Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
Alfred: You're gonna go
to war?
Bruce Wayne: That son of a
bitch brought the war to us.
Let me go back to 2o15 for a minute. My favorite movies of last year are: Ex Machina, Room, Brooklyn, Carol and Trumbo. They are my favorites because all five movies are more character studies than anything. Yes, they’re different genres, but they all delve into studying and (perhaps) understanding the way individual human beings interact with each other. And much to the chagrin of many Batman and Superman fans, Batman v. Superman tries to explore what it might really be like IF there really were super heroes living among us. How would we respond to them and how would they respond to each other, and how would they respond to the actions of their individual selves?
What the production team of Batman v. Superman has done is to explore the lives of these comic book heroes as if they were real people living in America. The Superman character gives the director a chance to talk about one of the hottest, button pushing topics that’s as old as America itself, immigration. Oh, yeah. America has always hated and loved immigrants. Hate and suspicion of foreigners, you know, “THOSE people NOT like us,” has never been more heightened than in this 21st century America we all love! And Superman IS the ultimate “illegal alien.” Where the comic books and movies about the Man of Steel always show the relationship between “law abiding” humans and Superman as an everlasting love fest, this movie looks at Superman with a suspicious eye. I mean, come on! This super powerful dude shows up one day and starts protecting us? Why? I mean, he’s an alien! Why is he messing in our business? What does he really want? But the real fuel for this suspicion, this xenophobia is the fear itself. The unknowing of what someone who is “different than us is up to.There’s a small scene in the beginning of BVS where Lois Lane is being held captive by a gun toting terrorist and Superman crashes through the roof and without much effort slams the terrorist into a brick wall. It was one of the most horrifying scenes I’ve ever seen because it highlights just how powerful Superman is, and if he wasn’t habitual “nice guy” he could destroy this planet, kill everybody on it breaking a sweat.
And then there’s the Batman played to demonic perfection by Ben Affleck. Yeah, we know all about batman, don’t we? He’s whole reason for existing is to protect the innocent, stop the “bad guy” and all that because he witnessed the murder of his mother and father when he was a kid. In this movie, Bruce Wayne is tormented day and night by the image of his parents’ death, tormented to such a extent he becomes totally obsessed with protecting the good and defeating evil to the point where his actions are psychotic. So, when he witnesses the battle between General Zod and Superman (Man of Steel 2013), sees the carnage, the loss of life caused by this frigging aliens, he snaps. He’s not going to bring Superman to justice because there is no justice for a genocidal maniac with super powers, no. Death, execution is the only way to stop this monster. I had reservations about Affleck playing the Batman, but his interpretation of the Dark Knight is a masterpiece of darkness and insanity.
However, as much as I loved the ideas in this movie, how much I enjoyed the performances of Affleck and Henry Cavill (Superman), there are problems with this movie which are caused primarily by the director, cinematographer and the film editors. The biggest mistake was in expressing the intimacy (that any character study needs to be considered a character study) with only one set of rhythms and tempos for all the quiet, scenes, and then putting those scenes so close together that there’s no sense of life, no sense of movement or growth. Every scene seems to be saying the same thing in the same way over and over again, and that is extremely boring to an audience. Even if a scene is dealing with the same ideas as the one that went before it has to be different, it has to be a scene that just doesn’t repeat what went on before, but digs deeper into the subject. The other fault I find with this movie is a pet peeve of mine. Directors, action directors in particular, think you create intimacy between characters by putting them in close ups! “How do I know this is an intimate, personal scene? Well, they have the actors in a two person close up, it MUST be personal.” But the opposite is really true. The movies I mentioned above, the ones from last year that I really liked? They are very personal, very intimate, and very human and all those films have only a few close ups of the actors. The directors of my favorite movies know that creating the connection between characters is primarily the work of the actor and not the camera. Yes, camera angles, camera movement can enhance the work of the actors, it can help to develop the emotion in a scene, but first and foremost the camera is there to support the work of the actors as is every element of movie tech.
A lot of my friends really dislike Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice because the pretentious production team had the NERVE to mess with the mythology of their beloved super heroes. I mean, Batman killing people on purpose with a . . . with a GUN?! Planning the “execution” of Superman without any remorse at all? Come on! Batman’s not like that. He stands for justice not murder. And Superman, he runs around (flies around) in this movie like a love sick puppy dog. “Oh! My girlfriend is in harm’s way! You people in that burning house are gonna have to fend for yourselves, gotta go!” Swhoosh! I can see why my friends are upset by this hoodlum director coming in and destroying these iconic characters. But they got to remember, the Batman and the Superman of old no longer exist. Over the years both characters have been developed to be more human, have more faults and darker sides. Like I said, I don’t have a problem with the changes they made in these characters, but I do believe the movie was just not realized as a solid study of human (and inhuman) existence.
Let me go back to 2o15 for a minute. My favorite movies of last year are: Ex Machina, Room, Brooklyn, Carol and Trumbo. They are my favorites because all five movies are more character studies than anything. Yes, they’re different genres, but they all delve into studying and (perhaps) understanding the way individual human beings interact with each other. And much to the chagrin of many Batman and Superman fans, Batman v. Superman tries to explore what it might really be like IF there really were super heroes living among us. How would we respond to them and how would they respond to each other, and how would they respond to the actions of their individual selves?
What the production team of Batman v. Superman has done is to explore the lives of these comic book heroes as if they were real people living in America. The Superman character gives the director a chance to talk about one of the hottest, button pushing topics that’s as old as America itself, immigration. Oh, yeah. America has always hated and loved immigrants. Hate and suspicion of foreigners, you know, “THOSE people NOT like us,” has never been more heightened than in this 21st century America we all love! And Superman IS the ultimate “illegal alien.” Where the comic books and movies about the Man of Steel always show the relationship between “law abiding” humans and Superman as an everlasting love fest, this movie looks at Superman with a suspicious eye. I mean, come on! This super powerful dude shows up one day and starts protecting us? Why? I mean, he’s an alien! Why is he messing in our business? What does he really want? But the real fuel for this suspicion, this xenophobia is the fear itself. The unknowing of what someone who is “different than us is up to.There’s a small scene in the beginning of BVS where Lois Lane is being held captive by a gun toting terrorist and Superman crashes through the roof and without much effort slams the terrorist into a brick wall. It was one of the most horrifying scenes I’ve ever seen because it highlights just how powerful Superman is, and if he wasn’t habitual “nice guy” he could destroy this planet, kill everybody on it breaking a sweat.
And then there’s the Batman played to demonic perfection by Ben Affleck. Yeah, we know all about batman, don’t we? He’s whole reason for existing is to protect the innocent, stop the “bad guy” and all that because he witnessed the murder of his mother and father when he was a kid. In this movie, Bruce Wayne is tormented day and night by the image of his parents’ death, tormented to such a extent he becomes totally obsessed with protecting the good and defeating evil to the point where his actions are psychotic. So, when he witnesses the battle between General Zod and Superman (Man of Steel 2013), sees the carnage, the loss of life caused by this frigging aliens, he snaps. He’s not going to bring Superman to justice because there is no justice for a genocidal maniac with super powers, no. Death, execution is the only way to stop this monster. I had reservations about Affleck playing the Batman, but his interpretation of the Dark Knight is a masterpiece of darkness and insanity.
However, as much as I loved the ideas in this movie, how much I enjoyed the performances of Affleck and Henry Cavill (Superman), there are problems with this movie which are caused primarily by the director, cinematographer and the film editors. The biggest mistake was in expressing the intimacy (that any character study needs to be considered a character study) with only one set of rhythms and tempos for all the quiet, scenes, and then putting those scenes so close together that there’s no sense of life, no sense of movement or growth. Every scene seems to be saying the same thing in the same way over and over again, and that is extremely boring to an audience. Even if a scene is dealing with the same ideas as the one that went before it has to be different, it has to be a scene that just doesn’t repeat what went on before, but digs deeper into the subject. The other fault I find with this movie is a pet peeve of mine. Directors, action directors in particular, think you create intimacy between characters by putting them in close ups! “How do I know this is an intimate, personal scene? Well, they have the actors in a two person close up, it MUST be personal.” But the opposite is really true. The movies I mentioned above, the ones from last year that I really liked? They are very personal, very intimate, and very human and all those films have only a few close ups of the actors. The directors of my favorite movies know that creating the connection between characters is primarily the work of the actor and not the camera. Yes, camera angles, camera movement can enhance the work of the actors, it can help to develop the emotion in a scene, but first and foremost the camera is there to support the work of the actors as is every element of movie tech.
A lot of my friends really dislike Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice because the pretentious production team had the NERVE to mess with the mythology of their beloved super heroes. I mean, Batman killing people on purpose with a . . . with a GUN?! Planning the “execution” of Superman without any remorse at all? Come on! Batman’s not like that. He stands for justice not murder. And Superman, he runs around (flies around) in this movie like a love sick puppy dog. “Oh! My girlfriend is in harm’s way! You people in that burning house are gonna have to fend for yourselves, gotta go!” Swhoosh! I can see why my friends are upset by this hoodlum director coming in and destroying these iconic characters. But they got to remember, the Batman and the Superman of old no longer exist. Over the years both characters have been developed to be more human, have more faults and darker sides. Like I said, I don’t have a problem with the changes they made in these characters, but I do believe the movie was just not realized as a solid study of human (and inhuman) existence.
