re: Obtuse Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice TD review thread (SPOILERS p5+)

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Robinov's recollection of the "Batman: Year One" experience is decidedly different. " 'Batman: Year One' never went very far," he says. "We never made a deal. There was never a script done. It didn't go further than it did because the intention of that movie didn't feel right."

The merger of Time Warner with AOL in January 2001 and the company's subsequent free fall perhaps put further pressure on the film division to rescue the day with one of its superheroes. At the same time, the pressure may have been paralyzing. After veteran studio bosses Terry Semel and Bob Daly departed in late 1999, their replacement, Alan Horn, had promised to build the studio's release schedule around five tent-pole pictures a year.

"When Alan Horn first took the job, he said he wanted to revive the Superman and Batman characters," says Robinov. "That was a priority for him." So the studio was throwing as much as it could into the hopper, hoping something would stick.

As "Batman: Year One" was sinking, the studio decided to try yet another approach. What if Batman and Superman faced off in one film as they had done many times in World's Finest Comics? Wolfgang Petersen ("The Perfect Storm") was hired to direct the project, and he, in turn, brought in writer Andrew Kevin Walker ("Seven") to write the screenplay, later polished by Akiva Goldsman ("A Beautiful Mind").

Petersen envisioned a clash between a big-city, brooding Batman motivated by anger, pain and guilt, and a Superman who was all-American, small-town and innocent. He promised "a true existential experience with visual fun." If all went well, he said, the film could be in theaters by summer 2004.

But things did not go well. In addition to creative issues, "Superman Vs. Batman" fell victim to cutthroat studio politics that pitted Di Bonaventura against Horn over the kind of films the studio was making, a dispute that ultimately stretched as far as corporate headquarters in New York.

Meanwhile, a script by J.J. Abrams (creator of TV's "Lost" and "Alias") for another Superman film, the first part of a proposed trilogy, had gained favor at the studio. Horn was said to prefer the optimism of the "Superman" script to the darkness of the "Superman Vs. Batman" screenplay. He then took a step that was bizarre even by Hollywood standards: He distributed copies of both scripts to 10 other company executives and solicited their opinions.

According to an executive involved in the debate, Di Bonaventura argued that "Superman Vs. Batman" boiled down the characters to their essence; not going ahead with it, he said, would be "one of the great mistakes of all time."

Robinov agrees that it was an excellent script, but "rather than reintroduce the two characters in one film, we made a conscious decision to try and introduce the two characters independently. I think it gave us a lot more latitude to continue with Batman," he says.

The vote was 11-1 in favor of "Superman" -- Di Bonaventura's was the one dissenting vote. For Di Bonaventura, the "Superman Vs. Batman" episode was just symptomatic of a larger rift, and he resigned his post the following month, in September 2002.

In the eyes of many comic book boosters, Warner Bros. made the right decision. " 'Batman Vs. Superman' is where you go when you admit to yourself that you've exhausted all possibilities," says Goyer, who wrote the screenplays for "Blade" and its two sequels. "It's like 'Frankenstein meets Wolfman' or 'Freddy Vs. Jason.' It's somewhat of an admission that this franchise is on its last gasp."

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just because I think he did it in an incredibly stupid and goofy manner does not mean I didn't get it.

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Again, I understand what he was going for,

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"Our mothers have the same name??? ERRMAHGERRRD you must be a good person too then!!"

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all of Zach Snyder's oh so subtle notions of symbolism.

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It's like people give those sorts of movies(Ant Man, GotG) a pass since they thought it was "fun." It made them laugh and wasn't trying too hard, or at least trying to be anything other than it was. Movies in the DC vein don't get the same treatment.

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I said this back with MoS, and the same thing carried over to BvS. Not only does Snyder straight up not like Superman, he doesn't like the fact that these stories originate from Comic Books. That's the entire issue. Therefore the movie is self-important, and tries to be "more," than comic books.

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I'm pretty sure we had a thread about it.

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Freauxzen

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Hippyakroo

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if you don't think Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman are FAR more known and loved characters than Ant-Man, then I definitely don't know what to tell you.

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in just my own opinion

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We don't enjoy Interstellar because it's hilarious or even positive. We enjoy it because it makes us think. There isn't a single positive emotion that comes out of BvS.

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the movie is self-important, and tries to be "more," than comic books. First off, he's wrong about comic books being good enough to carry his film, but Nolan went the same route (without the disdain, just the goal to make things less comic book and more real)

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k. They approached themes far deeper than most comic films, such as religion, existentialism, political ethics, and the human suffering caused by the heroes even when trying their best to help. I have said that the story is a bit of a mess, and do wish it could have been 30 minutes longer to further flesh out the narrative.

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It's somewhat of an admission that this franchise is on its last gasp."

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