I went in thinking I would hate it. I actually liked it. Ben Affleck is a damn good batman.
WI (Would Impregnate) Gal Gadot/wonder woman.
WI (Would Impregnate) Gal Gadot/wonder woman.
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Supernan
Quote: (03-28-2016 06:49 AM)Paracelsus Wrote:Cloaking the film in shadow and darkness seems to be the standard protocol in movies and television these days. It's tiresome, literally and figuratively. I shouldn't have to strain to see the image when I just spent $20 on a fucking movie ticket. And the dark and brooding mood ain't your artistic expression, it's just the same shit everyone has been doing for years. Whether it's too dark, or the colors are washed out, it presents a bleak reality. It's funny that the focus on home televisions are improved color and brightness, and Hollywood responds by making shit darker and more faded than ever. If they wash out the color any more, they may as well go back to shooting in black and white.
I liked Man of Steel. I didn't like this one as much. Major spoilers follow.
I think I've seen enough of Zack Snyder's back catalogue to have determined that he simply does not know how to make a motion picture in the sense of a flowing, cohesive narrative.
He gets the ephemera. He uses slow-motion to indicate intensity in action sequences. He cloaks the film in shadow and darkness around Batman, and even setting scenes in daylight it's a bleached palette or orange-and-black ugly contrasts. He gets in for close shots nicely and he composes shots with acceptable imbalances to left and right of frame, and obeys the rule of thirds.
Quote: (03-28-2016 06:49 AM)Paracelsus Wrote:I thought the same thing. This was quite reminiscent of The Dark Knight Returns.
Thanks to a long history of adapting comic books, he creates scenes just for the sake of getting a shot that looks identical to a panel from The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller. (I hope Miller got some fucking royalties out of the script, because while the film isn't a direct adaptation, there's a lot ripped off from it.) Most of the movie feels like the scenes are just setups to get certain images like photographs. This is a really stupid approach because comic books are not storyboards. They are two different art forms entirely; adapting a comic is no easier than adapting a novel. Snyder's done at least two of these adaptations already and he still doesn't get it.
Quote: (03-28-2016 06:49 AM)Paracelsus Wrote:It's obviously a setup for a DC universe picture. While the idea seems neat in a way will they really be able to pull it off? Lex Luthor figuring out how to run the ship isn't a big deal to me. He is after all, the greatest criminal mind of our time. I haven't read enough comics, but the only thing that struck me is that he seemed about as unhinged as The Joker. It was like they wanted to use The Joker, but they knew they had to stick with Superman's nemesis because Lex Luthor hasn't been on the big screen since the days of Gene Hackman (let's not mention Kevin Spacey and that travesty Superman Returns.) And Heath Ledger's performance as The Joker is going to be a tough act to follow.
The script tries to serve too many purposes -- there are a couple of scenes that are blatant set-ups for a DC universe, and it shoehorns Wonder Woman in there somewhat awkwardly as well. In the hands of a superior director it could've done a lot better. But if this script reflects in any measurable way the work of Chris Terrio, it is a far, far cry from his work on Argo. Even for a comic book movie some of the holes in logic are mindblowing: Lex Luthor with only a dead guy's fingerprints manages to not only master the Kryptonian language but then be taught a good chunk of Kryptonian technology in the space of what seems a couple of months at best. (And no, it doesn't matter that Luthor mastered Kryptonian technology in the Donner films. For a start, this is meant to be a more 'realistic' take on Superman than the Donner films. Secondly, Luthor is never in the Donner films able to become as creative and proficient with the technology as he does in this one.)
Quote: (03-28-2016 06:49 AM)Paracelsus Wrote:I will agree that the incessant whining about the civilian body count got old. OTOH, destruction porn is getting old. Ever since Transformers, all of these action/adventure movies devolve right into destruction porn. These fight sequences would result in the deaths of thousands and cost billions in damage. As I look at it, I start to wonder if they give a fuck about the story, or is it simply a way to show off their CGI prowess?
Also teeth-gritting were the six or seven overt references to the risk of civilian casualties in the superhero fights of the film. These were direct references to fanboys' idiot complaints about Man of Steel to the effect of 'LOL SIX MILLION PEOPLE MUST HAVE DIED IN METROPOLIS, SUPERMAN DIDN'T SAVE ANY OF THEM, HE DIDN'T TAKE THE FIGHT AWAY FROM THE CITY, MOVIE SUX LOLOLOL'. Maybe the last forty minutes of MoS was destruction porn, but it was a hell of a lot more realistic about the likely consequences of invulnerable men beating the snot out of each other among large buildings. I can see the reasons they made those moves in this film, but it felt like pandering to neckbeards for the most part.
Quote: (03-28-2016 06:49 AM)Paracelsus Wrote:Wonder Woman has always served to titillate the audience. The only reason the comic book world hasn't let her die off is because IIRC, the rights to her revert back to the estate of the creator if a wonder woman story goes out of production for more than 6 months. She's meant to be eye candy. In reality, she'd be a sexual plaything for Superman. Hollywood will try to make her into a serious superhero, and this will fail.
As for Gal Gadot: she doesn't have the tits for the role. You, me, and everyone in the audience knows it. It's why they put her in dresses that plunge the back and focus on her face: because there's nothing terribly feminine about her body. She strikes me as a lot more wooden than Cavill is accused of being, and I hope she takes some extra lessons in emoting before they throw her onto the screen in her own film.
Quote: (03-28-2016 06:49 AM)Paracelsus Wrote:It won't kill the franchise. What will kill it is overexposure. Did you see the trailers?
I hope this film doesn't kill the franchise. There are still some interesting directions available -- the Day of the Krypton Man storyline for one -- but I also hope they decide next time to faithfully (or at least thoughtfully) adapt a single DC universe story rather than carelessly put together three or four of them.
Quote: (03-28-2016 06:49 AM)Paracelsus Wrote:
The trouble is that's about all he gets. He seems to have the attention span and sensibility of a director of music videos.
Thanks to a long history of adapting comic books, he creates scenes just for the sake of getting a shot that looks identical to a panel from The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller. (I hope Miller got some fucking royalties out of the script, because while the film isn't a direct adaptation, there's a lot ripped off from it.) Most of the movie feels like the scenes are just setups to get certain images like photographs. This is a really stupid approach because comic books are not storyboards. They are two different art forms entirely; adapting a comic is no easier than adapting a novel. Snyder's done at least two of these adaptations already and he still doesn't get it.
Quote: (03-28-2016 06:25 PM)kbell Wrote:
When did Lois learn that Superman was Clark Kent?
Quote: (03-28-2016 06:25 PM)kbell Wrote:
Also the bats lifting him out of the hole was stupid too. Its was not well displayed the difference between a dream or real life either.
Quote: (03-28-2016 08:53 PM)PapayaTapper Wrote:
I'm a big film buff and was at a major film festival a couple years ago and had the opportunity to discuss editing with William Goldenberg. He's an Oscar winning editor ( and has nominated 38 times so he knows his shit) and one of things we talked about directors fucking up a movie by doing their own editing. The example he gave me was ZERO DARK THIRTY He said the director (Kathryn Bigelow) actually had compiled over 12 hours of actual footage and because they's worked together on HURT LOCKER and it was in his contract that he had final cut she had relatively little input over the final product. She let a professional editor do what he does best...edit