Batman vs Superman: DOJ thread? (contains spoilers)

As with Suspiciouscoffee, I didn’t want to ruin anything for people who haven’t seen BvS yet and are considering doing so. Those who’ve seen it and want to discuss their reactions can do so here. 😃

BvS is probably the first film in many years that I’ve gone to see on the day of the release. Whilst it was definitely watchable and enjoyable, the potential for a truly great film (especially considering the material and the director) was wasted.

The writing was really sloppy and unfocused in places. You’re never made to fully understand Luthor’s motivations and the ending was a big, messy letdown. The battle and tension between Batman and Superman was nowhere near the intensity that’s suggested by the misleading nature of the trailers - and there’s a couple of scenes that were used in the trailers but annoyingly have no payoff in the film, much like with the Mandarin in Iron Man 3.

Superman’s death came across as unnecessary and it lacked emotional impact, it felt like a cheap stunt and the closing moments already undo any attempted commentary on heroic self-sacrifice because of the strongly implied immediate resurrection.

On the plus side, everyone gave good performances, even Affleck - who whilst I’ve never jumped on the bandwagon of labelling as a terrible actor, at the same time has never particularly impressed me over the years. Most of the action sequences (excluding the finale) were brilliant and I liked Snyder’s visual style - especially the televisual sequences. With stronger direction, more work on the script and better pacing of the action sequences (I was fine with the film’s length), this could’ve been really stellar.

As I’ve stated in another thread, I’m looking forward to seeing what Snyder offers for the uncensored, extended home version, even though as S.C. has predicted, it might not remedy the atrocious ending.

How about the rest of you that have seen it?

Doomsday should not have appeared at all. Instead, Lex should’ve made his Warsuit to fight instead:

That would have been awesome. Instead, Snyder had to prematurely blow his load and get Death of Superman out of the way.

Sigh

Yeah, the usage of Doomsday - and the manner of the usage was inexcusably lazy writing. Felt like they ran out of ideas and thought, let’s go for a King Kong esque finale with a suitably big monster that tries to grab aerial vehicles.

They criminally squandered the entire premise of the film in that the two titular characters only clash for 10 minutes tops in a film that lasts 2 and a half hours. Unless some of it was cut for the PG-13 rating. Plus, was it necessary to yet again depict Bruce Wayne’s parents being murdered?

On the subject of pacing, the scene-to-scene transitions and editing, this review touches on why it makes sense (to me) that Snyder has a longer running time prepared for the home video releases:

http://dailyfreepress.com/2016/03/25/batman-superman-dawn-justic-movie-review/

"Further, there are so many noticeable pieces missing that the story’s pacing is wildly inconsistent. That can be partially attributed to the overstuffed nature of the story, dealing with an insane amount of characters, plot lines and obligatory setup for future films all at once. The film either needs to go all in with everything it wants to do, accepting a significantly longer runtime, or completely scrap all of the subplots and setups it ineptly attempts in its current state.

The incomprehensible middle ground it settles for makes “Batman v Superman” one of the most poorly edited movies in recent memory. Too often does the film cut to a new scene without any proper introduction, creating some baffling scenarios where the viewer will wonder whether or not they have just passed out, because surely they must have missed something."

Despite my quibbles with BvS, I think the RT’s critics rating of 30% is undeserved. I’ve seen far worse films receive much higher scores.

http://rottentomatoes.com/m/batman_v_superman_dawn_of_justice/

This might be the movie that finally gets me into fanediting myself.

Here are some things I’d do in the edit I’ll never get around to:

Remove Thomas Wayne swinging at Joe Chill

Remove bats making Bruce fly in dream

Cut some of Lex Jr.'s more ridiculous moments (Granny’s Peach Tea, general twitchyness)

Remove the Flash’s dream(?) message from the future

Trim down some blatant JL setup (cut away before videos are clicked on)

Remove weird slo-mo shot of Superman standing still rather than trying to find survivors in burning building

Remove some cameos of real people

Try to change the reason (if possible) for the titular fight to end (they stopped fighting because their moms have the same first names? Really?)

Remove Doomsday and unearned Death of Superman pseudo-adaptation entirely, Lex gets arrested for his crimes after Bats and Supes settle their differences.

suspiciouscoffee said:

Remove Doomsday and unearned Death of Superman pseudo-adaptation entirely, Lex gets arrested for his crimes after Bats and Supes settle their differences.

That’s exactly how the film should’ve ended and it would’ve been the perfect narrative structure to pursue. They should’ve focused on the titular fight - and with a more convincing motivation for the belligerence than a rehash of the damsel in distress plot line. The (pointless in this context) Death of Superman and having them join forces to confront a planet threatening adversary could’ve been saved up for future instalments.

Batman V Superman is being treated like complete fucking dogshit. No, the movie was not the best thing ever but it was overall good! People went into this movie with such high expectations and walked out disappointed for no reason. Yes, I was stoked for the film but I was shown in the trailers the best and the worst of what I was getting in the movie, I enjoyed the film because I knew going in that Jesse Eisenberg would be hard to watch and Ben Affleck would be brilliant. I have several gripes with the film overall but I think the poor ratings are undeserved.

Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace was a film that most people though would be just as (if not more) good as the OT. The movie turned out to be complete trash for more reasons than one could count and still it turned out with a score of 56% on Rottentomatoes and 65% on IMDB.

Batman V. Superman had all of its twists and turns ruined by trailers, leaks, and rumors. Anyone going into the movie should have known exactly what they were going to get but for some reason still acted like it was going to be the film of the century. The movie for the most part turned out to be good except for a few scenes, lines, sequences, etc. The movie got 30% on Rottentomatoes and 76% on IMDB. I don’t see how Batman V Superman deserves such poor ratings, as a movie it functions much more than The Phantom Menace yet people are treating it worse.

Really?! I went in with low expectations and the movie IMO turned out to be better than I thought. The editing for the first half was choppy and strange but other than that, the first two acts were very enjoyable.

I thought I would walk out giving it a 2/10, saying it was worse than Batman and Robin, because at least that was fun, but I was pleasantly surprised to give it a 5/10. Sure, the setup sucked and the plot was terrible, but the acting was quite good, and if nothing else, it was at least visually appealing.

The main issue with the movie was choppy and jarring editing, too many things were cut out and the transitions were awkward. I can’t wait for the extended edition so that I can butcher the shit out of it 😃

The problem with removing Death of Superman from BvS is that we don’t know how long he’ll be dead. Sure, the last shot implied that he’s alive but will he actually appear at the beginning of JL1, or the end of JL1, or not until JL2, or another time, we don’t know.

I just wish that the didn’t imply that he was alive, they will resurrect him in the next movie anyway and I’m sure there’ll be a scene where he rises from the grave anyway. I don’t know why they decided to tack that on there. Bruce Wayne’s lines at the end about finding “the others like you” felt forced and unneeded. Actually all of the Justice League scenes felt unneeded, they will re-explain that they are tracking down other heroes in the next film anyway so why throw all of that shit into Batman V Superman? Ah whatever, I’ll just fanedit it.

generalfrevious said:

I have not seen this movie, but I can safely say this is one of the worst films of the last twenty years. No one should see this movie, period. If you pay money you are supporting this atrocity and incentivizing Warner Bros to make more depressing Holocaust dramas disguised as superhero films. Zack Snyder is a terrible person and should be locked up in the Hague for crimes against humanity, let alone be allowed with fifty feet of a film camera. Why this fucking psychopath chose filmmaking in the first place is beyond me; he seems like a person who waterboards suspected terrorists for the CIA. This movie is so awful I’d rather have Joel Schumacher direct it.

What the hell are you talking about?

Anyone else just really hate the line “No one stays good in this world,”? It’s awful. I don’t know if it was the delivery or the line itself (probably both) but man I hate it.

generalfrevious said:

I have not seen this movie, but I can safely say this is one of the worst films of the last twenty years.

lawl