I'm putting together a team people with
special abilities you see I believe
enemies are coming stop right there
I'm in you are now that the Justice
League trailer is out and it has jokes
there's a lot of talk about DC's course
correction as if the overly grim tone of
Batman V Superman was the key to why it
wasn't that good of a movie but from my
point of view Zack Snyder could make
Justice League and out-and-out comedy
and it still wouldn't fix what I see is
a more fundamental problem in his
filmmaking something that's really
apparent in Batman or Superman his
preoccupation his obsession with moments
the expense of scenes what do I mean by
this well let me start by saying this
movie moments are awesome a really great
moment can be transcendent they can
leave deep lifelong visual impressions
on a film goer they can come to
represent a whole new category of
feeling that's why film geeks like me
reference them so much in conversation
with friends when you're a film student
at least when I was a film student
that's what makes things exciting most
of the student films I directed revolved
around a few moments that I thought were
going to blow people away if I could
just navigate the story there that would
be enough the moment would do all the
work then I just navigate to the next
one for this reason my student films
weren't that good
Batman V Superman dawn of Justice I
think suffers from a similar problem
Zack Snyder is obviously obsessed with
moments the movie is chock-full of that
moments when time is slowed down and the
composition is just right moments when
the score swells in the film tries to
broadcast a single message be all a lot
of people talk about Snyder as a great
visual stylist well of course he is
that's where all the focus goes toward
crafting moments they say his characters
lack motivation of course they do
because all character motivations are
subservient to the film's own motivation
to reach the next moment it makes sense
then that Snyder puts extraordinary care
into montages twice in this film the
opening credits featuring Batman's
origin story and
at the forty four minute mark
spotlighting Superman's more impressive
heroics we have slow motion moment
montages there's something like 40 shots
in these montages together and they all
aim to be iconic
I think if Schneider could make a whole
movie like this he would oh wait he
already did yes
it's also why he favors dream sequences
and flashbacks more excuses to show more
moments what Batman V Superman really
lacks is scenes actual scenes not just
filler between moments scenes are hard
to define since they're so malleable
it's hard to say what one is but what a
good scene does is dissolve the actors
and the soundstage and the costumes and
makeup and camera angle into a living
and breathing reality we should be a
strong sense of place a feeling of
possibility that the characters who
inhabit the space could go anywhere
within it even if they don't even if you
know that the technicalities of lighting
and blocking wouldn't let them in other
words the discrete elements that make up
a good scene should not feel like
they're in service to something else
even though they are too often in Batman
V Superman the characters feel awkwardly
placed in their scenes I mean does
anyone get the sense that Clark Kent
Lois Lane or Perry White actually spend
time as a Daily Planet we visit the
Daily Planet
eight times in the movie but the longest
scene there is only a minute and 11
seconds the rest are under a minute and
half are under 30 seconds this doesn't
feel like a place it feels like a
fraction of a location where people say
things like this when the planet was
founded its stood for something very the
Batcave Lois and Clark's apartment Lex
Luthor's office the Kryptonian ship all
have the same issue and that's just
about the extent of the settings that we
visit more than once in the film what's
more these scenes are filmed largely in
medium shots close-ups or extreme
close-ups which makes it even harder to
ground the scenes or for the audience to
ground itself within them and in all
these places we spend an awful lot of
time looking at screens there's also
very little distinction between
metropolis and Gotham the to see
that sculpted their respective heroes if
you're looking for a metaphor for the
whole film note the fact that one of the
longest scenes takes place on an
abandoned island between the two cities
that the heroes completely destroyed
building a good scene isn't only about
location it's about fitting the dialogue
the tone and the characters into that
location and endow it with a sense of
duration Avengers age of Ultron from
last year it isn't a perfect movie but
there's a great story about how joss
whedon fought to keep the Hawkeye
farmhouse scene in the film that
slow-paced confident scene runs for a
full 16 minutes right in the middle of
the action but when you're there you're
not waiting to go somewhere else you're
there learning about the characters and
when those characters have their moments
later in the film they land with
poignancy of course almost all films
especially superhero blockbusters are
going to have expositional scenes and
scenes that set up future action and in
great movies all the scenes often work
together to participate in an
overarching tone or a complex message
but great scenes function as their own
little universes within a film and good
movies should have plenty of them Batman
V Superman runs for two and a half hours
with a heaping helping of big moments
and yet I don't quite feel like I've
been anywhere the scene is where all is
loaded into the chamber firing the gun
without loading can only result in empty
noise a bang but no impact I'm always
hopeful about new Superman movies
because Superman is so important to me
but I won't let some Batman jokes and
upbeat rock music fool me
lightheartedness isn't the basic problem
that needs to be fixed here the overused
and unearned moment is DC's greatest foe
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Wednesday