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.

Ghosts of Halloweens Past

I recently attended a luncheon meeting with a new manager at work. It was a get to know you lunch for the whole department. To break the ice, she asked that we go around the table and share our favorite Halloween costume as a kid.

I had to think about this for a while. My favorite Halloween costume growing up? I can't say that I have one. I also could only remember three.  When I was a kid, I don't remember people making elaborate or clever costumes. Pretty much all I remember were those Ben Cooper costumes you could buy at the drug, toy or department store. You know the ones that came in a box with a window in it that showed the plastic mask and the body of the costume was some sort of synthetic material with the costume printed on it.

Baby Boomers and Gen X-ers all wore those. All I could remember was being Secret Squirrel in First Grade one year and Superman in Second Grade.  And then in Fifth Grade, my parents decided to make us original costumes. I was a hippie and my sister Debbie was a Hula dance. My youngest sister, Wendy, was a princess of some sort. She was still in a Ben Cooper. I guess she was too young to have a homemade costume! 

Oh my God! Those Ben Cooper costumes! The plastic mask with the holes for eyes and the slit for a mouth. Remember trying to breathe in those things? I can remember how you were basically breather on yourself. The hot breath sometimes causing a fog, especially if it was cold outside, (which it usually was in late October after dark in Albany, NY). 

Look at that handiwork! That's me on the right...the tall one. I'm wearing a cowboy hat and my mother's fall (the 1960s version of extensions for women with short hair), a white t-shirt over a darker long sleeve t-shirt, a white vest made of vinyl with brown contact paper made to look like a cow hide, and a medallion. And then one of my teeth is blacked out and I've got stubble make up on my face. Excellent!

As for my Dad's costumes, this was just the beginning. They got more elaborate. The following year for my sister Debbie, he made a Smiley Face costume. Two pieces of plywood, cut in a bug circle and fitted together with a couple of 2x4s(?) and then it slid over her heard and she held on to the 2x4s I think. Big and clunky. But clever and different.

The year after that, he re-purposed it. He cut into a wedge and repainted it, added cotton to the edges and it was a slice of pizza. Less bulky. Still awkward. Better her than me!

I don't ever remember having another home made costume after that one. I believe from that point on, I was a hobo. When I was growing up, once you hit pre-adolescence, you were too cool for a costume but you still wanted candy, so everyone from age 12 - 14 went out as a hobo. All that meant was you went out in a t-shirt or flannel shirt an jeans and carried a pillow case for candy.  Boom! instant hobo!

Getting back to the meeting. I was thinking, "What do I answer when it gets to me?" I was towards the end of the table so I knew I'd be one of the last to go. So I'm thinking I'll mention Secret Squirrel. I knew I would probably have to explain that one to most in the room.  One of my managers says hobo. Yes! Me too!  Then my supervisor says....Secret Squirrel. I couldn't believe it! How crazy is that? Random. But then she and I are the same age so not so much. I was practically epileptic! I was the next in the room, so I pretty much just piggy backed her. That was my answer too!

For those of you who don't know, Secret Squirrel was a Saturday morning Hanna-Barbera cartoon in the late 1960s. He was part of the Atom Ant Show. And he was basically a squirrel that was a spy and he looked like this...

But I have to wonder, why can't I remember any of my other Halloween costumes? Were those my favorites? Did I block the others out because I didn't like them?  If so, what does that say about me? Superman, Secret Squirrel and a Hippie. Well, the hippie obviously because it was so elaborate..well for the time...well for us.  And it could be that I actually have a picture of that one and none of the others.

Superman and Secret Squirrel were both superheroes in a way and both had secret identities. Was I hiding something too? Did I have a secret identity. Or was it merely wish fulfillment? I need to hide behind a mask or secret identity not wanting to deal with my true identity? Hmmm...alright! Don't read anything into it. They were just costumes. 

Happy Halloween!