Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

[TGM]

I would assume they want it to fail in order to force a change of direction moving forward. If the movie succeeds, then we'll get more of the same, which many people don't want. But if it doesn't, they might rethink their strategy and alter their approach with future movies accordingly.

[Skitch]

Thats fine in theory, but another side effect of a big budget comic book movie being a flop is all studios reeling in budgets on future comic book films. We all know it will happen inevitably, and maybe it will be a good thing for the subgenre in the long run, but I don't want the bubble to pop. I know many cinephiles want it to end, but I love comic book movies. I just hope they've become established enough that the genre will continue in some capacity after the crash.

[Dukefrukem]

This dropped a lot more rapidly than I expected, but I don't think Warners is shitting their pants. At least not in the longer term.

They aren't at all.

http://io9.gizmodo.com/warner-bros-i...man-1769391086

Now, with DC movies dated through 2020, the outcome has led to a flurry of rumors that the studio will make adjustments — maybe add a new producer? — rather than allow BvS director Zack Snyder to proceed with the two-part Justice League. But sources with firsthand knowledge of the situation say the studio has no such plans. One says the filmmakers naturally will evaluate what went wrong with BvS, but when it comes to Justice League, “we’re not going to take a movie that’s supposed to be one thing and turn it into a copycat of something else.”

[number8]

If the thing successfully sells a shit ton of product placement and licensed merchandising, who gives a shit about box office, really.

[Dukefrukem]

If the thing successfully sells a shit ton of product placement and licensed merchandising, who gives a shit about box office, really.

Doesn't that just add to the movie's budget so the studio doesn't have to shell out money at the start?

[number8]

Doesn't that just add to the movie's budget so the studio doesn't have to shell out money at the start?

But it's a continuous gain that doesn't stop after the opening weekend, no? It's all brand building, and the movie being bad isn't going to diminish the Batman and Superman brands. Even if people abandons this movie completely and the box office take is a disappointment, those people will still show up to the Justice League movie.

[Irish]

Remember the Cars movies from Pixar? The ones that nobody likes. The merchandizing from those movies makes Disney $2B a year (that's billion-with-a-b, per year). And that's just Cars, which is a relatively no-nothing brand.

[DavidSeven]

These movies have a high floor financially, no doubt. It's Batman and Superman for chrissakes. In that sense, it won't matter if they make a steaming pile. Profits will come.

But you make something good and culturally relevant, you're talking about hundreds of millions of extra cash in ticket receipts alone. The adjusted gross on The Dark Knight is north of $1.2 billion, and that didn't even bother with 3D or include Superman. This will barely cross $900M. You can't tell me that Jurassic World has a bigger underlying property than Batman and Superman together, yet that movie, which had like decent reviews, is going to make $700-800M more worldwide than BvS.

So yeah, I definitely agree with Irish that WB isn't shitting themselves. But they definitely left a ton of cash on the table and will likely continue to do so if Snyder keeps getting torched by critics.

[number8]

It's this scene. I know it's obscured enough to debate about in the comic (and it has been debated on for decades now), but clearly Snyder interprets it a certain way.

Oy. I was right.

I perceive it as him not killing directly, but if the bad guy’s are associated with a thing that happens to blow up, he would say that that’s not really my problem. A little more like manslaughter than murder, although I would say that in the Frank Miller comic book that I reference, he kills all the time. There’s a scene from the graphic novel where he busts through a wall, takes the guy’s machine gun…I took that little vignette from a scene in The Dark Knight Returns, and at the end of that, he shoots the guy right between the eyes with the machine gun.

[Skitch]

I was surprised people debate about that page in the book. Looks like his shoots him between the eyes to me.

[Dukefrukem]

Rumor of the day: WB to release R-Rated Batman v Superman movie to theaters.

http://www.comicbookmovie.com/batman...tman-v-a137268

[Dukefrukem]

The quest for peace is almost better than Superman Returns.

[Wryan]

Approved.

[Stay Puft]

Well I don't really have anything to add. The problems with this film have been well articulated throughout the thread.

What a fucking raw deal these DC characters are getting, though. I watched Man of Steel for the first time last weekend, before seeing BvS, and I was just flabbergasted. I don't think I've ever seen a film so utterly fail to grasp what a character is about. The film's world view actually (hilariously? depressingly?) aligns with General Zod's. Why, why, why would you hire somebody like Zack Snyder to make a Superman movie.

I should have backed out of BvS after that, but whatever... I saw it and it was bad. The part that really gets me, though, is that Batman and Superman fight only because Superman literally can't spit it out. That we watch Superman try to tell Batman, twice, what Lex is doing, but gets interrupted, and then just fights, only to finally spit it out when the fight scene is over, is the most inconceivably poor, contrived, awful sort of writing. (On top of all the other bad contrivances discussed throughout the thread, like why is Lex Luthor in this movie at all? and general problems like e.g. Superman telling Batman to stop being a vigilante when Superman also acts above the law, etc.)

Two different writers I follow sum this mess up beautifully:

My fav part is when Batman and Superman join forces after realizing that they are the same character.

I saw Batman v Superman and didn't hate it as much as I was supposed to. It was mostly confusing, honestly; my first edit pass on this script would have involved a machete. Writing is incredibly cheap, I'll never understand why you would film that script but I'm typing in the dark up in Seattle and not supine in the blood channels of some Los Angeles ziggurat. Maybe there is something about being drowned in unholy blood that illuminates their decision making process.

BvS is the most baffling nonsense I've seen in quite some time. Not a single artistic decision here makes any fucking sense to me.

[number8]

Half of this trailer are deleted scenes.

[Dukefrukem]

I'll give it a rewatch. Sure.

[Skitch]

Pre-ordered few days ago.

[[ETM]]

I hated it so much that I can't even stand a trailer anymore.

[Henry Gale]

All of that stuff looks interesting!

Honestly, it'd kinda make sense if most of its compelling scenes were deleted from the theatrical cut.

[DavidSeven]

They cut Jena Malone from the theatrical cut? I hate this movie even more now.

But seriously, how bad were these scenes that they were considered lesser than and superfluous to any other of the many nonsensical/dramatically inert scenes that were kept in.

[transmogrifier]

I need to watch these movies just so I can get in on the outrage!

Or failing that, being the sole defender of an under-appreciated masterwork.

I'm just itching to type the words "This is better than The Dark Knight."

[Dukefrukem]

They cut Jena Malone from the theatrical cut? I hate this movie even more now.

But seriously, how bad were these scenes that they were considered lesser than and superfluous to any other of the many nonsensical/dramatically inert scenes that were kept in.

The movie was already over 2.5 hours long. I'm guessing it was a run-time issue.

[Milky Joe]

I'm just itching to type the words "This is better than The Dark Knight."

It feels good. Real good.

[DavidSeven]

The movie was already over 2.5 hours long. I'm guessing it was a run-time issue.

There is almost no scene in this movie that couldn't have been cut. No cohesion or narrative logic exists to preserve. Give me Jena Malone over any Perry White scene, that dream sequence, the pointless early confrontation between Superman and Batman, any portion of the mud-thing (Doomsday) fight, or basically anything Eisenberg is doing. The fact that a lot of this junk was kept in probably says a lot about what they cut.

[number8]

There is almost no scene in this movie that couldn't have been cut. No cohesion or narrative logic exists to preserve. Give me Jena Malone over any Perry White scene, that dream sequence, the pointless early confrontation between Superman and Batman, any portion of the mud-thing (Doomsday) fight, or basically anything Eisenberg is doing. The fact that a lot of this junk was kept in probably says a lot about what they cut.

The trailer seems to suggest that a lot of the things that were cut are dialogue scenes that explain a lot of the confusing things surrounding the plot. So I don't think it's a case of the scenes in the theatrical cut being the better scenes and more about prioritizing delivering Justice League setups and images/iconographies Snyder found too precious to lose over the rigor of dramatic/exposition scenes.