Before I go any further, I just want to say that I don’t consider this an official review. This is a girl who is not into super hero movies or comics and hasn’t seen many of the blockbusters (including Man of Steel). This is merely the thoughts and observations of a girl who went to see this movie because of her lust (and a little love) for Ben Affleck.
With that cleared up, where were we?
Like I mentioned above, I only went to see this movie to support Boo Affleck and judge for myself because in case you missed it, the critics just had a field day with this movie and decided they didn’t like it. Actually, going back to the casting announcement of Ben Affleck as Batman, I think a lot of people had made up their minds to just dislike the movie.
I still honestly can’t tell if I liked the movie or not but I will say that it is not as terrible as the critics would like to make you believe it is. I have to say probably the last 30-45 minutes made up for the rest of the movie and felt like an action movie because before that, it was just way too much dialogue for me and some sequences that had me confused (which I now understand thanks to Google. Thanks Google!).
I don’t know if it was intentional or if it was just me but I felt like the movie drew parallels between Superman and Jesus. In one scene we see the crowd clamoring just to touch him\his cape, which reminded me of the bible story of the woman with “the issue of blood”, who just wanted to touch Jesus and be healed. When the city turns on him, there is a scene where an image of Superman is being hung to dry so to speak and that reminded me also of when Jesus was sentenced to crucifixion by the crowd. Did anyone else get that vibe?
The first 2 hours basically was an introspective journey between the main characters and I wondered how kids would be able to absorb that. Funny, as I left the theater, I overheard a dad and his kids and the kids blew raspberries at the movie. Anyways, I think I will just break it down into things I liked and didn’t like.
THINGS I LIKED
I don’t care what y’all say but I had no issues with Ben Affleck as Batman especially after reading Zack Snyder’s vision was to have a more seasoned Bruce Wayne as a stark contrast to younger Superman. I think he held his own and was one of the better things about the movie (if not the best). I enjoyed seeing him do pullups shirtless.
Gal Galdot as Wonder Woman was great casting. She was the right mix of sexy, intriguing and mysterious. I think other people agreed too, the theater broke in applause when she made her debut. Too bad her outfit doesn’t do much for protection.
I liked the way they introduced us to other vigilantes that will most likely be in future movies. I may or may not have let out a squeal when Aquaman (Jason Momoa) was shown. He so fahn.
The casting – for the most part – was great. Y’all know how I feel about casting. Muy important. While I did enjoy Jeremy Irons as Alfred, I confess I kept thinking of Michael Caine.
Hans Zimmer per usual did his thing and I think the cinematography was good even if a few fight scenes were a blur to me. I appreciated that the CGI’s weren’t overdone. Those usually irk me when it just looks so fake.
I have an issue with British actors not mastering the American accent hands down and letting it slip here and there. Irks me a lot especially since my ears are sharp and I rarely miss the slip ups. So I was happy to hear that Henry Cavill did not slip up and delivered a decent American accent (How is this guy not related to Matt Bomer? They both were chiseled not created)
THINGS I DID NOT LIKE
Oh my gosh. Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor was awful. Actually, every time this kid gets a role (save for his Mack Zuckerberg role) I wonder how he got it especially since he looks all of 25. So this role especially, baffled me (didn’t help that I was comparing him to Kevin Spacey). I totally see what they were going for – I think. A quirky villain perhaps? but it completely missed the mark. It felt like a very, very bad interpretation of Heath Ledger’s Joker character and it just irritated the hell out of me. No siree.
So, I didn’t think the beef between Superman and Batman was fully fleshed out. Yea, Yea I know the reason that we were given but it just seemed not enough for that much animosity. Quite frankly, the reason just came off like the pettiness of one of them Housewives show.
I don’t know if I can blame Ben Affleck for this as I assume he had a stunt double but there was a scene – for those who have watched, the fight scene in the desert – eek, that was terrible. I basically saw people pausing to be body slammed. That should have been edited better.
I think that’s all I remember. Overall, I’d say go see it, if nothing else but to make your own judgement and the best way to make that judgement would be to see it on the big screen. If you’ve seen it, what did you think?