2024 - REBEL MOON - PART TWO: THE SCARGIVER, ? huh ?

After sitting through over two hours of this movie last night I still don't know what to make of it.  As everyone is aware this is the second part in Zack Snyder's Rebel Moon series he made for Netflix and I'm fairly certain that there will not be a part three even though the end of this thing leaves it open for a part three

It's pointless to comment on this film as the critics have already torn it apart calling it one of Zack Snyder's worst movies if not the bottom of his film making barrel.  Critics have pointed out that Rebel Moon - Part Two is really a mash up of The Seven Samurai, The Magnificent Seven and of course a Star Wars film and we're not talking one of the better Star Wars films, it's more like The Return of the Jedi the notorious teddy bear film.

It's completely pointless to criticize much less understand what the thinking and decision making was that led to this expensive film.  The fact of the matter is that this movie exists and that's about all you can say about it.

 

The film runs 122 minutes, the writing credits are Zack Snyder, Kurt Johnstad and Shay Hatten.

2016 - BATMAN VS SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE, the extended version

Did somebody actually read the script for this film prior to shooting it?  The story is a muddled mess combining Lex Luthor, Russian terrorists, and Batman deciding the Superman is evil or something like that.  Honestly they could have taken a couple of issues of some DC comic featuring Superman and Batman and made a better and more coherent film.  

I chose to watch the extended cut of this film which I had read was a lot better than the theatrical cut.  I am starting to wonder where I read that because at 3 hours this film is still a mess and even more unforgivably a boring mess.  For a film with a couple of super heroes it's amazing how little action there is until around the last hour of the film.  To compensate for this lack of excitement during the first two hours of the film.  Several dream sequences involving Batman were added which make no sense and only make a long film seem even longer. 

The film is a setup for a Justice League of America film with appearances by Wonder Woman and Aquaman.  Good luck with that film.

181 minutes, written by Chris Terrio and David S. Goyer.

2013 - MAN OF STEEL, It's another Superman movie

An elaborate remake of the Christopher Reeve Superman II film and is it ever elaborate. Stuff gets smashed, a lot of stuff.  Superman fights his nemesis evil General Zod.  Lois Lane still can't stay out of trouble.  Perry White has a race change, he's now a black man instead of an old white guy.  Jimmy Olson has a sex change she's now called Jenny Olson.  The one thing that hasn't changed is a movie studio's need to get yet another super-hero franchise going.

The main trouble with this Superman film is that it wants to top every other Superman film.  So you get lots and lots of spectacular destruction effects and they go on forever.  The film was criticized for using 911 imagery as entertainment and I would have to agree with that.  The other thing this film can be criticized for is it's real lack of humor.  I think there were probably 1 or 2 jokes in a film that runs over 2 hours.  This is just some real serious stuff even though it involves a guy running around in a cape and tights for most of running time.

I can't see where they thought they could go to make a series out of Superman after this elaborate film.  Superman has already taken out a super bad guy equal to him so who does he take on next God?  Apparently they are going to team him up with Batman since that series came to an end but who really cares about that except Warner Brothers studio which is hoping to make a lot of super cash with those two in the same movie.

143 minutes.

2011 - SUCKER PUNCH the worst film of the year?

Sleaze on a big budget but not fun level.

Admittedly I haven't seen a lot of 2011 films this year, but this could be the pits.  Using the same Inception/Paprika situation,  a blond bimbo running around in her underwear ends up in an insane asylum where she descends into two fantasy levels.  On one level she is a sexy stripper or dancer and on the other level she is a sexy sword fighting kick ass babe battling steam punk soldiers and samurai warriors.

At first I thought this film was some teenage boy sex fantasy film, then I figured Sucker Punch was a video game with a heavy dose of computer imagery.  Finally I decided that Sucker Punch was a misogynistic porn film  by the writer/director Zack Snyder but I don't think Snyder is smart enough to known what the word "misogynistic" means.

I also thought that Warner Brothers hadn't read the script.  I realized the studio must have read the script since they green lighted the project and gave Snyder the money to indulge in his little sex and violence fantasies.  Apparently Snyder wanted to make an R rated film but the studio stepped in and demanded a PG-13 version.  God knows what a more explicit Sucker Punch would have looked like.

What's depressing about this film is the young women who had to appear in it.  You know they were pretty much stuck in it because failure to sign on to this pile of manure would brand them as actors who wouldn't play the studio game, a career limiting move.  In any case I doubt the film world will be hearing much from the stars of Sucker Punch, Emily Browning and Abbie Cornish.

A very unpleasant experience.

128 minutes.

2009 - WATCHMAN, the extended Director's cut.

The world probably didn't need any version of the Watchmen when you get right down to it much less the extended director's cut but here it is.

 

I've read the graphic novel or comic book or whatever it's called, twice. I read it because it's been acclaimed as the best graphic novel or comic book or whatever written. Set in the 1980's, the graphic novel or comic book or whatever it's called, seems like a total period piece with it's criticism of Nixon and Vietnam. Does President Nixon still have that kind of resonance for the public anymore? After surviving eight years of Bush the younger as President, what's worse in a national leader ruthlessness
or stupidity?

 

The graphic novel was kicking around Hollywood for many years before Warner Brothers decided to sink a whole lot of money into it. Hoping for a repeat of that The Dark Knight kind of success, the studio was asking for and got a disaster. The problem was that the Watchmen stories are pretty outdated in the 21st century. A film that requires a knowledge of Richard Nixon and the culture of the 1980's and wants to mix it up with a critical look at the role of the superhero in our society seems like a lot to ask of a viewer looking for a couple of hours of entertainment. It's a very long film and a fairly violent film, the R rating made sure that the film would have a limited audience. The whole project probably should have been written off years ago.

Honestly the acting was not seem so hot. The character of the super heroine Silk Spectre was played by an actress named Malin Akerman. You can zip her up in a latex outfit but that doesn't make her a particularly sexy super heroine, you actually have to know how to act sexy. She's supposed to be the voice of humanity presenting the case to godlike superhero Dr Manhattan that the world is worth saving from nuclear war. She came off more like a shrill harpy.

 

Mixing the story lines of a murder mystery and the potential destruction of earth by nuclear war seemed pretty shaky. It was weak in the graphic novel or comic book or whatever it's called, and the film just makes it look even weaker. The old Space Ghost cartoons did a better job telling stories and they were at least short.

The whole idea of people dressing up as super heroes to rid the world of evil is really kind of stupid when you really think about it.

 The screenplay was by David Hayter and Alex Tse, the running time is 186 minutes.