When I’m not reviewing shows or movies, or there’s no breaking news for you about what’s going on in the entertainment industry, I’ll bring a post entitled Why I’m Excited or Why I’m Worried: (Insert Movie Title Here). I was originally going to discuss the year of 2015, then the year of 2016, but while writing the 2016 post, I realized how much there is just to talk about for the sequel to Man of Steel alone.
Now when they announced there would be a sequel to Man of Steel I said: well duh.
This was meant to completely jump start DC’s film universe, and a month later, they actually found an even more clever way of doing so: putting Batman in the movie. I understood at that time that Christian Bale wouldn’t be in the sequel or Justice League, which was a bit of a loss, but I said: alright, this is DC’s chance to prove me wrong, maybe Bale isn’t the definitive Batman forever and ever.
Then Ben Affleck was cast as Bruce Wayne/Batman. Now I was not one of those people who was tearing up the Internet demanding he be un-hired, I actually have some faith in him. The Town is one of my favorite movies ever and I trust Affleck as a filmmaker and actor (he’ll probably be really cool in Gone Girl this October). The thing that weirded me out, though, was that he was the first person after Bale to play Batman. If you don’t know what I mean, I’ll explain. Who do we have bringing back the Caped Crusade, the Dark Knight, the scary and brutal Batman himself back to film after definitive Christian Bale? Ben Affleck. Yeah a little underwhelming after that awesome portrayal. It would kind of be like they cast Bradley Cooper as the Joker. He’d probably do fine as the Joker, but after Heath Ledger? It’s just not comparable. So yeah Affleck will probably be fine, and after this announcement I was still psyched for the movie.
Then they cast Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. I’ll be honest, I haven’t seen any Fast and Furious movies, or really anything Gal Gadot has been in before, so I can’t judge them casting her in this. I do think it’s very strange for them to include her in the Batman vs. Superman movie though, since it is supposed to be a focus on them. If she had kind of a cameo appearance, or was Diana Prince before she was Wonder Woman, then that would be fine, however I will touch more on this with Ray Fisher in a bit.
So it was at some point between this piece of news and the next one that the movie’s release date was pushed back 10 months, so that the filmmakers can “achieve their full vision” of the film. That means the script isn’t done or something equally poor. Adding that extra time, they definitely disappointed the fans and began to get me to back off from the whole thing a bit.
THEN Jesse Eisenberg was cast as Lex Luthor. I had to check the date of the article to make sure it wasn’t April Fools or something like that, because, well, what!?!? Don’t get me wrong, Eisenberg is a good actor, I loved him in The Social Network and Now You See Me (check out my review for that), but the iconic Lex Luthor? Right around the time Breaking Bad was wrapping up, there were rumors Bryan Cranston had signed a six-picture deal with DC as Lex Luthor and that was awesome! Unfortunately they were just rumors, and instead we got Mark Zuckerberg… Okay. I mean the main reason of why this won’t work: Jesse Eisenberg is 30, but he can come off as a teenager! Lex Luthor is supposed to be the intellectual rival to Superman who’s smarter than him and “always one step ahead” (I didn’t plan that Now You See Me reference, but it seemed clever). I mean I could picture Eisenberg as some other villain. Even the Joker he would be better than the bald, older, intellectually superior super villain Lex Luthor, and I mean that. This really backed me up and got me worried about the project.
Then Ray Fisher was cast as Cyborg, and– Alright, I just need to stop for a second. I think this movie actually might not have all of these main and central Justice League characters in it, I feel like it’s just a victim of bad publicity. Here’s what I mean: imagine The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Now imagine they just announced, okay Jamie Foxx is playing Electro in this! Okay, and we’re all jacked! Then they say Paul Giamatti is Rhino. Still on board. Then they say Dane DeHaan is Green Goblin. Umm, alright? Then Felicity Jones is Black Cat. This is getting pretty crowded. And B.J. Novak as Alistar Smyth. See what I mean? I think that’s unfortunately what this movie has fallen into, and they are wanting us to be excited, only we aren’t, we think that it’s crowded (which ASM2 would have been if they said that). So if DC is smart, Ray Fisher will be in 2 minutes or less of the movie, Diana Prince won’t be Wonder Woman yet and Jesse Eisenberg… Well, he’s there…
So I look at all this and if I had to predict whether the movie’s gonna be good or bad, I would go on the rotten side. Though I just tried to debunk some of it right there with each casting analysis, I think that DC WON’T be doing any of this. Chances are Wonder Woman shows up halfway in to fight crime too, and Cyborg is there for the entire end fight. If I were working at DC, I would say both of these scenarios (the one in this paragraph and the paragraph prior) are horrible and that if there’s gonna be more than one main DC character, just do Batman and Superman. If they wanted to do another Justice League set-up movie, I’m sure they could whip up a script for a Flash/Wonder Woman team-up origin, which would be fine! That’s the only way I could imagine DC pulling ahead of Marvel, if they combine two characters per film for 2 or 3 films, THEN assemble everyone.
And that’s my final point: at this stage, the movie is actually called Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. They have literally admitted it’s a Justice League prequel. And if they wanted to do that: fine, but at least do two or three Justice League set-up movies. At this point, we’ve forgotten this is a “Man of Steel Sequel” and not a “Justice League Prequel”. The assemblage of various characters all in this one movie, in addition to various long-shot acting choices only raise eyebrows. So in terms of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, THAT’S why I’m worried.
***
So I just ran threw about a year of this movie’s pre-production and all my thoughts along the way. What are your thoughts on this movie, and are you worried? Also, what should I do a Worried/Excited piece on next? In either case, Leave me a Comment Down Below, and thanks for reading guys.