Hey guys. This is a write up that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time, and now critics reactions to Batman v Superman have pushed me over the edge into writing this editorial. I’m here to talk about “social norms” and how they affect reactions to cinema. What is a social norm you may ask? I use it in the sense that it is a set standard in which people go by to critique something on. It’s like when you go to a doctor’s office and they ask you “On a scale of 1 to 10, how bad is that pain?” In your head, you set a standard as to what a 10 is, and base your particular answer off of that. For a lot of people that 10 is something similar, like childbirth or the biggest kidney stone in history. The point being, according to social norms at any given time, something will be judged based off of that. We do it with fashion, food, books, and most importantly for the sake of this conversation - movies. So here’s the argument I’m going to make: Batman v Superman is not a bad movie (yes, I have seen it), and while it may have flaws (as does everyone movie), it is destined to receive a mixed reception due to the fact that it does not not meet social norms of the genre.
Batman v Superman is not a great movie, but it's taking more heat than deserved.I’m not here to give an analysis about Batman v Superman and its flaws. I hate conversations about flaws. It seems that with certain films we like to point out everything they did wrong instead of everything they did right, but that’s another conversation that I may or may not tie in later. So let’s talk social norms in movies, namely comic book movies. In cinema, there are films that are widely regarded to be great, thus comparisons will always be made to them. Films such as these are deemed as “classics”. This right here goes back to the doctor's scale as mentioned earlier. People will rate other movies usually in comparison to other movies. However, it usually happens within genre’s specifically; this is now where I really dive into the social norms of CBM’s. Comic book movies to day have a standard that is set by Marvel, and this is a unique situation considering CBM’s are essentially a two brand war between DC and Marvel. In any normal circumstance, people will degrade a movie lower than it deserves because it's not as good as its predecessor, because it takes a chance on expanding the genre and doesn’t execute it perfectly, ect. This has a lot to do with highly regarded films within genre, AKA “classics”. And while this is definitely a factor within CBM’s, the Marvel and DC war adds a lot of fuel to the fire.
This war has created a base of hatred and prejudice ( we’re all familiar with this so I won’t focus on such). And it is a “war” that is undeniably lopsided in favor of Marvel (money wise, guys-don’t tear me apart). Marvel’s influence is established and is everywhere, therefore they have helped establish a social norm for comic book movies. Mind that so has Nolan with his Dark Knight trilogy, which has as helped establish other social norms (primarily for Batman, as Marvel’s influence has spread far more than Nolan’s trilogy). Historically, when films go against their social norms, they fail. Take Blade Runner for example. It was mixed upon initial release, but is celebrated on this day, and the same goes for the “classic” 2001: A Space Oddysey (I’m not comparing Batman v Superman to those in the way of quality of film). Batman v Superman suffers from this same thing. Sure, it doesn’t help that some people have wanted the film to fail and that prejudice seeps into their reviews, but as I have read through reviews on the film, I knew for sure I was seeing a historical pattern. When I went to the screening for Batman v Superman the other night, a gentleman next to me started a debate that Watchmen was ahead of its time, and rattled off many of the arguments I present to you. A that's the big idea: Batman v Superman is ahead of its time.
As I read through reviews I would see commonalities such as “no fun” and “go see a Marvel movie” (no joke guys). This is direct evidence of the social norm. It is expected that comic book movies be a certain way because of the genres past and its highlights. So what happens when a ship strays onto the road least traveled? It's a bumpy road. After all ( and while you may disagree with these points, they are merely examples) who said Comic book movies had to be “fun”? Joel Schumacher? Marvel? Seth Rogen? It is now expected by a lot of people that comic book movies be of lighter tone because most of the successful comic book movies have had such tone. You could argue that Nolan movie’s prove this point wrong, but even that trilogy contained a vast amount of uplifting moments and was placed at the round table of “classics” by Ledger’s top tier performance. People throughout history have always had a hard time with new things, or better yet controversial things that are introduced to them. Batman v Superman is one of those new, controversial things that critics are having a hard time with. Is Batman v Superman a bad movie? In my opinion no, and it is a far better film than Man of Steel. But it is different. It is a grim tale that doesn’t pride itself with uplifting themes or humor (again guys, I’m not against humor, just stating what’s going on here). Some may argue here that films like Guardians of the Galaxy or Deadpool are "different". Well, they really aren't that different. They do have uplifting themes and a fine dose of humor that really work, they do not however strive for the same things that DC strives for.
Will Batman v Superman be beloved piece of cinema one day? Possibly. But I’m willing to bet that the tone, as already confirmed by Terrio, will take a change for the lighter from here on. Why? People are comfortable with it. Sure, fans love Batman v Superman for the most part and my theater gave a standing ovation. Everyone in that theater loved that it was different and went against social norms. It is definitely a film for the DC diehards (for the most part). But not everyone is going to like that. I’ll say it again and again: This is a historical recurrence. At the end of the day, it is an individual opinion that decides if they like a movie. However, these factors play an amazing role in determining opinion. As of the time I write the article, Batman v Superman sits at about 40% on Rotten Tomatoes. Spiderman 3 (whatever your opinion on it) sits at 63%. A greater percentage of people liked Spiderman 3 because it wasn’t too different. Sure it wasn’t great, but people were comfortable with it and forgave it of its sins to a degree. You will have an extremely hard time convincing me personally that Spiderman 3 is a better films than Batman v Superman. So I’ll get into a bit of personal opinion here. I’m a huge film buff. Love classics, love foreign films, and just downright love to sit down and watch a good film. I watched about eighty movies that were released in 2015 during 2015 and am indeed on of those “pretentious d-bags” that loves the likes of Birman and holds indie films above most others. So you have my taste in films, and I’d like to think that they’re good tastes, not that I hold my opinion above others mind me; I respect opinions that don’t match mine. After seeing so many films and analyzing them for a variety of purposes, I know a bad film when I see one, at least in the way of the filmmaking process. Batman v Superman is not a bad film, it just goes against the grain of social grain and is not perfect (Stating here again that it does have flaws- all films have flaws. Heck, I’ll go point out some flaws in Citizen Kane if you guys need me to go do that). Again, this editorial is not about Batman v Superman being perfect. It is about it being rated lower than deserved because it goes against that grain.
Note that cinema really started picking up around the 70’s and 80’s. Also note that the vast majority of classics are from the 70’s and 80’s. Why? At that time it was easier to be original, it was easier to set a social norm, and it was easier to be successful ( same thing goes for books ). Now note when comic book movies really picked up popularity in 2008 with the releases of Iron Man and The Dark Knight. We’re only 8 years out from that folks. The images and opinions from those movies still fresh in our minds, and every comic book movie that comes out will be judged according to the success of the past in large part, and that past was not long ago, making it even harder to be different. Perhaps Batman v Superman is just a movie for DC diehards and Snyder forgot to cater to the general audience. However, it has expectations from a general audience that has been molded by Marvel. In no way is this a bad thing, however it is a true thing. So what happens when expectations aren’t met no matter how absurd they might sound? People are let down.
Go see this movie for yourself guys, because this one will be debated about for a while. Again, my argument is not that Batman v Superman was great. In my opinion, it was a good movie...but not great. It has flaws, and I'll say again and again that every movie has flaws. Is it trying to set up sequels? Yes is it, I’m I sure as heck and I’m excited for the future of the DCCU. All Warner Bros needs to do is make sure they cater so current social norms in order to be crowd pleasers. Because although I still think Batman v Superman will make a lot of money, it will be hard to get people to come back to movies they don’t necessarily like. But when a movie is held to double standards you can see how social norms will make a film seem worse than it really is. It's happened throughout history folks, and it will happen again. Not just with CBM’s, but movies in general. I guess for now I’ll be that guy that likes “bad” movies.
Yours truly,
TheLoveDoc