Comic Book and Superhero movie & TV discussion.

[Bellenda Carlisle]

Just got to give a quick shout out to the Batman movie that came out this week that nobody is talking about. Batman Bad Blood is all kinds of awesome. Admittedly I'm a big fan of the animated DCU but I thought this one one was kick arse.

I watch all of these religiously too and for the most part I really enjoy them

 

 

It didn't have enough fucking Batman in it! For me Batman is Bruce Wayne battering bad guys and solving crimes, we get one or 2 Batman cartoons a year, I wanna see Bruce be the boss, not his extended family rescuing him while he's being mind controlled.

 

[DEF]

 

Just got to give a quick shout out to the Batman movie that came out this week that nobody is talking about. Batman Bad Blood is all kinds of awesome. Admittedly I'm a big fan of the animated DCU but I thought this one one was kick arse.

I watch all of these religiously too and for the most part I really enjoy them

 

It didn't have enough fucking Batman in it! For me Batman is Bruce Wayne battering bad guys and solving crimes, we get one or 2 Batman cartoons a year, I wanna see Bruce be the boss, not his extended family rescuing him while he's being mind controlled.

Yeah I can understand that. But still its a cracking 70 minute feature. IMO the only issue I really had was

 

 

The Mad Hatter being part of the League. I've always thought of him as way more unhinged than in Bad Blood as well.

 

 

Edited March 26, 2016 by DEF

[Bellenda Carlisle]

Hans Zimmer is a bit of a dirty word around here but I really liked Wonder Woman's theme in BvS.

 

https://youtu.be/Gw_o7XUX3fg

[d-d-d-dAz]

 

 

GOOD GOOGLY MOOGLY fellas. What the fuck was that?

 

I didn't hate it, it's nowhere near as bad as some of the rampaging bandwagon of hate would have you believe, but I didn't love it either. I don't really know what I thought.

 

It was as if they literally threw everything they could think of at it in the hope that something would stick. Like when Superman proposed to Lois from beyond the grave... It came from nowhere and fizzled out immediately. I also didn't like having to spend 20 minutes trying to believe the big man was dead when literally no one believed it.

 

I also hated how Snyder clearly couldn't work out how to resolve Superman v Batman properly, so settled on a really lame 'a single name can diffuse homocidal rage' and then just lobbed another baddy on.

 

Jess Eisenberg was a pain. For the first few scenes, I was thinking he was going to be the best thing about it and then he just got boring and annoying very quickly. It sticks in my throat abit that Snyder has gone on record this week as saying Bryan Cranston was as good as cast and he went out on a limb to get Eisenberg cast. I genuinely believe Eisenberg was the root of all evil in this film (well, after the harsh cuts and schizophrenic bouncing around in the first hour) as his childish, skittish, goofy character not only seemed to be in the wrong film but seemed to provide the lack of purpose or motive that characterised the rest of the film. If as an audience we don't see any reason for the motivations for the antagonist, it's much harder to root for the heroes fighting his villainy. I reckon an actor like Cranston could single handedly made this an infinitely better move, with purpose and audience investment.

 

But yeah, it wasn't all bad.

 

Lost in amongst it was possibly the greatest screen Bruce Wayne (if not Batman) ever, and a crack-a-jack performance from Affleck in general. Jeremy Irons was great, too.

 

Oh, and Wonder Woman had a pretty fantastic introduction.

 

I was watching the uninteresting, bloated CGI shitefest that was Doomsday and the gang and I couldn't help but think 'gee whizz, I'd really like to see an actual Batman film and an actual Wonder Woman film.'

 

Once the gags started flying towards the end I could see some potential for a justice league film, but Jesus they need to bomb Snyder off.

 

I realise this review was a rambling mess. But, in a way, it's really hard to compile a sensible, linear review of a film that was not sensible and lacked any logical linear progression.

 

Tell you what, though, fucking easy to override Kryptonian security on their mother ships.

 

I'm exhausted.

 

Though, I saw it at the Empire in Leicester Square and it got a round of applause at the end, and a standing ovation from some quarters. So it's doing something right.

 

 

[Rey_Piste]

Some of the Punisher stuff was amazingly brutal and I could've done with seeing a bit more of it. Overall there were a couple of aspects of the Punisher character that didn't sit right with me, but more in concept than execution, Bernthal (as always) was great.

What in particular irked you about the portrayal of Frank? I definitely think that his stuff was the strongest part of the two main story arcs. Particularly the way Frank was more than happy to play possum draw ib his enemies.

[Slapnut]

Batman vs Superman spoilers:

 

 

It's shit. The "storyline" is shit. Henry Cavill is shit. Jessie Eisenberg is shit. The CGI is shit. In fact, the only thing that isn't shit is Ben Afflek.

 

Batman: ARGH IM GOING TO KILL SUPERMAN! Oh hold on, his mother has the same name as my mother? Ah nevermind then.

 

Edited March 26, 2016 by Slapnut

[d-d-d-dAz]

I'll tell you one thing, the Empire is fucking expensive.

 

Fifty notes for me and the missus!

[Rey_Piste]

I'll tell you one thing, the Empire is fucking expensive.

 

Fifty notes for me and the missus!

I hope that you were served grapes by concubines whilst watching the film for that price. Saying that since one of my friends is the assistant manager of my local cinema I haven't paid full price to see a film if I have to pay at all in the past 3 years.

[Scott Malbranque]

Dazzlers review is pretty much how I felt, on the snout.

[Bellenda Carlisle]

Lost in amongst it was possibly the greatest screen Bruce Wayne (if not Batman) ever, and a crack-a-jack performance from Affleck in general. Jeremy Irons was great, too.

...

I couldn't help but think 'gee whizz, I'd really like to see an actual Batman film and an actual Wonder Woman film.'

I think a lot of people are going to take that from this film, which is great because Batfleck was everything I hoped he would be and he completely deserves to be judged on his own merits, even if you hate the film it's obvious a Batman film with him could still be great. I would hardly say he was lost among it though, he pretty much stole the show.

[d-d-d-dAz]

Oh, I'd definitely say lost amongst it. If not lost amongst the film in and of itself, certainly amongst the hoopla that's followed it. For every one story about how he knocked it out the park, there's 10 more about SADFLECK (which was hilarious) or some other negativity.

 

It's a shame, because Batman turning it on and wrecking fools was the only real time blood started to flow properly during the film.

 

I really want to see them do a Batfleck v Letoker (sorry, that's terrible) movie. They both seem strangely suited to the roles.

[Bellenda Carlisle]

Massive BvS Spoilers

 

 

 

http://www.ew.com/article/2016/03/26/batman-v-superman-ending/2

 

Snyder talks about the ending of BvS and what he has planned for the next part.

Batman taking the reigns to form the Justice League and Revive Supes sounds like a pretty cool idea to me for a big Avengers style team up movie

 

 

 

 

I really want to see them do a Batfleck v Letoker (sorry, that's terrible) movie. They both seem strangely suited to the roles.

I fancy your chances and I agree it would really be something to look forward to. The question is whether they'd set it before or after BvS. Edited March 27, 2016 by Call me Bellend

[quote the raven]

BVS spoilers and gripes and explaining

 

 

Ok here is my main gripe, how many fucking people did Bats kill? So we are now living in a world with a batman that sees no problem machine gunning bad guys? So that begs the question how are the Suicide squad still alive? He will kill random fools but not joker?

 

Also the whole his mums name thing, i got it, his dad last word was Martha, Bats had a flash abck and seemed to suffer some form of PTS enough to stop him killing supes, allowing Lois to come in explain the plot to him. Good enough, he then agrees to help him to save his mum (standard batman thinking) by the time he does that Doomsday is loose. A short while later Superman is dead. So really he has no chance to change his mind about is superman is evil or needs to be stopped. 

 

Its very very comic book, alot of the nightmare dream is a huge massive spoiler to where its heading as is what flash said when he came out of the screen. If they go the way i think its going....its going to get dark beyond belief 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 27, 2016 by quote the raven

[d-d-d-dAz]

 

 

I've been thinking about Snyder pushing back against the studio and getting Cranston nixed in favour of Eisenberg, and I actually think the whole mess is symptomatic of what undermined this film; in trying to be too clever, he's really fucked up.

 

Eisenbergs performance was insane. Absolutely batshit. It possibly could have fit somewhere in the shiny, often tongue-in-cheek world of Marvel; it was no more batshit than what Mickey Rourke or Ben Kingsley turned in for the Iron Man movies, for example. And, as I said before, the bigger issue was a combination of poor acting and poor writing left the audience with no earthly idea why Lex was doing what he was doing.

 

And the worst thing about that? It could be solved with a simpler casting and actually feeding off the narrative of the film.

 

This film is, in part, about the collateral damage to the city and people caused by Superman and it's about a political struggle to decide what to do about this 'meta human'. Do you know what sort of Lex would have fitted in that film? A grizzled, weary older guy who lost billions of dollars as Superman and Zod lay waste to downtown metropolis and brought buildings he owned down. And, in that context, it'd be perfectly believable that he'd have 'ins' in the world of politics, and he could try and leverage those contacts to get the import license for Kryptonite (that he didn't seem to need) or whatever(it's have made more sense for him to being trying to get a state sponsored billion dollar contract to develop anti-meta human technologies). Then, when Finch decides she doesn't like the idea of being bought by the reviled Luthor, you are back on track with the bombing.

 

I thought during the film, when they kept making clear how Lex's dad was the driving force behind his sons success (which completely undermined the character, too, as that's not Lex. Lex is a savvy genius), that his dad sounding like a much more interesting guy than his son. I hope they bring him in.

 

It's crazy how much this is playing on my mind, and how much I think it could have improved the film if they hadn't tried to be too cute.

 

 

Edited March 27, 2016 by d-d-d-dAz

[ColinBollocks]

 

Similarly, I've spent a silly amount of time ruminating on what made the whole film such an odd watch. The more I pick it apart the more I really don't like it at all.

 

I think one of the bigger stories that got buried underneath all the set up and wasn't fully realised was jaded Batman getting very loose with his no killing policy and what not. They'd have the odd conversation about him being all fed up and what not, but it wasn't really enough to convince that Batman now loves machine guns and marks men so they get dealt with in prison. The ending with Batman punching the branding Bat symbol against the wall instead of Luther was a neat idea, but like almost everything else in the movie didn't have nearly the impact it should have if they did a better job telling the story.

 

The news about Cranston getting dumped is rubbish. Oddly enough I was randomly listening to some old Breaking Bad interviews yesterday morning and in one of them Cranston broke down some of his thinking on how he approached the Walter White character. One that I like was him saying he purposefully made sure White had a thin, rubbish moustache or an "impotent moustache" as he put it. I bring it up because that sort of subtle detail and creative thinking would have really given depth to a character that needed it. In this film Luther came across with the same lack of focus and surface you get from Bray Wyatt doing a promo.

 

Joker should just shout Martha at Batman from now on whenever he's about to get his teeth kicked in. Give himself a few seconds to recover.