The misunderstanding of comicbook movies.
A lot has been said recently about what is a good comicbook movie, you all have been there for the DC vs Marvel drama.
Man of steel came out in 2013, in the mids of the Marvel craze and after Nolan had completed his trilofy of bat movies, it
gathered 55 % on Rotten Tomatoes, 55 % on Metacritic and 7.2 on IMDB, all user reviews are 7.2 to 7.5. Clearly there is disconnect between fans and critics.
This is weird to DC fans, me included, but i tried to think like a non DC fan and see where this comes from.
First off lets see the complaints from the side of critics;
Destruction during the battle of Metropolis between Zod and Clark
So what a DC fan sees is this epic fight between one of the best Superman villains in his first ever well made, none camp movie. The realistic portrail of what would actually happen if two super powered beings that cannot be destroyed by our forces, actually begin to fight.
Zod doesnt see humans as equals, he sees them as ants or animals he can clearly kill without remorse, he has a mission to bring his people back and everythig else is just irrelevant.
What does a movie critic see? A battle between the antagonist and the hero that kills people in the process, they see destruction, they see suffering and they see real world casualties. They dont want to see real world issues in ""
funny pages"" movies.
Now if this was a Marvel movie i suppose the scenario could have been played the following way, Zod punches Superman and he crashes in some abonded building with no one in it, then he thinks to himself , this guy is dangerous for everyone, let me get him to the forest or something and kick his ass there. Right ON !!
As you know, in Age of Ultron they ripped a city from the ground and they managed to save everyone. Iron Man personally saved 3 people in a bathtub , so i am a 100 % sure that no one died in that movie.
They concentrate on outlining these things, which to me personally feels like an insult to my inteligence and i do not wish to be taken for an idiot. I am pretty aware that real life situations dont get handled like in movies and when real terror strikes it kills people in the dozens, thousands , millions.
Look at Hitler, he killed more people than all the Marvel movies combined without the use of super powers or a weird costume.
For me Marvel are making action movies with Superheroes in them and DC are making superhero movies with some action in them, if you think this is inaccurate go watch Suicide Squad, each member acts like he is part of the Batman TAS, i was afraid they will be far away from the comics, but they are a literal translation of them.
You would think that is good in terms of critical aclaim, but no that is the opposite of what they want to see.
The modern comic book movie according to critics needs to borrow to some degree from the source material, anything too lunatic will not fly in a movie.
You can see most characters are chosen very carefully by Marvel, they had mishaps in Phase 1 days, you can all remember a movie with a Doomsday like character called Abomination (doesnt look like that in the comicbook), first Hulk with Ang Lee had even more bizare characters like a cloud-ish based villain (final form) and two mutated dogs.
Big CGI villains walk a very thin line of general audience disintrest, in the end you need to relly on the heroes to drive the movie if you are inserting this type of villain.
Second concern with Man of Steel was that he isnt the perfect boyscout with a smile bigger than the moon, flying over metropolis and saving the ocasional cat.
This isnt our Superman they said, well lets be realistic, this superman worked in 1978-1980, those were the last successful Superman movies before Man of Steel, this image of the jesus figure isnt working for a blockbuster movie no more. As much as you pretend that is what you want, the evidence is clear - big score with the critics back then , big name actor as the villain and boxoffice success was around 391 Million, which evidently is much less than Man of Steel's box office numbers.
Then came
Batman v Superman Dawn of Justice , Rotten Tomatoes barried the movie with super negative reviews, something which i believe is coming from a place of high hope and average results. The movie played the character of Batman, a hero which we were seeing in the real world from 2005 till 2012, in the mind of the average movie goer, Batman fights real human beings , Doomsday and his whole appeal just doesnt fit in that estetic.
Batman will never be good on film when fighting CGI monsters, never ever ! The movie could have been much better if it wasnt cut by the studio, if they skipped the nightmare scene and replaced the third act with a villain who made sense and was a threat on all levels.
Some of the dialogue could have been replaced by more everyday talk, the author took the job to serious and got to emersed in the myth of DC, its ok for the fans but general audiences miss the Nolan days.
Critics gave it very poor scores as part of the ongoing campaign Snyder sucks, he is just a visual artist, he cant do anything and the usual hate parade towards him, no need to make a list. Again in a rush of lets bash this to the ground while its still CLICKBAIT worthy, they take things to far.
Then came Suicide Squad , a movie that was bashed the absolutely same way as Batman v Superman, i went and saw the movie and based on the critics, some of them which i respect turned on it, only difference this time, the ones that loved BVS seems to hate Suicide Squad and the opposite.
David Ayer didnt bring the Snyder visuals, darkness or humor, but the hate seems to be more or less a copy paste of your old BVS hate article. Letto acts, Margot acts, Will Smith even [frick]ing acts, the entire cast (with two exceptions which i will not name because of Spoilers) act their asses off.
The movie has humor, its not the humor from Deadpool, its not the Marvel movies humor, its the DC humor a bit dark but different. The movie is fun, doesnt do anything that a dozen Marvel movies havent done by now by introducing an army of generic slaves to one major villain, but somehow its a problem now?
Soundtrack is fresh, performances are fresh, platform is new, and somehow Rotten Tomatoes and critics are trying to make it look like this is a worse movie than Sharkanado, Hulk, The Incredible Hulk, Phantom, The Ghostbusters, Superman returns, Bad moms, Barbershop the next cut , this is just another proof that the norm for opinion can now vary from horrible to perfect just based on trends.
Barbershop a movie that made 55 Million Total, is better than a movie that will probably make 3 times more money in a week by bringing its fans for repeated views and probably finish with 10 times more box office and more awareness amongst people.
If someone who saw barbershop 3 more than 4 times exist please send me your phone number.
Its pretty clear now, DC has the reputation of the studio that is copying someone, the studio that cant handle their movies, but this movie that is out now is fun as [frick] and you all need to start having an opinion and stop following trends, that change daily since the inception of the internet.
I am more that sure that Wonder Woman will be the next movie that will be slaugtered prior to opening weekend on Rotten Tomatoes and that Dr Strange will have a better review than 67 %, i am sure that Justie League will have a worse score than Batman v Superman prior to opening weekend, and that what ever new marvel movie comes next year it will be scored higher than 70 %.
And same goes for every upcoming DC and Marvel movie, the critics are pushing their chips, their professonal opinion on the safe bet. I mean they rely on this in order to make a living right ?
Now you can say " you are right i am sure Dc will have bad reviews because their movies suck" but you do realize that from now on we are getting a new director every time, a new vision, a new angle, a new look - so just because it says DC doesnt mean it is the same.
And i can tell you one thing, i am many things but a prophet isnt one of them, so if the above is true, that means that my prediction and has come true and this is the new trend, the new cool thing to say and if that is true, Warner will eventually kill the franchise and just focus on Batman movies and you will never see another DC character ever.
So enjoy your bias sites, reviewers, Collider video channel, Screen Junkies etc., and rely on them to tell you what is good.
And by the way, for the future reviewer that is writing an article on the Aquaman movie, no Jason Momoa isnt the new Namor, as Namor hasnt even been announced.
Lame trends hoppers need to get out of the industry, people that do reviews need to have a [frick]ing diploma.
Immidiattely !
Thanks to Comicbookmovie for deleting my articles that defend Suicide Squad, you really are to be named MarvelMovie.com
See ya