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The Sandman (2022)
A level of cringe I did not think possible.
I went in blind, no idea other than seeing a trailer which looked like high concept fantasy which I am all about.
Episodes One through Four were pretty good, and yes, they had some progressive elements, but they were subtle enough and didn't slow down the show too much.
Then episode Five happened, I still can't be sure it wasn't done as a joke. It blew my mind how poorly written it was, like if SNL did a "woke" sketch. I consider myself fairly progressive, but this was some of the laziest examples of pandering I have ever seen.
I'm going to go to bed and see if I can muster up the will to finish the series tomorrow, it has so much promise and things I really do like but episode five was just so incredibly bad I don't know if I can continue.
Behind the Mask: The Batman Dead End Story (2015)
Great Story And Character Study
I've watched this multiple times and it still interests me. It's the story of a group of guys making a fan film with the intention of launching the career of their leader Sandy Collora.
The whole process is really neat to see and I credit the film maker of this documentary with his story telling ability.
The short film they make (Batman: Dead End) gets a tremendous amount of buzz and the assumption was that Sandy would go on to get a major study deal. What follows is an absolute train wreck. Every aspiring director should watch this documentary to learn what not to do.
I think Sandy Collora is a very creative and talented guy. But if you pressed me to describe him in one sentence it would be "He's Kanye West without the hit records." He passes on movies he deems as garbage showing no respect for other people in his chosen profession while at the same time promoting his own stories and scripts which is all but impossible until you really prove yourself in the industry. For a guy who is in his mid 30s to just say, "ok I'm gonna write and direct films now" with no practical experience and expect things to get handed to him is painfully naïve.
Several people in the film also allude to Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy as if they inspired him, also that Heath Ledger's Joker was directly ripped from the guy who played the Joker in this short film which is pure insanity. I mean really. lol I highly recommend watching this documentary, it's on Hulu Plus atm.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
Minor Pacing Issues, Still Entertaining
I'll get my one complaint out of the way early, and that is pacing. This movie in a weird way is an origin story, not of a character but the Justice League and in a way the whole DC Universe. I half expected the movie to suffer from this just from what I saw in the trailers and while the film did drag at a few points, I view it as a necessary evil.
A lot of reviews also took shots at Jessie Eisenberg for his chaotic performance as Lex Luthor. I at first had a few doubts about this but he did win me over by the end of the movie.
Once you get past these two gripes I found the movie very entertaining and enjoyed the dark tone of the film. There were also a few surprising jokes that kind of came out of nowhere and got solid laughs from the audience.
Affleck I thought was surprisingly good, even on par with Bale's Batman/Bruce Wayne which I didn't think I would have said prior to seeing this movie.
I'm not going to put this on the same level as Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy, mostly because it's not a pure Batman movie. The reviews saying its better I would guess are written by Warner Bros. publicity people just like the people comparing it to Green Lantern are probably Marvel people. The truth is somewhere in the middle.
I have a hard time believing anyone going into this would have a bad experience as I found it to be entertaining and visually impressive. I gave the movie 7/10 although I think that score will go up once the full franchise come out. Fingers crossed.