Batman v. Superman Review (Mostly Spoiler Free)

December 1978. Fox Colonie Theatre on Wolf Road in Colonie, NY (just outside of Albany). It's a Saturday night. I'm in line with what seems like half the kids from my high school waiting to see Superman, The Movie.  The commercials have been playing for a long time.  A shot of clouds and the camera working its way through the clouds promising us that we'll believe a man can fly.

The movie starts. A movie curtain opens to reveal a black and white shot of Action Comics. A boy;'s hand opens it up. The camera pans into a panel of the Daily Planet building. It dissolves to a scale model of the Daily Planet pans out and up to the moon and beyond as John Williams score grows and we start to see the opening titles zooming out at us. Goose bumps.

In case you couldn't tell, I am a hug fan of that movie. I went back the following weekend to see it again. Probably the first time in my life that I ever did that. I don't go to see movies in the theater more than once. I loved that movie., I grew up on reruns of the 1950s Adventures of Superman. I read the comics, World's Finest with Batman and Superman, Shazam. I was a DC kid. Not a huge superhero reader but I went through a phase. I was certainly familiar with them.

Flash forward to 2016. Its a different world. Comics are now written for adults (graphic novels). They can be darker. Its believed that today's audiences want grittier more realistic. And it can work. It works for Batman. But Superman? I understand the need to modernize him. But you can't take away everything that we grew up loving about him.

Batman vs. Superman. The reviews have been mixed. Most internet social media squabble would have you believe this movie is bad. It is not. It's also not great. It's decent. It's dark. Very dark. Please, Zac Snyder. Could we have SOME sunshine?  But my opinion is that its mostly told from Batman's perspective. Mostly, not all. For him it works.

I don't know that I agree with the whole Superman is an alien in our modern world. So he is raised and placed on a pedestal word worshipped like a God. And then of course he is torn down by others because that is what we do. We tear down our idols once we put them up there. He is feared by Bruce Wayne as an alien. And I get it. But, again. Can we lighten this up some? It is a comic book character after all. Comics book characters! Give me some bright reds and blues!

The story is decent. But I couldn't help wonder what if there were more humor injected and the brighter colors. And oh maybe Richard Donner directing or at least consulting. But I digress.

Ben Affleck as Batman. Great job. Jeremy Irons as Alfred. Awesome. Would have liked more. Henry Cavill as Superman/Clark. Not really given much to work with was he? I mean he was good with what he was given. They could have given us more back story on the Lois/Clark romance. They just were a couple. Just there already. And she knows he's Superman. Lawrence Fishburne as Perry White has the best lines. Honestly, the scrip needed more levity. This movie takes itself way too seriously.

Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor. Well it was a different take on him. But then why call him Lex Luthor. He could have been some other character. He basically was a filthy rich young man who inherited daddy's money and has a lot of strange tics eventually driving him into madness. I honestly didn't mind his portrayal. But to me that wasn't Lex. That was some new bad guy. I also thought in retrospect that if this movie is predominantly told from Batman's POV, then this portrayal totally makes sense. He was like any other Batman villain who either exceed from or belongs in Arkham Asylum. Good theory. Right?

I will admit that seeing Batman Superman and Wonder Woman standing side by side to fight together was pretty cool. But I then had a second thought. This story could have been told with a lighter touch.  Not so dark and serious.

It was cool to see a few other DC cameos and obviously setup future DC movies which is basically how this ends. As a setup to the Justice League.

I also didn't like the CGI. There's way too much of it. I don';t like how every time Superman takes off its like a sonic boom. Wouldn't that do some damage? And the climactic fight sequence. Too Much CGI! Geez! And i didn't believe for one second that the ----- they were fighting was real. It looked CGI.

Cool that they brought in another big bad other than Lex and they used a very famous Superman storyline for the movie. After all, I am tired of every single Superman movie having Lex Luthor and kryptonite in it. Man of Steel is the only one that didn't.

Overall, I liked it with some qualifications. It was good. Not great. But I do hope that they let someone else take over and direct these movies and add more humor. And color! Please. What's a comic book without colors? Now if you don;t mind, I'm going to pop my Superman the Movie DVD in to the Blu Ray and watch that.

New Head Shots

I recently had new head shots done. I've picked some serious photos  taken by my friend Anthony Campanella, which you can find on my fb page and my personal website.

Today, I'm trying to pick some lighter looks that I can use for commercials, musical theatre and sitcoms. Attached are some of my options. Let me know which ones you like.

Leave comments in the comments section below. All photos above courtesy of Sarah Kreig Photography.

Why is London's West End so much cheaper and easier to access then Broadway?

Last week, I was in London for six days. Before I went on my trip, I bought tickets online to three West End shows. I got very good seats to all shows. I did not get discount tickets. I paid full price online just days in advance of my trip and had no trouble with sold out performances (except for one show which it turns out was just opening and in fact had tickets available for nights later in my trip when I had other plans). I did not pay more than $65 for a single ticket.

One of the shows I saw was The Curious Incident of the Dog in Night Time. I saw the Saturday evening show and sat in the balcony. I paid $62...full price. If I had bought those tickets for the Broadway production of the same show on a Saturday night, the price would $121. Orchestra seats for $134 to $197.

Why is Broadway so much more expensive? Even at half price, I would spend more for the Broadway production than the West End production. What? And on Broadway the big shows sell out. Oh! And I forgot to mention that this is a play and not a musical. They are even more expensive.

How is it that in London theater is so much more affordable? Think about it, for a family of four to go see a Broadway show like Matilda or Wicked on a Saturday night, it would cost them anywhere from $149 to $232 a seat depending on where the seats are. And there's also premium seating which is over $300 a seat. So that is a potential $728 for four orchestra seats. The of course there is the cost of driving into Manhattan from New Jersey or Long Island and parking. That's another $25 - $45. And then dinner for four. That can vary widely. So let's go on the assumption that the average cost with meal, drinks, dessert and tip is about $30 each (and that's conservative). You're talking another $120. Let's add that all up: $883. $883 for a family of four to go see a Broadway musical. And that's not counting drinks or snacks, souvenirs.

You'd need to take out a loan! What the hell? So, I'll say it again. Why is it so much more affordable to see shows on London's West End? Is it cheaper to produce there? Its a lot of the same shows. Bigger stars. Maybe its the unions her in the US and higher salaries to pay. I don't know. But something isn't right.

It used to be, over 100 years ago, that theater was the main form of entertainment. So it was much more affordable. Pre-radio, pre-movies, pre-television. Theater was the popular entertainment form.

Hell. Even when I started going to theater in the early 1980s, I remember buying two tickets to a big Broadway musical in the mezzanine of the Palace Theatre and only paying $32 to $35. When I lived in NYC in the 1990s, tickets were upwards of $60 - $75, but I could get half price tickets at TKTS. Or I could do standing room for sold out shows at $20 to $25.  It was still affordable. Now a half price ticket can be over $100. WHAT!?

Again, why is London so much cheaper? DO they care more about theater there? Is it more common and not considered a special event like Broadway? Top price for Matilda and Wicked on the West End in 125 GBP which is $170. A lot but still less than Broadway and there are plenty of seats for way less than that.

C'mon Broadway, what gives?