Showing posts with label Ben Affleck. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ben Affleck. Show all posts

Wednesday, 20 April 2016

BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE

Two years after the events of Man of Steel, Superman (Henry Cavill) and Batman (Ben Affleck) are framing the debate over whether the World needs a superman and/or brutal vigilantes. Fuelled by rage at the collateral damage from Superman and Zod's fight, Bruce Wayne/Batman feels duty bound to bring the Kryptonian to heel. Combined with Clark Kent's distaste for Batman's thuggish street justice, and Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) pulling the strings from behind the scenes, the two icons find themselves on course for the biggest playground scrap of all time.

Batman Vs Superman (BvS) is a typically stylised affair from Snyder (love it or hate it), but is unfortunately po-faced, pretentious and very average. Some un-fleshed out pontificating on the nature of being a 'meta-human', alongside senate committee grandstanding, mean the World's disillusionment with Superman never really resonates. BvS wants to say something profound on the subject, but much like our two heroes, doesn't really say much at all.

The clunky shoehorning in of future Justice League members feels cynical, and the aesthetic choices are weird. Bruce Wayne is a millionaire who lives in an unkempt field and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), although cryptically interesting, looks like a reject from Snyder’s 300.

The biggest problem with BVS is that Snyder is unable to direct a coherent action sequence.  Early on we are accosted with a murky, disorientating car chase that achieves nothing for the story (Batman chases something he knows is owned by Lex Luthor, which leads him directly to... Lex Luthor). And the fight sequences are all a post-Bourne jumble of crunchy bone snapping and wobbly-cam realism. It begs the question of why bother to have Affleck bulk up, or choreograph a multi opponent punch up, if the results are lost in tight close ups and amphetamine editing.

The real tragedy of this incarnation of Superman is how abjectly boring he is. Henry Cavill spends two and half hours frowning at variety of people, although in fairness it is hardly his fault, as the script denies Superman anything by way of interesting dialogue. Christopher Reeve's earnest take on Kal-El might have been a bit of a boy scout, but it can't be denied how enjoyable it was. This bleak, scowling, dullard of a Superman will be enough to turn kids off the character for decades.

But despite its many flaws, BvS is still not quite the terrible movie the internet would have you believe. There are no complaints with Bat-fleck – a gruff, curmudgeonly Frank Miller-style Dark Knight; and a future Batman movie in Affleck's hands could well be something to get excited about. Kevin Costner's five minute cameo simply highlights what it is to have some natural acting chops, and Jesse Eisenberg's Zuckerberg-channelling turn as Lex Luthor is really quite alright, and far less annoying than the trailers might have you believe.

At two and half hours, BvS is most definitely overlong. It’s also most definitely flawed. But the reality is that it sits between the critical scorn and the fanboy love, settling somewhere on the spectrum marked mediocre.


IMDB: Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice

Tuesday, 10 February 2015

GONE GIRL


Nick (Ben Affleck) and Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike) are a not-so-happily married couple. Their five year marriage is seemingly on the verge of divorce.  Nick returns home one afternoon to discover evidence of a struggle in their house, and that Amy is missing. He contacts the police and as the investigation proceeds, further details of their rocky marriage are revealed and the finger of suspicion begins to point toward Nick himself. He must fight not only the charges against him, but also a PR battle against a merciless, judgmental media. As our opinions of Nick oscillate between guilty and innocent, it soon becomes apparent that perhaps all is not as it seems.

Gone Girl is David Fincher's adaptation of Gillian Flynn's popular novel of the same name. Its baffling critical acclaim contrasting starkly with the simple fact it is one of the stupidest films ever made. The plot is utterly, maddeningly absurd. There is of course,  nothing wrong with stupidity in context, but with Gone Girl being compared to Hitchcock and championed as a razor sharp satire, it is asking you to take it seriously. There comes a point at which ridiculous plotting starts to become annoying, and the two and a half hour run time asks you to endure a lot.

In fairness, it is well acted and the cast do well with what they are given, but it is hamstrung by cliche and is alarmingly clunky. The media,  whom it supposedly satirises, are portrayed as one dimensional, reactionary and straight out of The Simpsons. I half expected Godfrey Jones to appear at any second.  Nick's lawyer, the crazily named Tanner Bolt (Tyler Perry) is no more a character than Seinfeld's Johnny Cochran parody,  Jackie Chiles. Nick's proposal to Amy, told via flashback, is cringeworthy and soap opera-level naff.  The whole movie is Fincher on autopilot.

Ultimately Gone Girl feels idiotic.  It relies on dumb luck, logic-defying plot holes and character leaps that belie any pretext of reality. The world these characters inhabit has about as much to do with ours as Star Wars. As outlandish trash, Gone Girl might find a niche - or as a movie you might watch on a plane, alongside the novel you might buy in the airport. But as stylish noir or Hitchcockian thriller it's got serious delusions of grandeur.

IMDB: Gone Girl

by Ben Holmes
by Matt Needle
by Fernando Reza