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
All people smile in the same language.

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ARGO

Warner Bros. Pictures

Rated R

Running time: 120 Minutes



Click below to watch the Argo trailer.



In Warner Bros. Pictures Argo, Ben Affleck is a CIA ex filtration expert who has to get six U.S. Embassy escapees out of Iran during the Iran hostage crisis. 

Based on a true story, the movie starts out with movie storyboards describing the historical background of Iran - then the movie goes into the story as the U.S. Embassy gets stormed by Iranian protesters during the Islamic revolution of 1979. Six of the Embassy staff sneak out the back of the Embassy during the takeover - and takes refuge at the Canadian Embassy with Canadian Ambassador Victor Garber. 

As the head of the C.I.A.’s Graphics and Authentication Division, producer, director, and star Affleck - as the real life Tony Mendez - was responsible for foreign agents and the agents cover stories. After watching a clip of Battle for the Planet of the Apes from his hotel during a phone call with his son Aidan Sussman who is sitting at home, Affleck comes up with the idea of getting the refugees out of Iran by having them pose as a Canadian film crew making a science fiction movie that needs exotic Iranian locales - so they can fly out of Iran after the "location scouting" trip. With the help of Hollywood makeup artist John Goodman as John Chambers - who had created Mr. Spock's pointed ears, as well as worked on the Planet of the Apes movie series - and Producer Alan Arkin, they create a production studio for the fake science fiction/fantasy film. Arkin takes this project seriously - if the story has a horse, "it's a western, not a science fiction film." I loved what Alan Arkin said, "If I'm doing a fake movie, it's going to be a fake hit." The audience laughed at all the Hollywood jokes. 

The juxtaposition between the intense real-life Iran and the fantasy land of lowest-common denominator Hollywood was quite ironic. The run-down Hollywood Sign, before it's renovation, stresses the fact that this is the time period of 1979. The costumes in Hollywood were straight out of a science fiction convention and were pretty funny, while the Iranian Anti-American protesters were very scary. I wished there was more of the Hollywood aspect in the second half of the movie with John Goodman and Alan Arkin waiting back in Hollywood, at least arranging more of the Hollywood support system needed for the refugees extraction considering how rushed the project was put together.  The Hollywood aspect would have lightened the tension of the intense second half of the film as the Iranians hunt for the refugees, which was very draining for me. Having the refugees not trusting Affleck and the Iranian military searching for the refugees definitely was intense. When refugee "location scout" Kerry Bishe takes location pictures as part of her fake ID job, she gets into a confrontation with an Iranian business owner for taking a picture of his business. This was just one of the intense scenes in the second half of the movie as Affleck is determined to fly the refugees out, despite a problem with their airline tickets. It was fortunate that one of the refugees can speak Farsi. 

Having the Embassy using strip paper shredders instead of cross-cut paper shredders did not make sense to me - especially when they also had a furnace for burning sensitive documents - and of course the use of strip shredders was used to the detriment of the Embassy hostages and refugees. I am sure, after this incident - and the Oliver North Iran-Contra affair - cross-cut paper shredders are part of government facilities now. 

While I understand the storming of the Embassy, there was no real resolution of the U.S. Marines stationed at the U.S. Embassy. It is implied that the Marines were overrun and taken hostage, but you never really saw that. Given the fact that the Marines had a no-shoot-to-kill order - it is sad, but not surprising that the Embassy and the Marines were overrun. 

It was interesting to see the archival TV news clips of the time about the hostage crises, with the nationally famous network newscasters looking so young - as well as seeing the news clips of President Jimmy Carter and U.S. and Canadian government officials. Iran government officials, as well as Iranian women reading statements denouncing the U.S. Embassy and the U.S. and Canadian governments in the aftermath of the incident is still rather disturbing. Affleck had the film processed in a way so that the movie looked like it came from that time period. The Warner Bros. logo used for the movie was the logo used during that time period. 

While in reality, British and New Zealand diplomats also had put their lives at risk to help the American refugees - but I do not recall any mention of them in the movie, so their involvement in the movie was very light.

The crowd in the theater was definitely and older crowd and the theater was pretty full for an afternoon matinee. This was definitely the type of crowd who were around during the Iran hostage crisis. While I remember the 52 hostages, I barely remember the release of the 6 refugees - so this movie was very suspenseful for me as I did not know the refugees story. I loved all of the Star Wars toys on Sussman's bedroom dresser shelves at the end of the movie as they ran the end credits crawl. During the end credits, there was a "where are they now" crawl of the people involved with the incident and a crawl of the involvement along with the Canadian government - as well as a voice-over statement from former President Carter describing the Argo incident. The credits also showed the movie shots being compared with the real-life pictures of the hostage crisis. At the end of the movie, the audience applauded. 


Rated R for violence and language. Running time: 120 Minutes

 Pancho 
All people smile in the same language.