Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) a second look

It is rare I get a chance to see a film in theaters and even rarer -bordering on the unheard of- for me to see a film twice while it is in theaters yet that is what happened yesterday with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (BvS from now on).

Since the film’s release only a few short weeks ago, a curious thing’s happened: There are many who appear to be taking this movie mighty personally.

When the movie neared release, I saw plenty of people already gearing up toward disliking the film.  As I mentioned before, many had good reason: They looked at director Zach Snyder’s track record of films (including Man of Steel, the film BvS is a sequel to), and didn’t like his work and therefore were sure or at least suspected strongly this work wouldn’t do it for them.  When the film was released, the critical reaction was incredibly negative and the Rottentomatoes.com rating remains at a genuinely terrible 28% favorable among critics.

And yet…

The film is a box office hit (not that this was ever an indicator of movie greatness) and I suspect there were many like me who went to see the film, looked at those reviews and the very negative statements coming from others, and couldn’t help but scratch our heads and wonder if these negative reactions were exaggerated.

Of late, these negative views have moved from trashing the movie to finding any way at all of dismissing it…including attacking its massive box office numbers.

Take for instance the headline on this article presented in Inquisitr which was posted approximately 13 hours ago (4/17/16):

Batman V Superman Just Missed Another Embarrassing Target

The focus of the article is that Deadpool, another superhero film, may wind up beating BvS in terms of domestic box office take.  The author of the piece, Aric Mitchell, sounds positively giddy in reporting on the film’s “disappointing” and “embarrassing” U.S. box office.  This is true yet the bottom line is that BvS’ global take is higher than Deapool’s by (as of this writing) nearly 50 million dollars.  Is there anything positive for the author to state?  Well, midway through the article he notes:

All that said, however, the film (BvS) is unlikely to lose money.

O…kay?  I mean, both Deadpool and BvS are big box office hits and both are making obscene amounts of money.  Yet because BvS may not quite make as much domestically as Deadpool this counts as an “embarrassment”?!  By this logic I suppose  the makers of Citizen Kane should be embarrassed by the fact that all these damn superhero movies are drawing more than it did in its day.

Elsewhere, on a webpage devoted to one of the bigger names in the comic book industry, someone (I’ll keep their name anonymous as I’m more interested in the message presented) posted the following regarding BvS:

The supporters of this movie must have biceps like watermelons for all the water they choose to carry for it.

Really?  Because someone likes a film another doesn’t, it somehow reflects badly on the one who liked it?  Am I therefore some kind of phony and am simply defending the indefensible?  Or could it be that I happened to find enjoyment in something which some others did not and we have a simple difference of opinions?  Is that so unheard of?

As I said above, I get the feeling this difference in opinions has become personal.

When I originally saw BvS a few weeks back (you can read my original review here), I was hoping for the best but, based on those early reviews, expecting the worst.

What I found was a surprisingly ambitious film that juggled many concepts and ideas at once.  While it faltered at times, I found BvS, overall, a terrific product.  Mind you, it is a superhero film devoted to mature audiences (this is probably one source of the gnashing of so many teeth as there are many who wanted an “all ages” film) and I suspect the upcoming Director’s Cut of it, rumored to be a little over three hours long vs. the theatrical version’s 2 and 1/2 hours, will wind up being better overall.

Still, having now seen the film a second time (This time in 3D), I still can’t understand where all the hatred comes from.

First thing’s first, however: Was it worth seeing the film in 3D versus the original 2D I saw it in?  Not really.  The 3D effects were interesting but hardly earth shattering.  Seeing the film “flat” is fine.

Now, to the film itself: As I said, I still think its terrific, though I will acknowledge a few issues.

To begin, I’m still unclear about the whole Superman attack on the terrorist camp bit.  As presented in the theatrical cut of the film, Lex Luthor’s henchmen use special bullets to kill the villagers/terrorists and one of the bullets gets lodged in Lois Lane’s notebook.

The villagers’ deaths are blamed on Superman and this somehow was because of these special bullets but, as I just stated, I’m not quite getting why this is the case.

Perhaps in the Director’s Cut this is explained a little better but all I can do is suspect and theorize the bullets disintegrated when they hit human flesh (they are super-sophisticated bullets) and the kill wounds therefore looked like they came from Superman’s heat vision.  This is why Lois Lane winds up with the only bullet from this massacre as it didn’t hit anyone before getting stuck in her notebook.

This, admittedly, is pure guesswork on my part and the film obviously should not have the audience guessing the significance of this.  The theatrical cut of the film simply doesn’t explain this very well and my hope is the Director’s Cut clarifies this issue.  Regardless, it wasn’t a “make or break” type thing for me.

Later Batman has his “Apocalypse”-type dream and, at least in this theatrical cut of the film, I felt it was ultimately unnecessary and probably should have been left out.  I suspect it was left in because it was a well done bit and hinted strongly at Darkseid’s coming, which is one of the major subtexts of this film.

Finally, there were those who found the whole “Lois Lane dumps the spear then goes back to get it” kinda silly but on second view I realized this sequence evoked a very similar sequence found in the climax of the film Excalibur (you think the marquee boasting the coming of Excalibur at the beginning of the film and during the Batman origin re-telling was purely there “just because”?!).  The sequence also played out as a nod to Richard Donner’s Superman film as well.  So while it was odd to me when I first saw the film it didn’t bother me quite as much on second viewing.

Anyway, those three issues were minor compared to the things I really liked about the film:

Superman’s ambivalence about his place in this world and the fact that some view him as a savior while others view him as a destroyer.  He is genuinely torn because at heart he’s a good person who tries to do good but realizes sometimes doing good has unintended consequences (this is obviously a shout-back to what occurred at the end of Man of Steel).

After all these years and after all the different incarnations, it was a surprise and delight the way the filmmakers dealt with the character of Batman/Bruce Wayne.  This was an original take on the character even as it used -and did not ignore- his previous history.  Here we have someone whose world-view has radically changed.  His anger and sense of outrage were inflamed by the events of Man of Steel (we witness that film’s conclusion through the eyes of Bruce Wayne in one of the film’s standout sequences) and this has changed him for the worse.  Batman is singularly focused on destroying Superman, who he views as a danger to mankind, and this singularity in focus makes him fall prey to being used by others…

…which brings us to Lex Luthor.  Many didn’t like the character as portrayed by Jesse Eisenberg but I liked it.  Behind the character’s oddity is a darkness and, like Batman, a singularity of purpose as well.  Only Lex Luthor is revealed to be smarter than Batman/Bruce Wayne as he is able to finesse situations around him to get the two to fight.  At the end of the film, when he hints at the coming of Darkseid, it was a chilling and sobering scene.

Wonder Woman’s appearances were delightful and just long enough to add that little extra something to the film.  If they had devoted more time to her it might have detracted from the story being told.

So, overall, I still like BvS.  The film was ambitious, surprisingly deep, and hardly the flop so many seem to want to make it to be.  I remain interested in seeing the Director’s Cut.

Justice…at last?!

This is one of those stories that makes you shake your head at the wonder of it all:

Ferrari stolen 28 years ago found as it was about to be shipped to Poland

The 1981 model Ferrari, which looks an awful lot like the one used on the TV show Magnum P.I...

stolen red ferrari

…was stolen way back in 1987 and its quite the wonder it is still in one piece and in such great shape.  According to the article, the vehicle has only 45,000 miles on it and is worth approximately $50,000 in today’s market.

The original owner, again according to the article, received compensation for the vehicle back when it was stolen so I suppose it now belongs to the insurance company.

Fascinating!

Ghost stories…

Never heard about the anime show Ghost Stories until this morning when someone pointed it out on Reddit.

As I understand it, Ghost Stories was, according to the original posting on reddit.com, a “mediocre” anime series that ran 20 episodes but whose distinction lies in the fact that when it was translated and dubbed into English, the dubbing team had a field day parodying the mediocre product.

Examples of the at times hilarious (IMHO!) dubbing of Ghost Stories can be found in these clips:

Amusing as seeing this was, it was surprising no one who posted comments on this (at least at this time) knew of the “parody dubbing” done many years before, and very well, by Woody Allen (!) for the 1966 film What’s Up Tiger Lilly.  I’ll allow the trailer for the film to explain the madness within…

Here are some other clips from the parody dub…

So if humorous dubbing is your thing, check it out!

What’s this?!

Good reviews for a big superhero film?  Who’d a thunk it?!

Ain’t It Cool News offered a taste of some reviews of the soon-to-be-released Captain America: Civil War and they are very positive:

The Best Marvel Studios Film Yet?  The Trade and UK Reviews are in For Captain America: Civil War

I hope the film, made by the same people behind Captain America: Winter Soldier (a film that I’ve stated many times before is my second favorite all time superhero film), is indeed as good as their past one.

However…

It occurs to me I’ve seen something like this before.  Early reviews of a film released to the UK and in which the critics loved what they saw.  Now where oh where could I have read about this?

Oh yeah:

Spectre early reviews: Bond is back in solid form

The early preview reviews of Spectre which came from the UK critics were, at first, almost all very positive.  It gave me hope the film would indeed be good.

Not so.

At least IMHO.  I found Spectre to be one of the absolute worst Bond films ever.  So bad was the film, again IMHO, that it could well take the pole position from Moonraker and A View To A Kill, two of my least favorite Bond films of all time.

As for Captain America: Civil War, as the saying goes, we shall see!

What goes around…

Again with the politics (to some degree), so ignore this if it’s not your thing…

Over at salon.com I found the following article written by Eric Boehlert:

Rush Limbaugh hit where it hurts: World’s greatest troll faces steep pay cut

Salon.com tends to skew to the left, politically, so therefore one must excuse the “take that!” nature of the headline/link.

Like many liberals, I have no use for Rush Limbaugh and can proudly state that I’ve listened to no more than 1/2 hour of his show over all the years its been broadcast in my area.  The bits and pieces I’ve heard here and there amount to less than that time and after listening to a few seconds (or perhaps a minute), realized he simply was not for me.

Regardless and as much as one may wish to, it is impossible to dismiss Rush Limbaugh as a political force.  In my opinion he not only rode the conservative wave which gained its first popularity with Ronald Reagan’s presidency, I feel he was one of the primary forces behind keeping that wave strong.

But like many things in life, the moment appears to have passed to some degree.  The ratings are quite as high and, it appears, the conservative movement focuses on an increasingly elderly audience.

I found this quote from the article particularly interesting:

…the conservative talk radio format has morphed into the Classic Rock of talk; super-serving the same aging demo for the last twenty-plus years.

Of course, the conservative movement is far from “dead” but I do agree with the article that Mr. Limbaugh’s radio misfortunes could be viewed as a window into the popularity of conservative politics as a whole.

Some ten or more years ago I had a conversation with my wife’s cousin, a very charismatic young man who also happens to be gay, and the topic of conservative politics reared its head.  He despaired at what he viewed as the power of this movement and the way it affected him personally.

Even though it was many years ago, I urged him not to despair.  Like so many things, I had a feeling the conservative movement at that time had already reached its peak and there was evidence the pendulum had shifted and was moving the other way.  Back then, a conservative candidate could fluster a liberal rival simply by calling them a “liberal” and saying it as if it was some dirty word.  Liberal candidates, to their eternal discredit, never could adequately fight back.  Instead, they re-labeled themselves “progressive” to try to remove the “stigma” of the word liberal.

But things changed and the fight returned to them.

Today, I get the feeling young people view the word “conservative” in much the same way conservatives tried to get people to look at the word liberal.  That’s not to say, obviously, there aren’t any conservative youths out there.  But the days of conservative superpower appear to be receding.  Yes, conservatives still hold power in both the House of Representatives and the Senate, but their grip appears to weaken as their politics take them further and further into areas many disagree with.

Who would have thought, ten or so years ago when I had that conversation with my wife’s cousin, that gay marriage would be legal?  And though it isn’t perfect, we now have a form of universal health care and, despite so many years and so much effort in discrediting it, there are even Republicans who are thankful for this.  With the passing of Justice Antonin Scalia, we’re finally getting a peek into what a Supreme Court may look like without as strong a conservative presence within that body.  At least for me, the difference is incredible and the future, should we elect a Democratic President, certainly looks brighter.

And that’s the key, isn’t it?  Things can obviously change and, depending on this election, things can move the opposite way.  While I feel either Hillary Clinton (the likely Democratic candidate, at least as of today) or Bernie Sanders would wipe the floor of either Donald Trump or Ted Cruz, this isn’t by any means a foregone conclusion.

Unlike years past, however, there appears to be reason for optimism.

As the pendulum swings the opposite direction, we may indeed see a more liberal government in the coming years and it is my hope it features more tolerance toward others as well as a devotion to the protection of our resources.

As with all dreams, this requires hard work.

Stairway to Heaven plagiarism…?

For the most part and with very few exceptions, I love the music of Led Zeppelin.  Their first six albums, from Led Zeppelin (or Led Zeppelin 1) through Physical Graffiti are, IMHO, stone cold classics and the three final albums that followed, Presence, In Through the Out Door, and the “bits and pieces” present in Coda are pretty damn good as well even if they aren’t, IMHO, quite as great as the songs in that first batch of albums.

Having said that, Led Zeppelin, unlike many other bands, has had its share of controversy regarding their music.  More specifically, the group has been sued numerous times for allegedly “stealing” others’ music while making their own.  In fact, if you do a simple search through youtube for Led Zeppelin musical “thefts” or “plagiarism” you’ll find stuff like this…

and this, which features several Led Zeppelin songs which, according to the video’s description, became the subject of court action with the judgment resulting in favor of those suing Led Zeppelin…

One of the last examples of Led Zeppelin plagiarism as presented in the above video concerns Stairway to Heaven, arguably Led Zeppelin’s most famous song, and its similarities to the band Spirit’s 1968 song Taurus.  The below video focuses on those similarities…

Frankly, its hard to not hear the similarities between the compositions.  Apparently, a judge hearing the case against Led Zeppelin brought forth by Michael Skidmore, a trustee for the late Randy Wolfe, aka Randy California, who was Spirit’s guitarist and the composer of Taurus, found enough similarities between the two songs to allow a copyright trial to go forward…

Led Zeppelin Stars Face Stairway to Heaven Copyright Trial

I have to admit, things like this depress me.

I believe Led Zeppelin was/is a great band.  Further, I can see how some might defend the band by arguing there are only so many notes and cord progressions and that some songs can and will sound like others but that doesn’t mean there was an active attempt to steal anything, etc. etc. and etc.

But, come on, the examples above are more than just a case of “coincidental” creativity.  In some cases, the band clearly took lyrics and the general sound of songs and made it their own.

Mind you, they did this brilliantly in many cases and subsequently created classic music…

…BUT, they did this by using something someone else created beforehand.

A great analysis of the legal issues behind this possible song theft can be found in this article by Oliver Herzfeld and presented on Forbes.com:

Spirit v. Led Zeppelin: Analysis of the Stairway to Heaven Infringement Suit

Setting aside many of the legal issues, one question that needs to be answered in a case involving theft of creative material is: Can it be determined the accused (in this case the band members of Led Zeppelin) had access or knew about the Spirit song before writing Stairway to Heaven?

In this case, the evidence is more than clear.  From the article:

…there is ample evidence of access (to the Spirit song) since it is well-documented that the two groups performed together the day after Christmas 1968 and four additional times in 1969, all at concerts and festivals where Spirit played “Taurus.”

Ouch.

Anyway, I can’t help but feel Led Zeppelin is going to lose this one.  Again, I love the band and I love their music and, yes, I absolutely love Stairway to Heaven and consider it a great song…

But the reality is to my ears elements of that song were directly lifted -or if you want to be mean about it, stolen– from Spirit’s Taurus and, that being the case, credit -and whatever monetary settlement- should be made to the original artist.

In some ways this diminishes my feelings about Led Zeppelin.  Someone commented, based on these examples of song theft, if it is appropriate to consider Led Zeppelin a great “cover” band.

It’s a shame, really.  I’ll still love Led Zeppelin’s work, but clearly their creativity at times involved lifting the works of others.

Corrosive Knights, a look back and forward

Yesterday I presented the cover to what will be Book #6 in the Corrosive Knights series.  I’m still doing revisions on the book but feel we are quickly approaching its eventual release.

With that in mind, I wanted to re-present a post I originally wrote on November 5, 2015 regarding the Corrosive Knights series in general (you can read the original post here).

As this is a re-presentation, I’ve taken the liberty of going over it and cleaning it up a bit.  I suppose this could serve as a FAQ of sorts and maybe I’ll post it as such on my ertorre.com website.

******

The scope of the story in the Corrosive Knights series is incredibly large, taking place over the course of some 20,000 plus years.  Readers are offered individual and for the most part contained stories which, nonetheless, eventually form a march larger story.

While there have been plenty of stories out there featuring flashbacks and flash-forwards, I think its safe to say no book series -at least none that I’m aware of!- features entire novels that take place in sometimes vastly different times, past and the future, while (hopefully!) logically building up to that larger tale.

The five Corrosive Knights books plus the one I’m currently working on have been/will be released -and ideally should be read- in this order:

Corrosive Knights Covers

I say “ideally” but I’m not being entirely honest: The the first three books of the series,Mechanic, The Last Flight of the Argus, and Chameleon could be read in any order.  They feature unique characters and take place in vastly different times while presenting a very complete story and therefore one could read them in any order they choose.

However, by the time you reach NoxGhost of the Argus, and the still unnamed Book #6, the continuity established in these first three novels kicks in and, while I think the later books could be enjoyed on their own, I HIGHLY recommend you read books 1, 2, and 3 before venturing into the ones that follow.

Now, if I were to tell the Corrosive Knights story in chronological order, i.e. each book’s main story occurring “one after the other” (and ignoring whatever flashback elements are presented within said novels), the story order would go like this:

Corrosive Knights in Chronological Order

That’s right: The book I’m currently working on, #6 of the Corrosive Knights series, actually takes place before the events of The Last Flight of the Argus and Ghost of the Argus.  In fact, they take place a few hundred years before those books!  Yet I would absolutely NOT recommend anyone read that book when it is released in a few short months before already reading the rest of the series and, in particular, The Last Flight of the Argus and Ghost of the Argus.

Why?

Because the events of those two books in particular fill in story concepts which have a big payoff in Book #6 and propels the reader into the Corrosive Knights series finale, which will be Book #7.

Fear not, thought.  There will be an epilogue to the series, a Book #8, which will wrap certain things up that weren’t/aren’t wrapped up in Book #7.  Book #8 will also offer what I hope is a great long view of the heroes we’ve followed for so long while focusing on one in particular.  To further screw with your head, I’ve already finished the first draft of Book #8 but only have a chapter or so written (along with a general idea of the story) of Book #7.

Not only is my series presented in a quirky temporal way, so too it would appear is my creative output!

*******

So there you have it.  I thank you for your patience in waiting for the release of each new book in this series.  If I could somehow magically speed up time and get them done faster, trust me I would.

But the books have a habit of taking their time in getting done, not unlike a slow cooked meal.  I refuse to “hurry” things up to the point where I’m releasing a work I know I could “do better” with.

Book #6 in the series is close to being done and when it is, you’ll be the first to know.

 

Never before published photos reveal clues David Bowie left before his death…

An interesting article regarding the above written by Priscilla Frank and found on Huffington Post regarding the above, an examination of photographs taken of Mr. Bowie in 1974 and how Mr. Bowie brought back certain ideas -and clothing!- from that moment in time for his last music video, Lazarus:

Never before Published Photos Reveal Clues David Bowie Left Before His Death

They mention one particular photograph which was eventually used on the Station to Station album but isn’t included in the article itself.  This is the photograph:

The clothes Mr. Bowie is wearing there are the ones he re-used (or had very similar ones) in the Lazarus video.  I’ve embedded the entire video below and he appears in the clothing at the two minute mark…

I have to say, as a really big fan of David Bowie it hurts to watch this, his final video, and realize he likely intended it to be that.  When the video was first released he hadn’t passed yet and the images, morbid though they were, didn’t resonate as much as they did after the sad announcement of his passing.

I find it fascinating he went back to the clothing and invoked the ideas he was interested in (Kabbala) from so very long ago here with this video.

While I don’t think the revelations are necessarily “earth shattering” it does show how Mr. Bowie’s interests remained throughout most of his life.  Though he often stated he wasn’t religious, he did appear to grapple with the idea of spirituality, something an atheist like myself can understand.

A fascinating man and a fascinating artist.  It still hurts to realize he’s gone.

Corrosive Knights, a 4/11/16 update…BAM!

And there you go…

Cover

Unless I change my mind (a possibility, as is the possibility I do a few minor changes to it between now and the book’s release), this is going to be the cover to Book #6 in the Corrosive Knights series.

As you -hopefully!- can tell, I’m keeping the book’s title a mystery a little longer.  The rectangular color-vomit at the bottom of the page, I assure you, will not be present in the completed work.

For perspective, these are the book covers to this point:

Corrosive Knights CoversNow, to finish that damn book! 😉

Corrosive Knights, a 4/8/16 update

Yesterday I finished the 7th draft of my latest Corrosive Knights novel.

As you can tell by the multitude of updates regarding this book and appearing of late, I’m making good progress on the end stages of the novel.  As I may have mentioned before, the novel as it sits at this moment is almost complete.  I’d say a good 2/3rd to 3/4th of it is just a grammatical/spelling draft away from being done while the other 1/3 to 1/4th requires perhaps a couple more passes to clarify and compress information.

This novel, like all the ones that came before it, has been a great challenge to write.  To me, writing a novel is like creating an intricate jigsaw puzzle piece by piece and without the idea of what the ultimate “picture” will look like.  You create each piece page by page, paragraph by paragraph and word by word and often you’re feeling your way and linking scenes as you move along.

I’m expecting to finish the read-through of draft #8 in a week’s time -or thereabouts- and, depending on how much cleaning up is required, maybe another couple of weeks to do the corrections on the computer.

I’ll provide updates as they come!