Two Dark, Grim, and ambitious Comic Book ventures came out recently. These of course being Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and Season 2 of Daredevil. Before I go any further, I implore you to stop reading before you have seen both of these flawed but worth watching giants. In the end I like them both, but I want to explore the reason both these works can be seen as extremely disappointing. To do that I will need to spoil everything. You have been warned:
Disclaimer: NonStiq posts are the express opinions of the Author and do not reflect in any way on Twinstiq or any of its 50 shades of unprofessional-ism. NonStiq Posts are barely edited and rarely thoughtful. At least from Yoda, he just rants his nuts off.
I wanted to start by talking the about that character that matters the most to me from these works, but I already have. Last year I talked in great detail about why the best things about Daredevil's show where everything but Matt Murdock. And that problem hasn’t changed in this season. But too be fair it really hasn’t gotten any worse either. However, last season Matt did not have a story Arc, the vigilante did. Because even though the writers who replaced Drew Goddard from season one want Matt and DD to be the same person, they aren’t. And in Season one we saw that alter ego of Matt change and finally become a close adaptation of the Man Without Fear. Here... he seems to be scared more easily and no longer has an arc. Instead Matt does, unfortunately it's to become the same character as DD. Which is also why The Amazing Spider Man films didn’t work. The same character was portrayed whether or not the costume was on. But thankfully the new writers not just know what character this is meant for, but also do so with great expertise. That character of course being The Punisher. And yeah keep an eye out for Bernthal to either get thrown into tons of action films after this if not just given his own show for The Punisher. But not since the first Iron Man film has casting been this great for a single character.
Strangely you can see the same positives and negatives within Batman V Superman. Where Cavil’s Superman, while played great by the actor, is very close in character whether or not the suit is on. It’s not as bad as Matt/DD or The Amazing Spider Man, but it is a problem at times. I bet many of you would have thought that I would be picking apart the writing of Batman’s character in this film due to how the character is normally presented. These concerns from most seem to be completely unrelated to Affleck’s performance of the character, which has been praised as next to brilliant, and I agree. I was one of the few who liked that choice of casting, but it's the Batman without a moral center that I’m expected to rip apart. And honestly, I’m kinda not going to do that. Batman goes through an arc in this film, a weird one yes, but his character's journey is still a journey. Many criticize this Batman for branding people to die later in prisons. And yeah that should be detested, but if you remember what Alfred said at the start of the film, “Everything's changed, ...Powerlessness, is what turns good men cruel.” And the news broadcast that Kent watches showing that the Death Sentence branding has only happened 2 other times, would suggest to the viewer, quite obviously, that this murder fueled Batman is a recent change in his character. Now Having a Batman who’s recent moral code has just been changed by the discovery of Superman makes more sense, even if it wasn’t a very smart move to do that kind of change when you reboot a character. And honestly that’s why many people didn’t pick up on that part of this new Batman and that he did use to have the same moral code we are familiar with, only too lose it and regain it in this film, as at the end we are shown that he does not brand Lex.
But while the secondary characters of both this film and the show are either great or sigh inducing, character is not the large issue at hand with either of these comic adaptations.
The Big Issue
The Issue is purpose. The purpose of both this film and show are to set up pieces to play with later. For Daredevil it’s setting up something for the Defenders to fight or one could argue a Punisher show. And For Dawn of Justice its setting up something for the League to fight, or one could argue a solo Batman film.
This was the same problem of purpose that The Amazing Spider Man 2 and Age of Ultron had. Far too concerned about setting up more product to sell, when they should have been concerned about making a good film.
And here we are once again, with Dawn of Justice and Daredevil falling into the same trap of caring too much about what’s to come without focusing on making something great now. Of course there’s going to be people who love both of these adaptations, and that’s fine. I like them both. I also both love as well as hate parts of both. The first 4 episodes of Daredevil are incredible and as someone who never cared much about Elektra from the books, I started caring about this version of the character quite a bit. At least I would have if everything else in the show wasn’t so much better than her and Matt. It’s funny that while watching BVS I would almost groan if it cut back to Lex and I had to sit and watch whatever that was, and I would be doing the same if the show cut back to Daredevil this season...
And it’s for that reason that I was far more disappointed with Daredevil season 2 then Dawn of Justice. Because I care way more about seeing a good Daredevil than a good Batman or Superman. And while I would have liked to see more Supes in BVS, I liked the character just fine. And I already knew Batflec was going to be good. It’s something I expect them to do well when the film is named after them. So why the fuck is Daredevil still the worst part about Daredevil? If the show was called Karen, Castle, Foggy, and Fisk I wouldn’t care so much. I would think yeah this is great KCFaF show, with maybe too many cuts away to a less powerful story about DD and Elektra fighting the Hand that might matter to these other characters in a year or two.
The show is called Daredevil guys, so please earn the title. And no matter what any future shows or films are called, no matter if their Marvel, DC, or god willing Image(#Spawn2017); just focus on making good art.
We’re tired of being shown a blank canvas next to a few jars of paint and being told, "Just wait until we get those brushes so we can start drawing!"
I felt the same way about the story going back to Matt and Electra. The Punisher side of the show was much better. The part of the prison with Fisk and the Punisher was the highlight of the season IMO.
I really felt that we could have spent three or four episodes in the prison. Learning what Risk was up too and watching the Punisher get played by him. But while I really liked that episode everything in it felt rushed.
Dawn of Justice was one of the worst films I’ve ever seen. Nothing made sense because there’s all these nods to other story lines and movies that aren’t even out yet! It was like if Avengers came out BEFORE the 5 other Marvel films that built up to the Avengers movie. Almost the entire time during BvS I felt like there were 2 or 3 other movies I was supposed to see before that one.
I can definitely see that. Which is why I stated its the films biggest problems. But it’s far from the worst film I’ve ever seen. That would be The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Which again, cared more about setting up other films than being anything but a film with a bunch of random scenes.
Bvs doesn’t actually do many nods to other films that don’t exist except for the extremely out of place email scene that definitely felt like it was supposed to be an end credits scene but was still shit.
But while a lot of the film seemed jumpy in places it felt pretty obvious that a lot of the film was cut for time and it made you confused as an audience member. Like the scene where Perry asks where Clark is not being followed up with a scene showing where he is lol we know now that it was supposed to cut to Clark investing Batman in gotham, which would make a lot more sense and would help fill in the narratives holes. But nope, WB wanted there to be more batman than Superman in Supermans sequel :(
I don’t think the 3 hour cut would make the film less avergae, but it will definitely help explain a lot that this film doesn’t without scenes like that
But you also tmhave to think 10 to 20 years from now, people aren’t going to always be able to watch all the solo films before they watch the avengers. But the Avengers works well on its own, ask people who have only seen that film and none of the solo movies and they still love it. Same can’t be said about Age of Ultron or BvS in its current state because they both care more about setting up pieces for other films. Its not that previous films are required to enjoy them because their both average movies, they just could have been great if they wherent just made to set up future films