Here are my thoughts
OK, It shouldn't surprise anyone that the visuals are great. Zack Snyder has been directing visually stunning movies since 300. Man of Steel, hands down, has some of the best (if not THE best) superhero action. It is far and away the best Superman vs Zod fight on the big screen since THE MATRIX:REVOLUTIONS (though Snyder oddly borrows a lot of Neo's flight affectations for this movie). But in terms of Superman FINALLY having a villain who is his physical equal, who he can actually fight, this movie delivers it. It's and 11 on the 10 scale.
I also loved the Krypton segment. It's cool that Jor-El is the compassionate scientist that KICKS EVERYONE'S ASS. But I really loved the weird design aesthetic...kind of hints of retro deco while still being its own unique thing.
I loved the bad guy's weird battle armor and the crazy THEY LIVES video Zod broadcasts to Earth to herald his arrival.
What I didn't like so much was the fact that our Superman is fine with waging open warfare in the hearts of both Smallville and Metropolis without any concern for the lives of the humans around him (especially troublesome because his whole dilemma in the film is convincing the people of earth he can be trusted). I mean, the battles in this movie are so huge and catastrophic that it's inconceivable hundreds weren't killed or injured in the Smallville fight, and hundreds of thousands in the Metropolis fight. I have a big BIG problem with movies where we're supposed to celebrate because the heroes finally put down the villain right after he's committed murder on an EPIC SCALE (I'm looking your way too, STAR TREK: INTO DARKNESS). In the comics we'd expect to see Superman TRYING to steer the battles away from civilians, but not here.
I suppose there's a fair amount of controversy about how Superman ultimately defeats Zod. I've been avoiding reading reviews and comments, but I can't imagine there isn't a segment of fandom that's outraged. All I can say is they were all outraged when the EXACT SAME THING happened in the comics too. I was OK with it it works in the context of the movie.
Where the movie is really lacking, for me, is the emotional impact. That is to say, there really is none. There's a moment when Superman talks to Jor-El and his birth father tells him about the symbol on his chest and what sending his son to earth meant for him...what he HOPES Kal-El can accomplish. In that moment I though, 'oh man, they really got this. '
But no, Superman as a symbol of hope rarely comes through. And there's very little else about the movie that resonated in terms of emotional connections between the characters. I really liked Lois Lane, but her "bond" with Superman felt extremely forced. I missed the romance of past Superman/Lois incarnations. But most characters were flat for me and I didn't care much about what happened to any of them.
The movie's complete lack of humor didn't help either. There was one line in the movie that made me laugh and I think it's the very last line (that Lois delivers to Clark). I get that Christopher Nolan is a thinker and likes intellectual, well though-out movies but, damn, Batman Begins had more humor and heart than this, and that's just surprising. Superman's supposed to be the uplifting, inspiring one!
All and all, the above is about half praise and half complaint. The truth is I enjoyed the movie pretty well and felt like it was worth the ticket price. It's not necessarily what I want in a Superman movie, but it's still pretty darn good.
An idea from 4chan for the next movie
>Warner Bros. Pictures logo.
>DC Comics logo.
>"Look at you."
>Superman breaks the sound barrier.
>"The man of Steel."
>Superman under heavy fire.
>"They call you a savior."
>Superman above an African village. People look at him in awe.
>"But that's not truth, is it?"
>Superman emerges from debris, eyes glowing red.
>"You might see through walls..."
>Clark Kent at the Daily Planet, talking with Perry White.
>"But I see through people."
>Lois looking up.
>"And I see through you."
>Clark looks at himself in the mirror. Removes his glasses.
>"And do you know what I see?"
>Explosions.
>"I see the end."
>Riots in the streets. People afraid.
>"The end of our potential."
>People mourn and despair.
>Music goes into a crescendo. Drums and fanfare getting louder.
>"The end of our achievements."
>Metropolis leveled.
>"The end of our dreams."
>The Sun sets. Clark closes his eyes.
>"And I will not allow that to happen."
>Superman fighting a mechanical being.
>"Because I am something you are not. I am something you will never be."
>Superman outside an office window, eyes glowing red.
>Pan to reveal who's inside: Lex Luthor (played by whoever you see fit).
>"I am a man."
>They come face-to-face, separated only by the glass.
>"I am Lex Luthor."
>MAN OF TOMORROW.
>Luthor views a meteorite. It glows green.
>SUMMER 2015.
Ok, so I finally got to see it. My thoughts:
- RIDICULOUSLY AWESOME FIGHT SCENES. Beyond anything I've ever seen; IT WAS AWESOME.
- The tone was good, I can appreciate the (mostly) serious tone of the universe, as long as the writing is good enough.
- The writing was sort of weak. Wasn't really on board with the whole DNA thing. Also, Zod seemed a little too "malevolent for the sake of evil" for me. Too much shady science MacGuffin. I feel like they easily could have achieved an equal story without the shady plot devices.
- Side characters (Read; Lois Lane) was poorly integrated. Lois + Clark was easily the weakest part of the film, I had a hard time embracing their romance, after they met like two times. Needed A LOT more development. The way the film was, I think they should have saved the entire Daily Planet crew, Lois included, for the sequel. Or at least the post-credit scene (which in this case was placed before the credits..)
Conclusion; with some stronger writing, DC could beat Marvel to a pulp. I'm looking forward to see what comes from here.
BlueKitty, your thoughts on this resonate with mine 100%. Kudos for such a well thought out an intellectual breakdown of the movie!
I too thought the biggest problem was the destruction of Smallville and Metropolis. It felt like as soon as they were out of Smallville, Metropolis essentially had to be destroyed before the Superman/Zod battle could begin, ensuring further destruction. Very 9/11y at points, especially when Perry is trying to save a co-worker in a pile of rubble. Intentional? Probably. It's an up-to-date New York City disguised as Metropolis. The fact people are still wandering around Grand Central Station in the middle of the city being partially destroyed was pretty ludicrous.
I thought Jor-El was amazing. The best use of the father figure Superman has ever had in a film. Towards the end of the film I had to wonder how successful a Superman film is if I felt like I preferred seeing Jor-El doing his thing than seeing Superman accomplish incredible feats. I liked the fact that Snyder kept coming back to both Jor-El (in holographic form) and Jonathan Kent. The flashbacks were well integrated into the plot. But there wasn't enough 'discovery' for my liking. Part of the greatness and relatability of reboots is discovering the powers of the character with the character. It has happened with Spiderman, Batman, Iron Man, pretty much any hero you'd like to name. Clark Kent is shown as a bullied kid who doesn't have any answers and becomes rather introverted because of it. He has no place in the world - something he comes to understand further as his Cal-El identity manifests - but there isn't a single point in the film where I felt like I could relate to that kid. It's a shame, because the emotional baggage is all there, it just fails to pay off in the way one would expect.
Also, however Lois managed to get into that ship in the first place is bloody beyond me. Also, the fact she turns up to his house with a few police cars and keeps calling him Clark when he's in his Superman costume...it seemed like very little effort was taken to keep his identity under wraps, especially by Lois.
But hey, it's probably the best Superman film that's been made. It's just a shame it isn't, on its own, a fantastic film. I'm looking forward to seeing kryptonite, Lex, and a whole other load of Superman related stuff in the Inevitable Sequel.
I had high hopes and went into the cinema expecting a thoroughly satisfying movie. I'll concede that the action was pretty sweet, and that Clark and Lois were well-cast even though they had summat crappy chemistry. Zod was all right and his moments facing off against Superman were among the better scenes in the movie. I loved many of the scenes where Clark simply can't stop himself from acting and I loved the very short sequence where he finds Zod threatening his mum. The ending was all right and accounted for about 50% of the humor-content of the movie. I thought the thing where they CGI:d Reeve's face over Cavill's was sweet :o
However, I really felt as if the script--esp. the dialogue--was kinda shit. I rarely feel this way, which may be a testament to the high quality of other superhero movies but is more likely to reflect the skills of MoS's scriptwriter. I was ambivalent about the scenes on Krypton, where some things were awesome and other things were flat and distracting. I expected to love Crowe as Jor-El but found him irritating except as a weird-ass hologram poltergeist. I missed the actors who played the Kents in Lois & Clark, esp. when it came to Martha.
The worst scene in the entire movie was probably the scene where Faora-Ul--who I felt was the worst character played by the worst actor of the lot--explained that she has an "evolutionary advantage" because she lacks a sense of morality... and that if there's one thing history's taught us, it's that evolution... always... wins. The fuck?
All in all, this was the first movie I've seen in a while that I didn't really feel was worth the time or the price of admission. It had a lot of promise though, and I'll probably go see the sequel when that comes out, if only to figure out how the hell they managed to resurrect Metropolis. [/quote]
I am broke until friday so havnt seen it. I have seen this though and wanted to share this little gem...
[pic]
Couple issues is that the Avengers were fighting a lot more aliens and they consciously constrained the destruction a lot considering the amount of enemies. Yeah, it looks cool in Superman to have buildings getting knocked down left and right but it's a tad ridiculous.
Papa Kent's death is the dumbest thing I've ever seen. Can't remember if I said already.
I thought I had already put that in here but I think I put it in the movies you saw thread, so let me summarise.
Pa Kent gets killed while saving a fucking DOG from a tornado and telling his super-powered, faster-than-a-speeding-bullet son not to save him because ooooooh that would reveal your gift to the public, a.k.a. what was blantly going to happen anyway and you already pushed a fucking schoolbus out of a river, pretty sure people know you're fucked up. Also they had the most pathetically obvious argument mere moments before the death. It was fucking RIDICULOUS. 'No, preposterously overpowered alien son who could do this with ease, don't save me from the stupidest fucking thing a human being could imaginably do.'
Hey, saving a dog is not a bad thing to do. But yeah, by the time Pa Kent had finished saving the words "don't save me", he should've then realized Clark had already zipped over, grabbed him and the pup, and brought them back under the bridge, and nobody would've noticed because he was too fast to see and they were watching the tornado.
Hey, saving a dog is not a bad thing to do. But yeah, by the time Pa Kent had finished saving the words "don't save me", he should've then realized Clark had already zipped over, grabbed him and the pup, and brought them back under the bridge, and nobody would've noticed because he was too fast to see and they were watching the tornado.
I don't think saving a dog should come at the expense of a human life, especially one who is the surrogate father of someone who is already the orphan of an entire planet.
Well surely he didn't know he was going to die when he went out to save the dog.
So send Clark! Could be there and back in like a second.
That's what I said! Clark should've gone anyway without being needed to be told!
I have issues with the movie, but I don't have issues with him killing Zod.
He really had no choice in the end - Zod gave him none.
Agree about Zod! A lot of people complained "Superman doesn't kill his enemies, not even when forced!" Well, that is when he got that value. The visual handling of the situation was pretty stupid tho.
Weirdly enough Superman killing Zod is one of the few parts of Man Of Steel that's accurate to the canon so I'm kind of okay with it.
Are just busting out of the spoiler tags then? Are we assuming everyone reading this thread has now seen the film? Question, not a shitty statement.
The previous times when Superman has killed Zod were dictated by circumstance as times when he had no choice but to do it, and he then goes through a period of doubt and self-loathing over it. It's significant for his character and is entirely based on his usual principles being violated over this one guy. The film, though, failed to make that distinction.
I haven't seen that, but I was thinking of the JLU Aquaman whoJames Franco'd his own hand to save his baby son from sliding into an underground lava pit. Confession, I haven't seen 127 Hours either.
I just watched Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and the movie was even more of a mess than the title..
Seriously, there was so much wrong with this movie in terms of writing and editing, I don't know where to begin. There's countless scenes where I was just like "..why on earth would they include this scene?" Obviously there's forshadowing to the upcoming movies, but it's so heavyhanded and clumsily done that I find it outright amazing that this movie was edited by professional movie makers. But the worst thing with this movie, like with Man of Steel, is how there's elements of good things. The casting is great (well, outside of Lex, but more on that later), the design is generally good, there's a ton of great ideas for plotpoints and scenes, but it's all without any structure.
This movie looks suspiciously like the creative board sat down, brainstormed out scenes they needed for promoting the upcoming films, cool scenes they'd like to include, plot-points and dialogue they'd like to see etc, and then they just sent all their ideas down to be filmed and produced. Then some poor intern had to edit it all together.
Also, someone apparently thought this movie wasn't enough of a Batman movie, so they had to switch Lex Luthor with the Joker. Seriously. Jesse Eisenberg doesn't play Lex Luthor, he play's the Joker, except the joker is slightly more socially functioning and also own Lexcorp. His grand scheme is basically "MAKE SUPERMAN KILL BATMAN OR MAYBE THE OTHER WAY AROUND BECAUSE I WANNA KILL GOD???!?!?!? HAHAHA MANIC LAUGHTER"
The action sequences had some cool moments, but towards the end, with Doomsday, things started looking like a WMP visualizer. Seriously, this movied adapted almost everything that was wrong with the Amazing Spider-Man 2...
Arrgh.. With the Spider-Man movies I didn't care. I almost wanted them to suck so that there would be more of a chance for him to go back to Marvel. But this.. I really, really wanted this to be good.
(https://media.giphy.com/media/3osxYsSh70b3h7L57y/giphy.gif)
I finally saw it last night and thought it was okay, a definite improvement over Man of Steel but that didn't take much (like everyone has been saying). Affleck and Gadot killed it, she was the one I was more worried about but her performance as Wonder Woman was stellar and I can't wait for her movie coming soon. I even liked Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, a different take from the more traditional Luthor but I liked his often creepy menace. I liked that he started out somewhat subtle and by the end says, "Fuck it, I straight up hate you." Overall I think the loser was Superman, Zack Snyder is not good at using or interpreting Superman. All it seems like Superman does in the movie is be a gorgeous idiot, unable to do anything even with all his powers or royally messing things up.
The movie itself lacks cohesion, jumping from scene to scene at a frantic pace trying to fit things in. Some times it'll jump to a dream sequence without any kind of warning or explanation
What I wanna know is what happened to Wayne Manor? At first I thought it was just a reflection of himself in the dream, but then he's sitting in the ruins talking with Alfred. Also, I feel like the other clips of the other Justice League members could have been shown during or after the credits instead of plopping them right in the middle of the movie.
Also, why even use Jimmy Olsen or Mercy Graves if you're just gonna kill them off? I wasn't even sure it was Jimmy until the credits rolled and had his name considering it seemed like they were making Jenny at the Daily Planet that universes Jimmy
Proposal
The recent critically-equivocal Superman and Batman movie would have benefitted from being divided into two parts - 'Superman vs. Batman' and 'Dawn of Justice'.
The first part would have allowed better and more focussed exploration of Luthor's manipulation of the heroes for his own twisted ends and perhaps explore the reapprochment between the two heroes in the aftermath of their abortive duel.
The second part...
... would have allowed more and clearer exploration of Luthor's apparent role as the semi-aware agent for Darkseid and the Apokalypsian Empire (plus a better introduction to the technology of the New Gods (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Gods)) as well as develop Wonder Woman's being dragged into the matter after a century of self-imposed exile
.
Agree? Disagree? Discuss.
My friends and I went to see Suicide Squad tonight. Seen reviews so I knew it wasn't gonna live up to the hype, but I was still disappointed. At this point it 's rather clear that there is some inherent flaw within the DC/Warner production machine, because all their films have the same problems of confused scripts, tone all over the place, poorly used humor, absolutely no self-awareness and absolutely GODAWFUL editing. Seriously, the pacing and structure of BvS and SS are basically non-existant. It's kinda shocking how poorly put together these movies are, to be honest. All the movies are made up of mostly decent elements (decent casting, design, music, plot ideas) but the execution is just not there.
For Suicide Squad specifically, I was very disappointed that it had to be some world ending, visual effects only threat. It makes little sense to me. I was hoping the Joker was gonna be the main/initial antagonist and that the plot would be a bit more down to earth, undercover sorta character driven story. But no, giant lightbeam, darkened sky, and New York generic large city in ruins. Also, the cinematography and choreography was very underwhelming. Ended up El Diably really being the only interesting character in fights since the physical fighting was so "uncreatively" shot.
For things I like, once again I think the casting and character design were good. Don't like the silly tattoos on the Joker, but other that that it's all good. Deadshot and Harley were good (as expected from the actors) though I felt like their characterization got a little soft at times. These hardcore criminals and psychopaths got very sentimental and caring about each other very quick, especially Harley. She had way too much empathy for my taste. On the other side we had Captain America Rick Flag not giving two shits about Waller just gunning down a bunch of people for shits and giggles. Boomerang was pretty cool, shame he didn't really do anything in the movie. My personal favorite is probably Diablo, he had a relatively steady character arc, had his moments in the movie and looked pretty cool.
After watching Suicide Squad, we went home and watched Kingsman. What a great movie that did so many of the things that SS tried and failed at right. Good cinematography, editing, pacing, use of music and comedic/dramatic timing is essential to humor/action movies like these, and here we have one example of how to do all these right and how to do all these wrong.
Diana and Shieyra? Well, each to their own ship.
Whilst on the subject of Wonder Woman:
Looks very, very good. I'm thinking that this film may save DCCU (or, possibly, create a standard that Zach simply can't live up to).
Bad guy is Ares confirmed by implication: She tells the villain "In the name of all that is good, your wrath against this world is over!" She's definitely talking to one of the Olympians there (the use of the 'wrath' term) and who but the God of War would be behind the First World War?
Possible spoiler based on the comics:
There is at least one Superman story where Superman is 'resurrected' with amnesia and ends up working for Darkseid (under the completely incomprehensible delusion that he's Darkseid's son) so Supes may come back as a brainwashed villain stooge.
Either that or we see Hank Henshaw, the Eradicator and Superboy stepping in and trying to claim the title of Superman. Oh and John Henry Irons living up to the ideal and Supes returning in the next film.
Oh, and Batman can have his back broken (again) and Wonder Woman can be replaced by an unstable warrior from a sister city.
And in that moment, we shall realise we have been transported back in time to the mid 90s.
Nah if that was true everything would be all dark and gritty and antiheroic and painted in drab colours and OH SHIT.
Even worse...we could end up with this!
(http://i42.tinypic.com/ng4jlh.jpg)
The horror of the mullet....the horror...the horror...
Saw Wonder Woman and loved it. Not a brilliantly ground-breaking bit of cinema but a genuinely enjoying journey that presses all the right buttons and raises all the right flags. Even the generally-maligned final reel is enjoyable (and is greatly saved by the the effect Gal Gadot communicates it is all having on her character).
Favourite moment?
Wonder Woman genuinely considering dropping a battle-tank on Dr Poison's head but choosing not to do so as she remembers what she feels for Steve and deciding that, as vile as the woman is, she cannot cure the evil she represents with arbitrary violence. There is so much character depth and powerful story in that 90-second or so moment.
Ok, you know what I realized yesterday? This is my own failing, not the movie's, because I really, really liked the movie (aside from slightly excessive slow motion).
I don't remember how Ares died. I know that he died, but his death itself? Completely gone for my mind. It's one of many reasons for me to see it again, and I absolutely will this weekend, but...yeah. Anyone wanna just remind me?
Ok, you know what I realized yesterday? This is my own failing, not the movie's, because I really, really liked the movie (aside from slightly excessive slow motion).
I don't remember how Ares died. I know that he died, but his death itself? Completely gone for my mind. It's one of many reasons for me to see it again, and I absolutely will this weekend, but...yeah. Anyone wanna just remind me?
Ares called down lightning and fired it at Diana, who blocked with her bracers then returned to to him my clapping them together, like she did in the fight with Antiope.
Oh yeah, I remember that, for some reason I forgot that was the killing blow. I'm still going to see it again because I want to see it with Justine, but I really appreciate that.
So, she didn't behead him this time round
Well, the Metacritic scores for Justice League are starting to collate. Oddly enough Rotten Tomatoes are embargoing their own scores until tomorrow (rumour has it at Warner Brothers' insistence).
Currently 49/100 for Metacritic.
The general consensus is that it's a brave effort let down by a poor story, focus on Batman that the script given to Ben Affleck can't sustain and a visual schizophrenia caused by the incompatible directorial styles of Zach Snyder and Joss Wheadon. Apparently, Wheadon's Second Unit reshoots are very obvious, especially when CGI is used to insert reshoot footage into the previous shoot's sets, background and ambiance.
There are also some mutters about Snyder having a borderline-Frank Miller misogyny that makes this film's portrayal of the Amazons very different from that in Wonder Woman.
All in all, I think that this is going to be a white-knuckle ride for WB to see if the reception is positive enough to keep the DCEU going.
Going to see it Saturday or Sunday.
Well, I went to see Justice League and...
... Frankly, I have no idea what movie all the negative reviewers went to see.
It was a completely adequate movie. Hardly a work of art but it met my expectations in all areas and even exceeded them in some.
Positives? Only one of the fight scenes had Zach Snyder's characteristic confusing camera work and there was only one 'tribute to 300' scene that was so brief that it actually emphasised the scale of the struggle, not trivialise or cloud it. The lighter (doubtless Wheadon-originated) moments blended in well and, whilst the newer characters didn't receive as much depth as they could have had, they were still well-realised enough that you get what they're about.
There are a few nice touches here and then, with an ending focus on the 'Trinity' of Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman before we cut to the credits to a rising medly of John Williams' Superman, Danny Elfman's Batman and Hans Zimmer's Is She With You (the Wonder Woman battle theme). You are left with the undoubted sense that, yes, there are heroes protecting this world (much like you did at the end of The Avengers).
Negatives? The film takes too much as read. We needed a better insight into how Bruce learned so much about the Apokalipsians. It is mentioned that he has access to Luthor's notes but he still has knowledge about them that is inexplicable and that the film, sandwiched into an arbitrary 120-minute run time, doesn't have time to explain.
Probably the most disconcerting part of the film is the fact that, at the end, you realise that Wheadon edited it into an act-by-act duplicate of Avengers. However, I strongly suspect that this was the mandate given to him by Warner Brothers.
Overall Mark: 7/10 - Not as good as Wonder Woman but good enough. I don't feel the need to see it again but I do not feel robbed having seen it. (£13 seat price! :cry: )
Recommendation: Wait for the end-of-credits hook for what I assume is Justice League 2. A few old enemies appear to be drawing plans of their own.
A major problem that many people have seems to stem from the fact that Joss Whedon's work is fairly evident throughout the film.
It certainly doesn't help that Whedon cut many key scenes during his time, including, but not limited whats under the spoiler:
- Wonder Woman was supposed to have more lines and more prominent in key scenes.
- Vic Stone's time on screen is a fraction of what it was in Synder's film.
- A large chunk of Superman's recovery, including his conversations with Lois and his mother.
- Barry Allen saving Iris West from a car crash, the scene and animatics can be found on youtube.
- Not to mentions scenes involving Anitope and Professor Vulko were also cut.
Not to mention that Zack Synder and Joss Whedon have incredibly different ways of directing films and it shows in the film. What could have been a deep story that looks into the best and worst of humanity and the inherent struggle that lies within gets tossed to the side with emotional whiplashes and the traditional Whedon focusing on asses.
So I saw Justice League today. I thought it was good. I went in with deep misgivings and was pleasantly surprised. There are some pretty deep plot holes and I felt that the characterization of Flash was entirely wrong for Barry Allen, but I think overall the movie was a good bit of fun and huge steps ahead of most of the previous movies that have been pulled under the DCCU brand. The movie does start off very bleak as is typical for Zach Snyder's works and has been a major problem for most of this era's DC live action movies. But it does change as the movie goes on. I don't know how much of that is from Joss Whedon taking the helm, or how much was planned in. But overall I think it set up a narrative that could save the franchise if they run with it. The movie establishes pretty much early on that an atmosphere of hopelessness has fallen over the world since Superman's death. And the kick off of the villain's plot is because Superman was no longer there. Which is a plot hole in itself, but saying more involves spoilers.
Taken as a meta-narrative and if you ignore some aspects of the previous films that should be ignored anyway, you could run with the idea that the world became such a bleak place because there was a lack of heroes to look up to. Superman acted as that heroic ideal for a lot of people... When he died things became even more grim. Now with more heroes stepping up the world is growing brighter, more hopeful. More in line with what is in the comics and what a lot of people want to see. Not angsty Superman snapping necks or grown men in Halloween costumes growling at each other. If they continue the franchise in this tone I think they have a shot of continuing.
This is probably not much a spoiler but... for the first time I felt that Henry Cavill was hitting the role of Superman. He had the charm, the wit and the humbragging that I've always associated with the character.
The parts of him that inspire people to like him. Unlike what we've seen recently of the character. So I'm suspecting a large part of why he was so bad in the role before was the directing. When he's directed to act like Superman would, he does so rather well.
Probably an unpopular opinion, but I liked WW1984 a lot. Definitely flawed, but it was a lot of fun, and it was more consistent than the first one.
It wasn't as bad as a lot of reviews seem to paint it as, but it was disjointed as all hell. It didn't suffer the huge drop in logic in the third act like the first one did, but that's mainly because the logic was completely scattershot throughout. The bones of a good movie are there (a lot of people are fussing about the macguffin, but it's a perfectly valid comic book macguffin, especially in a universe where the world-ending widgets from the big team up movie were called "mother boxes") and Pine, Pascal (I just love watching this guy go full ham) and Wiig are doing great work with their roles. But Gadot just doesn't have enough acting capability to carry a movie (also the way she chooses which words to emphasize when speaking English is still baffling) and the entire Egypt sequence needed to be axed in favor of an extended WH action scene and some actual explanation of what the hell was going on with Max Lord.
And this isn't even touching on the whole problem of consent when it comes to the guy Steve's spirit possessed. He reappears and neither of them question it, they just go straight to bonetown. Then, instead of Diana realizing that she had to give up on her wish because it's stealing some random person's life, Steve has to convince her because "you need your powers to win." This was a prime chance to expand on the whole "the truth is bigger" and "nothing good comes from lies" lines they had been telegraphing earlier.
So, yes, decently fun but WAY too stupid.