batman

Justice League Does Fans, and DC, Justice

I had the opportunity to see a special fan screening of Justice League last night (the Monday before the official release). I ended up having to stand in line for 3 hours to do it, get scanned by security (with actually metal detector wands), and turn off my phone (even though the screen wanted you to scan a Snapchat code). Once the movie started I quickly forgot about the hassle of actually getting to my seat.

First, I want to talk about expectations and hype. Mine were truly low. I’ve seen all the DCEU movies, watched all the JL trailers, and I was not expecting a Wonder Woman type of hit. As much as I enjoy Snyder’s Superman, I can’t say the previous Superman films were examples of great film. And I don’t want to talk about Suicide Squad, because Folding Ideas has done it better than I could. After everything we’ve seen, I expected Justice League to be a mess of grimdark origins that barely formed a cohesive plot.

So, watching the movie I felt my expectations constantly rising.

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Batman v. Superman: Not a Review

Spoiler-filled analysis from the point of view of one who reads comics, not who reviews movies.

This article originally ran on medium.com and was reposted here with the permission of Thaddeus Howze

batmanvsuperman

For the record. I hate writing reviews. Why? Because criticism is easy. Any idiot can sit in a theater and have an opinion. Any art critic can, with the weight of their degree in art literacy, define why a thing fails to deliver whatever THEY think it should deliver to an “audience.” As a writer who struggles to find that proper beat to put a story to while I am writing it, I am always reminded movies are a special breed of writing.

Movies are a collaboration. They are a story written by at least one person, massaged by two or three other people, edited by another person before being turned into a script which gets changed daily. As the shots are reviewed and then taken from different angles, all that work is gathered together and digitally enhanced, cinematic effects added, CGI constructs placed and then this beast is edited down to fit a designated time pattern.

This is one of the most important parts of a movie’s creation: No matter what vision a director might have, arbitrary decisions made as to what stays in and what goes out are often made by executives whose reasons for doing what they do are completely their own but presumably were meant to make the film more “profitable,” based on some movie-making algorithm only they understand.

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Highlights from 2014 – 2nd Quarter

Meta Suggested:

alexwlchan suggested the two questions which happened to be the two highest voted questions in the quarter:

Avner Shahar-Kashtan mentioned DVK’s question How exactly is the Secret Fire similar to the Holy Spirit? He also liked The Valar and their power to create and the answer to Did the force-like magic exist within LOTR books?.

It was a very Harry Potter centric quarter for DVK’s favorites:

I mostly remember these [answers] because they were for the questions I asked, so there’s a certain bias [here.]

How do wizards prevent Accio-fueled robberies?

The answer by alexwlchan is wonderfully canon including sourcing a canon source I wasn’t even aware of before!

Would Severus Snape be classified with ASPD? by Slytherincess – AND a competing answer by alexwlchan. Amazing analysis.

Overpowering The Elder wand by Slytherincess.

Why didn’t Quirrell keep the flying key? by alexwlchan. Especially since it was posted right after I made a fool of myself by commenting that there’s no canon answer.

DVK also liked the research aspect of what initially seemed like a “D’uh” answer to Which are the Two Towers in Lord of the Rings?

Interesting Stats:

The question with the most votes AND the most views goes to Does Batman use Linux? asked by user3058846. The second runner up for most votes was How did Dumbledore, or anyone, know Lily had sacrificed herself for Harry? and the second runner up for most views was What are the rules of Trial by Combat in Game of Thrones?

The top two answers were to Why was Hermione not in Ravenclaw? answered by alexwlchan and Who is / was the “Lord of the Rings”? answered by SQB

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