Batman v Superman - A Voice in the Void Review

A lot of people whose opinions I appreciate and respect on a number of topics have been, in a manner of speaking, up-in-arms over the Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice movie which was released Friday before last.  I'm here to tell you; their thoughts, discourse and opinions are lies or, perhaps it's better, instead to simply say: they fucking missed the point.

In my aging state I tend to prefer to avoid opening weekend release viewing of major films.  Gone are the days of sitting online for hours to rush into the theatre with the hope of getting a decent seat.  Now we can buy seats, specific seats, in advance and never concern ourselves with spending any more time waiting to view the film than we decide is desired.  As such I waited till today to see BvS.

I wasn't worried about spoilers; I've read the stories these characters are loosely based on (Dark Knight Returns, Death of Superman) and so I waded knee-deep into the minefield of Twitter seeing posts about how Rotten Tomatoes rated it terribly and numerous, numerous people stabbing at both the writer David S Goyer (Blade, The Dark Knight) and the director Zack Snyder (Dawn of the Dead, Sucker Punch).



Let's touch on some important things that people completely missed the boat on.  First, the decision to "retell" the Batman origin story.  Yes, they show Thomas and Martha Wayne be gunned down but that isn't the point of the memory; it was in fact a dream and it was a dream about how Bruce first encountered bats and how in this dream they saved/killed him and brought him into the light.  It's a metaphor for who he had become but it also showed that this version of Batman that Goyer and Snyder were portraying was truly broken.  And despite what people will tell you mainstream American (you know, those millions and millions of people who went to see the film that have never read a comic book and may have never even seen prior Batman or Superman movies) they needed to be able to connect Martha Wayne to Bruce in the story.

Second, on that note let's talk about Martha Wayne and Martha Kent (a story line crossover literally decades in the making).  Batman is broken, like...seriously and unimaginably fucked up in this version of the story.  Unlike previous incantations where Bruce used his parent's death as an excuse or even a driving force; this version seems to see that occurrence as a mere stepping stone along a path he was destined for.  Batman is the core of the Justice League; he is their human moral center.  He, unlike all other standard members of the League, is a flesh and blood natural human and he's been broken for a long time.  But guess what; at his core he is still a good person who wanted to do good for the people of Gotham and when Clark utters Martha's name Bruce has an awakening.  He realizes that Superman isn't some god who needs to be feared and destroyed, he's someones son.

You can call that cheesy.  You can call that a cop-out.  But as someone who's read Batman comics for more than half my life; through dozens and dozens of versions of his personality based on differing writers and their construct of him, I can tell you that his reaction was something I expected.

I can't tell you that this movie is perfect; it's not.  There are plot points that seem rushed or at the very least lacking; such as, Diana Prince being in Metropolis to get back a photo of her from when she was fighting in Belgium (along side Chris Pine...) is both naive and somewhat hokey...it's 2016 (even in this movie) and it's a digital image...even if she stole the original and wiped every hard drive she could find he could still have copies...so there's that.  There's the Superman killed people story.  It kinda doesn't make any sense...they were killed with bullets...untraceable bullets, but still...bullets.  Superman would have obliterated them with heat vision if he wanted them dead.  Plus; though this isn't covered in the movie, I am positive that he didn't kill the guy who was holding Lois hostage with a gun to her head so...yeah.

Let's talk about some things that people hated on that aren't plot holes.  First, Batman missing what Lex was really doing.  Bruce had his suspicions and knew Lex was up to something; but I remind you that Bruce is BROKEN mentally and he is absolutely focused on Superman and the need to take him out before he destroys every one and every thing.  Plus there was the Diana women distracting him and weird dreams involving the Flash (which he doesn't know is the Flash yet) and a basically drunk Alfred who wants him to spawn instead of fight.

Second, Superman not seeing the bomb in the during the hearing in DC.  I read a review where the person actually said "why didn't Superman hear the bomb"...I don't mind this person voicing a rather stupid thought, but I do mind them clearly never having watched Fight Club!  "Modern Bombs Don't Tick" is real and the bomb was most likely triggered by a remote device set off by Lex.  There seems to be a side-story in that as well where he allowed his close assistant to die; perhaps he knew that she wasn't able to prevent Bruce from stealing his file, perhaps she knew too much and had to be disposed of.

Batman v Superman is an action-packed film which does a solid job of establishing the DC Universe in characters beyond just Batman and Superman (introduction of Aquaman, Flash, Cyborg, Wonder Woman) and the link between Lex and Darkseid is so...comic-booky that I LOVED IT.  People have been hating on this version of Lex...why?  Because he's a weirdo creep rather than a maniacal psychopath bent on Superman's destruction?  How do you think he got that way?  This movie was Lex Luthor's origin story.  How's that for irony?

I really enjoyed this movie; every film has flaws and plot holes and something for everyone to dislike.  Critics didn't understand it (yes, I realize what I mean when I say that) but it's true.  I'll give you a parable; George Lucas craved the acceptance of Hollywood and critics so much that when he made the prequels he basically said "the true fans will love anything I make but I'm going to try and make this for the masses to enjoy!" and so he went out and did the complete opposite both stylistically and managerially than he had previously by bringing on huge named actors to star and wrote BORING crap stories hoping to appeal to a wider base rather than just focusing on making good movies.  This movie was made with a head nod to the comic book fans specifically.  The story lines are deep rooted in the core of these fanbases.  The Death of Superman and The Dark Knight Returns are some of the most famous stories ever and this film took pieces from both to connect the characters and bring them together.

Is there a better version of this movie?  Possibly.  But this movie didn't disappoint me and I think a lot more people enjoyed it than not.  The fact that on a midday showing the second Sunday after its release I was still in a full theatre is telling.  People love big action films - whether they're about some terrorist trying to take over an airport (Die Hard 2) or superheroes battling a demon monster and each other.

The most important thing I can tell you is this: don't let other people tell you a movie is good or bad; you have to decide that for yourself.  But what's important is that you go in with an open mind.  And also that you listen to me and what I say most of all...I kid..I kid.

The Most Anticipated Movies of 2015

Courtesy of StarWars.com

When I first started developing this article I wanted to take the angle that 2015 was one of, if not the most, anticipated movie year ever.  But when I thought about what that meant I realized that…well duh, of course it is – with social media and the 24 hour a day news cycle everything is hyped to the nth degree at a near constant rate.  So, instead I took a look at the list of expected and potential blockbuster movies coming out in 2015 and wanted to A) compare that against a period in history and B) dig into what Hollywood has become.  I’ll start with the latter.

This year should prove to be spectacular with the myriad of comic book, sci-fi, action and adventure movies coming out.  But when you take a step back and look at the laundry list of films on the docket for 2015 you see a very specific trend: retread.  This is most assuredly nothing new for Hollywood – but this year seems particularly pervasive.  For example we have new: Jurassic Park, Friday the 13^th, Mad Max, Terminator, Fantastic Four and Star Wars movies coming out.  Now, don’t immediately mistake my comment of retread as all bad…Star Wars alone makes my slip into a mild excitement induced comma all by itself; but with some of these series (FF & Terminator – as of recent) that were failed attempts the last time(s) out it’s frustrating to see Hollywood fall back on such titles to fill an already jam-packed year with movies that will most likely fail utterly in the face of their competition. 

Looking at Friday the 13^th and Mad Max; the elder-statesmen of the bunch and their respective reboots have the potential to be grand gestures to their genre…but this is unlikely and again – where’s the originality?  I never much cared for the SAW movies, but at least they were trying to be different for their time.  These two films are trying to get tickets sold on name recognition alone and that is a bad formula.

Courtesy of Universal Pictures

Then we have Jurassic World and Star Wars; undoubtedly the best two films of this group and I even hesitated to put them in this category but facts are facts.  Jurassic World will be the 4^th installment of the series and this time the park is FINALLY OPEN!  Clearly with all the kinks worked out (at least enough to get the park up and running this movie will probably be pretty boring, right?  Just two and a half hours of smiling people hanging out with dinosaurs!).  Nope; apparently they went and bread some new super smart dinosaur that can like do calculus and your taxes while you wait…plus eat people.  The cast is outstanding and I wait with bated breath. 

Star Wars: The Force Awakens is pretty much the holy grail of retreads.  People have long anticipated the continuation of this classic saga.  But that anticipation was mostly riddled with fear that George Lucas would once again take a giant shit on our childhoods and we’d be forced to suffer through more trade embargo debates while watching whiny children sob about their intergalactic troubles.  Not much is known about the story of the seventh installment with only most of the cast known and a mere teaser trailer to go off of; and I wouldn’t have it any other way.  This movie SHOULD be shrouded in mystery; it SHOULD be something that when you walk into the theatre your eyes and ears are working at peak efficiency to soak in every morsel of what it’s about to partake of.

As retreads go 2015 has some definite possibilities for quality flicks and I sincerely wish them all the best at the box office.

Courtesy of Columbia Pictures

If you’re wondering why Spectre – the next James Bond movie isn’t in the retreads list it’s because this series (aside from the occasional hiatus for recasting) has been ongoing and would not fall into that category.

The other avenue that is popular in Hollywood these days is: stories that are for kids turned into movies for adults.  The Avengers movie is something that huge swaths of people will see, millions and millions – of which only a fraction will have ever read an Avengers comic.  Years ago this would have angered me intensely; like when Episode 1 of Star Wars came out and people all went to see it, but I was still the geek kid outcast for being a fan and reading the SW EU books…because that makes sense.  But now it’s exciting and I am hopeful that even a small percentage of them will become interested in the comics and keep that industry thriving.  Marvel is also doing another classic “let’s take a not-so-popular/totally unknown character and make a movie” bit with Ant-Man.  I don’t mean to come across annoyed at the direction the company is going, especially considering how much better a job they are doing than DC in that department overall, but they may as well have made a Moon Knight movie.  The only hope for this movie is that they make significant Avengers overtures throughout with the plan to be for him to join that next installment. 

Then there are the teen novels that are rolling out into theatres: Insurgent, Hunger Games, Paper Towns.  I’m super happy that teens are able to experience the books they enjoy in another medium and in the case of Paper Towns, a book I personally am a fan of, very happy for the author as well.  This explosion of the last few years was no doubt ushered in by the success of Harry Potter and we will have to see what direction this goes in the future.

In the annals of history 2015 may stand alone with so many top-flight movies on the horizon; but let’s take a look and see.  For consistency’s sake I decided to limit my spectrum to ten-year increments starting with 1985.

As years for movies go ’85 was pretty damn good.  It had a solid mixture of teen related films (sound familiar?) with The Breakfast Club, Better off Dead, the Goonies and Mask.  There was a splash of Sci-Fi with Back to the Future and Re-Animator (and to a much lesser extent Cocoon).  1985 also saw the release of the second Mad Max movie as well as The Color Purple.  By far the best comedy movie released was Fletch which helped solidify Chevy Chase in the hearts and minds of America’s youth.  And it saw the second-to-last Akira Kurosawa movie, Ran. 

Skipping ahead to 1995 we start to get into epic territory; here’s a breakdown: The Usual Suspects, Casino, Leaving Las Vegas, Braveheart, Toy Story, Apollo 13, Seven, Heat, 12 Monkeys, Kids, Mallrats, Dead Presidents, Friday, and many others.  Now, it’s easy to look at this list and say: wow, clearly 1995 was the greatest movie year ever!  But you may be looking at this with the eye of hindsight.  For example: the Usual Suspects wasn’t some highly anticipated blockbuster – this is pre-Xmen Singer and 1995 was Kevin Spacey’s leap onto the Hollywood stage – before that he’d done little in the way of big movies.  Leaving Las Vegas was a surprise drama hit and shocking winner of Academy Awards.  Toy Story was one of the first of its kind in the full-length animation stories from not pre-existing characters and no one knew if a non-Disney movie would be received.  Seven, Heat and 12 Monkeys are all kind of out there movies; and though in retrospect their casts look amazing – at the time the main stars (other than Heat) weren’t that well known.  Kids, Mallrats, Dead Presidents are all on the independent, not for everyone side of movies but have become cult classics. 

So that leaves us with Casino, Braveheart and Apollo 13.  These are the blockbusters of the year – these are the movies everyone was waiting for.  Gibson. Spielberg, De Niro.  Hanks.  This is where the real rivalry with 2015 lives.  At this point I’d still take Avengers and Star Wars over these three…but we’ll have to see how it all plays out.

And finally, 2005 where a more artistic turn in moviemaking appears with films such as: Brokeback Mountain, Good Night, and Good Luck, Capote, Munich, Broken Flowers and Thumbsucker.  But there were also blockbuster movies this year: King Kong, Batman Begins, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Sin City, V for Vendetta and Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith.  Amongst the “blockbuster’s” it was pretty hit or miss.  Batman Begins was a shockingly great movie – I say shockingly because of where the Batman franchise had been left previously would not have led anyone to believe it could be revived so amazingly.  Harry Potter continued that fantastic series and was expectedly very good.  V for Vendetta blasted (pun intended) onto the scene and continued to push Hugo Weaving into stardom.  King Kong, Sin City and Star Wars III were all disappointments; each would have been better off never having been made.

It’s fair to say that each of these periods in history have claims to fame and quality movies that were released.  In the end, though, it boils down to the confluence of quality that 2015 is bringing to the table.  It would be hard to argue that 2015 does not have a healthy lead – at this point – in expected quality movies and whereas 1995 could give it a serious run for its money in total great movies, we will have to wait and see what surprise films come out and make a big splash. 

For now, sit back and enjoy the year ahead.

Movie Review: Interstellar

The world is dying. Humanity, in its splendor and ignorance, has finally driven the planet past the breaking point.

During the 1930s in America the people of the southwest experienced a Dust Bowl; a multi-year drought which created massive dust storms that killed the agricultural abilities of that region. 

When we meet the main characters of Interstellar: Cooper, Murph, Tom & Donald, it is a dark time for crop production.  Virtually all cash crops have been made extinct by the blight and now all that humanity has left is corn.  Cooper (Mathew McConaughey) is an engineer/pilot/genius turned farmer and he and his family have made the tough decision to stick it out and keep producing corn in an attempt to continue feeding the world.

The first part of the movie sets the tone for why humanity needs to act as desperately as they appear to do later in the film.  The director, Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight, Inception) does an excellent job of maintaining the human element throughout the movie.  Far too often the audience has the need for an emotional connection to the characters thrust at us at some point in the film and then the idea is abandoned and it is simply expected that it will continue to exist.  Like a sapling dropped in the ground, loosely covered in soil and given no water or nourishment; it will not grow.

Courtesy of Warner Bros.

Let’s talk about the story.  NASA has detected a wormhole in the space around Saturn.  Prior to this story’s beginning they sent twelve individual manned missions through the portal to land on and explore the planets that had been discovered.  If the world was found to be habitable and of good quality the explorers were to report back and NASA would begin the process of sending the rest of our race to follow after them.  Cooper and his daughter Murph come upon the installation NASA is running this operation from in secret. 

Despite the long runtime, 169 minutes, there is not much dilly-dallying.  From the point where Cooper finds NASA to when he is on a spaceship heading into the unknown is roughly eight minutes of screen time.  It was as if Nolan was saying to the director of Armageddon, “I could have done your movie…better…an in about a quarter of the time”.

Let’s talk physics.  Christopher and his brother Jonathan Nolan, whom have partnered on several script writing undertakings in the past: The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, Memento, and it is clear that these brothers know their physics.  Far too often in science fiction films that are supposed to be based in reality the impossible is set as merely a tiny hurdle to be jumped (I’m looking at you Gravity!).  But Interstellar uses actual science to discuss potential risks and dangers involved in the mission.  For example: when visiting the first planet after coming through the wormhole the team must decide how to approach the planet, which is incredibly close to a black hole, because the closer they pass by the anomaly the more slowly time will move for them.  Because the planet is so close to a black hole time operates differently; an hour on the planet is seven years of real time.  This is both totally fucked up and cool at the same time. 

Courtesy of Warner Bros.

Often times with science fiction movies that involve present day humans there is a tendency to use the “everything that could possibly go wrong will go wrong” mentality; a good example of this would be Mission to Mars.  Interstellar doesn’t do this.  Sure things go wrong and sure there are problems to add drama to the film but they are more believable because they are not so damned predictable. 

There are portions of the movie that you just have to take on faith.  Faith that Nolan will explain himself and his vision at some point.  Like how when a dust storm kicks up and Murph forgets to close her window so her room is covered with dust.  The dust coalesces into lines which spell out coordinates in binary…which Cooper realizes and identifies.  This isn’t TOTALLY insane since Cooper has already been portrayed to be exceedingly smart and inquisitive, but it’s a bit of a stretch for the audience.

At times movies can be either ruined or significantly enhanced by their score; movies like Gladiator and Star Wars are examples of the latter.   Interstellar has a score that completely draws you into the story.  The moments of tenderness are soft and inviting and the moments of pure adrenaline driving intensity are represented by roaring crescendos that will drop your jaw without you even realizing it.

Nolan has proven himself to be an outstanding creator and he did not let us down with Interstellar.  You don’t have to be a fan of sci-fi to enjoy this movie; because in truth it’s not a science fiction movie.  What occurs is rooted in fact or theory…with a little bit of imagination added to it. 

If you missed this in the theater I feel for you, but make sure you catch this as soon as possible!

As always, thanks for reading!

Movie Review: X-Men – Days of Future Past

Courtesy of x-menmovies.com

In this the fifth installment of X-Men movies, they finally got it right; from a storyline choice.  Whereas they tried, with complete ineffectiveness, to tell the Phoenix saga in movies past, here they took a well contained, almost minor story of Days of Future Past – all told, forty-eight pages of comic awesome.  With over forty years of ongoing tales, with countless issues and storylines to choose from it’s a joy to see something more settled come to light.

For those of you not familiar with the story as a whole, being as that the comic was originally published in 1989 (with subsequent reprints) it’s understandable if you’re not, the tale is set fifty years in the future.  The Sentinel program which was meant to quell the mutant aberration has turned into something much worse, hunting and killing not just mutants but those who would someday have mutant children.  Few mutants survived the onslaught (pardon the pun) and those that did were forever changed. 

The movie sets the viewer on a journey back in time to the 1970’s where we are introduced to a drunk, walking Professor Xavier.  Taking a serum which allows him to walk but suppresses his mutant powers, Xavier is lost; devastated by heartbreak.

Courtesy of x-menmovies.com

Wolverine/Logan is our main character, mentally sent back in time on a mission to unite those who couldn’t be move divergent – Xavier and Lehnsherr (Magneto), in an effort to interject and stop events from unfolding as they did which led to the future which Logan is sent back from.

Setting aside the time-space-paradox of being sent back in time (within the same timeline) to alter it – the idea in and of itself is cool and interesting since it involves mental time-travel, not actual physical time-travel like Cable/Bishop/Forge undertake at various times in the comics.  (if you don’t know those characters – GO LOOK THEM UP)

Days is captivating.  Certainly there are plot holes and things that any number of people could point to as incorrect or simply disliked portions of the movie.  I for one wasn’t wild about the ending.  But overall the movie is visually dynamic with amazing special affects and CGI Sentinels mixed with fantastic battle scenes involving a wide range of mutant powers.

Courtesy of x-menmovies.com

The cast of characters is outstanding: Bishop, Sunspot, Blink and Storm are but a few of the X-Men on display.  Blink is an interesting choice – certainly a fan favorite but most assuredly not part of the original group of characters in the comic…since the wasn’t invented till several years later during the Age of Apocalypse story, which on a side-note was probably the best thing Marvel has done in terms of Universe-spanning stories (with Infinity Gauntlet a close second).  Her inclusion sets up, potentially, her timeline to be the focal point of the next X-Men movie, which is already set to put Apocalypse front and center (FINALLY) as the villain.  Magneto, though surely a focal point in the comics for many years, was overdone to be sure.

There’s going to be a lot of really good movies out this summer: Godzilla (which you can read my review HERE), Guardians of the Galaxy and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes round out the blockbusters and Days of Future Past is more than worth the price of admission.  Whether you’ve been a fan of the comics for years, or came along with the movies or even if you’ve never read or seen anything related to the X-Men before – that’s ok, this movie welcomes you with open arms.  There are a few things you won’t understand at first, but the plot and overall story doesn’t require prior knowledge because a lot of it isn’t rooted in existing lore – it’s invented for the movie.

Go forth, partake and enjoy the fruits of Bryan Singer’s labor. 

BE SURE to stay through the credits…it’s worth it, trust me.