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ExploreI honestly am not the person who judges a movie on one piece of casting news, a trailer or a clip. I try to keep an open mind, especially if it’s a franchise I care about. But I find myself dreading Batman Vs. Superman, and not sure if I’m even going to see it. OK, I probably will. But not opening weekend.
Let me make it clear, I’m a huge Batman fan. If I didn’t see every Batman since Tim Burton’s original opening night, I saw them opening weekend. And I found something redeeming in each Batman film (OK, maybe not Batman & Robin). So it feels weird that I don’t already have tickets to see this latest Batman movie.
Looking back at all the pre-opening information we got on the film, I’m realizing all the things that took me to this point.
Bat Affleck
I admit it. When I heard that Ben Affleck was cast as Batman, I was one of those people who moaned and groaned and bitched (a little) on social media. Like all people, I was remembering his failure at Daredevil. To be fair, I don’t think Daredevil had anything to do with his acting, just a victim of a bad script.
I have nothing against Ben, he’s from my home city of Boston and it’s great to see a hometown boy make it big. But he was far from the top of my list of actors who I wanted to see as Batman. I really wanted Josh Brolin to portray the aged Dark Knight.
Ben won me back with his performance in Hollywoodland (ironically enough playing George Reeves who played Superman), and even more so with his directing on Argo. So even as I was complaining, I had a flicker of hope in the back of my mind that maybe, just maybe, he’d matured enough to pull it off. And rumor has it, the reason Ben got the green light for three solo Batman movies was because the producers thought he was amazing in in Batman Vs. Superman.
But that still did not convince me since.
I Hated Man of Steel
I’m not as big of a Superman fan as I am Batman, but I have seen all the movies. I was excited for Man of Steel and saw it opening night. Boy, was I disappointed. I agreed with the masses, there was too much over the top destruction (without Superman doing anything to stop it or save people), the product placement was outrageous and the death of Mr. Kent was sappy. And that’s just the top three things in a long list of dislikes.
I liked the idea of Superman staying hidden doing good deeds around the world, and Lois Lane trying to track him down. But when she got into the space ship and later ran around with Jor-El’s hologram, it passed into the realm of the ridiculous for me. When it finally ended, I had no interest in seeing any further adventures of this Man of Steel.
The Trailers Aren’t Doing Anything for Me
I did like the teaser teasing us with the idea of Superman as a worshiped figure. Until it got to the now iconic, “Tell me. Do you bleed? You will.” To me, it came of a little… goofy.
But that was nothing compared to the outrageously goofy lines from the trailer: “Is she with you?” “I thought she was with you.”
Watching Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne chatting about Batman and Superman gave me the “feels.” But what’s up with the over-the-top Lex Luthor? Jesse Eisenberg is playing him more like The Joker (I could bitch about not thinking Jesse was the best actor for the role, but I believe he’s a good enough actor to pull it off, if the character is written well, which it probably isn’t… so guess I am bitching). Oh, and look. More buildings blowing up.
And that clip they showed of Superman ripping off Batman’s cowl left me more “Huh?” than wanting to see the movie.
The final trailer focuses more on Batman, which further leads me to believe that even though this is a Man of Steel sequel, it will be more from Batman’s point of view. But there’s nothing in this one that extinguishes my fears that this movie is going to be one big mess.
Too Much Crammed Into One Movie?
Batman, Superman, Lex Luthor, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, General Zod turned into (most likely) Doomsday and many, many more! All in one movie! Even at the film’s extremely long run time of two and a half hours, all this feels like too much for one movie.
And wait, we’re not even going to see a half hour of it in the theaters!!
Why Are You Already Talking About the Video Release?
A few weeks back, Warner Brothers announced that the home video edition would be about 0 minutes longer and R-Rated. OK, I get that they’re milking on the success of the R-Rated Deadpool, but maybe this is something that could be discussed once the actual movie is released. To me, this says the movie we’re going to see in the theater is inferior to the one you’ll see later at home. Maybe I am reading too much into it, but c’mon, show some confidence in the cut you’re releasing first.
So, after rehashing all of this, what have I decided? I’m sure I will see it on the big screen at some point, maybe a cheap matinee some mid-April morning. And regardless of my opinions going in, I will still proudly wear a cool Batman or Superman T-Shirt. Or both!
