David S. GoyerReseñas
Autor de Batman Begins (Single-Disc Widescreen Edition)
Reseñas
Despite this I tore through this book. It was definitely a popcorn read. I was clearly in the mood. It was filled with fun cliff hangers and non stop action. Add in the fact that the ending surprised me a little and I was genuinely entertained. It is pretty amazing when a book overcomes logic flaws for me but this one did. I sat back and embraced the summer movie vibe. Will keep reading this series.
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cdaley | 13 reseñas más. | Nov 2, 2023 |
cdaley | 13 reseñas más. | Nov 2, 2023 | 
“Some motherfuckers just insist on ice skating uphill.”
I’m a DC Wonder Woman girl, but Blade is the best Marvel character and seriously overlooked.
Deacon Frost may be the best villain name ever.
April 18, 2022: Blade II:
Some parts of the Blade movies feel like watching Aphex Twin or Prodigy videos. I’m just fine with that.
Sometimes you need gnarly, disgusting, predator vampires, whose faces open up. Welcome home.
April 24, 2022: Blade: Trinity:
The soundtrack is a character unto itself in the other two Blade movies; it felt sorely lacking here, and didn’t even feel like it fit.
Patton Oswalt was wasted.
The fourth (and final) volume of JSA by Geoff Johns finally catches events up to what was collected back in book two; in that book, Captain Marvel and the Rick Tyler Hourman were members of the team, and we finally see them join here! If you're making a definitive series of collections, I feel like you could make a much better effort at getting the order right.
Collecting issues aside, the series finally hit its groove for me in this collection. I've struggled with it up until now, but I enjoyed most every storyline in this volume. It opens with "Stealing Thunder," where the Ultra-Humanite has put his brain into Johnny Thunder's body in order to access the power of the Thunderbolt. First there's a pretty decent character-focused prologue (which nicely wrongfoots you about what has happened to Johnny), and the story itself does a good job of focusing on the personalities of individual JSA members. It jumps ahead several months, to when the Earth is an Ultra-Humanite-controlled dystopia, and a small group of heroes remains free of his control. So we follow the members of this group, and it's all handled pretty well. We even get an issue that focuses on former Injustice Society member Icicle, a villain who's immune to the Ultra-Humanite's control and becomes an uneasy ally of the JSA. It's nice to see Rick Tyler (formerly of Infinity, Inc.) again, and the thing about him being able to spend one last hour with his dad, the original Hourman, is pretty neat.
After this, we get some character-focused one-offs. A Father's Day story parallels Rick meeting with his father, and Jakeem Thunder trying to track down his. I enjoyed this one. Then there's a story about a villain lusting after Power Girl, and it's as bad as all Geoff Johns–penned Power Girl stories. But then there's a decent story about an old Dr. Mid-Nite villain getting his grandson to commit crimes, and the JSA working together to stop him.
Finally, there's a multi-part story about time travel. Some characters go back to the 1940s and meet the original Mr. Terrific; this I really liked, especially the way Mr. Terrific immediately cottoned on to what was happening. Some other characters end up in Ancient Egypt with the original Hawkman and Black Adam, and this I found much less interesting. It does seem like the series is moving back in the direction of having Hawkgirl hook up with Hawkman, which I find profoundly dull and kind of creepy. The stuff about Black Adam's tortured past I don't really care for, because I know it goes pretty unpleasant places in stories like World War III.
Also the Hector-Hall-looking-for-Lyta subplot continues to be dead dull. It's a succession of plot beats, not a story about characters.
But overall, this is an effective team comic at this point. It helps that Leonard Kirk is an absolutely solid artist. Not "flashy," but good personality and good storytelling and good action, the exact kind of artist a nuts-and-bolts team title like this needs. I've liked him ever since his Captain Britain and MI13 days for Marvel. The real shame is that this series of collections ended with this volume; even though DC did collect all of JSA and Justice Society of America vol. 3 in a set of three JSA by Geoff Johns Omnibuses, their "re-cutting" of the run as a series of trade paperbacks ended here, only partway through the contents of what had been JSA by Geoff Johns Omnibus, Volume Two. So having read issues #1-45 of this series via Hoopla, I am going to need to track down #46-87 some other way! (Also it seems clearly criminal that this series was called JSA by Geoff Johns when in the end, David Goyer wrote as many of the collected issues as Johns did... if not more!)
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I complained when reading book two of this series that it seemed like the stories were being collected out of order; book three (called The Power of Legacy! on the cover but subtitle-free on the title page) makes that particularly clear, with later issues collected here introducing things that had already happened in book two, like the transfer of the JSA chairship to Mr. Terrific. But anyway: let's take this part by part as it's presented.
The book begins with JSA All Stars vol. 1, an eight-issue miniseries about the various "legacy" characters in the JSA, those who are successors to older heroes: Hawkgirl, Dr. Fate, Stargirl, Hourman, Dr. Mid-Nite, and Mr. Terrific. The middle six issues all follow the same format. First, there's a sixteen-page story about the modern hero written by Geoff Johns and David Goyer, usually delving into character points for them, like Hourman's addiction (this is the Rick Tyler version from Infinity, Inc.) or Stargirl's relationship with her biological father. Then, there's a six-page story about their Golden Age predecessor, written and drawn by high-profile guest artists, like Howard Chaykin, James Robinson and Tony Harris, or Darwyn Cooke. Overall, I enjoyed these; the present-day stories actually give us some solid character work, especially for characters who haven't really had much meaningful focus in the present-day stories, like Hourman, Dr. Mid-Nite, and Mr. Terrific. The flashback stories are good fun stuff: if you take a great writer and artist (or writer/artist) and tell them to do what they want in a six-page Golden Age adventure, they will deliver.
The only thing I didn't like was the frame, which I have a sneaking suspicion was added after the middle six issues were completed, because of it how it contorts to not be mentioned in them. A villain turns up, but disguises himself as the Spectre and tells the characters to take time off to think about their histories but also that they shouldn't think about the events of the frame. It's pretty pointless, to be honest, and the six issues would have stood up on their own just fine. But overall, JSA All Stars is my favorite thing I've read thus far in this title... though technically, it's not part of it!
Then come three stories about a character named Nemesis, two from JSA Annual #1 and JSA Secret Files & Origins #2. She's raised by the Council (the same organization responsible for some of DC's various Manhunters), and I felt like a lot of time was spent on her for reasons that weren't clear to me. But maybe this will come in during book four more? The Ultra-Humanite seems to be part of the Council storyline, and he's in book four. (There are some other stories from that Secret Files issue, too; one I already read in the Chase collection, and the other is to foreshadow an upcoming storyline.)
After this, we finally get back to the main JSA series. First we have one of those standalone stories where nothing in particular is going on and we check in on various character that team books like to do—and that I like them to do. After the icky stuff in book two where everyone was expecting teenage Hawkgirl to hook up with octagenarian Hawkman because it was her "destiny," this volume thankfully pushes back against that, with her telling everyone she's going to do what she wants to do. I hope the series sticks to this, and that it's not a set-up for her coming around and getting together with Hawkman anyway. We also have some interrogation of the idea that Black Adam can be part of the team; I liked that Captain Marvel turned up, though was Atom Smasher (then called Nuklon) this hot-headed back in Infinc? Thankfully Sand, the team's most boring nonentity of a character, finally steps down as team leader.
This book also introduces Alex, a new character who was a cousin to Yolanda Montez, the Wildcat of Infinity, Inc. He was inspired by her JSA enthusiasm, and now he manages the JSA museum in the JSA's HQ. Fun idea... but he never actually appeared in Infinc! Didn't Yolanda have a younger brother? Why not use him?
Lastly, we have a storyline where villains kidnap a number of JSA members and force them to fight each other as part of a gambling operation. This I thought was pretty good, probably the best actual storyline thus far, with lots of good moments of characterization, something sorely lacking from the series up to this point. I've been complaining about Geoff Johns, but this is actually the first story not co-written with David Goyer, so maybe it's him who's the problem. My favorite issue here was one where Stargirl and Jakeem Thunder (modern-day inheritor of Johnny Thunder's Thunderbolt) are the only two heroes left in HQ during the events of the Joker: Last Laugh crossover and have to protect New York City from a Joker-venom infected Solomon Grundy. Just two principal characters gives the characterization and the action time to shine, aided by some excellent moody art from Peter Snejbjerg. There's also a decent story about the JSA working with Batman. So... after three 400-page books things are finally looking up?
The last story in the collection is "History 101," which the back cover proudly declares has never before been reprinted... but in fact it was already reprinted in The Justice Society Returns! way back in 2003! There are also lots of profiles and such from various issues of Secret Files & Origins, which is nice to have if you like that kind of thing; I did enjoy the diagram of JSA HQ.
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This volume of JSA by Geoff Johns (where every story is co-written by David Goyer, but I guess he doesn't rate) collects two story arcs from the main JSA comic and also the graphic novel JLA/JSA: Virtue and Vice and then some other stuff. What I am realizing is that I don't really care for Johns's approach to this book. First we have the seemingly obligatory storyline about a new Injustice Society, which like a lot of Geoff Johns stuff, is full of seemingly gratuitous violence in order to prove the situation is serious: he invents a whole Chicago superteam just to torture and brutally murder them, there's an evil Flash who runs through kids so fast they explode. It's just like... it's juvenile, and I don't read superhero comics to read about kids being murdered. I found it very hard to care.
The second big storyline is about a trip to Thanagar to resurrect Hawkman. I did really like Hawkworld, but Johns ignores any of its interesting complexities in favor of a melodramatic sub-Darkseid villain and a subplot about how a teenage girl just needs to give in and be romanced by an eighty-year-old man for the good of the universe.
This book isn't totally unlikeable. In between those two storylines, there's a decent done-in-one that gives us some much-needed character focus, and actually the Our Worlds at War tie-in issue was pretty good too. And I also enjoyed the Secret Files & Origins issue that leads into Virtue and Vice, as well as the early parts of Virtue and Vice itself. When Johns (and Goyer) want to write these characters hanging out and talking about things, they do a decent job... but it seems they rarely do. If you compare this to the characterful and deft way that Len Strazewski wrote the last JSA ongoing, this just doesn't compare; I have very little sense of these people as, well, people. Like I said, Virtue and Vice starts good, but it soon becomes Yet Another Apocalyptic Battle with huge masses of people dying violently... which I am sure will promptly never be mentioned again. I also don't care much for stories where heroes are mind-controlled to be evil, especially if they promptly become stupid.
Some other thoughts: I think Secret Files & Origins and Virtue and Vice are included out of sequence; suddenly Mr. Terrific is JSA chair, and Stargirl is living in Metropolis, and Captain Marvel is a member, and there's a new Hourman who I don't think is the new Hourman from the previous book. None of these things have happened in the actual JSA series yet. It amused me that suddenly Green Arrow is alive again, so he has to contend with the fact that Black Canary has moved on romantically since his death. Virtue and Vice had some good President Luthor stuff. The way the heroes swap places with the statues in the Rock of Eternity is pretty neat.
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After the brief flurry of JSA-related material from 1991 to 1993 or so, the JSA was largely left behind... and then it exploded in 1999. That all culminated in JSA, a new ongoing series, the Justice Society's first in six years, and also its longest; it lasted eighty-seven issues, beating out the original All Star Comics run's fifty-seven.
It seems weird to me that this series of reprints is branded "JSA by Geoff Johns," as he works on just ten of this collection's fifteen issues, and the five he doesn't work on are the first five, which set up what this new team is and how it works. David Goyer is the only one of this volume's contributors who works on every issue. But, I guess if you're Chief Creative Officer and President of DC Comics, you can make sure your name is displayed prominently wherever you like.
Basically, this volume sees the reestablishment of the JSA, and like Paul Levitz and Gerry Conway's 1976-79 revival, it makes it into a multigenerational team, leaning into the idea of heroic legacy that Roy Thomas laid the foundations of over in Infinity, Inc. By now, though, we are up to three generations of heroes: we have members of the original team like Alan Scott (formerly Green Lantern, but still ghettoized as "Sentinel" here), Wildcat, and the Flash (Jay Garrick); immediate descendants and sidekicks like Atom-Smasher (formerly Nuklon of Infinity, Inc.), Sand (formerly Sandy the Golden Boy, sidekick to the Sandman), Doctor Fate (Hector Hall, formerly the Sandman, formerly formerly the Silver Scarab of Infinity, Inc.), and Black Canary (Dinah Lance, daughter of the original, Dinah Drake); and then brand-new heroes like the new Starman (Jack Knight), Stargirl (Courtney Whitmore), and the new Hawkgirl (Kendra Saunders). Plus there's a new new Hourman who is some kind of android, and a new new Doctor Mid-Nite who is a white dude.* It's a neat idea, a team composed of mentors and mentees... but I found the book didn't actually do very much with it.
Overall, this is an approach to team superheroics that wasn't very much to my liking. The book moves from apocalyptic event to apocalyptic event with no time to breathe; I would have very little sense of any of these people as characters if it wasn't for the fact I know them from other books. There are a lot of shock events—deaths and people going evil and people being plunged into terrible universes—but there is little sense that any of it matters, and I found it difficult to care. Geoff Johns always gets a lot of praise for his handling of history and continuity, but I feel like this is only true if you are a character Johns is nostalgic for from his youth. Obsidian from Infinity, Inc., for example, makes a comeback here just to become a villain so that his father, Alan Scott, can angst about its for a few panels. Hector Hall is resurrected... but I'm not really sure why, as once he comes back to life, he exhibits as much personality as a lamp-post. We do hear a lot from Sand... and I would quite frankly like to never do so again. What a poorly conceived, uninteresting character. Has any Golden-Age-kid-sidekick-turned-lead ever worked out except for Robin?
I recently reread my very first post about a JSA collection, where I wrote, "I'm not going into the Geoff Johns era because, really, a little bit of Geoff Johns goes much too far in my experience." Over two years later, I actually don't remember thinking that, nor do I remember when I changed my mind and added all the Geoff Johns stuff to my list. There is quite a lot of it: seventy-two more issues of JSA, the spin-off JSA Classified, and the soft reboot of JSA as Justice Society of America vol. 3, plus myriad miniseries. I feel committed at this point—how can I follow the JSA from 1977 to 1999, but not the one more decade it would take to get me up to the end of the "original" JSA with Flashpoint?—but I can't claim to exactly be excited about it all based on reading this.
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* Roy Thomas introduced a new Wildcat and a new Doctor Midnight, both women of color, during Infinity, Inc., but I see they were both killed off to prove the situation was serious in an issue of Eclipso back in 1993, paving the way for white dudes to reclaim the mantles. Of course.
The title of this volume would seem to indicate that it's about a triumphant return of the Justice Society of America. This is only kind of true. This isn't a "return" in the narrative; the JSA (which had disbanded in Zero Hour) was still moribund in the present-day of the DC Universe (though that was about to change), it was a return out of the narrative, in that 1999 gave us a JSA title for the first time since the end of its short-lived only ongoing back in 1993. But if you were to look at my list of titles below, it's slightly deceptive: it would imply no JSA-adjacent titles from the end of Damage in 1996 until now. But in fact one had been steadily chugging along since 1994: James Robinson's Starman. This was about the most recent inheritor of the Starman mantle, but it had played a lot with the history of the character, including his JSA ties. That title was primarily written by James Robinson, often co-plotted by David Goyer, and it's those two that primarily guide this storyline.
The Justice Society Returns! is set in 1945, as it seems World War II is coming to an end, and one could imagine it as a story arc in All-Star Squadron if the series had made it that far along; like that series, it weaves the superheroics in and out of real war to good effect. It is structured like a typical Golden Age JSA storyline: the characters as a group discover some issue, then they split up into groups to handle different aspects of it, then they come back together as a group to finish it off. Except, instead of having just a single issue to do all of this, JSA Returns takes nine issues, two of which are double-sized!
This turns out to really work. I usually dislike the typical JSA structure because everything is rushed and you don't get much genuine character interaction—which is surely what you want out of a team book! But with one issue apiece for each pair of heroes, you can really dig into them. The individual stories, like All-Star Squadron did, do neat stuff by placing these superheroes in wartime, exploring what makes them tick, and delving into the war itself at the same time. Goyer and Robinson write the two framing issues (All Star Comics vol. 2 #1-2, more on them later), while a variety of writers pen the ones in between; each issue has its own artist.
Highlights included "Cold Heart" (All-American Comics vol. 2 #1), which is about Green Lantern and Johnny Thunder protecting the Yalta Conference, but is mostly told from the perspective of an ordinary American soldier trying to do the same without superpowers: a strong sense of tone, time, and character make this an effective tale. It might be the best Ron Marz script I've ever read, and Eduardo Barreto is a great penciller who I am surprised not to know more of given this quality of work.
I also really liked "Stars and Atoms" (Adventure Comics vol. 2 #1), which sends Starman and the Atom to Los Alamos to protect the atom bomb test site. Robinson and Goyer themselves provide a great focus on one of my favorite JSAers, the eternal underdog the Atom, and Peter Snejbjerg (is he an underrated talent? I always like him but can't remember seeing him get much high-profile stuff) also turns in some atmospheric pencils, backed up by great coloring from John Kalisz. The debt that this whole series owes to A-SS is most clear here, as it picks up on some stuff Roy Thomas established about how the Atom developed superpowers and changed costumes (though I think that "really" didn't happen until 1948).
It would probably surprise no one to know that Mark Waid's story is also one of the collection's greats. "Fair Play" (National Comics vol. 2 #1) is set in Dresden during the Dresden bombing, focusing on the Flash and Mr. Terrific. The story is narrated by the Flash, but focuses on Mr. Terrific, whose sense of fair play is undermined by the horrific events he witnesses... perpetrated by his own side! The ending is a little pat, though, as the story kind of punts responsibility for the bombing onto war itself rather than, you know, the people who make these decisions.
Probably the only misfire is "Womanly Deeds & Manly Words" (Sensation Comics vol. 2 #1). The writing here from Robinson & Goyer is fine, teaming up Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl, but it is pretty typical superhero comics that clearly someone involved went, "Well, why would people read a comic about two women unless it had a lot of panels with gratuitous focuses on tits, asses, and panties in it?" I don't know this Scott Benefiel guy, and I am not encouraged to do so. The Wonder Woman here is Diana's mother, Queen Hippolyta, having travelled back in time (I think this happened in John Byrne's Wonder Woman comics, which I haven't read), but the story mostly shies away from that; aside from Johnny Thunder calling her "Polly" in one issue, I don't think there's a reference. (Roy Thomas established back in All-Star Squadron/Secret Origins that Miss America filled Wonder Woman's role in the JSA in the post-Crisis timeline, but later writers don't seem to have been very interested in that idea.)
I also was not very taken by the wrap-up issue, "Time's Arrow" (All Star Comics vol. 2 #2), which becomes a confusing muddle involving time travel for no evident reason. It felt like the writers ran out of space... but they only ran out of space because they added a bunch of unnecessary stuff! But the first issue, "Time's Keeper" (All Star Comics vol. 2 #1), was a strong one; it's essentially two one-issue stories combined: first an Hourman solo story, then a big JSA fight. I can't claim to love Hourman (I would be very happen to never read another ham-fisted Miraclo addiction storyline), but he can work well in some cases, and this is one of them. Michael Lark, better known for his work on Gotham Central, is just as adept with traditional superheroics.
Overall, this is great, doing what the "retroactive continuity"–based JSA comics have done at their best since the days of All-Star Squadron, and I am glad I spent the money to track down a physical copy.
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Overall, this was a good read that kept me entertained.
The parts that grabbed me read like the best Larry Niven SF. The science was grounded (or at least given a solid enough bogus explanation that it felt grounded), the characters were fun and interesting and the plot zipped along, hitting all the right marks for not only a SF story, but one with some action. It had a bright and shiny sheen that I rarely experience as an adult reading SF anymore.
But then came the parts that just...I don't know. They didn't grab me. There were too many characters doing too many stupid things. Big revelations that would alter the course of human thinking were either semi-ignored or swallowed ridiculously easily. The question "why?" didn't come out anywhere near enough for characters who's primary job is to observe and ask "why?"
Still, for all of that, assuming they don't go really hokey in the next two books, I'm still along for the ride.
I just wish this book didn't actually feel like it was written by two different people.
And in the hands of masters...Clarke, Asimov, Bradbury, Herbert...it often does just that. In the hands of someone of lesser talent, it's just painful.
This book was painful. I can't tell you how many times I considered abandoning it. At the end of virtually each section for the first third. Most of the time in the first half. Occasionally in the second half, including right up to the final pages. Yet, for some reason, I stuck it out. And was not rewarded.
There's so much wrong with this novel, which is distressing, because Goyer is responsible for some of the scripts to movies I truly enjoyed. I truly believe his entire contribution to this novel was to provide a series of quickly-scribbled notes on a napkin to Cassutt, along with a contract that places his name above Cassutt's for marketing purposes and the promise of a fat fee. Because if he's in any way more responsible for this plodding pile of crap, I seriously question his talents as well.
What problems are there? Pacing, characters, backstories, plot, storytelling style, and tell versus show.
As I said above, I read SF for the wonder, the entertainment and thought-provocation factors. So, when the authors set up a situation where 187 people are scooped off Earth and dropped on Keanu, I'm expecting a Ringworld or Rama type of story, lots of exploration (providing the wonder), lots of imagination-firing (and thought provoking) discoveries, lots of initial obstacles to overcome (providing the entertainment). When writing SF, any author is simply honour-bound to do so.
Instead, we're treated to characters wringing their hands, pointing out repeatedly that they don't understand what's happening, and, for most of the first third, if not first half, we're treated to such exciting events as: Organizing people into groups! Punishing a murderer by making him dig holes! Working about dying batteries! Electing a mayor!
Please.
On top of all this, as we meet each new member of this politically correct highly international cast of characters, any slight momentum the plot has managed to build up dies as we are dragged through that character's backstory in a giant tell, instead of showing the salient points through reveals during the forward narrative of the plot. But that would take more work.
Pretty much the first half takes place over the trip to Keanu and the first 48 hours once they arrive there. The second half, while still unbelievably slow, at least gets some things happening. Still, the big excitement pieces are another murder, some people returning from the dead (yeah, we got that in the first book, it's getting old), a ridiculously drawn out and incredibly boring First Meeting between humans and a Real! Live! Alien!
We're also treated to a lot more Tell, Don't Show here, as the authors bring in Revenants (dead characters brought briefly back to life) exactly when the other characters need them to provide information or direction. At the same time, all the really fun stuff (the stuff that could provide more entertainment, thought-provocation and wonder) happens off stage. The Reaver bugs' secrets are learned off-stage. The weapon to fight them is devised and created off-stage. The methods the survivors use to learn to use the alien technology and feed the masses is all done off-stage. I get the impression that the authors needed this handy plot device - technology that can create all the things they need, but it takes some thinking and manipulation and effort - but really don't know how to explain it satisfactorily, or show it in action, so they just say, screw it, write a scene where on of the politically correct highly international cast of characters walks up with the solution, and maybe some beads of sweat on his brow from the effort.
I also have problems with the actual voice of the narrative. The authors switch between several characters, male, female, young, old, gay, straight, American, Indian, etc. And yet, the storytelling voice never varies from the detached, plodding, semi-technical writer style. Sort of a slightly engaging technical writing with dialogue.
And finally, there was the epilogue. Don't worry, no spoilers. I'll just say that, instead of choosing one of the few slightly interesting endings, they decided to tack on an epilogue that was, again, in a mostly telling this-is-what-happened-after-that wrap up. Why not choose to simply provide an enigmatic view of the survivors that whets the appetite for book 3, and build it out in that book instead?
Because, in the end, that's one of the biggest issues of this book. It's like going on a trip to a foreign country you've never visited before. And, thinking it's the best way to take it all in, you book a tour with a crazed, socially-awkward, nerdy tourguide that rushes you from place to place, pointing at things, stating they're important, but only giving you a few words as to why, before scooting you to the next thing they think is interesting. All the while, you're left vaguely pointing to something else, saying, "but that looks interesting too," and being told it's really not (when you know it really is), before they tap their watch and tell you to sit down and shut up, we're on a schedule, lots of things to see, no time to explain. In the end, you're left with lackluster photos and no stories to bring back home.
Typically, when I'm two books into a trilogy, no matter how bad the book is, I'd still soldier on and complete the last one, just to see how it ends. But in this case, considering the story, the characters and where it's all headed? Frankly, Scarlet, I don't give a damn.
I'm done. Goyer and Cassutt won't steal any more of my time.
I outright like how the film handles the origin story -- piecemeal, in flashbacks, so we experience it, but don't have to watch the nineteenth version of Superman growing up and are bored to tears for the first thirty minutes like a linear approach would have done. And the acting's good, with the three leads -- Cavill, Shannon and Adams -- all being particularly great.
Where the film falls short for me, is with the non-stop slugfest that it becomes once Lois and Clark flee the Kryptonian ship. Once Zod threatens Ma Kent, the film barely takes a single breather until the epilogue. It's just one fight after another. Individually, these fights are fine, and rather entertaining. But all in a row, they're just exhausting CGI cavalcades. From my layman's perspective, the film should either have been 30 minutes shorter, cutting most of that from the final hour, or 15 minutes longer, adding story beats and dialogue into that final hour. Ideally the former, as it was already dragging a bit on the pacing, but honestly, almost any change would be better than the punch-punch-punch-explosion-punch-punch-punch-explosion it is now.
It could also have used a bit more humour. On the few occasions where it shows a little levity, I notice myself sitting up straighter, paying more attention, having a better time. I don't mind the mood being more dour and serious than one might be expecting from a Superman film, but some counterpoints wouldn't hurt.
All in all, though, I think the film's pretty OK. "Pretty OK" is admittedly not what you want from a huge budget Superman reimagining, but plenty of films of this ilk have failed much more spectacularly.
It turns out to be the second book in a series where I have not read the first, and the action is so tightly connected to the previous volume that I could not make head nor tail of it, and gave up after only 16 pages. For what it's worth, the characters seemed to me to be behaving very oddly, but I was not interested enough to keep reading and find out why.
PS: the school-boy scatology was totally unnecessary for the story, and use of foul language in films targeted at kids is never acceptable. Despite current opinion, there are still subsets of youth that don't use it and parents that don't tolerate it.
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This was the first in The Dark Knight trilogy and it did not disappoint (other than at least fifteen uses of bad language and the use of God's name in vain). A young boy, Bruce Wayne, witnesses the murder of his parents by a street thug. He desires nothing more than to avenge their death by killing their murderer. His parents' lifetime friend and butler, Alfred, takes the young man under his wings and encourages him to fight crime and murder rather than commit it. Highly recommend with the above caution.
***December 12, 2023***½