This movie was almost creaking from the weight of the expectations heaped upon it. From being a female-led superhero movie, to being a female directed movie, to representing 75+ years of comic fandom, to being a chance for WB/DC to finally make a decent DCEU movie, it’s no wonder my hopes for it dropped to “please don’t suck.” As such, there’s a lot to unpack with the success of the movie.
Continue reading Storytelling Successes – Wonder Woman (Part 1 of 2)
1) WB/DC can make a good superhero movie!
2) WB/DC can make a superhero movie in which the superhero actually wants to be a superhero!
3) Superhero movies with a female lead can be awesome! (Which I already knew, there just hadn’t been one to demonstrate that to the world and movie executives)
4) Major deviations from the source material are acceptable if those deviations serve the narrative.
5) That Zack Snyder aesthetic sense and love of CGI works better in the hands of a director who is not Zack Snyder.
6) A movie with a female lead, featuring an entirely female cast for the first act, can be shot without pandering to the male gaze.
7) Yes, a model turned actress who did a stint in the Israeli army was absolutely the right choice to embody Wonder Woman.
8) Etta Candy’s fourth-wall winking observation about Diana’s attempt to Clark Kent is spot-on.
9) I want a sequel. I have no idea how that would work with the timeline, but I don’t care.
10) Your move, Marvel. Why did I have to wait another two years for Captain Marvel? Where’s my Black Widow movie (and Atomic Blonde doesn’t count)?
Continue reading A Comic Book/Movie Entry – 10 Things I Learned from the “Wonder Woman” Movie
or, “Soooo, DC/WB doesn’t like money, I guess?”
or, “Soooo, DC/WB really hates Superman.”
or, “Soooo, DC/WB really hates Batman.”
or, “What A Long, Contrived Trip it’s Been.”
Continue reading Fifteen-minute Movie – Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
I’ll be glad to be done whinging about this thing so I can start whinge about other things. So, the final part of my series explaining how this movie failed to tell a good story – structure.
Apologies for missing Wednesday. I intended to post, but thought I’d get some quick demon-slaying in. However, I was distracted by a portal I’d never seen before and ended up basically robbing Gringott’s. Oh, well, these things happen.
Continue reading A Media Entry – Random Thoughts: First Random Part II
or, “A Series of Unfortunate Events.”
So the characters of this movie were generally written poorly. The second criterion by which I judge a failure of storytelling is the plot. Let’s get started.
Continue reading Storytelling Failures – Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Things That Happened
Well, of course you knew this was coming. This movie was just a mess on so many levels. Therefore, I’m breaking up my analysis of the storytelling failures into separate entries. This one starts with the first criterion, which is character. But before I get into it, this movie did not make me sad or mad like Man of Steel, or furious like Justice League: War. This movie was dour and a long slog for little payoff, but it wasn’t as relentlessly bleak as Man of Steel or as mean-spirited as Justice League: War. I knew that the characters were going to be outside of my amalgam. That said, here’s the more in-depth analysis:
Sorry for missing the weekend posting. I’ll try to keep up with Wednesday and weekend but there’s some serious stuff going on right now that may derail my schedule. Anyway, enough doom and gloom. A bunch of trailers dropped at San Diego ComicCon, and here are my various thoughts:
Oh yes, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice has spawned a bonus entry. Despite 2.5 hours of run-time, there was an awful lot I did NOT learn from this movie.
1) Why are the Kryptonians such morons? Not only did the Kryptonians programmed their ships with forbidden knowledge of genetically engineering monsters, they included the technology to utilize that knowledge, and have absolutely no security protocols to prevent anyone from commandeering the ships, even prisoner ships!
2) What was Lex Luthor’s motivation? The Joker in The Dark Knight had a more clearly articulated motivation.
3) What the hell was Lex Luthor smoking/snorting/injecting? The Joker in The Dark Knight was less manic.
4) Who the hell in their right mind would give Lex anything he wants (technology, contracts, secrets, etc.)? Lex is obviously mentally unhinged. I don’t care if he’s a genius the Board of Directors should have shunted him away a long time ago.
5) Why include important side characters from the comics just to unceremoniously kill them off without even naming them?
6) Why can’t the film-makers give Lois Lane something meaningful to do?
7) What the hell was going on with Flash?
8) Did any of the film-makers actually read “The Dark Knight Returns?” I know some claim to have, but if so, how did they miss Batman not only not killing anyone but also directing his followers not to use guns?
9) How exactly was Superman supposed to come across as a bad guy?
10) How exactly was Batman supposed to come across as a good guy?
I have seen the “JLA” trailer, by the way, and I have some thoughts on that and a bunch of other trailers dropped at San Diego ComicCon as well.
Confidential to DJX – six months already? Awesome! Keep on keepin’ on!
What? That’s totally what Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is, at least moreso than a Man of Steel sequel. So remember I learned ten things from Man of Steel, and several of those (like number 4) carry over into this movie and that’s pretty unfortunate. This whole movie is pretty unfortunate, actually.
1) WB/DC doesn’t seem to like Batman much anymore. The studio swapped him out for Crazy Steve.
2) This movie needed more Wonder Woman.
3) Martha Kent is just a plot device.
4) Kryptonians programmed all their ships with a complete history of their race, even their prisoner ships.
5) Batman doesn’t understand the importance of leading enemies away from bystanders.
6) Lex Luthor has daddy issues, apparently?
7) We’re supposed to be believe the downtown areas of Gotham City and Metropolis are apparently completely empty after 5:00 PM.
8) Batman is an objectively terrible detective and Clark Kent is an objectively terrible reporter.
9) Doomsday is a cave troll.
10) Franchises aren’t built in single movie, even one 2.5 hours long.
Well, on to Suicide Squad. Maybe that won’t be so bad. –checks reviews– Dang it.
A Writer's Hail Mary Pass 