Superman Vs Batman: Thoughts

I’ve been to watch Batman VS Superman, and wanted to write down my thoughts on the film. Considering I had no hope of making this short enough to post on FB or Twitter, I figured writing them here would be a better idea.

First the bad:

 

• The story is nonsensical, and jumps around all over the place for no real reason.
• Huge chunks of story are just forgotten about, or ignored because they’re clearly just there for future films, or because Zack Snyder forgot they existed.
• Zack Snyder isn’t a very good director.
• Everything is gloomy and dark. The entire colour palate to the film is like watching through fog. It’s annoying and utterly misses the point of a Superman film.
• There’s no levity in the whole film. Compare it to something like Winter Soldier, which was still a serious film, but one that had humour, and excitement. Those aren’t in this film.
• The CGI fights look pretty crappy in the darkness that blankets the whole film.
• Lex Luthor is more annoying, twitchy dick, than evil genius. Also, his entire plot makes no sense for someone who’s meant to be said evil genius.
• Every character in the Daily Planet is pointless and serves no purpose.
• It’s too long.
• It’s obviously just a set up for a future film.
• Amy Adams is just there to be saved for the most part.
• In 2016 we don’t need yet another Batman origin story. EVERYONE KNOWS WHO BATMAN IS, and if you don’t, then spend ten seconds on Google before you get into the film.
• The ending is obvious, trite, and frankly insulting to the audiences’ intelligence.
• Doomsday is dreadful and looks like the Troll from Lord of the Rings, a 15 yr old film.

 

 

Essentially, the story is all over the place, and the direction is a mess. So, that’s not great.

Now the good stuff:

 

• Henry Cavill is a good Superman. He really is, even with all the moping he has to do, he’s still pretty good. If they just made him a bit more… Superman, and a bit less miserable, that would be brilliant.
• Gal Gadot is a very good Wonder Woman. She doesn’t have a lot to work with, but what she does shines. I have high hopes for a WW film based on her work here.
• BEN AFFLECK SAVES THIS FILM. He’s phenomenal as Batman and Bruce Wayne, managing to play a Batman who has been pushed far beyond breaking that he’s now willing to do some pretty messed up stuff in the name of what he believes. He’s brilliant and every second he’s on screen, he steals the film. I now want to see an Affleck solo Batman film.
• The Batman action scenes. They’re brilliant.
• Jeremy Irons.
• Holly Hunter
• That’s pretty much it.

 

Without Affleck, this would be a colossal mess of a film with few redeeming qualities. As it is, he drags it kicking and screaming up to a film I didn’t mind watching.

 

Just one thing. Stop letting Zack direct Superman. It’s clear he doesn’t get Superman, it’s clear he just wants slow-mo and explosions. Give the next Superman film to someone who understands the character and let them go nuts.

 

Also, DC seems determined to do grim and gritty with these characters, and it just doesn’t work. They’re so far behind the Marvel films in terms of fun characters, action and story, it isn’t even a competition. Compare this to something like Winter Soldier, the Avengers, or Iron Man, and it’s not even in the same league. It’s a real shame because they had the chance to knock it out of the park, and they barely managed to hit the ball at all.

 

I hope the Blu-ray extended version fixes some of the problems with the story, but I doubt they’d fix it to the extent it needs fixing. Essentially, it’s a pretty poor film, but with one incredible performance, which is certainly not what I would have said about an Affleck superhero film. It’s not awful, but a bad story and bad direction mask the goodness inside. Glad I saw it, but it’s not even in the top ten superhero films of the last five years, let alone of all time.

We Got A Dog (and I guess some writing stuff)

This post is probably not going to be of an interest to everyone. There is some writing stuff, as book 6 went off to my publisher today, but this is more to do to do with photos of the puppy we just brought home.

Her name is Korra, she’s 8 weeks old, and she’s a German Shepherd. Bask in her cuteness.

 

Essentially her job is to make a mess, look cute, bite my feet and sleep.

 

I’m off to start a new book, which is very exciting, but I may have to leave my office on occasion to play with the new puppy. Just occasionally.