Batman v Superman is the latest comic book film to divide critics and audiences. Does a rotten tomatoes score effect box office performance and is DC's latest getting the pummeling it deserves? It's an interesting topic to look into what exactly makes Batman v Superman such a poor movie. From a casual fan stand point, it can be argued one of two ways. Either this movie had enough action to, at the very least, elevate itself from the Man of Steel or that the numerous easter eggs, and faulty plot points, only confused fans who aren't well versed in the comic world, for example all the nods towards Justice Leagues villain, Darkseid or the future Flash vision dream sequence. While Batman is always a box office drive as well as our first on screen look at Wonder Woman in decades, I have a feeling as to why this movie has just not been a hit with critics that DC had hoped and it all centers around the Man of Steel himself, Superman. Now, to be frank, I'm a Henry Cavill fan however, in a film that's not quite a direct sequel but features enough moments to echo it's importance, Cavill's Superman performance is nearly nonexistent. In a movie full of forthcoming superheroes and famous new addition, Superman is as boring as ever. In fact, with the (spoiler alert) unexpected death at the hands of Doomsday, the fact that we already know he's starring in the Justice League really takes the "umph," out of the moment. On the same note, the reason why Superman had to be the victim is because Lex Luthor, played fairly well (even if oddly written) by Jessie Eisenberg, has ultimately masterminded a plot to rid the world of Superman, thus unleashing a wave of crime the world has never seen thus giving us the reason why assembling the Justice League is important. The, "there's no threat now but there will be in the future," plot. What makes the title less appealing is after you've seen the film, you know that Superman could kill Batman. He, in fact, could have killed him a number of times, extremely easily. Only through the use of a large chunk of Kryptonite, taken from Lex, Ben Affleck stands absolutely zero chance. It's effect also seemed to have lasted minutes before Superman seemingly get's his abilities back and is able to turn the tides. The only moment Batman, who's seemingly hellbent on ridding the world of Superman after watching him kill (with his own eyes) a building full of his former employees is the coincidence that their mother's have the same name, thus leading to a change of heart. Through everything, I don't see anyone else's story lines, no matter how strange or erratic, as problematic and flat as Superman. An (theoretically) infallible and invincible character had no other route than to really be questioned for his actions, a move which I believe was the right call. The problem is, the movie doesn't push in any one direction quite enough. Batman wasn't angry enough, Wonder Woman didn't get enough screen time, Lex Luthor is basically the same level of unstable throughout and Superman is as damp as ever. Because of DC's rush to get to the Justice League and develop solo films following 2017, Batman v Superman is filled with unanswered questions and head scratching moments that even comic book fans are a little confused about. Cavill has no real wow moments, which is sad because the only real wow moment in the Man of Steel is the surprise at the very end. Batman v Superman didn't push for you to love the character but hoped you'd like the action enough to drool over them and, to Marvel's credit, we are all aware that movie goers are a bit smarter than that when it comes to comic films. Regardless, Batman v Superman was a predictable hit, whether or not critics loved it, the movie is not the biggest opening film ever in March. Which makes sense considering it's lofty marketing campaign. A smart move considering DC originally wanted to open against Marvel's Captain America: Civil War in May. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice has a long way to go to crossing the 800 million dollar line before it begins to make recoup it's loses but will more than likely get there. Let's just hope Superman is able to stay a float when Justice League comes and it's many recognizable heroes comes along. (Thankfully it's score didn't dive as low as another film that didn't perform nearly as well at the box office.)
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If you're like me, you've been wondering when the next bit of Pokemon news will be heading our way and now we finally have an idea. According to Pokemon news site serebii, the first actual look at Pokemon Sun and Pokemon Moon in air in Japan during a television broadcast. The director of the Pokemon series, Junichi Masuda, is scheduled to make an appearance on the Sunday morning broadcast alongside Shigeki Morimoto and the director of the previous releases, Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire Shigeru Ohmori. This is likely an indication that he'll be directing the release of these two titles as well. Hopefully we'll see some game play footage and possibly be introduced to the next generations three starter type Pokemon. We will likely head more about the game in April's Corocoro magazine release as well! We'll have to keep an eye out for the broadcast when it happens, April 3rd.
Batman v Superman has opened this weekend but it seems like the worlds focus was really centered around one of character who made her long awaited debut, Wonder Woman. After the Thursday night premier for the DC film, Entertainment Weekly dropped a new official photo from the upcoming film, showing not only main actress Gal Gadot, but some of the other woman of the amazonian island of Themyscira. Queen Hippolyta, Wonder Woman's mother, is played by Gladiator actress Connie Nielsen, General Antiope is played by House of Cards Robin Wright, and Menalippe will be played by Lisa Loven Kongsli. Not only did the film contain easter eggs for the forthcoming solo film, a recent survey from Fandango showed that she was a big pull for audience goers. (During my viewing, her fight debut was the only time the audience applauded) A live action film is long over due for what's has been not only the most recognizable female comic book hero, but one of the most recognizable figures in comics, period. Wonder Woman will make her solo debut June 23rd, 2017.
If you didn't know, DC's anticipated Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, opens this weekend but is it worth the money or bad as critics claim? Zack Snyder's second film in the ongoing DC film series is a hard one to crack. While accompanied by a great soundtrack, most of the film falls flat. Bruce, played by Ben Affleck, is haunted by a series of dreams that not only hint at future events but are generally more interesting that what he's actually doing in real life, which is balancing both his own brand of vigilante justice while also plotting to avenge the death of his company's employees (which we see in following the opening scenes). Clark Kent now finds himself in the middle of a media frenzy, painting him as a possible liability due to the high level of destruction in Man of Steel. This is where Lex Luthor, portrayed by Jesse Eisenberg gets in the mix. DC's has opted to skip the Lex and Clark "friends," dynamic for a much more maniacal character. He uses his various resources to get his hands on chunk of Kryptonite and offers to weaponize it as a deterrent against Superman. Aside from this, it's also discovered that's he's been watching several other heroes, those who will be the members of the Justice League. Gal Gadot shines in her handful of scene's as Wonder Woman and it's hard to not be excited about the solo film coming in 2017. Sadly her character already revealed the price of fighting a human war. The small teasers for Cyborg and Aquaman we're fairly impressive as well as a nod to the upcoming villain, Darkseid, and mentions of the Joker, Batman v Superman is full of fun easter eggs. However, Batman's change of opinion on Superman happens much to quickly and seems entirely unlikely. Most of the combat early on is some what sluggish and most of the dialogue is fairly predictable regardless. Batman v. Superman is an odd egg. On one hand, it's pretty much your action filled comic book movie and on the other hand, we've grown to expect more. DC relied heavily on Batman's violence (which has apparently upset some) and clouded judgement, that the character walks a line much closer to a villain than a vigilante. Batman v Superman doesn't really have a "wow," moment but it doesn't fall complete flat either. It's not a film you'd love or probably hate, or probably view again. Either way, we're going to get a lot more from DC in the future and while this isn't close to the best super hero film out there, it's still worth sitting through.
Well, that was quick. After yesterday's reported news of Nintendo discontinuing the production of it's current gen console, the Wii U, Nintendo has issued a statement of their own. Refuting the claim with gaming site Famitsu, Nintendo shot down the claims made by Nikkei (as reported yesterday), saying that there is no current announcement regarding the halt of production or plans to do so. So, for now, it looks like we'll still have Nintendo's Wii U. As far as the Nintendo NX, it looks like all eyes are on this years E3.
Despite the early screening reactions on twitter, Batman v Superman is diving critics left and right. Early reviews place the movie at a low 42% on rotten tomatoes. This on top of the fact that Variety has estimated that DC's latest film will need to make about 800 million before it reaches a profit on this film combining it's large budget and huge marketing campaign. This, of course, will most likely happen given how anticipated it as was well as the fact that it's opening against almost no competition. A few of the reasons for the low rating seems to cite the over use of CGI, a weak plot and an even weaker ending. (one of which, I'm fairly sure I have already figure out) We'll find out come this Friday but hopefully DC's second film in it's expanding universe doesn't disappoint.
The reported end of the Wii U news may not be all that shocking as it seems. Apparently, Nintendo has already quietly made a move to stop production on certain Wii U accessories and is planning to stop production on their latest Wii U console sometime within 2016. This is somewhat surprising considering the console was released only in 2012 but has never been viewed as a successful launch for the Japanese based gaming company. While the production may stop, this doesn't necessarily mean that Nintendo's planned NX console will be releasing this year although we have heard that we will see be hearing more information about the planned console soon. The Wii U reflected Nintendo's commitment to family systems aimed at innovation but limited developers with it's gamepad controller. Hopefully we'll be hearing about the Nintendo NX come E3 this June.
Blizzard is ready to do what they do best. The gaming company debuted an animated short for the upcoming shooter title, Overwatch, due out later this year and it's equal parts funny, awesome, full of action. Recall, the first of a handful of planned shorts promoting the game, focuses on the intelligent Winston and how his origins came to be. The video also gives us some background on the state of the world these heroes and villains are in. If you weren't looking forward to this game then this trailer should do the trick. Take a look at the Overwatch: Recall below and get ready for it to hit store shelves May 24th, 2016. One new film this weekend opened far lower than expected and that's bad for several reasons. The Divergent series: Allegiant, the 3rd installment in the film franchise based on The Divergent series, opened to a franchise low of 29 million in the U.S. and Canada. While it did gross an additional 53.4 million outside of those areas, it still couldn't top Disney's Zootopia which as been holding on to the top stop for a few weekends since it's release earlier March. The issue is, Allegiant is probably doomed to a short box office run considering it's release is one week prior to DC's highly anticipated Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which is sure to have a massive opening weekend. The other issue is a movie seeing a 44% fall in opening weekend box office in comparison to it's previous films is danger for the final scheduled film, Ascendant, will be released summer 2017 hopefully to better reception. The latest film currently holds a 10% on rotten tomatoes, down from Insurgent's 29% and Divergent's 40%. While this movie will probably be a success over seas, it looks like this might be a failure stateside.
Tomorrow marks another Apple event and rumors are already swirling the net. For starters, Apple is reportedly unveiling 3 new products during tomorrows launch. We've heard rumors of a new 9.7 inch iPad is expected to arrive tomorrow as well as a the rumored 4 inch iPhone "SE." While the Apple Watch was only announced a year ago, I wouldn't be shocked if we were to going to hear some news about it's updated watchOS 2.2 as well as some announcements regarding hardware, an update to Apple TV, the companies Mac line of computers and laptops, and some forthcoming release dates for these new products. The event beings tomorrow at 10am pst 7am est. Get excited for money Apple news tomorrow and more announcements come their World Wide Developers Conference sometime in June.
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