(no subject)

[shadowkat]

Co-workers saw Batman vs. Superman over the weekend, and the consensus appeared to be, it's not a bad film, and really doesn't have that much action. Most of the action scenes, what little there is, are at the end. They found it a bit slow actually, and their attention wandered. But overall, worth seeing in a movie theater for the cinematography, just maybe not for $16 in IMAX.

And I found this review or rather commentary interesting...mainly in what it states about critical reviews in general and specifically in regards to superhero films.

Batman V Superman is rocking a Fresh 72% with audiences at Rotten Tomatoes, and a 7.4/10 with audiences at Metacritic. It’s not that audiences are “right” and critics are “wrong” here, but it does feel like the critical consensus is a bit off the mark this time around. I think that sometimes movies become fair game, or that some sort of critical mob mentality sets in, and a perfectly decent film is piled on a little too harshly. (If I hadn’t looked ahead of time I would have guessed Batman v. Superman would have scored upper 60′s to lower 70′s on Rotten Tomatoes. No masterpiece, but a good superhero movie regardless.)

And also from Forbes...this article How Even the Worst Dawn of Justice Reviews Helped Rather Than Hurt..

One of the narratives coming out of this weekend’s blockbuster Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice opening was that it “defied the critics” or that “critics don’t matter.” Well, as always with these sorts of things, it’s a little more complicated than that. Yes, the film got a stunningly low 29% on Rotten Tomatoes, and the average score was 5/10 (which is closer to mixed-negative as opposed to outright dismissal). And yes, the film made (as of this writing) $170.1 million domestic and $424.1m worldwide despite the fact that 7.1/10 critics on that popular aggregation website disliked the picture.

You might think that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice was something of a critic-proof picture, but you’re only half-right. The majority of those critics confirmed that, be it good or bad, viewers of said picture would get their money’s worth in a few key areas. It wasn’t so much that audiences ignored the critics (although some surely did), but rather that the negative reviews offered up confirmation of several core elements that were part of the film’s marketing campaign.

They confirmed that Batman and Superman do beat the heck out of each other. They confirmed that the film is full of “gotta see this in IMAX” spectacle and cinematic grandeur. They argued that Ben Affleck made a compelling Batman. They mostly were thrilled to see Wonder Woman in her late-in-the-game action cameo. The reviews were terrible to be sure, but they acknowledged that the film provided value regarding most of the core elements that a viewer might want out of the film.

Had those notices been along the lines of “The movie is boring, Batman and Superman don’t fight, visually bland and/or lit with a flashlight, Wonder Woman is lame, Affleck is a terrible Batman, and don’t take the kids,” I would argue the numbers would have been a lot lower. Okay, that last one applies, but that wasn’t a deal-breaker. If you’re a regular moviegoer already on the cusp of buying a ticket, even those poor reviews assured you that you’d, at least, get the stuff you wanted to get in a movie called Batman v Superman.

I have to agree...the reviews, if anything, have made me more curious about the film than less so.
Also, Superman and Batman have been done to death -- the only thing left to do with either is have them meet up. There really is nothing else you can say about them that hasn't been already said, ad naseum. Here's a brief list of all of the Superman/Batman movies and television series that I can remember:

Superman - I-IV (starring Christopher Reeves. Just watch I-III.)
Tim Burton's Batman films (I-II)
Joel Schumaker's Batman (skip - it is the worst Batman film ever made, actually I think it may be amongst the worst films I've seen. It bombed.)
Chris Nolan's Batman series (Batman Begins, Dark Knight, Dark Knight Rises)
Batman Beyond (cartoon series - quite good)
Superman (cartoon series)
1950s Superman films
Lois & Clark: the New Adventures of Superman
Smallville (Superman as a teen)
Gotham (Batman as a kid)
Batman - 1960s television series starring Adam West -- notable for the slogan "Same Bat Time, Same Bat Channel" (if you were a kid in the 1970s, you probably saw it in reruns.)
Frank Miller's Animated Dark Knight Returns - films based on his books
Justice League (cartoon)
Superman : Doomesday - animated cartoon (Lex Luthor is voiced by James Marsters, so bonus) - this is actually really good by the way, animation wise and story-wise. Does the Death of Superman story arc justice.

There's probably more. Zombies, Vampires, Batman, and Superman seem to have been done a lot.

That said? I admittedly have a weakness for the character of Batman. He fascinates me. Wounded fictional male characters fascinate me. Not in reality, just in fiction. Also have a weakness for superhero flicks. Always have. Somewhat burned out now, though. (Gee, I wonder why. It's not like we don't have a superhero flick every two or three months, plus five or six television series focused on them, or anything.)

I'm admittedly tempted to go this coming weekend, but alas, already have plans to see the far lighter and witter, live musical revival of The Robber Bridegroom at the Roundabout Theater on Saturday. I love live theater. Plus the audiences are better behaved than movie theater audiences for some reason.
The Robber Bridegroom also got much better reviews than Batman vs. Superman, so there's that. And I think Stephan Pascale is more attractive than Henry Caville (who for some reason doesn't do anything for me, I know I'm in the minority on that point) or Ben Affleck. He plays the Robber Bridegroom and has a great singing voice.

The Robber Bridegroom is a rarely seen musical adaptation of an Eudora Welty novella of the same name...based in turn on a folk legend. It's part Tall Tale and part American Fairy Tale. Has a live blue-grass band.

The Roundabout Theater Company, in association with commercial producer Daryl Roth (“It Shoulda Been You”), will produce the 1970s musical, which bowed on Broadway in 1975. Alfred Uhry (“Driving Miss Daisy”) wrote the book and lyrics for the bluegrass-infused music by Robert Waldman.

Based on the 1942 novella by Eudora Welty, “Robber Bridegroom” centers on a Robin Hood-like bandit (Pasquale) who falls for the daughter of a rich plantation owner. The original Broadway production starred Kevin Kline and Patti LuPone in the lead roles.

The story intrigues me, as does the music. Besides my fetish for superheros, I have a fetish for musicals. Except for Opera...which irritates and bores me. The appeal of Opera, for some reason or other, remains lost on me. (I know I'm in the minority on that score as well. But there it is.)