REVIEW: Wonder Woman Can't Save Dull "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice"

[dragonmp93]

I'm very glad you liked it - genuinely I am - but I've never understood this arguement. The amount of money it makes in its first weekend tells you that people saw it, not that they liked it. Return business a few weeks in would be a far better (though still flawed) reflection of just how much people liked it.

I honestly can't see people going back to see this over and over again.

Besides, this movie had IMAX, 3D and 4D version, and the tickets for those are much more expensive than the ones for the 2D version.

[brettc1]

Besides, this movie had IMAX, 3D and 4D version, and the tickets for those are much more expensive than the ones for the 2D version.

This too is a factor. The more 3d and deluxe tickets you sell the more money you can make. Sadly we can only know the gross made, not the number of tickets sold. Unless maybe I rang the local cinemas.

Of course if Batman Superman makes this much money Capt America CW is likely to smash it again

[lancerman]

I'm very glad you liked it - genuinely I am - but I've never understood this arguement. The amount of money it makes in its first weekend tells you that people saw it, not that they liked it. Return business a few weeks in would be a far better (though still flawed) reflection of just how much people liked it.

I honestly can't see people going back to see this over and over again.

It's already tracking above average on repeat viewings

[lancerman]

This too is a factor. The more 3d and deluxe tickets you sell the more money you can make. Sadly we can only know the gross made, not the number of tickets sold. Unless maybe I rang the local cinemas.

Of course if Batman Superman makes this much money Capt America CW is likely to smash it again

Every big budget film of the 2010's has had the same advantages.

[Perry]

He redeemed himself at the end not killing or branding Lex.

Which doesn't make a single bit of a sense from a storytelling perspective.

When a character changes in a story, there has to be a reason for the change. What was the reason for his change? Superman's death? Superman was just as violent as he was, so the change doesn't work.

Had Superman actually been heroic and avoided killing people, then this change would have worked. But that's not how it happened. So it seems like Batman just cops out on killing for no good reason.

It's the same problem with the Daredevil movie. Daredevil goes through the whole movie having no problem with killing. Then Elektra is killed, he drops Bullseye off a building, he goes to face the Kingpin but decides to leave him for the cops instead of killing him. There's nothing in the story that builds up to that character change.

Well the flaw is that you probably shouldn't compare a comic that is specifically about the last days of a very mature Superman vs a movie about Superman being young an inexperienced and being overwhelmed by a superior fighter for the first time.

Fine. Then compare MoS/BvS to Birthright. Or Secret Orign. Or even Byrne's Man of Steel.

Even Supergirl had an early episode focusing on her being careless and Cat Grant calling her out on it.

And what happened as a result of that? Supergirl changed. There's been no change in Superman. Most of the criticism from people in the movie is focused on the frame job in Africa and Superman spends most of the film not questioning how he acts, but instead does the whole emo "why don't they like me?" schtick. As another poster said, no one in this movie behaves like an adult.

What Daredevil season 2 did that I expected this movie to do was show the clash of ideologies between Batman and Superman (granted DD copped out at the end and tried to kill Nobu).

There's not a whole lot of daylight between the methods used by Daredevil and those used by the Punisher. But even with that little bit of difference, DDS2 was able to craft a really compelling story that very clearly illustrated a difference between these two characters. With Superman and Batman, there should be an entire gulf of daylight between their methods. But both are portrayed as such cynical, violent heroes that there's no difference. Without that difference, there's no reason for there to be a conflict. It only makes them both look like massive hypocrites.

[Immortal Weapon]

Gadot proved herself worthy as Diana Prince/WW.

No she hasn't. She wasn't given anything substantial to work with. Just a couple of lines with Affleck and the battle with Doomsday was mostly CG. There wasn't enough for her to leave an impression. I'll wait for her solo movie for that.

Bingo. Batman isn't going out his way to kill anyone, case in point the sex trafficker he branded him not killed him. If thugs were firing grenades at him he'll chuck it back and if they die Batman sees it as not his problem there is a difference. He redeemed himself at the end not killing or branding Lex. So it's moot now of he he's Joker or etc again.

Not going out of his way? In the car chase scene he grabbed a car that had people in it, dragged about 8 blocks while driving through buildings to throw at the Uhaul that also had people in it. That's straight overkill. You ain't gonna convince me that killing is a recent development for this Batman.

[dragonmp93]

It's already tracking above average on repeat viewings

How do you know that ?.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

How do you know that ?.

WB put out a statement.

[TheRed]

In this movie Batman is fed up and deals out punishment accordingly. He's in the twilight of his career where he feels like he's tired of playing kid games with criminals. We have no idea until they come out with the Batman movie what he's endured to get to this point. Sorry they didn't spoon feed his past to some people but they'll just have to wait and find out like everyone else. I think someone earlier said it best people are mad because they didn't get the versions they wanted .

[Star_Jammer]

One of the very few good thing about BvS was WWs theme.

She (and her theme) injected an energy into the movie it was sorely lacking.

I'm actually looking toward to her movie a lot more now than before.

Anecdotal, but since nobody's shying away from that...

The only reaction my theater's audience seemed to collectively experience was when WW showed up with her theme song. Some gasps, some cheers, some clapping.

It really was a bright spot in the movie.

[lancerman]

Anecdotal, but since nobody's shying away from that...

The only reaction my theater's audience seemed to collectively experience was when WW showed up with her theme song. Some gasps, some cheers, some clapping.

It really was a bright spot in the movie.

Yeah it was pretty good. Especially since by that point you were sort of overloaded with Batman and Superman deconstruction and in your face imagery. It was nice to finally get something fresh.

[TheInvisibleMan]

this movie reminded me a lot of Spectre, it was trying to do too many things and did none of them well

[Shawn Hopkins]

For a largely humourless movie, that part was genuinely hilarious.

And even then, it wasn't meant to be. It was meant to be a dramatic turning point.

[RikWriter]

I saw it tonight with my son.

Easily the best thing about the movie and easily the best Bruce Wayne and Batman ever on the big screen was Ben Affleck. He was excellent. He looked the part, was the first actor to ACTUALLY be big and buff enough to be Batman and I loved his Batman costume. For those who think he killed inconsistently, I offer this: when he can subdue a criminal without killing him, he does; when there are too many bad guys armed with guns shooting at him and the choice is shooting back or running away, he shoots back. I had no problem with this, as it is in line with other movie portrayals of Batman, and it seemed to me to fit into his bitter, cynical older Batman.
Gal Godot was good as Wonder Woman and I enjoyed her parts of the movie, but I think her inclusion is a symptom of one of the movie's two big problems.
Henry Cavill had a good performance, but I disliked his brooding, indecisive Superman. He was better and ironically, more decisive as Clark Kent.
That brings up the worst part of the movie: Jesse fucking Eisenberg. His Luthor was just horrible, both because of his nonsensically manic performance and because Lex Luthor's "plan" makes no sense. Lex Luthor in comics and movies has always been out for himself and his own aggrandizement and enrichment, first and foremost. He's a narcissist. This Luthor was some sort of quasi-atheistic crusading ideologue who was willing to go to jail and sacrifice his power to kill Superman. He had no goal beyond killing Superman. This was the second big problem with the movie and it's linked to the first.

They should NOT have tried to squeeze The Justice League into this movie. Luthor should have conned Batman and Superman into fighting each other to get them out of the way while he made a push for his real aim, which would have been something conniving to give himself more political power and financial game. No Wonder Woman, no Doomsday. No Justice League. THAT movie would have been so much better.
Oh well.

[Wulf1984]

In this movie Batman is fed up and deals out punishment accordingly. He's in the twilight of his career where he feels like he's tired of playing kid games with criminals. We have no idea until they come out with the Batman movie what he's endured to get to this point.

Maybe he put the Joker away before he reached that snapping point.