3 Ways That Would Have Made Batman v Superman Better

The 37th Golden Raspberry Awards, or Razzies, announced its nominations for they what they felt was the worst in film over the past year and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice racked up eight nominations.

While the movie did have its flaws(a hammy performance by Jesse Eisenberg, the whole "Martha" thing), I actually thought the movie was decent and had some strong points(Jeremy Irons' performance, the Batman warehouse fight scene, and Wonder Woman's entrance in the climatic battle).

And for those who hated the film when you saw in theaters, I recommend watching the Ultimate Edition, which is a half-hour longer than the theatrical version and fills up some plot holes as it gives depth to Lex Luthor's plot to put the Caped Crusader and Man of Steel against each other as well as giving Henry Cavill more screen time.

However, like I said, the movie had its flaws, and I think it could have worked better if one of these three solutions that I am going to present would have been applied:

Make it more Superman Centric

When Man of Steel was released in 2013, many fans thought Henry Cavill's Superman was going to be the central character in the DC Universe.

But in Dawn of Justice, Cavill was kicked to the curb as he had only 43 lines of dialogue in the theatrical version of the film.

It's a shame because I think Cavill has done a good job as the Man of Steel and felt the movie was better when Superman was the focus and how in the film, characters debated whether or not the world should trust the Kryptonian.

What director Zach Snyder and the writers could have done is essentially made the movie Man of Steel 2 but still have Batman in the film as a supporting character.

Basically, they could have had Superman be trying to do what he does(save the world), but have Batman as a mysterious figure who is shadowing the Man of Steel, leading Clark Kent to ask himself "Who is this Batman and what his problem with me?"

Then, we could have seen more of Cavill as Clark Kent as he investigates the Dark Knight's past or have Batman came out of retirement like in the graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns to fight Superman.

Also by making the movie more Superman-centric, it could have allowed for us to see more of Lex Luthor pulling the strings of his plan or have him recruit the Batman out of retirement and convince him he needs to destroy Superman.
Another way would have been not to include Batman at all, but still have Wonder Woman show up and have Superman have the "Knightmare" where he sees a desolate Earth, leading him to believe him a greater threat is out there and that the Justice League needs to be formed.
By doing this, they could save Batman for Justice League as Superman tries to recruit Batman out of retirement to join the Justice League.

Given Batman a movie before hand

After all the backlash of his casting, I thought Ben Affleck did a good job as Batman, who in this incarnation of the Dark Knight character has become disillusioned after fighting criminals for 20 years and no longer lives up to his code of not killing people.

According to some accounts, he is responsible for the death of 21 criminals in Batman v Superman, but to quote Arnold Schwarznegger in True Lies "Yes, but they were bad".

But how did the Batman get to this point where he is so cynical and has no problem with his actions that kill people? 

We didn't have to worry about Wonder Woman's backstory because we knew going into Dawn of Justice that there was going to be a movie detailing her past(which comes out this June), but with Batman, some fans were of kind of saying to themselves "What is Batman's deal?"

The only glimpse to see why Batman is the way he is in Dawn of Justice is his talk to Alfred about needing to destroy Superman and a image on a statue of Robin, which leads us to assume that the Boy Wonder was killed at some point during Batman's 20 years of crime-fighting.
A solo Batman movie released before Dawn of Justice, could have better explained how Batman got to be so ruthless and why he does not live up to his moral code of not killing anyone anymore.

Perhaps adopting the famous storylines from the comics like The Killing Joke where the Joker paralyzes Batgirl with a gunshot and A Death in The Family where Robin is killed by a bomb set up by the Joker, could have been used and actually made use of Jared Leto's Joker, who was barely in the DC Universe's third film Suicide Squad, which by the way is way more incoherent that Dawn of Justice.

And you could have the scene where Bruce Wayne goes into Metropolis and looks at Superman in the sky as the final scene of the movie, setting up the cliff-hanger where you know Batman and Superman are going to go at it in the next movie.

Split it into two movies

There are reports that there is a four-hour cut of the movie, which could have been easily split into two 2-hour movies.

They did this with the final movies of the Harry Potter, The Hunger Games, and Twilight series, so why not with Batman v Superman?

Therefore, you could have given more time to flesh out the stories of all the main characters(Batman, Superman, Lex Luthor)

So if Snyder and Warner Brothers wanted to go with Batman v Superman as the second film of the DC Universe and not have a Batman movie before Dawn of Justice, we could have had flashbacks of the Dark Knight, like they did with Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad to show us how he got where he is at the time of Dawn of Justice rather than have him just look at the sky and see Superman fighting Zod after his building collapsed during their fight in Metropolis.

Plus, we could have possibly seen more of Lex Luthor plotting his master plan and more of Clark Kent's investigation of Batman's past, which could have included how he found out Bruce Wayne's mother's name was Martha, which would have allowed to have the whole "Martha" thing to work better.

Could have any of these three possibilities made Batman v Superman work better? Let me know what you think

8 Films I'm Looking Forward To in 2017

We are well into the new year, which is usually a slow time for movies with mostly junk movies coming out until the spring.
With that in mind, I have written down the eight movies I plan or wish to see in the year 2017 and what my hopes are for these films.
I have also included the trailers or teasers for these films to go along with my thoughts.
As Heath Ledger's Joker would say, here we go:
Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 (May 5)
Sequels in the Marvel Cinematic Universe have tended to be weaker than their predecessors such as the Avengers: Age of Ultron, Iron Man 2, and Thor: The Dark World, but hopefully that will not be the case with Guardians.
The trailer looks promising in that the sequel could be funnier than the first one, especially with Rocket Raccoon now having to take care of Baby Groot.
Plus, I am curious what new songs will be included in this one.

Wonder Woman(June 2)
While the Marvel Universe has garnered praise from critics and fans alike, the first three films of the DC Universe have polarized these same people.
Hopefully, that will change with Wonder Woman, as Gal Gadot,who was one of the highlights in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and having Chris Pine(aka Captain Kirk from the Star Trek reboots) as Steve Trevor, Wonder Woman's love interest, should be an added bonus.
And by the looks of the trailer, this one might have a lighter tone than the previous DC movies, which some fans have complained about.(Click twice to play).

Transformers: The Last Knight (June 23)
I'll admit it, I have seen all four Transformers movies in the theaters, but to the haters out there I'll just say this: The Transformers is kind like of a 80s horror slasher franchise like Halloween and Friday the 13th in that you're not going to get much of a story, you're just watching for the action sequences.
However, this Transformers movie has the potential for an interesting story by the early marketing campaign indicating Optimus Prime has gone to the dark side.
Plus, Mark Wahlberg is an improvement over Shia LaBeouf.

Spider-Man: Homecoming (July 7)
While this is the third reboot of the iconic Marvel character in just 15 years, this one looks like it will differentiate itself from the previous five Spider-Man movies as it will include another Marvel comic book hero in Iron Man, played by Robert Downey Jr., and the fact that one of Peter Parker's friends will actually know that he is Spider-Man.
The inclusion of Spider-Man in Captain America:Civil War helped make that film in my opinion the best Marvel movie to date, and hopefully Tom Holland, the man playing Spider-Man, will once again provide a charming performance as the famous web-crawler.

Blade Runner 2049 (October 6)
This one has the most nervous because the original Blade Runner is considered one of the greatest films of all time and is one of my personal favorites.
But there is still great potential with director Denis Villeneuve's success from Arrival and Sicario, to go along with Ryan Gosling taking over the lead role.
I am curious, as many Blade Runner fans are, is to how they handle is Deckard(that's Harrison Ford's character) a replicant mystery and if Jared Leto will actually be consequential to the plot, unlike his Joker in Suicide Squad.
However, the visuals do look promising and my hope is that this will be what Mad Max: Fury Road was to the Mad Max franchise, a worthy entry in the series.

Thor: Ragnarok (November 3)
In my opinion, the Thor movies have been the weakest films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but that might change with the third solo Thor movie as it will include the Hulk, played by Mark Ruffalo, and Doctor Strange, played by Benedict Cumberbatch.
The hope is that these additions will give Marvel fans another Captain America: Civil War, in that we see some Avengers characters gave us another good movie.

Justice League (November 17)
This could be the film that makes or breaks the DC Universe  in its ongoing battle with Marvel.
We will get to see Ben Affleck and Gal Gadot as Batman and Wonder Woman again, respectively, plus be introduced to Aquaman, Cyborg, and the Flash(though we have seen him briefly in Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad.
But the biggest question going into Justice League is how do they bring Superman back from the dead and if the Man of Steel's reintroduction into the DC Universe will quiet critics of how he was been portrayed so far in previous DC films.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi (December 15)
Ever since Disney bought Lucasfilm and decided to re-open the Star Wars franchise, they have hit back-to-back home runs with The Force Awakens and Rogue One, wiping the taste out of many months of Star Wars fans who were infuriated by the prequels.
With Han Solo out of the picture, now the focus turns to Luke Skywalker, as hopefully he will have at least one line in this one, plus advancing the stories of the new characters(Rey, Finn, Kylo Ren) and hopefully more Poe Dameron, the X-Wing pilot played by Oscar Isaac.
But with the death of Carrie Fisher, I think the biggest question will be what will happen to Princess Leia with who are Rey's parents now coming in second, though that one might not be answered till Episode IX.

So those are the movies I am looking forward to in 2017 and hopefully most of them, if not all will be awesome.

Rogue One: The Star Wars Prequel They Finally Got Right

I finally saw Rogue One, the Star Wars movie about how the Rebels stole the plans for the Death Star which was the Empire's superweapon that was destroyed out at the end of the original Star Wars or Episode IV: A New Hope.
As you can tell by the headline, I loved the movie as Disney hit a home run again since they bought Lucasfilm and began releasing new Star Wars movies, starting with The Force Awakens back in December 2015.
Now if you haven't seen the movie yet, I suggest you stop reading this article right now because I will discuss many spoilers from this entry as well as other Star Wars films.
For the second straight Star Wars movie, the film's central character and protagonist is a female character in the form of Jyn Erso played by Felicity Jones, a petty criminal who is the daughter of one of the builders of the Death Star, Galen played by Mads Mikkelson(also the villain from Doctor Strange).

Jyn is broken out of prison by Cassian Andor(Diego Luna) and is basically given a free pardon in exchange for arranging a meeting with Saw Gerrera(Forest Whitaker) in hopes of extracting her father.
Erso's arc is similar to that of Han Solo in A New Hope in that she really isn't interested in joining up with the Rebellion in the beginning, but as the movie progresses, she becomes a leader after witnessing a hologram of her father, detailing the weakness of the Death Star that he built in so it can be destroyed, which was apparently a huge plot hole that I never noticed in the many viewings of A New Hope.
Jyn gives Star Wars yet another strong female character like Rey in The Force Awakens as she becomes a believer in the cause of the Rebellion and helps recruit the small squad of Rebels that become known as "Rogue One" to steal the plans for the Death Star.
Erso is just one of the many great characters to come out of Rogue One, but perhaps my favorite is Chirrut Imue, a blind warrior who believes in the Force as he repeatedly says throughout the film "I'm one with the force, the force is with me", played by Hong Kong action star Donnie Yen.

Imue kicks some serious ass in the movie and has some of the movie's funniest lines, such as "Is your foot okay?" when he singlehandly beats up a group of Stormtroopers and when he is blindfolded by Gerrera's gang by saying "Are you kidding me?I'm blind".
That is also Imue's banter with his friend, merceany friend Baze Melbus(Jiang Wen)such as Baze telling Imue "Good luck" with Imue responding "I don't need luck, I have you".
To me, Melbus and Imue go down as the one of the many great duos in the Star Wars franchise and I hope there is a book or comic or something that explains their origin story or how they got together because that would be fun to see.

There is also K-2SO, the Imperial droid reprogrammed by the Rebels, which is voiced by Alan Tudyk, who provides much of the movie's comic relief, but in a way that isn't annoying like Jar Jar Binks in The Phantom Menace.
K-2SO comes across as a Chandler Bing type of droid with his sarcasm during the film such as knocking out Jyn by saying "Congratulations!You're being rescued" when Andor captures Erso early in the film.
There's another great moment with the K-2SO as he tries to utter the famous line "I've got a bad feeling about this" only to get interrupted by Jyn and Cassian when the three disguise themselves as they enter the Imperial Base where the Death Star plans are being held.
Then, there are the numerous Easter eggs and cameos throughout the film such as Jimmy Smits reprising his role as Senator Bail Organa, the adoptive father of Princess Leia, as well as Mon Montha, and the encounter Jyn has with the two aliens Luke and Obi-Wan encounter in the catina scene in A New Hope.
Through the film was great, I do have two minor issues.
One, I thought the main antagonist was going to be Orson Kennic, the man in charge of building the Death Star, played by Ben Maddlesohn, who is also in The Dark Knight Rises as John Daggett.
But it seemed to me that Maddlesohn's role as the main antagonist was overtaken by the CGI version of Grand Moff Tarkin.

I had no issue with the CGI use of Tarkin, he looked pretty real to me, but the trailers had indicated that Kennic was like I said, going to be the main antagonist as he was supposed to be the man overseeing the Death Star's construction, only to have Tarkin to take away his role toward the middle of the film.
Which leads me to my other problem: there was so much stuff from the trailers that were not seen in the final cut, like Jyn's encounter with a TIE fighter.

When I saw that during the trailer that aired during the Olympics, I did my Keanu Reeves' "Whoa", but we did not see that.
I guess I'll have to wait for the Blu-Ray and the deleted scenes to see what happened to the TIE Fighter.
Now that I got my only complaints about the film out of the way, it is time for my favorite moment or moments of Rogue One: Darth Vader.

Vader only shows up for two scenes, but they are memorable as the first one occurs on Mustafar, the planet where he dueled with Obi-Wan in Revenge of the Sith, and gives another callback to A New Hope when he uses the Force to choke Drennic and tells him "Be careful not to choke on your own aspirations" when Drennic asks the Dark Lord if he is still in charge of the Death Star project.
But his best scene, which is also the best moment of the movie, comes in the climatic ending after Jyn is able to transmit the Death Star plans to the Rebels, when Vader boards the Rebel ship in hopes of retrieving the plans as the Dark Lord of the Sith unleashes his fury as he uses his lightsaber, Force chokes and throws as he slashes his way through numerous Rebels in attempts to get back the plans.

This is the Vader that we grew up and loved, and not this guy:

And George Lucas decided to put this in the climax of Return of the Jedi when he released it on Blu-Ray?
Since I knew that the Rebels were going to win, because it said so in the opening text crawl of A New Hope, the only surprise to me was that Jyn Erso did not survive the film's events, as she dies along with Cassian when Tarkin orders the base where she steals the Death Star's plans to be destroyed by the ray from the Death Star.
I had a feeling that the majority of the new characters in Rogue One would die, but I thought Erso would survive just keep us guessing about who Rey's parents are, since Erso had a British accent much like Rey.
But I guess the head honchos at Lucasfilm want fans to keep that a mystery as we head into Episode VIII.
In conclusion, Rogue One was fantastic and joins the Original Trilogy and The Force Awakens as truly magical films and shows us why so many people around the world love Star Wars.

What is This?

My name is A.J. Foss and welcome to Ranting About Movies.
So, what is this blog about? Essentially, it's me ranting about movies, just like the name of the blog says.
Okay, let me go a little bit deeper.
If you think this is a simple movie review site, you're wrong because I only go to about the movies around three times a year.
Technically, I will be reviewing movies, but one of the things I want to do is defend some movies that I feel are not bad as other Internet commentators would make you out to believe, for example the Star Wars prequels.
Yes, the prequels are no where near as good as the original trilogy, but there are a few good things or scenes from those three movies, that I would point out to you in that type of article.
I will also do a lot of countdown lists such as best sequels or best franchises.
And I will try to review some movies that I have seen recently, but don't expect them to be immediately after the film released like Rogue One which I still haven't seen.
For those interested in continuing to follow this blog, I will have to warn that I will discuss spoilers in my observations, so if you want read about something that does not contain spoilers, then this is probably not the movie blog for you.
Anyway, there is my introduction and I hope to have an article written up for you soon.
Stay tuned.