Cavill is fine as Superman. It's all the writing and plot to blame. He's playing a sad, sad Superman with a barely-there character written into the script. He does his best, frankly.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
- Thread starter BTG
- Start date
Isn't Clark Kent in general, cross decades, always been a bit of a... barely-there character? The main reason a lot of the superhero movies do well is because a lot of the characters can be written with light and shade. Outside of being an alien, Clark is a corn-fed, all-American boy with little to no angst and essentially invincible. That's the depth of his character. There's not a lot to mine out of him. Most Superman movies spend time either incapacitating him so he can be realistically beaten, or pulling equally powerful enemies out of nowhere so he's challenged. Smallville in particular had to play the particularly exhausting game of Where's The Kryptonite? for ten seasons just so the episode wasn't over in five minutes.
It's just not really a character that works all that well in a darker, grittier, more realistic context.
His strength as a character is basically generosity and a kind of "American socialist" spirit that was explored well in All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison. Compared to most male characters, he is almost "maternal" and doesn't project that kind of anti-social, gritty masculinity that most superheroes trade in. Probably not compelling for a pew-pew superhero movie though.
Justice League (a sequel of sorts) starts filming this week in Leavesden.
Oh no!
In all-Star Superman, he's more of a benevolent, Mythological God. Yes, amazing for a 8 issue comic but not not cop for a modern blockbuster.
Justice League starts filming in 3 weeks. Well we will see...
I did love BvS even it was typical Zack Snyder blowing his CGI load all over the place. The Boy can't help himself.
I did love BvS even it was typical Zack Snyder blowing his CGI load all over the place. The Boy can't help himself.
One of the best Superman stories. Let me go watch the animated version.
You paid/sat through it twice!?
he/him
Unfortunately, yes.
It's insane that this is now poised to miss making $1 Billion at the worldwide box office, considering that was the absolute minimum for expectations before and even during the opening week.
Tribal Spaceman
Oh, OK.
It's a movie with Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman teaming up to fight a big monster. Of course it's meant to be fun. And yes comic books are generally "candy colored", it's a major part of their appeal. I don't really get the "kiddie flick" comment about Marvel movies either, considering the amount of death and destruction that happens in them. Is it because of the one-liners? People tend to talk like that in real life, making wisecracks in the face of adversity is part of human nature.
One-note gritty comic book adventures are so last decade. DC, Marvel and the independents have gone to great lengths to inject some colour, humour and adventure into their titles in recent years, and for that reason Batman v Superman doesn't work for me.
It isn't a terrible movie by any means, it's just not the sort of introduction to the Justice League that most people actually want, as the criticism shows.
Hoping for a greater mix of light and shade in Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman and the rest of this saga.
I find the aesthetic criticisms the least convincing of the lot. Yes, there's bit of an overload on Snyder's hyper-stylized slow motion shots, but in general, until the Doomsday fight, it's a good looking film. And Marvel is already doing the 'candy colored' thing.
The biggest problem this film has is how it sacrifices its story and ideas for 35 or 40 minutes at the end in order to stage the two big fight scenes. It sort of acknowledges them again at the very end with the double funeral scene, but it's hard to engage with the death of a character whose name is in the marquee.
The biggest problem this film has is how it sacrifices its story and ideas for 35 or 40 minutes at the end in order to stage the two big fight scenes. It sort of acknowledges them again at the very end with the double funeral scene, but it's hard to engage with the death of a character whose name is in the marquee.
But Marvel isn't candy-coloured - the DCEU is just desaturated to fuck then smeared with a brown filter. Let's not get to thinking MCU has it's heroes in costumes like Kick-Ass or something - it's all still diluted colours-meets-armour-meets-street-clothes, y'know? DC try to go slightly more "costumey", but at expense of vibrancy of any kind.
Tribal Spaceman
Oh, OK.
Exactly. The Marvel costumes are very toned down and more grounded in reality than the DC ones, and the movies are far from "candy coloured". I don't understand why a comic book movie would be criticised for being colourful anyway...
I went to see this for the third time. And it's still my favourite superhero movie ever. Really appreciative that Snyder gave us those gratuitous shots of Bruce and Clark topless - they looked like they stepped out of comic books, insane. I raised a gospel hand each time it happened.
And also really appreciative of a movie that deals with Batman's PTSD and mental health issues so baldly, and acknowledges that he has those and treats them with some level of seriousness (it's fairly obvious that the word 'Martha' was something of a trigger word for him, and while I get that some people find his 'turn-around' to be flimsy, I think given the portrayal of him as a battle-weary, traumatized, highly paranoid alcoholic and whatever else who literally has night terrors, it works better and better on each watch).
Also, I actually really enjoy that the film showed a Clark Kent who's as committed to justice and fighting for it as a journalist as much as he does as Superman. In some ways, he could be way more effective as a journalist if Perry would give him a chance, and it was just a nice touch to see that part of his identity played up. Other versions of Superman haven't done so, which is a shame.
And also really appreciative of a movie that deals with Batman's PTSD and mental health issues so baldly, and acknowledges that he has those and treats them with some level of seriousness (it's fairly obvious that the word 'Martha' was something of a trigger word for him, and while I get that some people find his 'turn-around' to be flimsy, I think given the portrayal of him as a battle-weary, traumatized, highly paranoid alcoholic and whatever else who literally has night terrors, it works better and better on each watch).
Also, I actually really enjoy that the film showed a Clark Kent who's as committed to justice and fighting for it as a journalist as much as he does as Superman. In some ways, he could be way more effective as a journalist if Perry would give him a chance, and it was just a nice touch to see that part of his identity played up. Other versions of Superman haven't done so, which is a shame.
It's not a criticism, more like if you want that, you can always go to the Marvel movies. I appreciate that they went for something more epic and broody here. At least they attempted to tackle some weightier themes.
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Pretty much all of these superhero films tackle the same themes. American exceptionalism. Good triumphing over evil. The power of the state v the power of the individual v the power of corporations. Rinse and repeat.
It's why I loathe most of them (probably not the most ideal thread in which to voice this opinion) because I find it all very repetitive. From my experience as an impartial and casual viewer, there is nothing more weighty or worthy to either DC or Marvel films.
Sure, some of them handles these issues with a bit more nuance (Chris Nolan's Batman trilogy says hi) but they're all pretty evident whichever way you turn.
Then these "people" are delusional.
DC just announced two mystery movies for October 2018 and November 2019. I'm guessing solo Batman and Suicide Squad sequel/spin-off with Harley Quinn.
Could also be Green Lantern Corps though.