Illinois Hokie's Recent Comments
Like Kenny Powers and the Boz had an illegitimate lovechild.
No argument about Snyder. Way more style than substance.
But I'll have to disagree with you on Affleck. I thought he was outstanding in Hollywoodland, The Town, Argo and Gone Girl. He's a better director than he is an actor, but he also an Oscar-caliber actor.
Now there's talk that WB might have pulled a Kingdom of Heaven. It was apparently announced before the movie was even released theatrically that the director's cut of the movie will be over 3 hours long. Apparently WB demanded a significantly reduced runtime for fear of losing audiences with a 180+ minute comic book movie. I'm holding out hope that the editing, which was by far the weakest part of this film, will be much more coherent when released as the film Snyder intended.
Not that I think Snyder is Ridley Scott by ANY stretch of the imagination, but the problems with this movie were completely different than the problems with Man of Steel. The issues with that film were mainly contextual, while I'd say my biggest issue with BvS was it was just so damn convoluted it lacked a cohesive narrative. I'm hoping the missing 30+ minutes make the whole thing just make more sense, rather than being more eye candy.
The thing that would make me less nervous about Evans than Motley is that, from what I have seen of Evans (admittedly from "some clips"), he has better pocket awareness. That is my biggest knock on Motley, in the sense that he has none. Blind side pressure destroyed him last season. I don't doubt that Motley is better suited to Fuente's offense than he was to Lefty's, as Motley will never be a pro-style drop back passer. But Fuente does like to toss the ball around, and I'd rather have a QB that can feel the pressure coming and escape. For all Motley's mobility, it was wasted on passing plays because he was sacked before he could even try to escape.
Affleck nailed it, sorry. Hands down the best on-screen Batman yet, Snyder's mishandling of the character notwithstanding.
Syracuse is nothing more than a middling team. They lost to Pitt three times. Their path to the Elite Eight included two games against a lower seed with a hangover. They were an average ACC team at best. The narrative is gaining traction because Virginia had a monumental choke job against them. They wilted under the brightest lights of the season. Sure, we're all enjoying a healthy does of schadenfreude at their expense, but this isn't just because we're VT and they're the LOLest of LOLUVA. This was a catastrophic failure of their program.
Also, fuck UVA. Them being good means we have in-state competition for recruits. I'd be ecstatic to see them go ohfer in every sport. Let it mean something when VT actually beats a good team.
I highly, highly doubt Boeheim ever had the table set for him quite like UVA did this season. They were handed a free ticket to the Final Four, and they subsequently left it in their jeans and put it through the washer.
Keep in mind, Taylor played in Foster's 4-4 defense and Hall in the 4-3. Not saying there hasn't been a dropoff at LB in terms of quality players, but it's also a tall order to expect that level of production from the LB spot in the 4-2-5. Neither Taylor nor Hall would post the numbers they posted in this scheme.
Gaining separation. 59.07% to 40.93% as of just now. I'd imagine all the Hoos down in Hooville are too busy going boo hoo hoo hoo to vote.
The look of a man who knows he could have directed it better.
And speaking of which, please God let Affleck direct a standalone Batman movie in this universe.
LMAO. Yes, obviously this is always the correct answer. I just wasn't clear if the people who opened his cell were colluding to get Batman into Lex's cell, or if Batman infiltrated it completely on his own. There were so damn many dream sequences/vision in the film, I couldn't help but wonder if it was actually real, up until the point that the scene continued after Batman had left. That scene will definitely require a rewatch.
Did you let him watch the Nolan trilogy? I'd put this movie on par, maybe a tad more excessive in violence than those.
That's where I'm at. If Batman is as reckless with life in Justice League, then I'll have an issue with it.
However, on a related matter, how the hell did Batman get into Metropolis Supermax? The editing in that scene was very strange. Did the prison guards help him get down there, or did he subdue them as soon as they opened the door?
I definitely wouldn't let my 5yo see it, though I get parents are different. I have a pretty low threshold for the amount of cinematic violence I let my kids watch.
I was just about to say this.
I don't like that movie Batman kills, but every on screen Batman has killed. Burton's Batman directly murdered two people in the '89 film. Nolan's Batman had a dozen or so collateral damage deaths during his escape from the League of Shadows, then got all sorts of ambiguous by "not killing but not rescuing" Ras al Guhl. So Snyder's decision just follows in his predecessors' footsteps. This isn't even particularly over the top for a killing Batman, considering the body count from Batman Returns.
I think the truth is probably more along the lines of Hollywood simply doesn't know how to have an action blockbuster protagonist who has zero kill count. They aren't creative enough to figure out how to make it work.
I dunno. Lex was open about his Meta-Human Hypothesis to the extent that he was openly discussing it with the Senator at the start of the movie. I don't think finding Let's dossier on meta-humans would really set anything in motion toward believing Luthor was a criminal mastermind. But Bruce did know Lex had associated with criminal syndicates to obtain Kryptonite. He probably chalked it up to a necessary evil to get what he was after, but as soon as Lois started laying it out, Batman realized Lex wasn't just working with a syndicate, he was running it.
So you mean now maybe he'll actually recruit?
/ducks
I had this conversation with my buddy after the movie. Superman yelling out his mother's name only made Batman pause. Admittedly, if you're about to kill a guy and he calls out your dead mom's name, yelling, "You're letting them kill her!" it's gonna stall you a second. And in that moment of hesitation, Lois Lane rides the Deus Ex Machina Express into the scene, to explain that Lex is gonna kill Superman's mom, and basically set the whole thing in motion.
Remember that at this point, NO ONE knows Lex Luthor is a criminal mastermind. He's only known as an eccentric millennial billionaire. Bruce does business with Lex. He wouldn't suspect him, until Lois Lane, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, is suddenly making herself a human shield for Superman and explaining how Luthor is psychotic.
I get that the running joke will be that Martha is the safe word, but that's just like all the jokes that General Zod can't count because of "There's only one way this ends: either you die or I do." As for actual character motivation, Superman crying out Martha just made Bruce hesitate, and Lois spelling everything out made him spare Superman's life.
The only thing that pisses me off about that scene is that they didn't think to have Batman say, "Consider this mercy," as they help Superman up.
See, I actually liked the writing. Yes, it was over the top, but in exactly the same way that DC comics dialogue is. And the whole "Is she with you?" thing regarding Wonder Woman made me laugh harder than anything zinger from a Marvel movie.
Well, it already has. Biggest domestic Easter weekend, March, and pre-summer opening of all time ($170.1 million). Also, fourth-largest international opening of all time ($424 million), larger than any Marvel film to date.
As far as plot, how stupid is batman to think he has to kill superman? What was his rationale, again? Oddly, he seems to buy into the Lex Luthor rationale, but if he has the tools to control superman, can't he just keep them in reserve until there is a clear-cut reason to use them?
This part, I thought, was actually pretty well done. "That's how it starts. The fever. The rage. The sense of powerlessness that turns good men cruel." Although Alfred is talking about the anti-Superman rioting, his words apply to Bruce himself. We're shown a Batman who has been alone, trying to save Gotham for 20 years. Until the events of Man of Steel, Batman was the only superhero. (Besides his own sidekick, who was murdered.) He already feels alienated and jaded. ("How many good guys are left? How many stay that way?") And then along comes Superman, who has a level of power he can barely comprehend.
If you've known any cops, one trend among them is the longer they're on the job, the less faith they have in the decency of mankind. We're at a point where Bruce has even lost faith in himself. ("We're criminals, Alfred. We always have been.") Bruce witnesses firsthand the destruction that Superman is capable of. It scares him enough to consider Superman a threat, regardless of what the evidence might show.
Batman is basically on the brink for the entire movie. That's why Bruce's soliloquy at the end, that men are still good, is so important. Superman doesn't just convince him that he is good, but that mankind is still good, despite all its flaws.
This movie had a lot wrong with it, but I thought it got the redemption of a Bruce Wayne who had almost lost all hope exactly right.
I got the feeling that was because Batman had just begun branding his victims and had just generally upped the ante in terms of violence and brutality. The cops were now wondering if this quasi-supernatural vigilante that had been helping them for 20 years had finally snapped. I thought that kind of tied into Alfred's "This is how it begins" story/warning.
Commissioner Gordon is confirmed to be in Justice League (played by one of my favorite character actors, J. K. Simmons) so hopefully we'll get a more in depth look at the relationship between this Batman and Gotham's police.
Makes me wonder if Frank will attend VT games or UGA games next season.
Not his player, not his business. He's a basketball coach, not a paragon of virtue.
I just assumed the editors bent over backwards to not put a split second of footage that gets into the specifics of the offense. Maintain the element of surprise as long as possible.