Batman Movies

I've been thinking about all this for a while.  And I've prided myself on being a fan of Batman since I was a kid. I mean little kid. I was looking at comic books at 3 or 4. Even if I couldn't understand what I was reading I still enjoyed comic books and was enthralled with the idea of people being able to do things normal people couldn't or wouldn't do. Naturally I read a lot of Batman and Spiderman because they were the most human. Batman because he didn't have any superpowers, and Spiderman, not because he had them, but because he had the most human responses to things he was doing. Batman is more of a favorite because he's sort of the ultimate man. Brains, brawn, detective skills, advanced technology, cool vehicles, hidden lair, sometimes he chases Catwoman around too.

Now I know what you're thinking, it's time for men to put away childish things. But what are you supposed to do when something meant a great deal to you in your childhood, and if the story is written right, as there's a great deal of talented writers not me necessarily, Batman has the ability to appeal to people of all ages. It's an escape. To revere something or someone, even a fictional something that can do things we can't. Look at The Dark Knight Trilogy for instance. I've made some mentions of this before I think, but I'll try to delve a little harder here.

Christopher Nolan took Batman seriously, which is what you'd really have to do with the story anyway. A kid witnesses the murder of his parents in front of him, then proceeds to put his life on the line when he fights the mob, and terrorists with his bare hands. That's not some hokey little pie in the sky thing. There'd have to some kind of examination of that struggle to show the emotion of a child dealing with that to an extremely rich man putting his life and fortune on the line to fight evil. We tend to think of evil as a word used for the cheesy sci-fi movies from the 50s with their dastardly villians or we tend to think of evil as something from comics. Never mind that evil is all around us everyday. People are murdered, robbed, raped, around us or around the world constantly.

Heroes are people we can look up to, either by example, or by trying to do the things they do. Not too mention the fantastic behind all of this, there's a lot of things that hold sentimental value in regards to stuff like this, and most fans just want somebody who'll respect the things we've been around our whole lives as much as we do. That's what should drive the making of a movie. Should. We've seen a lot of hokey takes on Batman. From the tv series to Batman and Robin that horrifying movie with George Clooney. The costume had nipples for crying out loud. NIPPLES!

Now when Nolan rebooted Batman, it opened the door for a lot of things. It respected the material, and put it in a realistic world. He managed to do that for 3 films, which is kind of unheard of, though Marvel Studios, has done it well for a lot more than 3 films... Still DC has had trouble putting more than 3 films together that fans can take seriously.  Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy produced probably the greatest comic book based movie in The Dark Knight, and provided a springboard for possible expansion of the universe he created. And naturally when Man of Steel came out people assumed that was taking place in the same universe. And now with the unneeded reboot of Zack Synder, Batman is back to square one.

Cringeworthy Ben Affleck is Batman now. Eep. Apart from minor mistakes in Nolan's Trilogy, such as mispronouncing Ra's Al Ghul's  name, it's pronunced "Raysh" not "Raz" and using the phrase "close to the chest" instead of "close of the vest" which a Marvel movie used correctly, I think its a mild dig at DC for messing up the saying, and all this does is show how big douchebag fans like me are quick to point out things like that. Nolan's a very fine director, and did us right by fans, and really did right by storytelling in general. If I'm not mistaken he and his brother are the ones who wrote the scripts, and they've got a knack for setting up loose ends and then tying up those ends into nice emotional and satisfying conclusions.

Zack Synder seems intent on being DC's version of Joss Whedon, which he isn't. He's barely had some mediocre success, while Whedon and the Marvel crew are breaking out into TV and continuing to develop runaway successes with movies. The Dark Knight Trilogy left room to continue the story in a realistic way, while Synder has opted to cram parts from different comic book stories in an effort to give this new universe some history and make to make it seem more established. They didn't even call Batman Batman, and Jesse Eisernberg's Lex Luthor was annoying. I tend to think at this point what comic fans are going to be stuck with is subpar movies with DC Comics' characters and above average movies with Marvel characters. It's "just comic books" but it's what now kids and adults have distracted, entertained, amused, and escaped into fantasy with. And that's all I have to say about that.

Marvel Movies Vs. DC Movies

Today I heard that Jaimie Alexander was a possibility to play Wonder Woman for the DC Comics movies.  She's played Lady Sif in the Thor movies, and is on this new show Blindspot.  I was trying to figure out why she wasn't playing the part.  According to the article I saw, they obviously didn't pick her, especially since by now, we know they casted Gal Gadot instead.  I'm trying to figure what the hell DC does with its movie.  Marvel has managed to make excellent casting choices and has even been able to bring some of their secondary characters and make them first stringers.  With the Batman vs. Superman movie due out in about a month, people are still cringing over Ben Affleck being cars as Batman, and Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor.  I've literally no idea why they've got Zack Synder directing this thing.  I mean, holy hell, Jaimie Alexander would've been perfect, she has the right look, and already has the whole ability to fight thing down, as this article I read points out.  I don't understand why DC makes such obvious mistakes.  They should've kept Christian Bale as Batman too, even if he didn't want to do it anymore, you throw enough money at him till he agrees.  They made a ton of money with the Dark Knight trilogy, but hey, why continue success, when you can throw a huge turd on the wall to see if it sticks?

Why Marvel Comics Will Do Better Than DC Comics At The Movies

Both Marvel and DC Comics have a long great history of excellent characters and excellent talent writing and drawing them.  The transition to the small screen and the movies is something else.  Though not the first superhero, certainly the biggest at the time, Batman starring Michael Keaton in the late 80's was everything a comics nut would love.  There was a realism to it.  Even non-superhero movies need realism, and what made it so cool was that realism.  It wasn't so much the acting, though that helped, it was the setting.  Actually trying to provide some semblance of a city, made it believeable.  The franchise later tanked horribly, when they started putting nipples on costumes that were supposed to be body armor, and resorted to crappy puns, but the stage had already been set, the right actors, the right direction, and the superhero movie could shine

Of course now its 2015, and the excellent Dark Knight Trilogy is behind opening the doors for an expanded DC Comics movie universe, as well Marvel pumping out movies that aren't just well written, or based on some of their more interesting stories, but they're putting tremendous effort into putting out a high standard product for the fans.  Movie budgets are obviously way higher, and special effects are far superior to even movies made 10 years ago.  But things are different between the DC movie franchise and the Marvel one than just production and characters.  Marvel has the upper hand in characters that have better name recognition than DC, though DC has more history, at least comic book history.

It seems to be that Marvel hasn't made a single bad casting move yet.  Which is just crazy to me.  Even with the Marvel Cinematic Universe breaking into TV with shows like Daredevil and Agents of SHIELD, the effort even in making TV shows is evident.  Yes, you can't produce the same effects in TV as with a movie, but even the storytelling comes off extremely well.  The thing is, its about effort, and its shows in the Marvel movies and shows.  Casting Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor is horrible, casting Ben Affleck is also horrible.  Affleck already had a shot in a Daredevil movie, which tanked, and Eisenberg was in that dopey Facebook movie.  First thought that comes to my mind is, "Why is Mark Zuckerberg trying to kill Superman?"  Both DC and Marvel have has some stinkers, but DC just seems to making casting blunders, when they've got the money, the time, and the opportunity to do something great.  They really couldn't just offer Christian Bale more money to keep playing Batman?  He was great in The Dark Knight Trilogy, and look at what Marvel has done with Robert Downey Jr.  He's got 3 Iron Man movies, 2 Avengers movies, and plenty more to follow.  DC should be milking the cow as long as they have it around, but now Bale is gone, and I guess Batman will be Ben Affleck's comeback or improvement project or something.

I want to see comic movies because I love the characters, and love the concepts, I don't want to go and be sort of held hostage by watching because this is the only Batman, or whatever, that's here at the moment, so that's what we have to go with.  You want to go and be able to enjoy the movie, and if the actor is good enough you won't even "see" them, so to speak, but you'll see that beloved character right in front of you.  That's all.  No amount of special effects, or story, will hide bad acting, or likely alter pre-movies bias.  Comic moviegoers don't like crappy casting, storytellers and writers, don't like it, and neither will the general public.