Sunday, March 27, 2016

Batman v Superman: Does It Suck?

The most anticipated movie of 2016 was just released over this Easter weekend: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. The hype and anticipation for this movie was and still is crazy and for good reasons. For one, this movie is suppose to be the first film of many that will start the DC movie universe. A lot is riding on this movie, especially considering that it is a follow-up, not a sequel (sort of) to Men of Steel that was favorably a disappointment by DC fans and critics alike. Will it rise above our standards and expectations? Does it suck?

Story

The premise of the movie is that it takes place a couple of years after the events of Man of Steel. Superman has become a polarizing figure. You have people who trust him thinking that he is here to help humanity meanwhile you have people who think that he is a problem that needs to be dealt with or be put in serious check. One of these people is Bruce Wayne/Batman. Lex Luthor also has that issue, but to those who haven't seen it yet I don't want to spoil it too much. The movie did feel like a mix-up of The Manchurian Candidate, an episode of Homeland, and the last season of Smallville (only written better. Slightly)
     Batman v. Superman for a majority of the movie had this sort of political feel to it and deal with the issue of Superman in a political way. There is a lot of action in it, but what director Zack Snyder tries to do is mainly focus on how the world would react to a being like Superman if he did exist.
     For the Batman parts it did feel like Snyder try to make things Christopher Nolan-esque, but he didn't execute it properly. Another thing that wasn't executed properly was the DC Universe tie-ins. Batman vs. Superman is suppose to be the first movie that launches the live action DC movie universe. The film did feature a few cameos from other heroes that will be in the upcoming Justice League film, but these cameos were too blatant and didn't offer anything to the storyline other than oh look here they are. Wonder Woman was the already and most obvious tie-in they have and it would've made more sense if they would've just stuck with her and subtlety include the other heroes in other DC projects. Snyder should've taken notes of what Marvel has done to construct their movie universe more carefully.

Performance

The movie is sort of a sequel of Man of Steel so I'm not going to discuss Henry Cavill and Amy Adam's roles as Supeman and Lois Lane. For the most part it was a continuation of their roles in the last film so it you loved/hated it then, you probably will in this movie. The standout of the movie was Gal Gadot. Not much was known about her and her acting chops before she was cast as Wonder Woman. People were worried about whether or not she would deliver the role and she did effortlessly. Another person that did good was Ben Affleck. When we heard that he was going to be Batman people flipped, almost like how they flipped when Michael Keaton was cast as Batman in the 1989 film. I kept an open mind about him playing the character and he didn't disappoint. Affleck played a different Bruce Wayne than what we normally seen in the past live action films. His Bruce was more of a person who was haunted and troubled by the death of his parents and moved by vengeance that it almost driven him to insanity. Jesse Eisenberg was good in most parts. The movie's version of Lex Luthor was pretty much a paranoid almost in the same way of Superman turning against humanity as well as Bruce was, but on a more extreme way. Eisenberg played brilliant militant genius well, insane brilliant militant genius not that much.

Final Verdict

Did Batman v Superman suck? Not that much. I respected the script and its topic, however there were parts that were poorly executed and were unnecessary. A lot. It wasn't a bad movie at all, but it's nothing precisely to write home to, especially considering how other superhero movies fared better. Snyder made a much better film than Man of Steel but he's no Christopher Nolan, and that was apparent with what he tried to do with Batman. It gets a 2.5 out of 5.

Monday, March 21, 2016

Will the Nintendo NX Use VR?


VR is turning out to be a big thing this year. A matter of fact, a lot of VR devices will be released this year. Consumer versions of Oculus Rift are coming out in mere days as well as Playstation VR's release date and price has been revealed recently. It is becoming a trend. Everyone seems to be catching on to it. Will Nintendo catch on the trend? Will the NX support VR?
      Ever since the NX was announced Nintendo has been very tight lipped about it. There was a supposed leak about what the controller could look like and work, but we can take that with a grain of salt and brush it off as being fake. They have announced what it will support, including the 3DS, PC, and smartphones but not exactly how. We basically know nothing. Could it very well support VR as well?
     VR seems like it's going to be a big thing in gaming with a lot of companies interested in it as well as people who are looking forward to it as well. It would be a terrible thing for Nintendo to pass this up, especially if they want to undo the errors of the Wii U. President of Nintendo, Tasumi Kimishima did promise that the company would do and try plans that were outside of what they normally would do. However if they do decide to go the VR route, the NX shouldn't be solely VR. They should however do something like having the NX support a VR device, pretty much like how the PS4 supports PlayStation VR. Also hopefully they learned their lesson with the Virtual Boy.