Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

The film starts during the big fight from Man of Steel but we see it from Bruce Wayne’s perspective which I thought it was quite good because it sets up why the two biggest names in the DC Universe are fighting each other.

This is the first appearance for Ben Affleck as Batman and to be honest, I thought he was quite good and thought that it was a brave thing to introduce a new Batman during one of the most important films for DC. It also introduces Wonder Woman, Aquaman and The Flash for the upcoming Justice League film. It does feel at this point that they are rushing through their version of the Avengers films which is worrying.

As well as introducing a new Batman, they introduce Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. Quite why this film is called Batman v Superman when Wonder Woman plays just as important a role in this film as the other two. Gadot is sidelined for most of the film until the final act and this relates to my point about DC rushing these stories because Gadot would get her own film the year after BvsS came out and I think that would have made me care more about Wonder Woman a bit more but here even though she’s quite involved in the story (sort of) there is no information about her just questions.

Like Man of Steel, this film is frustrating. I’ll be honest that my expectations weren’t as high as for those who have been waiting this for years to see Batman and Superman go at it but whilst they were met the one thing that ruins this film is Jesse Eisenberg. Now every single time he is on screen he is annoying and ruins any goodwill that most people would have to this film. For some reason they asked him to play Mark Zuckerberg but with more personality and forgetting he needed to be a credible villain. That’s not the only reason. There are other frustrating decisions made such as why the big fight between Batman and Superman is ended when they discover they discover their mothers have the same name.

Then there is the big monster that they have to fight which just looks like a CGI mess and all the destruction that occurs just looks a giant mess that I have no interest in.

The decision to kill Superman was an odd one to me because no one is going to believe that they are going to kill one of their key characters off and the very last shot before the credits roll is of the dirt on his casket rising which even though it’s a brief moment, completely eliminates any questions about whether he is dead or not.

This film has a lot of ambition, not only does in introduce Ben Affleck as Batman but it introduces several key characters and tries to set up the story arc and tries to do it all in 2 hours and 20 odd minutes. If Man of Steel could be accused of stretching things out to fill the running time, then this one can be accused of the opposite. Too much means that there is little time to properly introduce things and give it a satisfactory conclusion. I didn’t hate BvS when I first saw it and I still don’t hate it, I just find it frustrating in different ways to Man of Steel.

10 Cloverfield Lane (2016)

I remember seeing Cloverfield in the cinema and thinking that it was really good and always hoping that a sequel would happen. As the years progressed, those hopes started to go away thinking it would never arrive but then out of nowhere it did and eight years after the first one, we get a sequel of sorts. The story follows Michelle who gets in a car accident and is rescued by Howard who is keeping her in his bunker because an attack happened outside. What the film becomes is a question about who is the monster, whats outside or whats inside the bunker.

The film largely works as a three hander because all we have is John Goodman (who is brilliant), Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Michelle who is just trying to get out of the bunker and is also very good especially when she is against John Goodman. The third person is John Gallagher Jr as Emmitt who does feel like the third wheel but does freshen things up although he is slightly expendable.

The problem with this film is that the ending feels bolted on. From what I have read online, the original story was just the bunker stuff and then JJ Abrahams’ production company got hold of the story and added the Cloverfield bit onto it. He would do this with the Cloverfield Paradox to less successful results but in the case of 10 Cloverfield Lane it does feel like they just about get away with it even though I cant get rid of the feeling that the ending is bolted on.

10 Cloverfield Lane would still be a very good film even without the Cloverfield stuff and that is how good I found the film. The performances were really good and also the directing made certain moments of the film feel tense.