SEE IT AT THE MOVIES

BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE

with Joyce & Don Fowler
Posted 3/31/16

BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE

Dark, violent, confusing superhero sci-fi)

What were they thinking?

A 2½-hour dark, violent, confusing, super-hero sci-fi marathon with …

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SEE IT AT THE MOVIES

BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE

Posted

BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE

(Dark, violent, confusing superhero sci-fi)

What were they thinking?

A 2½-hour dark, violent, confusing, super-hero sci-fi marathon with quasi-religious overtones?

Take two comic book super-heroes, pit them against each other and society, throw in Wonder Woman, Lex Luthor and one mean looking monster, stir them all together, and you get one excruciating and confusing movie.

After an introduction into the origins of Batman and Superman, we are subjected to a number of seemingly unrelated scenes that somehow interconnect a long time later, leading up to more excruciating battle scenes, first between Batman and Superman, and finally Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and the indestructible monster called Doomsday.

Society has turned against our two heroes. Too many innocent people have died when they do their thing. They think they are above the law. Or gods. It’s time for them to get out of the way and let the government catch the bad guys.

The movie ponders many ethical and religious questions, hardly ever lightening up. There are a couple of break-the-tension humorous quips, but they are lost in the darkness.

Jessie Eisenberg plays Lex Luthor, but I just couldn’t buy him as the evil genius. He overacts his way through the plot.

On the other hand, Amy Adams makes a believable Lois Lane, and Jeremy Irons gives a different perspective to Alfred the Butler.

Henry Cavill looks like Superman should look: tall, handsome and muscular, while Ben Affleck’s Batman comes off as a stern, uncontrollable, angry man behind an impenetrable suit of armor.

The pyrotechnics are overwhelming, the noisy score is ear shattering, and the scene changes are too many and too confusing. That leads us up to a surprise ending and an epilogue that sets the stage for “Justice League Part One,” scheduled for November 2017.

Rated PG-13 because of the violence.

MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING 2

* * ½ 

(Unoriginal sequel)

Not that there are some funny moments in this unoriginal sequel from the 2002 hit comedy. It’s just that we’ve seen it all before. There are all the jokes about Greek families, which actually could be Italian, Irish or any close-knit ethnic families.

There’s Nia Vardalos and John Corbett recreating their roles as the couple that married in the original. Now they are parents of Paris, a teenage girl who wants to go away to college, while the family wants her to attend Northwestern, staying at home with the clan in Chicago.

The second Greek wedding isn’t about her. It is about her grandparents who discover that the priest never signed the marriage certificate. The irritating couple (Lainie Kazan and Michael Constantine) both play hard to get when the family plans a big elaborate wedding for them.

Every Greek joke is repeated in the movie, and we must admit that the audience laughed often at the cliché-ridden writing (by Nia Vardalos.

Great-grandma is back and given some funny scenes and a grand finale at the inevitable Greek wedding where they all live happily, and side by side, ever after.

“My Big Fat Greek Wedding” is not a bad movie, in fact it is a very familiar one. It just doesn’t provide anything new.

Rated PG-13, with nothing to worry about with the kids except some risqué humor. 

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