While I didn't outright hate it, and it's definitely not the worst superhero movie ever made (admittedly, it was "fun" at times, and I thought some of Batman's fight choreography was cool), tonight I *did* hit rock bottom in terms of my interest in/excitement for the superhero era. Not even an hour in, I found myself so incredibly exhausted by the genre as a whole, while simultaneously hitting my limit on multiversal storytelling, to the point where I'm questioning whether I even want to go down that road anymore with Marvel (hopefully Gunn's DCU keeps it all to a single universe). I'm just so sick of what the multiverse has done to blockbuster storytelling, and I cannot imagine watching four more years of this nonsense.
"I'm not gonna lie, it wasn't quite satisfying for me, as an actor. These multiverse movies are like somebody playing with action figures. It's like, 'Here's this person. Here's that person. And they're fighting!'"
- Michael Shannon, earlier this week, doing press for The Flash
I realize what Shannon is hilariously complaining about - on the "promotional" tour, no less - could be said for just about any superhero movie, but I'm right there with him, having never felt that feeling more than I did tonight. It was all just fan service overdrive, without the story/character work to back any of it up, to the point where I was cringing every time the audience clapped for anything having to do with Keaton/Batman. I usually *love* cheering in movie theaters, but this felt like trained seals barking for treats, out of sheer habit, not because any of it was actually good or considered or handled with care and respect.
Keaton felt cheated.
Sasha Calle felt cheated.
Zod was a nothing villain.
The time travel/multiverse mechanics made absolutely no sense.
And every last frame looked like soulless, horribly lit sh*t.
I don't know, this thing just broke me, to the point where I need a looooong break from superhero movies in general. There's zero chance I'll be watching Blue Beetle (August 18) or Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (December 20), so in terms of DC, this is it for me until Superman: Legacy on July 11, 2025, and I could not be more relieved. I guess I'll probably watch Joker: Folie a Deux, out of morbid interest, but at least that's a year and a half away (October 4, 2024). I'd welcome this break/reset even more if not for James Gunn and a handful of fanboy critics singing this movie's praises, somehow calling it one of the greatest superhero movies ever made, which makes me feel like I'm taking crazy pills. The fact that Gunn, in particular, is shilling for this thing suddenly makes me nervous for the DCU, but I'm also so numb to this crap right now that I don't really give a sh*t anymore. If the DCU sucks, so be it. At least we'll still have Reeves' Batman, which is maybe the only superhero movie/franchise left that I'm genuinely looking forward to.
For the immediate future, I take solace in the fact that Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, Oppenheimer, Dune: Part Two, and David Fincher's The Killer are all just around the corner, making for maybe my most-ever anticipated stretch of "tangible" blockbusters/thrillers, made by four of my favorite filmmakers, and I can think of nothing better to cleanse my palette/reenergize me.
