This Whole Batman v. Superman Thing

So the new trailer dropped last weekend.

... and as much as I've whined and complained about this movie being GRIMDARK, I started feeling a bit better. They showed Robin's costume, for cryin' out loud! There was some (tiny little itty-bitty) scrap of respect being shown for the history! And it looked like they were going to acknowledge the weaknesses in Man of Steel and use them as a springboard for character growth!

I was cautiously optimistic.

But then you hear that bit from Ma Kent and it sorta all goes down the crapper. This editorial over at Topless Robot contains a good deal of profanity, but it explains the serious issues with her statement extremely well. Maybe in the context of the film it makes more sense; who knows. I just know that really want to get excited about DC's cinematic future, but every time I start to I see some other nasty, mean-spirited, let's-appeal-exclusively-to-middle-school-boys nonsense.

... not even gonna get started on the Suicide Squad today.

Fictional Realities

The other day I was reading an (old) article about Roger Ebert's reviews for movies he really hated. Down in the comments, folks began talking about one of the movies in particular and one person made a very interesting comment:

I think an ending that says "the entire movie you just watched never actually happened" is just about one step above "it was all a dream." I don't like walking out of a theater thinking that there's a chance that nothing I just saw mattered and I was tricked.

I am certainly not arguing that this person is wrong, I can completely see where that opinion comes from, but I immediately thought: "why?" Why can we accept so much from our fiction (superheroes, talking alien robots, The Rock) but a simple reminder that our fiction is fiction yanks us out of it?

Back in 2011, when DC launched "The New 52," I remember taking it badly. The universe I had grown to know and love was GONE 4EVR. Never mind the fact that "my" universe had already replaced another that came before it back in 1986. Now, four years later, we might even be moving to yet another new universe with all this Convergence stuff.

... and again: all this headache over stuff that really isn't real in a physical sense. Yet it is real, isn't it?

Batman v Superman: Dawn of DARKNESS

So the new trailer for Batman v. Superman v. Good Feelings dropped this week, and The Internet has been doing what The Internet likes to do. Some love it; some hate it; most everybody has an opinion. My opinion is probably fairly obvious from that link. I don't want to just whine, though; at least not today. Probably later.

... I opted to do a little something to improve that trailer.

The Park Is Open

First of all, let's all revisit this and revel in how rad it is:

The first Jurassic Park flick is one of my all-time favorites, and I even enjoy the cheeze of the sequels on occasion.  That slowed-down version of the theme in the above trailer gives me chills. I am looking forward to this more than I'm looking forward to Avengers 2. I understand this probably makes me a bad nerd, but it's true.

One thing that immediately struck me about the trailer (as it apparently did many others) was the scene with Chris Pratt's character riding out with the raptors. When I first saw it, I assumed they were all running from their common enemy... that the raptors would be attacking him otherwise. "What could be so terrifying that even raptors are running from it?" I asked. Eventually as more information came out, I learned that this was not the most likely explanation.

Our New Lex Luthor

I'll start this off right, with one of my (most likely) unpopular opinions: I thought Michael Rosenbaum was awesome as Lex Luthor on Smallville. Clany Brown was even better on Superman: The Animated Series. So those are my baselines for Lex Luthor on screens both small and large. Hackamn was great, but in a totally different way; Spacey was riffing on that. I think our new Lex Luthor will be more like the former two than the latter.

For those of you who haven't seen it, "our new Lex Luthor" was revealed by Entertainment Weekly last week: Mr. Jesse Eisenberg. There's not too much to see in that picture, other than he's at least bald... and annoyed... and black & white. I'm sure he'll be suitably grim & gritty.

I'm trying to get excited about these upcoming Justice League movies, since I've been a DC guy since I first saw that Super Powers Hall of Justice sitting under the Christmas tree... but they are NOT makin' it easy for me. Man of Steel almost completely missed the core of what makes Superman as a character, and little I've seen or heard recently makes me think Warner Bros. will learn any of the right lessons from Marvel.

... but when the first trailer drops, I'm sure I'll squeal with glee and change my tune. For a bit. In the meantime, I helped Entertainment Weekly out a bit with their Lex picture. Something was missing.

... or, if you prefer the aforementioned Super Powers (and who doesn't?):