For the last 8 years, at least since the release of Marvel Studio's first Iron Man film, superhero movies have been very popular with many earning over or close to a billion dollars in worldwide box office returns. That said, there have still been a fair share of super-heroic box office failures. Many of these failures (I am looking at you Lone Ranger) were due to the producers and writers lack of connection with the source material and a basic misunderstanding of the viewing public's sensibilities. Some movies, like John Carter, were ruined by incredibly poor marketing. After-all, John Carter was a very good film but it should have had a better title (I mean at least mention the planet Mars) and a stronger publicity campaign.
The lone Ranger felt like it had been produced by committee with jarringly different feels to various sections of the film, not to mention it was too long and didn't have the proper sense of being a "Lone Ranger" adventure until the last 30 minutes of the movie. So, not every superhero film has fared well in this renaissance period of special-effects laden epic productions. Which brings me to Superman.
Superman has always been a tough cinematic nut to crack; but even so, he has been a well-received character with endless fan support almost since his inception. The serials of the 1940s, followed the television show of the 1950s and thereafter by various small-screen shows both animated and live all through the 1960s and 1970s. Then came Christopher Reeve's'"Superman: The Movie" whose tag line was "You Will Believe A Man Can Fly"; and we did. The first couple of Reeve Super films were very successful and no doubt made a star out of its leading man. The latter Reeve's' efforts were disappointing to be kind and downright awful to be honest.
After the last Reeve Superman film, the character went into a deserved though likely forced hibernation and we saw little if anything in the way of superhero films until the release of Tim Burton's Batman in 1989. Looking back on those Batman films of the late 1980s and early 1990s I am startled at how not great they are...at least not as great as I thought when first I saw them. Maybe I have become more sophisticated in my viewing tastes or perhaps spoiled by the whiz-bang of today's modern digital effects but I find it difficult if not impossible to sit through a viewing of any of those Batman films no matter how much I enjoy the character.
In 2006 another attempt at bringing Superman to the silver screen was made and while it had some fine moments, its almost slavish attempt to recreate the tone and look of the original Chris Reeve movie was, in a word, unpopular. Brandon Routh, who has had to live with the failure of "Superman Returns" for ten years is only now beginning to come out from under the unhappy shadow of the film a shadow that he was not entirely responsible for...yea I am calling you out Bryan Singer...your bad on messing up this chance at a new Superman franchise and then causing we fans to wait another 8 years before someone would try again. Bad Bryan Singer...bad!
The Christopher Nolan Batman films of mid-2000s were all superb, especially 2008's "The Dark Knight" with Heath Ledger's iconic turn as the Joker. Nolan's Batman trilogy set the stage for the current DC Cinematic Universe. Yet I think that perhaps his gritty and realistic take on Gotham's protector which works so well for those films is a bit too dark for films with characters who primarily work during the daylight hours. And sadly, I think the makers (Snyder) of Man of Steel and Batman v. Superman are trying to emulate the atmosphere and therein the success of the Nolan films.
That brings me to 2013's Man of Steel directed by Zack Synder. Finally, we had a Superman movie that fans and those not so well-versed in the lore of Kal El could enjoy. Henry Cavill was a better than good Superman and the rest of the cast were way above par. The story was good though it suffered from several plot holes which made long-time fans of "Krypton's Last Son" go apoplectic.
For instance, the fact that Superman...
SPOILER....
kills General Zod didn't sit well with fans and let us not get started on the massive destruction and apparent loss of life left in the wake of the World Machine and Superman's battle with Zod. So in the end, "Man of Steel" suffered much invective from fanboy and general movie patron alike.
To paraphrase Batman, "Superman fans got the movie they needed but not the movie they wanted".
Then after three years of production, "Batman v. Superman: The Dawn of Justice" arrived and fans were giddy with anticipation despite the fact that trailers released prior to the film gave away most of the story (I hope whoever promoted that campaign of "spoiler" trailers has found gainful employment as a door greeter at Walmart). But still the promise of a film showcasing Superman and Batman together for the first time was too much to hope for. On top of that, we would get Wonder Woman and brief glimpses of the soon to formed Justice League...woot!
What could possibly go wrong with that combo of superhero perfection! Sad to say...almost everything.
Superman, once again played by Henry Cavill, was dour, brooding and seemingly unhappy about being in what was, at least initially, his own sequel; the much-maligned Ben Afleck who many thought would make a horrible Batman actually turned out to be pretty great...and then there was Wonder Woman. Gal Godot was probably just as raked over for being cast as the Amazon Princess as Afleck was for the Dark Knight, but she proved to be one of the highlights of the film. People, at the showing I attended and elsewhere, so I've read, cheered when Godot appeared in full Wonder Woman attired to take on the main villain. But these few moments of film glory couldn't compensate for:
1) A disjointed and over-long movie
2) A terrible twitchy performance by Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor
3) An overall dark and humorless film
4) Too much inside-baseball where average movie goers would be lost at the arcane and unexplained references to DC Universe lore...yes I am speaking of the Para-Demons and the Flash dream sequence.
5) No really good logical reason for Batman and Superman to fight...if they just sat down and had a coffee they could have cleared up their differences pretty quickly.
6) Batman kills people..um bad guys. I really shouldn't count this but many people do cite it as a problem. For me the notion that an older, angrier Batman is branding and putting down violent criminals like wild dogs...warms the cockles of my heart.
7) Cramming too much into such a small container. To fit Batman, Wonder Woman, Lex Luthor, Superman, Doomsday, Darkseid (via dream sequence with Para-Demons), Flash, Aquaman, Cyborg and the death of a major character into one film...just seems so exhausting and appears to be an attempt to catch up with Marvel in terms of building the DC Extended Cinematic Universe.
9) Finally, and maybe most importantly, the movie wasn't fun..just a poorly lit mash-up of too many concepts and characters which in the end wasn't the box-office champion the suits at WB hoped for nor the "out of the park" hit the fans have been clamoring for since 2013.
The only take away from Batman v. Superman is that there is hope...and lots of it! Wonder Woman was great and her solo film comes out in 2017. Afleck's Batman was also a high point and pre-production work is already starting on his solo film. The Justice League Part 1 movie is now in production and hopefully the powers that be at Warner Brothers have heard the fan complaints and tallied their financial losses and understand how to right this ship. Perhaps the first thing to do is remove Zack Snyder...and while I am not a Snyder hater...I do think that he needs to be reigned in and that other creative voices (e.g. Ben Afleck, Geof Johns) be given an opportunity to help grow this DC Cinematic Universe.
Until the Justice League arrives, I am waiting with baited breath for "Suicide Squad". I believe that Suicide Squad will be the true start to the DC Extended Universe that it will be crazy good.
Superman, for now, may be from suffering a "standing 8 count" but you can't keep a good hero down and he has come back from worse than this...just ask Doomsday.
George B.
