If you watched Jimmy Kimmel last night, you would have been treated to a new Batman v Superman trailer (We have it for you up above), but that’s not what we got. Instead, we basically got the entire film summary in one trailer. I don’t know about you, but that’s kinda of frustrating, especially since the last half of the movie is looking like a problem we’ve seen before.
By Kenneth Shipp
To understand this reference, we have to go back to 2008. What was released that year? Ironically, The Dark Knight also came out that year, but I’m actually referring to a different film, Hancock. Critics and most of the writers here at Nerd Union have the same analysis of the plot: It was going really well in the first act, and then it just falls apart. More than that, it feels like you are watching one movie and then someone switches out the tape for the sequel and because it has the same characters, it takes you a minute to realize what’s going on.
The script was reworked and reworked multiple times; I get it, this happens a lot in Hollywood. Rarely does a film stay completely intact from it’s first inception, but it is a rarity to change it so much to create the effect I’m talking about. Hancock’s backstory wasn’t horrible and actually seemed like a cool idea, but it wasn’t something he was concerned about until he meets Charlize Theron, they have the awkward kiss, and she punches him through a wall. Twists in a film can be excellent and will usually have people raving over it.
Usually with that many rewrites, the film would just be bad or have glimmers of unfulfilled potential. Hancock is the exact opposite; it gave us everything we wanted after watching the trailer and then gave us something else, which isn’t what we wanted. So now, let’s chat about Batman v Superman….
This was originally going to be Man of Steel 2. There weren’t plans to do a combined film as far as I believe. Zack Snyder insists the conversation turned to Batman when thinking about the next villain or adversary for Superman, but I’ve taken that with a grain of salt. It looked like a move of desperation considering how lackluster Man of Steel was. Every piece of detail we’ve received from trailers and such have only added to the feeling that this entire DC universe is just their way of playing catch up to Marvel.
If you watched the trailer above in it’s entirety, you saw Doomsday appear at the end which seems like it will be the element that unifies Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. Most of us have guessed that already, but seeing it confirmed is sad because there will be no suspense during the entire film. Why? Between the trailers that have been released, there can’t be enough details left in the actual movie to surprise us. It’s entirely possible that Zack Snyder has something up his sleeve, but honestly, everything I know of this guy screams “Nothing! There’s nothing up my sleeve!!”
Hence the reason I think the last part of this film was tacked one. Let’s say for the sake of argument that Snyder was indeed intending to use Batman in the next film the entire time. The inclusion of so many additional characters, like Wonder Woman and Doomsday seems forced and thrown into the last bit of the movie for no reason. This most recent trailer is tonally out of sync with the other trailers they have released previously. It feels like the Hancock effect I just talked about. We received some excellently dark and moody stuff with the last one, but the newest trailer feels like a joke, like the rug was just pulled out from underneath you.
I try not to rag too hard on a film that hasn’t come out yet. I learned my lesson with Mad Max and have been eating my words ever since. However, it’s seems appropriate to acknowledge when a trailer looks bad and what that means. We just saw way too much of this film and what we did see feels like we just got “Hancocked”
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View Comments (2)
I think there's too much emphasis on "batman v superman" instead the focus should be on "dawn of justice" as in justice league, right? It's very possible that batman vs superman is the tag line to sell tickets while the true plot unfolds on the screen.....lets reserve judgement on what should be a good popcorn flick of nothing else it has to be better than the last superman.... Zzzzzz
It will probably be better than Man of Steel true, but I shudder at the thought of just another popcorn flick. We have PLENTY of those, it's time for comic book movies to reach a higher standard and not just be money vehicles for Hollywood. They can be great and still make tons of money. Poor trailer execution makes me doubtful of their handling of the bigger pieces.