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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INTERSTELLAR

Paramount Pictures

Rated PG-13

Running time: 169 Minutes

Click below to watch a movie trailer of Interstellar.



In Paramount Pictures Interstellar, former farmer astronaut Matthew McConaughey agrees to leave his family behind in order to pilot a desperate mission through interstellar space in order to save a doomed Earth.

A combination of Gravity and 2001: A Space Odyssey - especially toward the end - Interstellar, Written with his brother Jonathan Nolan and Directed by Christopher Nolan, is a dramatic science fiction movie that explores the fate and potential of a doomed human race. This is not your typical CGI action-packed science fiction movie - but a practical examination of the exploration of deep space and the intentions of actually going out into space, with astronauts McConaughey and Anne Hathaway on opposite sides of the argument. It was great that Nolan had researched NASA and the private space program SpaceX - as well having former astronaut Marsha Ivins and theoretical physicist Kip Thorne, who has a cameo, as a scientific consultant to Interstellar to maintain the authenticity of the movie.

With Earth's natural resources, especially food ravaged from a blight, becoming so scarce - humanity is on the verge of failure in the midst of a dust bowl. McConaughey does what he can to improve his farm. It was nice that Nolan got permission from Director Ken Burns of the TV mini-series documentary The Dust Bowl, which took place in America during the Great Depression of the 1930's, to use their interview footage in the movie Interstellar. The logos for Warner Bros., Paramount, Syncopy, and Legendary all have a "dusty" look to them to foreshadow the movie. What got to me the most was the historical revisionism of the Apollo moon landings in McConaughey's daughter Murphy's/Mackenzie Foy's school. Of course McConaughey takes umbrage to such revisionism.

One of the most important plot points in the movie deals with time dilation and suspended animation  - time will go slower for the astronauts than for the people back home on Earth due to Einstein's general relativity equations, especially near the black hole, of which the black hole and the wormhole are two completely different things in the movie, so the people on Earth will age while the astronauts will remain the same age while they travel through the wormhole and are out on the other side of the galaxy. This was a tearjerker of a plot point theme with McConaughey and reminded me of The Twilight Zone episode The Long Morrow as the movie bounces back and forth between Earth and space.

I thought the constant use of the poem "Do not go gentle into that good night" by Dylan Thomas, which was written for his dying father, was quite appropriate - especially during the launching of the spacecraft Endurance while it searches for a way to save the human race as they follow after the Lazarus missions.

Interstellar also has an interstellar cast, most of whom were never in the marketing of the film that I am aware of - with at least one star's involvement kept secret. So it was awesome to see these people in the movie, without have any preconceived notions of what kind of characters these stars would be playing. I really do not want to give away the stars of this movie - except for this, it was funny seeing Topher Grace in the movie as I had just seen him that morning on TV in That 70's Show. It is curious when I saw this movie that it was the day before Anne Hathaway's birthday.

Since Nolan wanted to avoid using anthropomorphic robots in the movie, it was strange to me not to see a traditional humanoid-looking robot. But the use of the quadrilateral design of the robots, Bill Irwin and Josh Stewart, were interesting - and more human with intelligence and emotion than most robots, especially with McConaughey programming the robots - and that the design of these robots was especially impressive to me when used on the water planet Miller.

Hans Zimmer's unique musical score was dictated by Nolan who wanted the traditional instruments to go by the wayside.

The movie is a long movie. With the movie trailers, Interstellar is close to three hours.

It is curious that for the limited release of the movie - Interstellar was released in 70mm and 35mm film in theaters that still support those formats, including 70mm IMAX theaters. This is an exception to Paramount Pictures goal to stop releasing movies on film and to distribute only in digital format as nearly all the theaters in the United States have converted to digital projection.

At the end of the movie, the audience applauded.

Click below to watch another movie trailer of Interstellar.



Click below to watch a final movie trailer of Interstellar.



Rated PG-13 for violence and language. Running time: 169 Minutes.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.

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