Saw it again tonight, again in 2D IMAX. I actually found myself walking in wondering if I'd like it as much or if after seeing it once its length would start to show, the narrative would fall apart, etc.
I came away more confident than ever that it's a really good movie. To some of you I'm part of the "unwashed masses" who are giving money to this crappy movie and well, to me you're the unwashed masses that aren't appreciating a good flick.
I just disagree with the notion that it was bad, poorly edited, characters weren't handled well and so on.
I was actually surprised how into the first 2/3 of the movie I was all over again. The destruction of Metropolis, Wayne funeral, Jeepers Creepers Batman intro, Bruce and Alfred scenes, desert scene, naked Amy Adams, Daily Planet scenes, Nightmare sequence, Man-Bat vision, Luthor's party, it was just one engaging moment to the next. And I thought the ending still played well, was still exciting, etc.
Hard to fault a movie that I enjoy for two and a half hours.
A number of things I picked up this time around:
1. Bruce's story begins and ends at funerals carpeted by maple leaves. The first funeral he falls into the bat cave and becomes this one man instrument of fear, punishment, and vengeance. Second funeral he becomes a team player with toned down brutality (which is how I'm taking the lack of branding on Lex.)
2. Thomas Wayne was just another well meaning dad who made a tragic, lethal mistake. He clearly provokes the guy by doing a little lunge at him, gets shot, then the guy accidentally gets his gun caught in Martha's necklace and kills her too. I think that makes the main theme of possibly the entire movie flawed people learning ideals from other flawed people (Pa, Thomas, and to an extent Lex Sr.) and doing their best to live out those ideals in the way that makes the most sense to them. Clark learned to always try and save his family first, because they gave him the necessary strength to save everyone else, strength even to sacrifice his own life if necessary. Bruce learned from his dad that you either pull up weeds or can be stifled by them in any given moment, Lex learned that if there are powerful beings in the world (be they God or his father) then they must inherently be evil and put down.
All learned "lessons" as they saw them and lived by those lessons in different ways. Clark had a good lesson buried in his dad's idiocy, he just had to sift it out to understand it better. In the meantime he was filled with ever increasing doubt. Bruce had a bad lesson "you'll die in a gutter for no reason, might as well make life hell for the criminals while you can," but was able to change his thinking and chart a better course for himself and the safety of others. Lex didn't learn anything and just got crazier. Very interesting to see how the three responded to their trials in such different ways.
3. Right before Superman's hearing Lex tells Holly Hunter "well you're sure going to be in the hot seat in there." Ha. He also said goodbye to his Asian aide, "Mercy." Interesting name. He did away with mercy.
4. When Clark is trying to convince Perry that they should shine a light on the Bat and help the poor of Gotham and Perry says no Clark replies, "But that's not what the Planet was founded on," or something to that effect. Planet. He obviously means Daily Planet but the sentence creates an interesting play on words if you want to say he's a Messiah talking about how God originally created the "planet" Earth and then said "It is good" before evil mucked it up. "This isn't what the planet was founded on." Jesus obviously came to create a path of redemption so that the planet could go back to what it was founded on. Pretty cool. Neat line of dialogue.
5. I felt bad for Clark when Bruce said, "bad history with freaks dressed like clowns." You could tell that it really got to him. His outfit is one of his only links to his homeworld and especially his family. As much as we make fun of it the "hope" thing is really important to him. Later in the movie when Lois puts her hand on his emblem and says, "this means hope," and he says, "it did on my world but my world doesn't exist," you know deep down he's thinking, "this means nothing to anyone here, it's a freaking clown suit." That was pretty harsh.
6. I saw the girl in Bruce's bed! Freaking right there after he wakes up from the Man-Bat dream.
7. That was The Flash that appears to him in all the electricity? The Flash from the future!?? Okay I had *no* idea who that was or what was going on the first time around. Apparently I was just six years old watching Luke in the Dagobah cave again.
So Flash is telling him about how important Lois is, "am I too soon, has it happened yet?" whatever he was yammering about was clearly some future event that he was trying to go back in time to warn him about, then he says, "Find us..." Pretty freaking DOFP there but what are ya gonna do. So this time I "got" why he told Diana that the other superheroes would agree to fight with them because of "a feeling" he had. He thought that Flash was a dream but somehow something more. Got it this time.
8. So fascinating that Lex LITERALLY was trying to just hand Bruce the kryptonite. Bruce was trying to make it all so hard for himself. Sneak into Lex's house. Nope, Lex invited him. Then Lex *invited* him to his laboratory where they "might see they have some like minded projects" or whatever and Bruce declined! Instead he chased Lex' men to that very same laboratory. It was interesting because when the men deliver the kryptonite Lex opens the box and stares at it, no smile. Then later when the kryptonite is stolen he smiles. The first time he was all "dammit, he didn't get it?" So crazy that Lex was just trying to offer it up to Bruce on a silver platter and he just wasn't taking the bait (which I don't blame him for, obviously.)
9. Batman's preference was definitely not to kill, even in quasi-real future visions. In the Apocalypse when he gets swarmed by soldiers he grabs an assault rifle but tries to fight off two guys at once with his free hand, when that is futile he raises the gun and mows them down. Another guy he punches and then throws to the ground but when the guy gets up and two of his buddies join him THEN Batman breaks his neck. Killing always or at the very least almost always seems to be his "Plan B."
10. The trailers SO screwed up Wonder Woman's entrance to the battle. Zack staged it perfectly! Batman crashes, then cut to Superman up in space, the sun shines on him and he heals, then back to Batman, DD blasts him and BOOM, a figure bathed in light streaks down and deflects it. Of course we would have all assumed it was Superman. But the smoke clears and (cue electric air guitar) Wonder Woman! Man, what was WB thinking on that one.
11. I was kind of relishing Batman kicking Superman's *** the first viewing but this time I had so much more empathy for Superman I just felt kind of bad.
12. I loved the "first generation of Wayne's traded fur and pelts, they were hunters," and then immediately cutting to armored Batman and his spear. Yes kids, the spear is awesome.
13. Awesome that they had a Rocky underground training montage that actually applied to his plan! Dragging the tire with the heavy chain, obviously he was gearing up for being able to drag Superman. Very cool!
