The Dark Tower (2017)

  "The Man in Black fled across the desert and the Gunslinger followed."

One of the most iconic sentences written by Stephen King, and there are plenty, is included in the cinematic release of The Dark Tower. The movie has plenty of great visuals that tie into the written saga of the The Dark Tower and are exciting to see represented on film. There are a lot of story elements taken from the novels and comic books, characters, places, titles, and locations; but this is a different story than we have seen, or read, before.

This is what I would attribute the negative reactions towards the film to. The film tries to play the middle ground, put enough in the story for fans to recognize but also cater to the mainstream audience and play it safe with the story. This is a dangerous idea that rarely pays off. If you are going to commit to a movie as intricate and beloved as The Dark Tower, you'd better commit to appeasing the hard core fans. If you don't have them in your, you have nothing. Imagine if while creating the Game of Thrones HBO series, the producers hadn't followed the source material and had tried to play it safe, thinking the audience wouldn't want to see dragons and sorcery? That series would have died quickly, it is seeing the source material on screen that people fell in love with. The Dark Tower should have followed suit.

I enjoyed The Dark Tower movie and I think that it has potential to open up a whole new universe of stories that people have been enjoying for decades now. I hope that the idea of having TV shows and sequel movies to continue this story is able to come to fruition as time goes on.  But, I did feel short changed as I left the theater, knowing that the source material is so rich and has so much to draw on.  However, I am willing to see where this goes and give The Dark Tower another chance.

I would give this movie a B as I enjoyed the visuals and the opportunity to see these characters on screen for the first time.

Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice pt. 1 – Prologue

 

"There was a time above. A time before. There were perfect things. Diamond absolutes. But things fall, things on earth. And what falls, is fallen. In the dream, they took me to the light. A beautiful lie."

As Batman vs. Superman starts we are shown a prologue that plays an important role in  the story and has major repercussions for the rest of the movie. I haven't seen too many prologues that have such an influence on the rest of a film as this one does. In this prologue we are shown the death of the Bruce's parents at the hands of Joe Chill, we see Bruce's discovery of the caves near his home, and we see the final battle of Kal-El and Zod in Man of Steel but from Bruce Wayne's perspective. This is a lot of ground to cover in the short 10 minutes that is devoted to these scenes.

The prologue starts with the Death of Thomas and Martha Wayne while the haunting score of Hans Zimmer's 'Beautiful Lie' plays during this scene. We also hear the above quoted dialogue from an older Bruce Wayne during this scene.

In regards to the death of the Wayne's, this is a scene that has been shown many times on the big and small screen. I myself have seen it four times in various formats prior to this movie. However, I believe this one is the most impactful of the ones that have previously been shown. This scene focuses solely on the mugging and murder of the Wayne's. Only one word is spoken in this scene, "Martha". This scene focuses more on the loss of Martha Wayne and how a little boy had to watch his mother die. While Batman Begins had focused on the relationship between Bruce and his father, Thomas, this movie is more about the loss of Martha. This scene is juxtaposed with the funeral of the Wayne's and in this film, Bruce discovers the cave full of bats near his home during this time. As Bruce discovers the cave of bats they end up carrying him up to the light and out of the cave as the older Bruce says "In the dream, they took me to the light. A beautiful lie."  These two short scenes are the essence of Batman and are the impetus of how he comes to be. Bruce Wayne becomes Batman because his parents are killed and he desires to right this wrong for the rest of his life.

From there we jump ahead in time to the events that we see at the end of Man of Steel (2013). Bruce Wayne arrives in Metropolis via helicopter from Gotham and witnesses first hand the final battle between Zod and Kal-El while driving on the streets of Metropolis. Bruce has an office building full of friends in Metropolis that he is trying to reach as Metropolis falls apart around him due to the World Builder wreaking havoc in the city. As Bruce reaches his office building, he is too late as he witnesses Zod destroy the building with his laser vision. Bruce can only watch in horror as his building collapses killing his friends and coworkers. Bruce then makes his way to the building to try and find survivors. He helps a security guard, Wally, who is trapped in rubble. He also is able to save a young girl from being killed as debris collapses almost killing her. As Kal-El and Zod continue to fight in the sky above Metropolis, Bruce watches with hatred towards these two aliens who are destroying a city and killing innocents.

This is the moment that Batman starts planning to stop Superman. This is the moment when Batman vs. Superman starts. A common complaint of this movie is that there were only a small amount of actual fighting between Batman and Superman. When in reality, Batman vs. Superman starts 9:50 into the movie.

Zack Snyder does an excellent job of tying in Man of Steel to this movie and propelling the overall story forward. Including this prologue scene setting up Bruce Wayne's hatred of Kal-El and what he did to Metropolis was a smart move in more ways than one. Not only does it move the story forward, Snyder validates one of the biggest complaints from Man of Steel. This complaint is about the wanton destruction of Metropolis during the final battle and the major loss of life. Snyder doesn't attempt to excuse or explain why it happened, but instead infuses those complaints into Bruce Wayne and his motivations for Dawn of Justice.

Before this horrific moment, the public and even Bruce Wayne did not know of Kal-El and his existence on Earth. Then all of a sudden in a matter of days, the world changes and these aliens are destroying cities and people are dying as a result of their feud. Dawn of Justice deals directly with this fear, from Bruce Wayne and others being scared of what Kal-El can do, to the media having a heyday with biased reporting and trying to pit half of the population against the other half. In real life we can't even have a presidential election without arguing and protests, with the media fueling hatred for the two parties to go against each other. Imagine if an event such as what happened in Man of Steel actually happened and how the media would cover it and try to influence the population. I imagine it would happen pretty close to what is portrayed in this film, half of the population would hate Superman, the other half would love him and the media would do all it could to demonize the other half it doesn't agree with. I believe this to be a genius move by Snyder and the story writers. This isn't your father's 1978 Superman feel good story, and nor should it be. A lot has changed in 35 years and a modern retelling of Superman should reflect that.

Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice

"Black and blue. Fight night. The greatest gladiator match in the history of the world: God versus man; day versus night; Son of Krypton versus Bat of Gotham!"- Lex Luthor

Batman versus Superman. When this title was announced at San Diego Comic Con in 2014, it blew my mind! I was eagerly awaiting the announcement of a Man of Steel 2 movie, but this! This, my fellow nerds, was paramount to the Second Coming! Then to top it all off - Wonder Woman was announced to be a part of the movie too!

Batman AND Superman in the same movie?! The Man of Steel AND The Dark Knight at odds one with another?! Wonder Woman fighting alongside the two most iconic superheroes of all time?! Finally! This will be the first time The Trinity would appear on the big screen for fans to enjoy. For the first time we will see Diana Prince in action on film. The potential for greatness and movie making history was finally announced! And let me tell you, this film did not disappoint.

Wait, WHAT?! What is this you are reading? I'm sure you're asking yourself, "Am I truly reading a review of Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice that isn't disparaging the film left and right?" or "Am I understanding this correctly? This guy actually LIKED this movie?!" The answer is yes, you are.

But all joking aside; yes, I did enjoy this movie from the first viewing. I saw it multiple times in the theaters, four times in fact. I would've gone once or twice more had I had the time to do so. I bought the Ultimate Edition when it came out on home video and my appreciation and enjoyment of this film grew even more. The storyline and character development was fleshed out to be more fulfilling and robust with the Ultimate Edition. If this Ultimate Edition had been released in theaters, I believe it would have been better received.

I intend to break this film down into various parts from beginning to end, as well as to write a character analysis for each of the main players in the film, over the next few weeks. To discuss and analyze everything this movie event has to offer would be too long for one blog post. I will attempt to win over those that dislike, are ambivalent, and even hate this movie; as well as reinforce the greatness of this movie with those that do enjoy it. I'm looking forward to this experience as I delve deep into this film, which in my opinion could be considered the greatest movie of 2016. It's only competition being Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

But at the end of the day, if you don't like the film - that's fine, if you do like the film -great! Either way, life will go on and Warner Bros. will continue to produce and release films from the DC Universe for those that enjoy them.

Listed below are the topics I will address and expound upon, I will activate links to the various topics and characters as I finish writing them.

Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice pt. 1 - Prologue

Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice pt. 2 - The Setup

Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice pt. 3 - Investigations

Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice pt. 4 - The Plan is Set in Motion

Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice pt. 5 - War

Bruce Wayne/Batman

Clark Kent/Kal-El/Superman

Diana Prince/Wonder Woman

Lex Luthor

Lois Lane

Alfred

Zod/Doomsday

Doctor Strange

"Arrogance and fear still keep you from learning the simplest and most significant lesson of all." - The Ancient One "Which is?" - Dr. Strange

"It's not about you." - The Ancient One

dr-strange

Doctor Strange

Dr. Strange takes us in a different direction for the Marvel Cinematic Universe than we have been in before, but yet still has the same origin story formula that has been used in prior movies. The difference is that with previous Avenger characters, such as Iron Man, Ant-Man, Hawkeye, Black Widow etc., these mortals become superheroes based on their human abilities, as well as with their technology that they are able to create. Even to some degree, Spider-Man, Captain American, and Hulk, are the result of bio-technology that has been created by other men.

Dr. Strange takes a different route, one that doesn't involve mortal technology, and is closer to Thor than any of the other Avengers. While using what could be considered magic, Dr. Stephen Strange is able to harness energy and power from other dimensions. The movie does an acceptable job of explaining what this power is and where it comes from. This explanation lends itself to a more pragmatic practice, than a magical practice.

Cinematically, it takes a different route as well, visually I would best describe it as Inception combined with The Matrix. The chase and fight scenes that take place throughout the film are amazing and fun to watch!

As Strange studies and learns more from the magical tomes of The Ancient One, he is able to gain the knowledge needed to use the magic to access other dimensions as well as the astral (spiritual) plane. This area is one that the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) hasn't covered before. Opening this door allows for a whole new branch of stories. I think that this possiblity of alternate dimensions combined with the storylines of Thor and Guardians of the Galaxy will keep the MCU fresh and provide many opportunities for different types of antagonists for the heroes to battle with.

SPECIFIC SPOILERS FROM HERE ON OUT

As a movie, Dr. Strange hits all the marks that you would expect from a Marvel Universe movie. It was funny, emotional, engaging, action packed, and furthered the overall storyline of the MCU. (Dr. Strange is considered Chapter 2 of Phase 3) I believe the most important reveal in this movie is the revelation of and the inclusion of the last Infinity Stone - the Time Stone, that is embedded in the Eye of Agamoto. This Stone allows for Dr. Strange to manipulate time throughout the film as he faces off against the villains.

So far we have five of the six Infinity Stones that have been revealed: the Space Stone (the Tesseract from Captain America: The First Avenger), the Reality Stone (the Aether from Thor: The Dark World), the Power Stone (the Orb from Guardians of the Galaxy) and the Mind Stone (Loki's scepter/Vision's power source from The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron). The one remaining Infinity Stone that is yet to be revealed is the Soul Stone.

These stones are what eventually Thanos uses to attempt a takeover of the Universe, a conflict that is slowly arriving and will be shown in The Avengers: Infinity War. Before then, we'll see Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 in May 2017, then Spider-Man: Homecoming in July 2017, then Thor: Ragnorak in November 2017. While the Soul Stone will most likely be revealed in one of these movies (probably in Thor: Ragnarok), I'm curious to see how these three movies will play into the overall story.

Dr. Strange adds more great characters to the MCU, and with the mid-credit scene, we see that at the very least, Strange and Thor will be teaming up in the near future. Rumors are out that Strange, Thor, and The Hulk will be featured heavily in Thor: Ragnarok (Thor 3). It's a small step from there until Strange is featured in the next The Avengers movie.

This Dr. Strange movie is a step in the MCU and while it is great as a standalone movie, this movie is definitely a set up for future Marvel stories. With Strange learning how to use his power and mastering his arrogance, he was then able to defeat Dormammu and become the next Sorcerer Supreme.This story sets him up for future MCU movies as described previously, as well as a sequel, with Mordo being the next villain. In the comics, Mordo, aka Baron Mordo, is a major villain for Dr. Strange. In this film Mordo becomes disenfranchised from the path he was on with Dr. Strange and with the action he took against Pangborn, in the end credits scene, Mordo will definitely be a thorn in Strange's side for any future stories.

I enjoyed Dr. Strange and felt that it was well directed and was a great origin story for a character not too well known in the general public's eye. Benedict Cumberbatch, Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong, Mads Mikkelson, and Chiwetel Ejiofor were great in this movie. Now, Tilda Swinton. She did a great job as The Ancient One, and her performance was well done. It was just weird seeing her as a bald woman. I was constantly distracted by her bald head. Now this is coming from a bald person, so I can relate to the baldness. But some people (man or woman) just have strangely shaped bald heads, and she came across as one of those persons (as far as I know she isn't bald in real life and it was a makeup job), so maybe my criticism should be against the make up person. I don't think that it matters if The Ancient One was Asian or not, I applaud the decision to make The Ancient One a female, and like I said, Ms. Swinson was great in the role.

I recommend watching this movie and buying it when it comes out on blu-ray. I hope you enjoy watching it and piecing it in to the overall Marvel Cinematic Universe storyline as much as I did.

Transformers: The Last Knight Trailer

Today the first trailer for the next Transformers movie: The Last Knight was released. Just like the previous Transformers movies, it looks like a lot of fun, crazy, robotic madness with explosions and tons of action! I can't wait to see it. https://youtu.be/hzDKE147Utc

Man of Steel II

Wait, I thought he was dead?! Spoiler Alert!!

TheWrap.com is reporting that Warner Bros is starting development for a Man of Steel sequel. Just when you thought Superman was dead (as shown in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and solidified in Suicide Squad), he's back! Ok, I don't think anyone really thought he was dead Dead, but now we know for sure that he isn't.

Even though it has been speculated and planned previously that DC and WB would eventually do a MoS sequel, I guess it's now official. I'm glad they are moving forward with this, I'd love to see The Batman (directed by and starring Ben Affleck) and Man of Steel II in theaters in the same calendar year. DC could create some great excitement from releasing them in the same year, months apart, and have the stories be interconnected on some level. I guess we'll see what DC and WB have in store for us as more details are announced.

Star Trek Beyond

I have enjoyed these new Star Trek movies that have rebooted the franchise and taken the story off in to a new direction. I think JJ Abrams has brought new life into a franchise that was slowly dying off. I feel that Beyond was a good addition to this new storyline, and that the movie franchise is headed in the right direction.

I had a mixed reaction to this film, as there were a lot of story elements, action sequences, and new characters that I really liked. There were also story elements, action sequences, and new characters that I found to be  boring and uninteresting. Warning: There will be spoilers discussed below.

First the boring and uninteresting. I found the film's villian, Krall, to be the same ol', same ol', which is too bad as Idris Elba is a great actor. There was nothing new or creative about him in this film. What we get is a former good guy that experiences a crisis and becomes bitter. He feels wronged by Starfleet and then seeks revenge on the establishment who did him wrong.

The next boring thing is something I was surprised that I found it boring. The action sequence of the Enterprise being completely destroyed, once again. While I'm guessing if this was the first Star Trek movie I'd ever seen, I would find this scene gripping and shocking. However, how many times has the Enterprise been destroyed? In my eyes, too many to make it relevant anymore, and they always rebuild it, and they always let Kirk be the Captain again. There is no drama to this event happening, as it continues to be portrayed over and over again. In fact the rebuilding of the Enterprise at the end of the movie was glossed over and they showed it happen in about 30 seconds. I think I would be more surprised if they made it through a movie without the Enterprise being destroyed at this point.

Another boring plot point is the crew being held captive on the planet and having to be rescued by Kirk, Spock, Bones, Scotty, and the new girl. There was no drama to it. You knew it was going to happen, and the way they were freed wasn't that exciting. Also, the lack of Uhura's screen time is almost criminal. She was such a strong, fun, enjoyable character in the previous two movies, and to have her relegated to the role (or lack of a role) in this movie is probably the worst thing in this movie! It's like the writer, Simon Pegg, went back to the 1960's and relegated her to a backup character.

Ok, just so you don't think I hated this movie, which I didn't, I will praise the film for it's fun and interesting parts! First of all, the introduction of Jaylah is a good addition to the franchise and I hope she is brought back for future Star Trek adventures. I enjoyed the extra screen time that we got for Bones and Spock together, as well as Chekov (RIP Anton) and Kirk. I think that having an ensemble cast with actors and characters such as these of the Enterprise crew can make it hard to divvy up screen time and plot points between all of them. (but still, Uhura needed more screen time!)

I liked how the film started off with Kirk being bored after being in space for over 2 years, because I've always thought that it would get monotonous real quick. I enjoyed how Kirk was able to find his motivation to stay with the Enterprise and refocus on his career.

I liked how they found the old starship, USS Franklin, and had to resurrect it and get it up and running in order to escape the planet. The end chase scene through the city and the subsequent fight between Kirk and Krall was pretty intense and it was a great way to end the conflict.

Oh, and no Carol Marcus? Another missed opportunity, as she was a great character in the last film, Into Darkness.

Some things that I liked in theory, but thought it didn't work well in the execution of it. First of all, the Beastie Boys defeat the massive enemy invasion? I love the Beastie Boys, I grew up with them and have all of their albums. I thought the inclusion of their song in the first Star Trek was clever and appropriate. However, in Beyond it seemed forced and too simplistic of a way to defeat the highly advanced, technological threat of Krall and his army. Maybe if the crew would have been listening to Sabotage while fighting the enemy and defeating them in a different manner? I could get behind that.

Another thing was Kirk riding the motorcycle through the enemy camp while no one could pick him off. I like the visual of him tearing it up and avoiding the enemy, but I'm pretty sure my 15 year old son could've taken him out at some point during the 10+ minutes of riding around the camp.

So with all this being said, I did enjoy the film and I'm glad they are doing a fourth film in this new Star Trek universe. I'm curious to see how George Kirk will play into the story. Knowing JJ, there's some alternate universe/time travel element to it. If Spock can meet up with his future self, then Kirk can meet his dad, right?

Of the three new Star Trek movies, Star Trek Beyond is my third favorite. I put Star Trek Into Darkness as my favorite, then Star Trek, followed by Beyond.

1- Star Trek Into Darkness

2- Star Trek

3 - Star Trek Beyond

The Dark Knight and The Man of Steel Collection

The collection is growing! I can't wait to add Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman,  Justice League, and more to my shelf.

Justice League Footage!

One of the most exciting things to come out of San Diego Comic Con this past weekend was a trailer of sorts, of the upcoming Justice League movie. In this exclusive footage, we get to see Bruce Wayne visiting Arthur Curry (Aquaman) and Barry Allen (The Flash) and inviting them to join with him for an upcoming, unknown threat. We see Bruce and Diana Prince (Wonder Woman) planning out how to create a super team. We also see three of them (Bruce, Barry, and Diana)  together, along with Cyborg (Victor Stone) walking into an abandoned room.

Following on the heels of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, where we saw very small glimpses of Aquaman, Flash, and Cyborg, it was great to see them a little longer in this trailer and see more of their personalities as we watch them interact with Bruce. We also briefly see a Mother Box being buried in the ground. We saw two Mother Box's in Dawn of Justice, one that essentially combined with Victor Stone and presumably turned him into Cyborg. The other was in Ultimate Edition, when we see Lex Luthor communing with Steppenwolf (a DC villain and Darkseid follower) and a Mother Box is present.

Justice League is set to be released November 17th 2017.

https://youtu.be/gglkYMGRYlE

Wonder Woman SDCC Trailer

We got our first look at the upcoming Wonder Woman movie, as the first trailer and teaser poster was released this weekend at San Diego Comic Con. The trailer was great in that it showed some great action, showed the main characters and gave us a little of their motivations and personalities, but didn't reveal the main plot and left us intrigued.

We were able to see Wonder Woman's abilities and fighting style, which is amazing and promises some great visuals that hopefully are just a glimpse of what we'll see in the actual movie. Wonder Woman is due to be released on June 2nd 2017. Check it out below!

https://youtu.be/5lGoQhFb4NM