek of the upcoming movie that unites the DC Comics superheroes.

Directed by Zack Snyder (Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice), the movie stars Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Gal Gadot as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman, Jason Momoa as  Arthur Curry/Aquaman, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Ezra Miller as Barry Allen/The Flash and Ray Fisher as Victor Stone/Cyborg.

Newcomers include Amber Heard as Mera, J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon and Kiersey Clemons as Iris West.

Check out the trailer below:

This trailer is not much of an improvement over the previous trailer that debuted a few months ago. Since then, we have had rumors about Ben Affleck wanting to leave the franchise completely. He has officially stepped down as the director and Matt Reeves (War for the Planet of the Apes) has taken over the duties. Zack Snyder lost his daughter and has moved away from the production.

Joss Whedon (Avengers: Age of Ultron, The Avengers) is currently overseeing the post production work and has also reportedly done extensive reshoots. Joss was originally hired by the studio to write, direct and produce Batgirl.

Snyder had already completed shooting by the time Whedon took over. We all know Snyder's capacity to deliver a good superhero movie based on his previous two attempts. Snyder's movies boast of great visuals (specifically 300) but severely lack good character development, plot and dialogues. This movie also looks to suffer from the same drawbacks.

The actors strike all types of action figure poses and give reaction shots. The comedy looks forced, which is a surprise given Whedon's natural talent for writing witty dialogues/quips in his movies especially The Avengers. But Even Whedon can only do so much with this sub-standard material that has been forced on him. 




The special effects in this trailer look better than what we saw in the earlier one. Still some do look like taken straight out of a video game. No wonder the movie characters are also two dimensional.

Perhaps, the future of DC Films lies in female superhero led movies. Wonder Woman has been a hit both critically and commercially. Provided the studio does not interfere too much, Whedon will knock it out of the park with Batgirl.

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Image Sources: DC Comics, DC Entertainment, Dune Entertainment (as RatPac-Dune Entertainment LLC), Lensbern Productions, Warner Bros.

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Justice League (2017) Trailer - Review/Reaction

The first trailer for the long awaited movie has finally been released.

Directed by Zack Snyder (Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice), the movie stars Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman, Gal Gadot as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman, Jason Momoa as  Arthur Curry/Aquaman, Ezra Miller as Barry Allen/ The Flash and Ray Fisher as Victor Stone/Cyborg.

Newcomers include Amber Heard as Mera, J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon and Kiersey Clemons as Iris West.

Check out the trailer below:

From what I have seen in the trailer, I am guessing that this movie is based on story Justice League: Origin by Geoff Johns and Jim Lee. That story features an invasion of earth by Darkseid and the heroes forming a team to stop him.

The DC animated movie Justice League: War is itself an adaptation the same story. I am quite sure that this live action movie will not measure up to the animated version.

The trailer is not as exciting as the trailer for BvS: Dawn of Justice was. Considering the quality of BvS, this does not bode well for the movie. The movie seems to suffer from the same shortcomings as the previous two Snyder movies: weak character development, weak dialogues and the most damning of all - special effects that are not worthy for a video game.




Even video games have better detailed locations than this movie does. Like BvS, this one too has been shot extensively in the studio against green screens. Instead of filling the background with details, the lazy director and his crew have just opted for darkened visuals to hide the fact that they have zero imagination.

Considering that this is a superhero movie, at least the special effects must be good if not excellent.

Even the great J K Simmons looks bored. He was on fire as J Jonah Jameson in the Sam Raimi Spiderman movies. Here he just looks lost. I think this has to do with the general lack of vision and direction about the DC Films at Warner Bros. The standalone Flash movie lost not one but two directors and is now headed for a complete script rewrite.

The Batman standalone movie is in a slightly better situation: after Ben Affleck quit as director, the studio managed to hire Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes). The movie is also undergoing a complete script rewrite after the previous script credited to Ben Affleck and Geoff Johns was discarded.

If the rumors are to be believed, Affleck completely wants out of the role. It is understandable that his retirement from the role will be officially announced after this Justice League movie will be released. Given this state of affairs, it is obvious as to why he too looks bored in the trailer.

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The rest of the cast do their best with the weak lines. But none of the so-called humor works. The actors just strike action figure poses and have minimal dialogues. Further it does not help that some of the footage are reused from the character spots the studio has been releasing for the past couple of days. I think the best shots in the movie are in this trailer.

But not all hope is lost for DC Films. In addition to hiring Matt Reeves, the studio is reportedly in talks with Mathew Vaughn (X-Men: First Class) to direct the sequel to Man of Steel. That does raise my hopes. Point of interest - Vaughn's Kick-Ass had a Batman knockoff character in the form of Big Daddy (Nicholas Cage in one of his better performances in the recent past).

Clearly, Warner Bros have acknowledged the negative feedback about Snyder's “vision”. If only they had not hired him in the first place....

Coming back to this movie, I am predicting that it will earn around the same amount of money as BvS: Dawn of Justice did. Just as that movie had the novelty factor of the two heroes appearing first time onscreen, this one too has the famed DC team coming to life. Once the opening weekend is over and the hardcore fans are done with the movie, the movie should drop like a rock. Yes, pretty much the same trajectory as what BvS took before falling well short of the coveted 1 Billion USD benchmark.

The critics will no doubt be tough on the movie and I expect the Rotten tomatoes rating to fall below 30%. The hardcore DC fans will take up arms and demand the site to be closed. They will be interested to know that Warner Bros. owns the Rotten Tomatoes site.

Ben Affleck's Batman says at one point in the trailer: “My turn”. To see the same line delivered by an actor invested in his character, check out this scene from V for Vendetta:

Unless Zack Snyder has improved his sensibilities and directorial skills dramatically, I would expect this movie to be another missed opportunity.

Click here to read all my posts about DC Comics.

 

Image Sources: DC Comics, DC Entertainment, Dune Entertainment (as RatPac-Dune Entertainment LLC), Lensbern Productions, Warner Bros.

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

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 Steel, Watchmen), 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).



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.

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”.

Click here to read all my posts about DC Comics.

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

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

The final trailer for the upcoming 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.

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.

Click here to read all my posts about DC Comics.

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

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

Dear Readers,

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

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.

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).

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.

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.

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