BATMAN v SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE

Warner Bros.

Rated PG-13

Running time: 151 Minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice from YouTube.




In Warner Bros. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Batman's/Ben Affleck's and Superman's/Henry Cavill's different ideologies finally come to a head in a fight to the finish.

A sequel to Man of Steel, and loosely based on the graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller - with Batman created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, and Superman created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, Executive Produced by Christopher Nolan and Directed by Zack Snyder. The movie is the second installment of the new DC Extended Universe.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice seems to me to be told from billionaire Ben Affleck/Bruce Wayne/Batman's point of view - especially after the 9/11 type of events that had happened from Man of Steel. This is Batman's introduction, and origin - as well as Bruce Wayne's/Affleck's and Clark Kent's/Cavill's first meeting - and these events have Batman/Affleck and half the world very concerned about the power of Superman/Cavill.

I happened to like this film - although a lot of people felt it was too slow as most of the action happened toward the end of the film, which also dealt with the Doomsday story line from the comics. There was a good use of Superman's/Cavill's powers throughout, and you got to see Batman's/Affleck's hand to hand fighting with the bad guys - some of which are based on the Batman: Arkham games - as well as fighting with Superman/Cavill. I liked the dramatic setup and characterization of the movie, although some people were confused by the plot, which also includes dream sequences. Most of Superman's/Cavill's characterization of the movie was actually set up in Man of Steel, so the movie seems more of Batman's/Affleck's viewpoint.

There is a lot of religious overtones in the movie with comparisons of the Greek Gods, as well as of Christianity - God vs Man - between Batman/Affleck and Superman/Cavill. My favorite line is, "devils don't come from Hell beneath us, they come from the sky." When you consider that devils are fallen angels, this line really hit home for me. There is also another theme presented in the movie with the major characters about parentage.

I thought Affleck was great in his introduction to the DC Extended Universe as Bruce Wayne/Batman as a tragically hardened vigilante. Cavill was able to put on twice as much muscle mass for this movie than he did for Man of Steel and had looked very much like what Superman should be. There were also a couple of shots in the movie were Cavill/Superman looked like Christopher Reeve/Superman to me.

With Holly Hunter as a Senator in the movie conducting a Senate committee hearing on Superman, I could not help but think about the movie The Incredibles of which Hunter was also in and had in that movie dealing with similar issues about superheroes.

The movie portrays a younger Lex Luthor/Jesse Eisenberg than has been seen in previous incarnations, but is quite literate of books. For a dramatic movie, most of the humor in the movie comes from Luthor/Eisenberg in his sarcasm. While I could accept Eisenberg's portrayal of Luthor, I would have preferred him to be bald from a childhood accident, thus having issues with his father. It is interesting to me that Luthor's concerns with Superman are similar to Batman's but on a more psychotic level and based on the comic All-Star Superman.

It was good to have the stars like Laurence Fishburne, Amy Adams, and Diane Lane from Man of Steel in this movie. Jeremy Irons as Alfred is the only major character from Batman's comic book series, outside of his parents Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Lauren Cohan. Other cameo appearances in the movie were nice to see, some of whom are real people.

This is the first time that the trio, Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman have appeared in a live-action film. I thought Gal Gadot was great as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman. The movie also sets up the premise for The Justice League with cameos of the future metahuman members of The Justice League. I liked the musical introductions/themes that Hans Zimmer created for the various characters, which are supposed to be used in future movies for these characters. It is too bad that Zimmer has quit writing music for superhero movies after being burned out of writing them for eleven years.

What is anachronistic for the film is that the Daily Planet is actually printing newspapers. A friend of mine used to be a printing manager for the local Los Angeles Times printing plant. He left after 25 years because The Times does not "print" newspapers anymore. The Times is all online now.

While I had expected what was going to happen, I had mixed feelings about the end of the movie, both positive and negative. A lot of fans were very disappointed with the end. I will admit that I can not wait to see how this will affect future movie sequels in the DC Extended Universe.

During the end credits, there was a Special Thanks section with what seemed like about a couple dozen names of comic book creative artists who have worked on Batman and Superman comics at one point over the decades. A lot of material from these creative artists were touched upon in the movie.

With the very dramatic tone of the movie, there are no after credits scenes during the credits as with a Marvel movie.

Rated PG-13 for violence, language, sexual situations.

Click below to watch another movie trailer to Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice from YouTube.




Pancho
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The Social Network

Columbia Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 121 minutes



Click below to watch The Social Network trailer.



Columbia Pictures The Social Network is about the creation of the website Facebook and the legal problems Harvard computer undergrad creator Mark Zuckerberg had as a result of the website's creation.

With flashbacks between the creation of Facebook and the legal problems Zuckerberg goes through, and a script by Aaron Sorkin, there is twice as much dialog in this film than in a normal film which can be exhausting if you are not used to that much dialog. This is evidenced by the first five minutes of the film of an intense dialog with Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg, and his then girlfriend who are sitting in a bar before the opening credits roll. That was supposed to be eight pages of dialog crammed into five minutes of film - where normally it is a minute's worth of dialog per page. Although there is a lot of dialog, with David Fincher's direction, this is not a talking-heads movie. The dialog basically shows what an intense jerk Zuckerberg is in the movie and you can imagine how his personality could lead him into trouble as he goes about creating what was then known as The Facebook, a social networking site allowing people to stay connected with each other which was originally created for Harvard. When Zuckerberg gets involved with Justin Timberlake, as Napster creator Sean Parker, the business potential for Facebook grows into the billions - where most of the legal troubles begins.

Watching the movie initially brought back memories of college for me, both with the intense academic life and the sorority life. It is interesting that while the Facebook website was originally created for college students, a lot of the movie-going audience that I saw the movie with was of an older crowd. While it is said that a lot of the material was created for the movie, and is not real, the movie gave me an idea of what goes on behind the scenes of such a big business.

Another aspect of the movie deals with the twins Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss, with Armie Hammer playing both parts. The Winklevoss twins - Hammer - got Zuckerberg involved in creating a Harvard social networking website for themselves. One interesting thing about the Winklevoss twins, aside from their legal actions against Zukerberg for stealing their idea, is that the Winklevoss twins were part of Harvard's Crew Team. As a videographer who spent a season videotaping the Orange Coast College's Crew Team - who are known as "The Giant Killers" for defeating well-known crew teams such as Harvard, it was a delight for me to get a glimpse of this sport again as it is rare that I get to see crew in a movie. It was also a delight to see Disney Channel star Brenda Song in an adult role for once as the girlfriend of Zuckerberg's friend and co-creator of Facebook Eduardo Saverin, Andrew Garfield.

There is talk of an Oscar and I could see an Oscar for this film.

Rated PG-13 for sexual situations, language, and drug use. Running time 121 minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

 Pancho's Movie Reviews