Thursday, March 31, 2016

Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)



Marvel has Captain America: Civil War where Captain America vs. Ironman vs. Spiderman. While DC has Batman vs. Superman plus Wonder Woman.
I have watched all Marvel Movies (including the Guardians of the Galaxy, Deadpool, Antman, X-men, Ironman, the Avengers, except the TV franchises, Wolverine series, and the new Spiderman franchises) and all DC Batman Movies (except the TV franchises). I haven't watched any Superman movies before this movie, but I'm interested in watching them now.
This movie has the same old same old theme as Christopher Nolan's Batman series, i.e. whether Batman is protecting the city or destroying it during the course of his battles with the enemies.
The first scene of Batman V Superman is the death of Bruce Wayne's parents. And here again we go through the same old story behind the bat cave, which was vividly depicted in Batman Begins (2005).

And then there is Superman's fight with the alien. A giant spaceship in the sky. It reminds me of Doctor Who Christmas Special: The Christmas Invasion (2005), where a giant alien star is in the sky.

To be honest, I think Christopher Nolan's Batman is very remarkable. I like the combo of Christian Bale as Batman and Michael Caine as Alfred. Even though Ben Affleck's resume has a good job in portraying a suspiciously evil character in Gone Girl (my review on Gone Girl is here), he does not have the physique as Batman. He looks fat and clumsy in that Batman suit. I remember Jeremy Irons' performance in Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995). But I like Michael Caine's Alfred better, because he looks much older and wiser. Henry Cavill is very good-looking. But his character as Superman is dumb. He could have passed the spear to Batman or Wonder Woman. People said that Jesse Eisenberg tried too hard. But I think he did a good job in using his awkwardness to portray a psychotic sociopath. It's ashamed that the screenplay did not give him a background story in depth as we did not understand his motivation. That's why his character looks ridiculous. I don't know why when I see the performance of Holly Hunter, I think of Glenn Close. Wonder Woman, almost universally agreed, is the best part of the movie. The music rocks and the character rocks.

Interestingly, DC's Superman is Marvel's Spiderman as they are both journalists. DC's Batman is Marvel's Ironman as they are both rich playboys. So Alfred is Jarvis?

In my opinion, if they use retro pop music like how they used in the Guardians of the Galaxy and Deadpool, then the movie would be way cooler.

Ratings:

Premise: Average
Plot: Average
Characters: Good
Dialogue: Average

Recommendation: Recommended

I recommend watching this movie because it is the introduction to the following franchises of DC comics movies. Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman, Justice League Part I, The Flash, Aquaman, Shazam!, Justice League Part II, Cyborg, Green Lantern Corps, Batman x3 are coming.