Movie Music and More #46: "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice"

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice hit theaters recently and so did Hans Zimmer's latest, and apparently last, score for a DC flick. As a whole, Zimmer's score is good, albeit a bit generic at times, but there are a few specific tracks that standout. My personal favorite is, "Is She With You." If you have seen the film or trailer, it is played when Wonder Woman first appears in costume. The use of, what I assume, is the electric guitar captures the mystery of the character perfectly. During the scene, the music was noticeable and made me want to find it as soon as arriving home from the theater. Sure, the track itself isn't a masterpiece, but it contains a unique blend of instruments that appeals to me. Even though Zimmer will not scoring Wonder Woman, hopefully a variation on the theme will be used for the film. 

Above is one of the stronger atmospheric tracks from the film. Contained within the embedded video is the rest of the soundtrack in a playlist. After listening to the entire score, there are not that many memorable tracks, aside from "Is She With You." It is quite good at times, yet never finds a true theme that carries across the film. During the film, the score is fine, but after listening to it, it lacks a central theme, like Alan Silvestri's Avengers main theme. Maybe I am missing certain cues in the music that others have picked up. What do you think? Please comment below and let me know! And if you missed it, click here to read my review of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

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Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice Review

Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, the film that launches DC's larger film universe and introduces audiences to a new Batman, yet does it succeed?

With a 29% on the Rotten Tomatoes and many mixed reviews, Batman V Superman is a divisive film. The question is whether or not it deserves such a harsh rating, and by the end of the review, the question will be answered. But admittedly, I feel like I need to say, "I told you so" because BvS is exactly the disjointed and pretentious narrative mess than the trailers implied, yet that does not mean it is all bad.

Directed by: Zack Snyder

Genre: Action, Comic Book, Sci-Fi,

Release Date: March 25, 2016

Running Time: 151 minutes

MMPA rating: PG-13

The Good: Ben Affleck is great, Batman looks awesome, Jeremy Irons is brilliantly cast, Wonder Woman is cool, Fun teases for Justice League, One incredible Batman action sequence, Stunning visuals at times, Entertaining action set pieces, Batman parts are excellent, Superb Zimmer OST,

The Bad: Batman kills!? WHAT THE HECK, Jesse Eisenberg is painful to watch, Henry Cavill is wooden, Zero character development, Too many plot threads for one movie, Doomsday is terribly shoehorned in, Disjointed and convoluted narrative, Lacking character motivations, Lazy Justice League setup, Lex's plan?, Laughable dialogue at times,

Plot: 5.2/10- BvS's plot is all over the place. The first two Acts are serious and heavy with drama, with the Batman parts being brilliant, and the Superman parts falling flat. There are discussions of Superman as an almost religious figure, and while some may say that adds thematic depth, it boils down to about ten minutes of news reports blatantly discussing the topic with zero subtly. The theme is essentially dropped as a theme towards the end as soon as the action begins, so it feels hollow.

Many plot points and mature tone of the first half are just dropped as soon as the action starts, and the poor execution across the board does not help either. There are so many missed opportunities throughout the film. However, there are hints of greatness, yet nothing comes to fruition with the final Act being a big throwdown with rushed narrative elements. As for the film as a whole, there are far too many narrative aspects, setup for future films, and general lack of cohesion between the various aspects to really feel like a competent narrative. Additionally, certain plot elements are far too convenient, especially with Lex's plan. However, the film address Man of Steel's largest criticism of pointless destruction with a well executed scene of Bruce Wayne running through the carnage.

Characterization: 5.0/10- Batman V Superman's characters are a big mixed bag. Batman, essentially the star of the film, is mostly brilliant. This Batman is old and seasoned, having fought crime for over 20 years at this point. Affleck's Batman is the most comic book accurate one in live-action yet, except for one very important thing: HE KILLS PEOPLE! With no explanation, Batman fires his machine guns on the Batwing and blows vehicles up with people in them. You never see any specific death scenes, but it is obvious that people are dying. The strange part is that there are no mentions the fact that he kills people. I literally threw my hands up in the air in the theater when he did for the first few times. A one-off line by Alfred, who is great in the film, could have explained everything, but nope, nothing, as if he isn't killing people. So the problem isn't that Batman is killing people, but rather there is no acknowledgement of why or even confirmation that he is killing. Regardless of this strange aspect, Batman is easily the best part of the film as he is a bad*ss and does a little detective/espionage work. Even the Bruce Wayne aspect of the character is arguably better than Bale's portrayal, and Batman's motivations are the only character motivations that make sense. If anything, BvS made me wish this Batman had his own solo film with more of this gritty bad*ss detective version of the character.

Superman is even more poorly portrayed than in Man of Steel. Clark Kent and Lois have one good scene together towards the beginning, but everything else about Superman's character is flat and lacking in character development. Nothing about Superman is particularly well done. He is just boring and void of character development. Superman is basically a plot device in that his mere existence creates the conflict, yet not his on-screen actions. Overall, Superman is awfully dull, lacks motivation, and Lois struggles to remain relevant throughout the film.

Lex Luthor is a joke, maybe even more so than Gene Hackman's Lex in the original Superman. His motivations are weak, his character trait of being insane is lazy, and he only serves to drag the film down. As expected, Doomsday is literally just a creature for the heroes to fight for visual spectacle with a shoehorned in creation.

Wonder Woman is the only other character with any significance, and she is definitely an afterthought. However, the hints at her backstory and her scenes towards the end make me more excited for her solo film than even the Justice League. She doesn't do a lot, but what he does do is cool.

Direction: 7.9/10- Visually, Zack Snyder is at his best with a fairly solid balance of artistic style and realism. The dark and washed out colors are not nearly as bad as Man of Steel, and honestly, this is what I have come to expect from Snyder. Some scenes are simply stunning. Unfortunately, the visuals are often undermined by disjointed editing between scenes. The Batman scenes are great, and Affleck's input is clearly seen by the superior performances and camera framing, whereas the Superman scenes are more dull and uninteresting, much like Man of Steel.

However, Snyder does not disappoint in the action, well, at least for the most part. When the action does start, it never really stops as it moves from action set piece to the next, which mostly works. Any scene with Batman is exactly what I have been waiting for since the Batman: Arkham Asylum video games, particularly the scene towards the end. This Batman is brutal, fast, strong, and uses all his gadgets to the fullest. The big throwdown between Batman and Superman is fun, yet felt lacking. It is essentially two guys punching each other and throwing each other through walls, nothing original. Lastly, the big battle at the end is mostly CGI, and it is fine I suppose; nothing special or exciting, but a decent spectacle. As a whole, the action is all fun, entertaining, and well directed. However, in this age of Marvel movies, Mad Max, and Kingsman, many action flicks lack the X-Factor in their action sequences and BvS is no exception. Fellow critic and guest author,  Jordan Rath, makes a brilliant in his review with "Almost every Marvel movie I've ever been to has something where I go 'Hmm! I've never seen that before!' BvS has titans locking horns, yes, but the actual fight isn't all that innovative." And Jordan is right. There is nothing that matches the originality of Marvel's action sequences, except for that one aforementioned Batman scene.

Acting: 5.1/10- BvS is a massive mixed bag of brilliant, decent, and atrocious performances from the cast. Ben Affleck is undoubtedly brilliant. He is one of the best live-action portrayals of Batman. Henry Cavill is wooden, and his laughable dialogue and delivery doesn't help. He is horribly dull with no charm or depth. Cavill says his lines in the most mundane way possible. Come on Snyder, when are you going to learn how to direct actors!? Jesse Eisenberg is awful. You might hear the term "Cringe-worthy" thrown around, but Eisenberg's performance is the embodiment of the term. It was painful and uncomfortable to watch Eisenberg's take on Lex. Later in the film, he improves a bit, but still, he is the worst part of the film and drags it down a few notches. Sure, Eisenberg always plays a spastic, out-of-control character, which sometimes works, but this a whole new level of awfulness, except for a few decent scenes. Jeremy Irons as Alfred and Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman give performances that make me excited for their future portrayals. Amy Adams is average at best, and the rest of the cast do their jobs and nothing more.

Special effects: 7.8/10- Until the final big fight, the special effects are consistent, even when certain scenes are obviously CGI. Nothing amazed me, yet nothing looked awful. Doomsday looked decent, but not nearly as well done as other recent CGI characters, like the Hulk, Gollum, or Groot.

Soundtrack: 8.6/10- Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL's score is quite strong. There are points in the film where it was noticeably brilliant, specifically the track "Is She With You?," and the rest is fitting for the film.

Humor: N/A- BvS balances the lack of humor better than Man of Steel, yet is still mostly humorless, so my expectations were essentially matched.

Entertainment Value: 8.5/10- Despite the two and a half hour runtime, Dawn of Justice is an entertaining watch. Batman's parts are a lot of fun, and the novelty of the DC's Big Three on screen for the first time is great. Oddly enough, critiquing such a flawed, yet decently entertaining, film is a joy itself as a writer. However, if you did not grow up watching DC cartoons or reading comics and have not been excited for Batman and Superman to finally meet on the big screen, then BvS is likely underwhelming.

Overall: 7.0/10- Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice is an enjoyable watch for some viewers, myself included. However, the plot is all over the place, the characters, aside from Batman, are flat, and the action, while entertaining, is nothing mind blowing. In fact, my score is much higher than my individual category scores indicate because this is not a "great" movie, just a decent one with tons of missed potential. But there is something about the novelty and mostly brilliant portrayal of Batman that makes the movie more enjoyable and memorable than it ever should be. More objectively, BvS deserves a 6.2/10, but personal factors push it up to a 7.0/10.

Closing comments: Batman V Superman is basically a guilty pleasure at times. If you adamantly hate the film, by all means do so, because there is plenty aspects of the film that are worthy of the 29% Tomatoe rating. However, if you managed to find certain parts enjoyable, that's great too. But I'm sure most can agree that this is not the type of start that the DC Cinematic Universe needed to convince everyone that DC can make great movies. Well, at least they can make decent ones. And lastly, if you did not already plan to see the film in theaters, just wait for the Blu-Ray/DVD because you aren't missing much.

Recommended for: DC fans, Batman fans,

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Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice First Impression

Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice is finally here and I have seen it. Usually, I try to avoid reviews. However, it is difficult to miss headlines like "Critics Tearing Apart BVS!" and "Why BVS Sucks," so yeah, I knew the reviews were bad. But hey, low expectations are not always a bad thing, right? Well, BVS was definitely fun at times, but long story short, if you were excited and already planned to see it, nothing I'll say that will change your mind. If you were not excited, there is no reason to go watch it if you disliked Man of Steel. I'll save the rest for the full review, which will come tomorrow or the next day. After my review is written, I'll go check out everyone else's reviews, and if you want, post a link to your review in the comments for me and others to see it.

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Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice - In Theaters

Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice hits theaters today! Expect a review within the next week, and as usual, I plan to avoid spoilers, reviews, and all but the first two trailers, so it will be interesting going into the film figuratively blind. Not knowing whether or not the film is good will prove to be an interesting watching experience, especially since I have no idea if the movie will be good or completely awful. Unfortunately, a title of an IGN article spoiled the general opinion of the film, yet I still do not know why, so that will be interesting. Are you excited for the film? Do you plan to see it in theaters? Please comment below and let me know! And if you missed it, click on the links below for my Top 10 DC Comics Movies.

Top 10 DC Comics Movies: Part 2
Top 10 DC Comics Movies: Part 1

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New Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Trailer

What was that!? Seriously, what the heck was that ridiculous excuse for a trailer!? The Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice trailer dropped the other day, and after watching it, the trailer destroys the slight hint of intrigue shown in the previous trailer! Sure, I might have somewhat of a negative outlook on DC and Zack Sndyer, but the first trailer was not half bad. On the other hand, this trailer shows WAY TOO MUCH! It shows us a condensed version of the movie, instead of a trailer, which is supposed to tease the movie, or at least that is what it appears to be. Basically, we know that Batman and Superman will fight, and then a creature, presumably Doomsday, will pop up with Wonder Woman for the Final Act. Maybe, the trailer is intended to mislead us, but the plot looks rather obvious.

With the crazy amount of spoilers aside, let’s talk about the rest of this disaster. As expected, Jessie Esssienberg is absolutely horrendous! He plays the goofy character he always acts, and he does not fit in with the rest of the cast, at least in that one scene. He did have one good line, “And that is a three syllable word for any thought too big for little minds,” but the rest was awful. The beginning of the trailer with Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent meeting is strange considering how long it is for a trailer. Visually, that first scene actually reminds me of a car commercial. Lastly, the attempts at humor are abysmal. I want to remain positive, until seeing the movie, but at least everyone can agree that this trailer is about on par with The Amazing Spider-Man’s trailer for being a disaster, mostly due to spoilers. Suicide Squad looks good; unfortunately, the same cannot be said about Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. However, that is not to say that there are not positive elements, like Allfeck’s Batman. Other than that, we will have to wait and see. What do you think? Please comment below and let me know, and check back next week for more Star Wars posts!

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Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Comic Con Trailer Review/Reaction

Finally, a true Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice trailer is here, and now we have a good idea as to what the film is going to be like. First off, Ben Affleck is shaping up to be an excellent Bruce Wayne, probably better than Christian Bale. I am curious as to what he has been doing since retirement, and how did Superman cause the destruction of Wayne Tower? We will have to wait and see. The Batman parts are great, and they will likely be the best part of the movie. On the other hand, Sndyer and company are going to have to do a lot to make us care about Superman. In fact, the trailer knows that people are going to watch this movie for Batman, not Superman.

Wonder Woman in full costume looks cool. However, I feel that she will be an unnecessary add-on to setup for the Justice League like Black Widow was in Iron Man 2. Also, the movie reminds me of a lot Watchman, visually at least. 

As we see towards the end of the trailer, Kryptonite is going to be a thing. After saying that it does not exist in the films, they decided to include it, and considering that there is no other way to level the playing field against Superman, I am okay with it. On the other hand, "The Red Capes are coming, the Red Capes are coming." is officially, the worst line ever.

Regardless of all the potential problems, this is going to be a fun movie to watch. What do you think? Please comment below and let me know, and check back soon for more Comic Con coverage.

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New Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Pictures

New pictures Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice have been released by Entertainment Weekly and they show us clear images of Wonder Woman's costume, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, and more. Below are the pictures and my thoughts about them.

This is our best look at the new Wonder Woman costume, and I am not sure what to think. The skirt thing is a little short, even for Wonder Woman, but I like the color. Of course, if you look at Entertainment Weekly's other covers of recent movies, the pictures used do not exactly represent the final product in the film, so I assume Snyder will add his patented filter that washes away all color in post production. As for Batman's costume, it looks a little ridiculous from this picture, but again, it will look better in the final product, and Superman's costume is still basically the same.

So, this Batman's face off with Superman. I hope they make it believable how Batman can fight Superman.

 The Batman is not changed much from the original, so that's good.

Bruce and Diana at a social gathering of some kind. I wonder how big a part she will play in the film.

Finally, a clear look at Jessie as Lex Luthor, with red hair. I am still not sold on him in the role yet.

Nothing new here.

A picture of Affleck and Snyder talking about something, but we all know who's the better director. I hope Affleck helps him out.

Here is a cool picture put together by someone in the IGN comments.

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Batman v Superman Trailer Review/Breakdown

After the ridiculous amount photos and posters, the teaser trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is here, and it is presents some interesting things to discuss. 

Opening with a narration by Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor and others that discuss how Superman is a savior, and maybe someone like him is too powerful to be allowed free reign. For one, Eisenberg's voice starts out different than expected, but as he talks more, all I can see is the usual Eisenberg that we have seen so many times. At this point, I need to see him in action before I make my judgment. 

The more interesting aspect of the trailer is the Superman statue. Sure, Superman is virtually an all powerful being, but he is responsible for countless deaths in Metropolis, which Man of Steel completely glossed over. So, are the masses praising Superman out of fear or out of gratitude? Or maybe both. Thematically, the movie raises an interesting idea of Superman essentially being worshiped. The comparison to others with power that people follow, like Hitler or Stalin, presents potentially fascinating ideas. However, considering how poorly Man of Steel implemented its themes, I have a feeling that the movie is going to turn out to be a pretentious mess, thematically at least. Of course, the DC fanboys will praise it for being "dark" and "edgy" but it will just fall flat on its face. On the other hand, you never know, maybe the movie will surprise us. 

Another issue I have is that Superman as a character is painfully bland. He lacks any charm or relatable humanity. Watching this trailer made me realize just how unlikable this version of Superman is. I am not the type of Superman fan that complains about changes to the comic book, but I do like the character in the general. Unless Kal-El is developed quickly, there will be no reason for the audience to care about him or his fight against Batman. Even though I know very little about this version of Batman, I am already on his side. 

Ultimately, do I think this is going to be a amazing movie? Probably not, unless the script is a significant improvement over Man of Steel, but it should at least be a good movie that is fun to watch. If Zack Snyder is good at one thing, it is action sequences (even if they are repetitive).

Ironically, I am more excited about the new episodes of Arrow and The Flash this week than I am for this movie. With that said, I still want to see if BvS crashes and burns or rises up the ashes. Below are screenshots with my commentary.

My guess that this is Mexico, which makes it seem like Superman goes on tour.

Something about the special effects here look off. Hopefully it will be fixed in the film.

Now this is an interest picture. It is difficult to see, but if you look at the shoulder patches on the soldiers, you will see Superman's "S" logo. Now this is an exciting idea, because Superman appears to have a task force specifically for him, and maybe he did not even want it in the first place.

Who is that looking up at Superman? Is he just a random guy that Superman saves or someone important?

Now this is where the trailer gets really interesting. Superman being worshiped is an intriguing idea. While I have my doubts about the execution of the concept, it is very reminiscent of The Dark Knight Returns in certain respects, although Superman is almost portrayed as villainous.

*Broody Ben Batfleck is brooding.* Could Affleck look any more brooding? With that said, I am on board with Affleck as Bruce Wayne. He definitely has the jawline and the actin talent.

Since Superman has his own task force, this gives Batman some lackeys to fight, and that is exactly what this shot looks like.

Our first look at Batfleck in the normal Batman suit. As expected, this is heavily inspired by The Dark Knight Returns' version of Batman. I assume Affleck's costume is majorly bulked up because he is not nearly that big in real life.

The classic Batman looking over the city. However, this is another failed effects shot. It looks too stiff, and the cape is just wrong.

"I am Iron Bat!" Bruce Wayne takes a page out of Tony Stark's book by creating a mechanical suit to battle a superpowered being. Also, his voice changing tech is exactly what Batman needed, which is similar to CW's Arrow.

"Tell me, do you bleed? You will." Now this is the money shot of the trailer. The big confrontation of between Batman and Superman. Somehow, the movie must introduce a reasonable explanation for how Batman is going to fight Superman. Superman can move faster than the speed of sound to the point where he can dismantle Batman's mechanical suit before Batman even realizes it. Without Kryptonite or a similar plot device, Batman stands no reasonable chance. Maybe, they are going to have a brooding contest to see which of these emo guys can be more depressed (just kidding).

My impression of the logo is kind of meh. It looks too fat, but it is fine.

What did you think of the trailer? Please comment below and check back tomorrow for the final part of my Top 10 Villains list.

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