… I haven’t actually seen it yet, and at this point, chances are pretty high that I won’t. If you pay regular attention to the Internet at all, you’re probably already aware that reviews of this thing are not good. It’s clocking in at 28% on Rotten Tomatoes right now, and on the various major blogs that I follow, even the kinder reviews, the ones where people are saying that they did enjoy the viewing experience for various reasons, are acknowledging that the movie isn’t particularly coherent.
Here’s a roundup of those reviews:
- My Review of Batman v Superman, and Its Reviews on John Scalzi’s Whatever
- Movie Review: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice at Smart Bitches Trashy Books
- Batman V Superman Review, With Spoilers, on Jim Hines’ blog
- Review: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Is an Unpleasant Endurance Test at The Mary Sue
- It’s Okay to Give Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice A Chance at Tor.com
I’ve been reading a lot of reviews all over the place, with a bit of a sinking heart. Because here’s the thing: I like superheroes. Even though a lot of the movie world is complaining about superhero fatigue in cinemas in general, me, I’m still 100 percent on board. I loves me some Marvel Cinematic Universe.
And I want to be on board for the DC Cinematic Universe, too. Christopher Reeve’s Superman was, after all, one of the formative movies of my childhood. And I fangirled the hell out of the first season of Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman in the 90’s. My household adores the DC Animated Universe, which gave me my first real exposure to a lot of the other heroes in the DC canon–notably, the John Stewart Green Lantern. (I would pay serious ticket money to see Idris Elba play John Stewart, just so I can hear him deliver the IN BRIGHTEST DAY speech. 😀 )
And I really want to be excited for Wonder Woman’s first major cinematic appearance. Wonder Woman all by herself was one of the reasons I wanted to keep half an eye on this movie and see if it was worth it for me to show up in the theaters for it.
But I still haven’t seen Man of Steel, and I backed off hard on wanting to see BvS as well, mainly for one big reason: the almost universal description of this film as just not fun. “Grimdark” is not what I want in my entertainment. Intellectually I get the idea of wanting to see how superheroes would really be received in our modern world, and the distinct likelihood that their presence in society would be received with much more suspicion than in eras past.
On the other hand, I find the real world way too grim and dark as it is. At the end of the day, I want my superheroes to be figures of hope. To be heroic. (C.f., my earlier post about this movie pulling a 7-Zark-7.) To have added a bit more color and brightness to the world.
I mean honestly, DC, what’s up with the color palette in your movie universe? You guys don’t seem allergic to color in the TV shows you’re putting out! (And please to note that yeah, I’m on board with The Flash and Supergirl!) I’m not asking you to make your movies look just like Marvel’s, but y’know, some occasional brightness would do wonders. Not to mention better treatment of the supporting characters. And a bit less wholesale death and destruction.
So yeah. I’ll be over here waiting for Wonder Woman’s solo outing next year, and getting my DC on with the TV shows in the meantime. And maybe watching some of the excellent animated stories again. I particularly recommend “World’s Finest”, the three-parter they did with Bats and Supes going at it, which for my money was a way more entertaining version of this story.
(I’ll say this though, for a movie I haven’t even seen, BvS sure is doing a good job of making me talk about it! So there’s that!)
