• HOME
  • ABOUT
    • ABOUT US
    • STORE
    • ETSY STORE
  • NEWS & REVIEWS
  • MEDIA
    • Art by Kara Zisa
    • Art by Elizabeth Yoo
    • BOOKS
    • COMICS
    • COSPLAY
    • Cyberwar
    • FILM
    • POWkabam Comics >
      • Blackwood State
    • Web Design, Social Media, SEO
  • MARKETING | SEO | DESIGN
  • CONTACT US
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
    • ABOUT US
    • STORE
    • ETSY STORE
  • NEWS & REVIEWS
  • MEDIA
    • Art by Kara Zisa
    • Art by Elizabeth Yoo
    • BOOKS
    • COMICS
    • COSPLAY
    • Cyberwar
    • FILM
    • POWkabam Comics >
      • Blackwood State
    • Web Design, Social Media, SEO
  • MARKETING | SEO | DESIGN
  • CONTACT US
RUNE WORKS® Productions Ltd. | Small Press + PR Long Island, NYC
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
    • ABOUT US
    • STORE
    • ETSY STORE
  • NEWS & REVIEWS
  • MEDIA
    • Art by Kara Zisa
    • Art by Elizabeth Yoo
    • BOOKS
    • COMICS
    • COSPLAY
    • Cyberwar
    • FILM
    • POWkabam Comics >
      • Blackwood State
    • Web Design, Social Media, SEO
  • MARKETING | SEO | DESIGN
  • CONTACT US

    RUNE WORKS 

    Here You Will Find News & Reviews of Art, Entertainment and Educational Works Provided by Artists. Rune Works is a Source of Entertainment, Production, PR,  and Publishing Services. Inquire More About Rune Works Here.

    Archives

    December 2019
    July 2019
    April 2019
    September 2018
    October 2017
    August 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    March 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013

      Email List Sign Up

    Submit
    Tweets by @RuneWorks

    Categories

    All
    007
    2013
    2016
    2017
    70mm
    Acting
    Actor
    ADULT SWIM
    Adult Swim New York Comic Con 2015
    Alfred Hitchcock
    Aliens
    American
    American Gods
    American Gods Starz
    Ancestory Dna
    Antman
    Art
    Artwork
    Arya
    Author
    BATMAN
    Batman Realm Of Shadows
    Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice
    Bb-8
    Bea
    Becky Yamamoto
    Ben Affleck
    Benedict Cumberpatch
    Best Comics 2016
    Best Comics 2017
    Best Crime 2017
    Best Of 2016
    Best Of 2017
    Black Sails
    Black Sails Final Season
    Black Sails Season 4
    Black Sails STARZ
    Black Sails Trailer
    Blackwood
    Blackwood State
    Blackwood State #1
    Bond
    Book
    Book Club
    Book Expo
    Book Expo America
    Book Review
    Book Revue Cyberwar
    Book Revue Huntington
    Books
    Book Signing
    Book Trailer
    Breaking Bad
    Broad City
    Brooklyn
    Carrie Kelley
    Cassandra Demario
    Cbs
    Charity
    Chewbacca
    Cinco De Mayo
    Comedy
    Comic
    Comic Bastards
    Comicbastards.com
    Comic Book
    Comic Con
    Comic Con 2016
    Comic Con Cover
    Comic Con Record
    Comics
    Con
    Cradle Of Aviation
    Crowdfunding
    Cyber
    Cyberwar
    Cyberwar May 5 2015
    Cyberwar Preview
    Cyberwar Reading
    Cyberwar Release
    Cyberwar Series
    Cyberwar Signing
    Cyberwar Video
    Daniel Craig
    Dark Knight Iii
    Dc Comics
    Demario
    Directed
    Director
    Divergent
    Dk Iii
    DLC: The Last Stand
    Dome
    Drama
    Dustin Cabeal
    Dystopian
    Ebola
    Edgar Wright
    Editor
    Elizabeth Yoo
    Enrique Parrilla
    Eternal Con
    Eternal Con 2015
    Examiner
    Examiner.com
    Excerpt
    Fantasy
    Fantasy Matters
    Fiction
    Film
    Film Review
    Films
    Forceforchange
    Frank Miller
    Fred Harper
    FX
    Game Of Thrones
    Gaming
    Garden City
    Garth Ennis
    George Rr Martin
    Giveaway
    Gods
    Goodreads
    Google
    Got
    Got Epic
    Graphic
    Graphic Novel
    Grunge
    Gwenda Bond
    Han Solo
    Hard Case Crime
    Hbo
    Hollywood
    Huneke
    Ian Fleming
    Insurgent
    Interstellar
    Interstellar Review
    Interview
    Into Darkness
    Iron Man
    Ivan O'neill
    James Bond
    James Bond Spectre
    Javit's
    Jen Kostman
    Jj Abrams
    Khan
    Kickstarter
    L.A.
    Lantia
    Lantia Paulo Coelho
    Layers Of Fear
    Librify
    Li Con
    Li Con Nsa Panel
    Li Con Table
    Lois Lane
    Lois Lane Fallout
    Long Island
    Man Of Steel
    Maria Sumoza
    Marv
    Marvel
    Marvel Television
    Marvel Television New York Comic Con
    Mass Effect Andromeda
    Mass Effect: Andromeda
    Massive Entertainment
    Massive Entertainment: Pioneers In A New Frontier With The Division
    Mcu
    Mila Kunis
    Minute Of The X-files
    Mit
    Movie
    Movie Option
    Movie Review
    Mulder
    Music
    Neil Gaiman
    Neil Gaiman Starz
    New York
    New York Comic Con
    New York Comic Con 151000
    New York Comic Con 2017
    ​New York Comic Con 2017 RUNE WORKS Exclusives: New CYBERWAR!
    Nick Frost
    Noir
    Nolan
    Novel
    Nsa
    Nsa Panel
    Ny
    Nyc
    Nycc
    Nycc 2014
    Nycc 2017
    Nycc 2018
    Nycc Profile
    Ny Comic Con
    Ny Comic Con 2016
    Ny Comic Con 2018
    Ny Comic Con Cover Dark Knight Iii
    Ny Comic Con Verification
    Option
    Paulo Coelho
    Peepland
    Peep Land 2
    Peepland 2
    Pegg
    Pentane
    Pentane Movie
    Pentian
    Pentian Cyberwar
    Pentian Lantia
    Pentian Paulo Coelho
    Poetry
    Port Jefferson
    Port Jefferson Author Fair
    Port Jefferson Free Library
    POWkabam
    Preacher
    Preacher AMC
    Preacher Garth Ennis
    Ps4
    Ps4 Neo
    Publishing
    Radio
    Radio Cyberwar
    Reading
    Review
    Revival
    Ricky Whittle
    Ricky Whittle American Gods
    Ricky Whittle Shadow
    Right As Rain
    R.j. Huneke
    Rj Huneke
    Rj Huneke Cyberwar
    Robot Chicken
    Rob Zombie
    Rune
    @runeworks
    Rune Works
    Rune Works Comic Con
    RUNE WORKS ON GAMING
    Sam Catlin
    Sam Mendes
    Science Fiction
    Scifi
    Sci-fi
    Scully
    Seattle
    Seawolf
    Seth Rogan
    Sheetrock
    Sherlock
    Simon Pegg
    Sin City
    Sin City: A Dame To Kill For
    Snyder
    Sony Neo
    Special Edition Nyc
    Spectre
    Spiderman
    Spider-Man: Far From Home
    Stan Lee
    Stan Lee Ant-man
    Star Trek
    Star Wars
    Star Wars: Force For Change
    Star Wars: The Force Awakens
    Starz
    Starz Trapped
    Steam
    Steel
    Stephen King
    Stephen King Revival
    Stony Brook
    Stony Brook University
    Story
    Strain Season 3
    Studio
    Superman
    Tarantino
    Target
    Telltale
    The Birds
    The Birds 2017
    The Birds 54th
    The Book Revue
    The Canyons Between Us
    The Dark Tower
    The Dark Tower Movie
    ​The Dark Tower Movie: A Grand Sequel To Stephen King’s Epic
    The Division
    The Hateful Eight
    The Hateful Eight Special Roadshow
    THE STRAIN
    The X-files
    Thriller
    Tim Burton
    Titan Comics
    Tom Clancy
    Trailer
    Tv
    Under The Dome
    Unicef
    Uninspired
    Valve
    Video
    Vimeo
    Vmx
    Web Series
    Weezer
    Wonder Woman
    Work
    Works
    World's End
    Wrath Of Khan
    Wright
    Writer's Corner
    Wusb
    Xbox One
    X-files
    X-files 2016
    X-files Premiere
    Yoo

    RSS Feed

Back to Blog

Read Into the Darkness of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

4/2/2016

 
Picture
There is a tremendous amount of substance, controversy, and contention taking place that requires film and comic book fans alike to read into the darkness of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

The new DC universe, the new DC film universe I should say, is officially alive.

If nothing else, love it or hate it, you have to admit that Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice made a powerful statement to that effect.

It is alive.

First things first, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is a Batman film.

I do not care what the title says, this film starts and ends with Batman.

SPOILER ALERT!

Leaning heavily on the Frank Miller Dark Knight comic books, Ben Affleck’s Batman and Bruce Wayne are middle-aged, worn from two decades of battling Gotham’s goons and incredibly realistic for how the mentally disturbed dark knight still has nightmares over his parents’ killing, even though he has been serving the city in their name, pummeling criminals, for decades.

The man is tormented.

And he is a man. A rich man with martial arts skills and an engineer’s brain, but still a man.

There are even jokes between he and Alfred that play out well to harp on the aging effects.

At one point, while battling a bunch of thugs at once, Batman’s cape is grabbed tripping him up, which is a fantastic use of how a real world man would get hurt.

He is not Superman, who would not flinch if someone tugged on his cape.

Opening the movie is Bruce Wayne’s nightmare and more follow through the film that may allude to a possible alternate DC universe and storyline, akin to the Injustice: Gods Among Us storyline.

But that could be seeds for a Justice League 2 or 3 movie, not for the next film coming.

The dream sequences are a bit jarring and the first third of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is a bit clunky, in large part because of them.

But without the dreams, we do not get the brilliant portrayal of the tortured, smart, weathered, and paranoid Batman that carry throughout the flick.

Batman is a dark character and the movie, his movie, follows the blackest of these themes.

The Batman brand of justice is even made into a literal bat branding that he employs on the scum, the sex traffickers, which becomes a death sentence in prison.

And as an aside, folks, we also have the triumphant return of the Batwing!

There are those that despised the world of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice out of the gate, with Man of Steel, and those that have taken to the second installment in the DC ‘verse with equal rancor.

Some find Man of Steel to be the greatest Superman film to date, even over the Richard Donner cut of Superman II; but the point remains, the darker, more realistic take on Superman in a contemporary world set a precedent that is followed very closely by DC in their penultimate setup for assembling the Justice League.

In a world ripe with terrorists and inspired madmen and super villains, Superman does what he feels is right, but that cause an awful lot of controversy, as his interests are not necessarily the US’s interests, or any countries’ for that matter.

It is how our real world might look.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is dark and gritty and takes the modern world, which inches closer to a dystopia every day, to a grim place where a Superman can resemble a god and also strike fear for his sheer unlimited power, and a man dressed as a bat can haunt criminals in the city of Gotham, where villains are assembling their own powers (see Gotham: Rise of the Villains if you need further proof on film; it is a great show).

Batman is concerned over the sheer power of an alien and this is turned against him when Lex Luthor uses him to trap Superman.

Henry Cavill and Ben Affleck are tremendous in their roles, but two actors stole the show in this film.

The first is the controversial casting of Jesse Eisenberg as Luthor.

The snippets of his speeches in the trailers leading up to the movie make him out to be the most annoying of villains we could ever have hoped to endure for two and a half hours.

Well guess what, trailers often portray the best parts, making bad films look great, or in this case they took terrible spots, out of context, and did a bad job of portraying what was really exceptional acting of a great character.

Eisenberg was the best portrayal of Luthor on-screen.

He stole the show with his perfect combination of the comic book villain’s rise as a young, rich CEO, megalomaniac lusting for power and then completely unhinged by the rising of Superman, who is everything he wants to be but cannot be.

He abhors his humanity and wants to destroy anything he deems greater than himself.

He is funny, at times, but more unnerving and creepy and maniacal. His intelligence and madness feed off of each other and his serial killer coldness comes off in spades. He even goes so far as to scheme a suicide bombing of the US Capital Building.

He is evil and multi-dimensional, like in the comic books.

Too often Luthor was poorly portrayed by cardboard one-dimensional efforts showing a businessman, or a funnyman, sociopath with aspirations of world domination; Superman is merely there to thwart him . . . and this is boring.

What Eisenberg and director Zack Snyder do with the character is make Superman not just the cause of Batman’s unhinging but Lex’s as well.

The next actor to steal the show was Gal Gidot as Wonder Woman!

She kicks ass on so many levels, literally and metaphorically.

Throughout the film she is there trying to crack Luthor’s hold on her; she merely wants to blend in with humanity and ignore its troubles as she had done for a hundred years.

But once Doomsday arrives, she is compelled to break onto the scene and help save Batman and Superman’s lives.

Wonder Woman is nearly as powerful as Superman himself and has her traditional sword, shield and Lasso of Truth, which all prove pivotal in the final epic battle.

Her character sees a lot of screen time trying to blend in and hide, but her true nature comes from a temper that boils over and she jumps in to help the world that is in peril, and the boys poorly matched up against a foe that is far beyond even Batman and Superman alone to stop.

It was an amazing performance by Gidot.

In the end though, as is fitting, it is Superman’s sacrifice that takes down Doomsday.

And in a shocking surprise, the DC ‘verse played out Superman’s death.

Batman will have to take the lead on assembling the Justice League and protecting super heroes all over the globe, as another death adds another burden on his aging shoulders.

New threats will rise after all, as Luthor from prison reports to Batman with glee.

The Doomsday battle is grandiose, and I can forgive DC for having it end at night in Gotham, instead of in Metropolis during day.

That is a grimmer portrayal and befits a dark film.

They did, however, portray the infamous two-page spread of Jurgens and Breeding’s book, Superman 75, where Lois has the fallen hero in her arms, as tears rain down.

The funeral, and Lois getting her engagement ring posthumously, actually brought a tear to my eye.

Now the world must go on, for a time at least, without a Superman, and all hell will break loose.

I for one, hope the next Superman film features “The Rise of the Supermen” from the dozens of comic books following the Death of Superman, with four major Superman players (none of them Kent) and ultimately leads to Clark Kent’s rising from the dead; it is what hooked me into serialized stories in comics as a kid.

Justice League will have to make do without, as they often have in the books, and it will make for interesting world building in this new living DC ‘verse.

And again, Batman is the leader here, by default.

The next solo film for Batman may see the great writing of Affleck, but I hope it incorporates more of Frank Miller’s works.

Miller has already stated publicly he would like to see the female 13-year old Robin, Carrie Kelley, from The Dark Knight Returns on the screen, and wouldn't that be awesome?

In the bat cave, Robin’s suit is there, tagged up by the Joker, who has presumably already killed the male Robin (Jason Todd?) and possibly burned down Wayne Manor; will we see this played out from the “Death in the Family” comic book storyline in the movies?

Overall, DC accomplished a lot with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice even though it is a bit jarring and certainly very dark throughout.

DC has certainly distanced themselves from Marvel with a much more gritty and stained universe.

The writing of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is top notch and the lines are memorable.

But because of the sheer volume of character building and world building going on, this movie does not play out as the smooth A of say Man of Steel, or even the A+ of the first Avengers film.

It is certainly every bit as good, if not better than Avengers: Age of Ultron, for similar reasons of editing and clunkiness.

This movie is no Casablanca, but it is a damn good comic book movie. If you like classics, such as Tim Burton’s Batman and many of the other excellent comic book films, like Superman II: the Richard Donner Cut, then this is worth seeing, and it is worth re-watching.
 
Rune Works REVIEW Grade: B+
 
“Read Into the Darkness of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” was written by R.J. Huneke.

1 Comment
read more
Steph link
2/7/2021 02:53:02 am

Appreciate this blog ppost

Reply



Leave a Reply.

Home, Rune Works Productions, rune, rune works, media, entertainment, pop culture, writing, content, marketing, film, comic, comics,, cyberwar, novel, Stephen King, south park, homeland security, novel, writing, poetry, author, R.J. Huneke, photography, Tenchu, video games, popular culture, Newsday, Apple, movies, cyberwar, cyberpunk, cyber punk, cyber war, sci-fi, science fiction, fiction, thriller, bradbury, crime, noir, hard boiled crime,
Join EFF!
Conductor Searchlight, c3, c3ny, seo, seo Long Island, seo NYC, SEM, conductor certified
HOME         ABOUT         MEDIA         NEWS & REVIEWS        CONTACT US
​

Copyright © 2007-2021 Rune Works® Productions Ltd.  All Rights Reserved. 
This web site is powered by CMO Sync and all web site terms and conditions, as well as the Rune Works privacy policy can be found on CMOsync.com.