{"id":131788,"date":"2016-10-13T23:41:56","date_gmt":"2016-10-14T05:41:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/13\/movie-review-batman-v-superman-dawn-of-justice.html"},"modified":"2016-10-13T23:41:56","modified_gmt":"2016-10-14T05:41:56","slug":"movie-review-batman-v-superman-dawn-of-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/13\/movie-review-batman-v-superman-dawn-of-justice.html","title":{"rendered":"Movie Review: &quot;Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice&quot;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>And as Father\/Daughter Movie Week draws to a close, we end up with a movie that so many people told me was (a) cool to see, but (b) kind of a disaster, plot-wise. And so many people were right.<\/p>\n<p>Full review: <a href=\"http:\/\/letterboxd.com\/three_star_dave\/film\/batman-v-superman-dawn-of-justice\/\" class=\"ot-anchor\">http:\/\/letterboxd.com\/three_star_dave\/film\/batman-v-superman-dawn-of-justice\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>2.5 stars out of 5.<\/p>\n<p>And, now, my live-note-taking:<\/p>\n<p><del>&#8212;<\/del><\/p>\n<p>Bat-origin again! <\/p>\n<p>So it&#39;s a <i>Zorro<\/i> showing, but the marquis is all about <i>Excalibur<\/i> coming next week? What sort of theater does that? Though it does establish the date of the Waynes&#39; death as 1981.<\/p>\n<p>Very pretty. Even the spray of CGI pearls from Martha Wayne&#39;s neck.<\/p>\n<p>It&#39;s all a nice retelling until we get &#8230; Bat-levitation? <i>Really?<\/i> Or is that a dream? <\/p>\n<p>It&#39;s like 9\/11 all over again.<\/p>\n<p>Nobody is evacuating their buildings? Really?<\/p>\n<p>Okay, there&#39;s a good reason for Bruce to have a mad-on. Assuming that&#39;s what we need to be doing here.<\/p>\n<p>So dude is obviously <i>not<\/i> an archaeologist, given he just bashes that thing with a hammer.<\/p>\n<p>Camera guy really uses &#8230; a real film camera?<\/p>\n<p>Was that a throw-away Jimmy Olsen? [Apparently, yes.]<\/p>\n<p>Wow. Somber is turned up to 11 on this film. Even with Clark\/Lois bathtub nookie.<\/p>\n<p>Crazy, brutal Batman is crazy and brutal.<\/p>\n<p>So is the idea that &#8230; we&#39;re not rooting for anyone? Because super-heroes are too dangerous to root for?<\/p>\n<p>Young, crazy genius Lex plays stereotypical young, crazy genius.<\/p>\n<p>People fear Superman! People fear Batman! But nobody fears Lex! Yet!<\/p>\n<p>Oh, so Lex has parallels with Bruce? Orphan boys who inherited riches?<\/p>\n<p>Bruce has bad, bad dreams.<\/p>\n<p>Why is Bruce glowering at his bat-suit?<\/p>\n<p>Because of course Lex would have his server room across the hall from the kitchen. And isn&#39;t locked. Or guarded. But then sexy-dressed Luthor functionary (Mercy!) just leaves Bruce &#8230; in the server room?<\/p>\n<p>All that said, nice media montage debating about Superman. Because there would be.<\/p>\n<p>Wonder Woman is playing an interesting role. Also, wearing an interesting dress.<\/p>\n<p>Dream sequences need to be short. Otehrwise they seem too coherent.<br \/>Parademons?<br \/>And still this dream is going on.<br \/>Yes it&#39;s creeeeeeeepy. But &#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&quot;The <i>White Portuguese<\/i> is a ship.&quot;  I&#39;ll bet a Google search could have told you that.<\/p>\n<p>So the soooper-seeekrit cargo is &#8230; in a &quot;LexCorp&quot; crate?<\/p>\n<p>Who actually carries a shoulder-launched missile in the back of the truck to shoot at hypothetical super-vehicles following after rolling up the back door of the truck?<\/p>\n<p>Super-obsessive Batman is super-obsessive.<\/p>\n<p>Because tracers <i>always have a red blinky light on them<\/i> (on TV and in movies). <\/p>\n<p>Batman breaks into LexCorp and blows everything up?  Way to be unsubtle, Bruce.<\/p>\n<p>Superman&#39;s &quot;farmer&#39;s dream&quot; speech feels very artificial. Gloomy, guilt-ridden Superman is gloomy and guilt-ridden.<\/p>\n<p>And only now does Luthor actually finish his prep to get into the Kryptonian ship? And then learns everything in the cosmos. And then gets the ship to use technology for stuff that it&#39;s apparently not allowed  to do but apparently it still can.<\/p>\n<p>Getting tired of dream sequences. Especialy unannounced ones. <\/p>\n<p>Metahuman file footage of Wonder Woman is &#8230; okay, I&#39;ll admit, that was fun.<\/p>\n<p>So Lex designed the logos for the other Justice Leaguers?<\/p>\n<p>So why have amazingly powerful Bat-armor &#8230; that has your mouth, etc., exposed?<\/p>\n<p>Lex Luthor channels the Joker. Or maybe the Riddler.<\/p>\n<p>Steely-willed Lois doesn&#39;t bother to mention to Superman that Luthor is behind everything with a long-game conspiracy.  No, she just kisses him and lets him fly away to his doom.<br \/>But that goes right along with Superman then not telling Lois about the blackmail effort. Neener neener neener.<\/p>\n<p>(Gotham and Metropolis right across the river\/bay from each other?  Really?)<\/p>\n<p>Superman goes from &quot;You have to help me&quot; to kicking Batman&#39;s butt around the building awfully, awfully fast.<\/p>\n<p>The Bat Armor fight scenes look really &#8230; not good. Bad CG compositing or something.<\/p>\n<p>(I&#39;m not sure Kryptonite poisoning works that way.)<\/p>\n<p>So, Batman expected the battle with Superman to end up where it was, so that&#39;s where he left the Kryptonite spear?<\/p>\n<p>And &#8230; it all hinges on &#8230; both of them having Moms named Martha? And that&#39;s enough to cause Insanely Angry and Vengeful Bruce to back down? Really?  And to throw away the spear? And now they&#39;re buddies?<\/p>\n<p>And does Kryptonite glow only around Kryptonians?  Or, no, but it sure isn&#39;t glowing when Lois picks it up.<\/p>\n<p>Yes! We must use our stealth to free the captive Martha! Batman is always stealthy, a creature of the night!  Except for all the Batmobilejet and bursting through windows thing.<\/p>\n<p>Batman fights endless mooks. Again.  And does so in a nice R-rated violent way. Again. So why wouldn&#39;t this be a &quot;less is more&quot; kind of a moment?<\/p>\n<p>So &#8230; he does seem to be killing people.<\/p>\n<p>By the way, exploding fires stuff aren&#39;t directional. The flash of the blast in the air would kill Martha and Bruce both.<\/p>\n<p>Look, it&#39;s Doomsday the Cave Troll.<\/p>\n<p>(&quot;With a cleft chin. Like everyone else in this movie,&quot; quoth the daughter.)<\/p>\n<p>The CG of Doomsday is &#8230; not good.<\/p>\n<p>ICBMs don&#39;t work that way, either. The don&#39;t follow a target. They don&#39;t detonate on impact.<\/p>\n<p>EMP?<\/p>\n<p>Yes, of course, getting the horrifying monster to chase you back to a populated city is <i>just<\/i> what we want to do.<\/p>\n<p>How do eye beams &#8212; which presumably follow vision &#8212; ever miss? If you&#39;re looking at it, you should be hitting it.<\/p>\n<p>Hope there were no night watchmen in that refinery you just blew up.<\/p>\n<p>And &#8230; suddenly we have &#8230; banter?<\/p>\n<p>Yes, if you dive under the water, Lois, the falling debris can&#39;t hurt you.<\/p>\n<p>Lots of yelly yelly yelly fighting. Though the super-duper-mega-punching stuff was pretty cool. <\/p>\n<p>With all the ambient noise, I don&#39;t believe Supes heard Lois.<\/p>\n<p>While pushing the spear through Doomsday looks dramatic, doesn&#39;t that take the Kryptonite spearhead <i>out<\/i> of him?<\/p>\n<p>The Death of Superman.<\/p>\n<p>Why don&#39;t I hear any sirens in the distance? Why no helicopters or scrambled jets?<\/p>\n<p>Bald Lex. Nice.<\/p>\n<p>One presumes no embalming was done.<\/p>\n<p>And. Of course. A ring. <\/p>\n<p>One of these coffins is, I presume, empty. <\/p>\n<p>Bagpipes. Always bagpipes.<\/p>\n<p>Bruce sure seems a lot more mellow now. So does all of humanity mourning Superman.<\/p>\n<p>Batman&#39;s entrance into the prison seems kind of &#8230; weirdly dreamlike, with the officials opening the door disappearing. Was it a dream? We assume not, since there was a bat-shaped scar on the wall when all was said and done.<\/p>\n<p>And we end with a coffin.  How fitting.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div style='text-align:center'><a href='https:\/\/plus.google.com\/photos\/101083456815352083930\/albums\/6341191572051418225\/6341191574002456354'><img src='https:\/\/lh3.googleusercontent.com\/-JDoIpnOg9NA\/WABwI7Ud1yI\/AAAAAAAEJDs\/8b_B6xOZX0IqPqaff2aGMSdkEDjLcYL6QCJoC\/3WIlf0Jndgz7YPmGrPCpHzMpfaW%255B1%255D.jpg?imgmax=660' style='max-width:650px;' \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div style='text-align:center'>\n<a href='' style='width:50px;height:50px;display:inline-block;background-size:cover;background-image:url();'><\/a>\u00a0\n<\/div>\n<p><span style='font-size:small;'><a href='https:\/\/plus.google.com\/+DaveHill47\/posts\/jG4CfeAi3Sc'>View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>And as Father\/Daughter Movie Week draws to a close, we end up with a movie that so many people told me was (a) cool to see, but (b) kind of a disaster, plot-wise. And so many people were right. Full review: http:\/\/letterboxd.com\/three_star_dave\/film\/batman-v-superman-dawn-of-justice\/ 2.5 stars out of 5. And, now, my live-note-taking: &#8212; Bat-origin again! So &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/10\/13\/movie-review-batman-v-superman-dawn-of-justice.html\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Movie Review: &quot;Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice&quot;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":131789,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-131788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/3WIlf0Jndgz7YPmGrPCpHzMpfaW5B15D.jpgimgmax=660.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":160129,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2023\/08\/15\/dceu-rewatch-batman-vs-superman-dawn-of-justice-2016.html","url_meta":{"origin":131788,"position":0},"title":"DCEU Rewatch: &#8220;Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice&#8221; (2016)","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 15-Aug-23 12:04am","format":false,"excerpt":"There are so, so many things wrong with this film. So many things.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Comics &amp; Comic Books&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Comics &amp; Comic Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"Batman vs Superman","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Batman-v-Superman-poster-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Batman-v-Superman-poster-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Batman-v-Superman-poster-1.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":130320,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/03\/27\/because-there-is-in-fact-no-accounting-for-taste.html","url_meta":{"origin":131788,"position":1},"title":"Because there is, in fact, no accounting for taste","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 27-Mar-16 10:20pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Batman v. Superman is, this weekend at least, a huge commercial success, despite a huge swathe of negative reviews.Of course, Transformers continues to be a franchise, so the taste of the movie-going public for Big Blow Up Stuff That Blows Up Stuff Real Good cannot be underestimated.It will be interesting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":131243,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/08\/11\/the-problem-with-shared-universe-comic-book-movies.html","url_meta":{"origin":131788,"position":2},"title":"The problem with shared-universe comic book movies","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 11-Aug-16 5:39pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The problem is not necessarily internal. Sure, some of the intrusion of Justice League characters into Suicide Squad was clunky in a places (the Captain Boomerang intro, the denouement \/ mid-credits scene), but worked well in others (Batman v Joker\/Harley, Batman v Deadshot), and the Superman-based premise was meaningless (and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":129676,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/02\/08\/now-this-batman-v-superman-movie-trailer-excites-me.html","url_meta":{"origin":131788,"position":3},"title":"Now THIS &quot;Batman v Superman&quot; movie trailer excites me!","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 8-Feb-16 2:04pm","format":false,"excerpt":"And the casting is pretty remarkable, though there's kind of a big spoiler at the end.(via J. MIchael Straczynski) View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45950,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/10\/15\/dc-fleshes-out-its-movie-schedule.html","url_meta":{"origin":131788,"position":4},"title":"DC fleshes out its movie schedule","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 15-Oct-14 11:27am","format":false,"excerpt":"DC and WB are filling in the gaps and blanks in the movie schedule they previously announced. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice - March 25th, 2016 Suicide Squad \u2013 August 5th, 2016 Wonder Woman - June 23rd, 2017 Justice League - November 17th, 2017 The Flash - March 23rd,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Justice-League-New-52.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Justice-League-New-52.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/10\/Justice-League-New-52.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":130190,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/03\/14\/id-be-a-lot-more-interested-in-this-batman-v-superman-flick.html","url_meta":{"origin":131788,"position":5},"title":"I&#39;d be a lot more interested in this &quot;Batman v Superman&quot; flick","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 14-Mar-16 8:03am","format":false,"excerpt":"Glowering. With love. \"Batman v Superman\": The\u2026 Rom-Com? We\u2019re not the first people consider a Clark Kent-Bruce Wayne romance, but since we also have a crack video team, we decided to tweak the \u201cBatman v Superman\u201d trailer to see what a rom-com between the two would look like. Behold: \u201cBatman\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;~PlusPosts&quot;","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131788\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}