a&e | fIlM & TV
Batman v Superman Why Are Superheroes Fighting One Another?
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f anything, 2016 will go down as the Year of Superhero Civil Wars. Over the weekend, Batman fought Superman to a boffo box office in DC’s Warner Bros.–backed Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, proving critic-proof and shattering records as it grossed $400 million worldwide. Despite an onslaught of mixed-to-negative reviews, the audience has spoken. Next month, Disney/Marvel’s Captain America: Civil War pits Team Cap against Team Iron Man in a battle over nationwide superhero regulation. If a government-enacted superhero registry sounds familiar, that’s because this concept has already been explored between mutants in enterprise, to be continued with X-Men: Apocalypse on May 27. February’s R-rated sleeper Deadpool threw in X-Men’s Colossus and Negasonic Teenage Warhead. So why are so many heroes going mano-a-supermano? Since their inception, superhero comics publishers DC Comics and Marvel Comics have maintained a tradition of crossovers and team-ups between their characters — a sales gimmick to engage readers and sell more titles. To many, a movie titled Batman v Superman may seem oxymoronic. Aren’t these two on the same side? World’s Finest, Justice League of America, Super Friends, etc.? While BvS might sound like a latex-clad lawsuit to the average moviegoer, well-versed comics readers know Zack Snyder’s follow-up to his 2013 Man of Steel takes its cues from cartoonist Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, a future-shock, alternate-continuity saga which—alongside Alan Moore’s postmodern, quasi-parody Watchmen — signaled a sea change in 1986, forever altering comics by, namely, questioning the role of a superhero. (Snyder, incidentally, directed 2009’s Watchmen film.) Miller’s mini-series has cast a “grim ’n’ gritty” shadow over superheroes ever since (also influencing Tim Burton’s and Christopher Nolan’s Batman films). It’s not enough to throw the Caped Crusader against the Son of Krypton, so in BvS, Wonder Woman makes her big-screen debut (The Lego Movie notwithstanding). BvS also cameos Aquaman, The Flash, and Cyborg (soon receiving their own movies). The goal: to set up
DAWN OF RUCKUS: Batman v Superman is just the beginning of superhero-versus-superhero films.
two Justice League super-team movies (as suggested by the BvS subtitle “Dawn of Justice”) and establish a DC cinematic universe through an annual slate of superhero epics, much as Marvel has with the Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor movies prefacing 2012’s super-group outing The Avengers. (Interestingly, Marvel and DC are now influencing non-superhero franchises: 10 Cloverfield Lane is part of the “Cloververse”; a Ghostbusters-verse is in development.) Perhaps our appetite to see these iconic characters clash reflects where we’re at as a society. In our post9/11, Facebook-fueled world—where politicians are no longer taken at face value, governments aren’t trusted, and people debate whether entities such as Anonymous and Edward Snowden are just—the traditional “Good vs. Evil” now seems quaint. Maybe in complicated times, we prefer our superheroes darker and morally ambiguous. Not-so-Super Friends, anyone? —Michael Aushenker
PREMIERES
PLUS SPECIAL GUEST THE JAPANESE HOUSE
APRIL 21 at 7pm
SCREENINGS
The Boss (99 mins.; R) Melissa McCarthy returns to the big screen as a businesswoman who goes to prison for insider trading. When she is released, she tries to rebuild her character as America’s sweetheart. Camino Real/Metro 4
movIe GuIde
T HE 1975
Take Me to the River (84 mins.; NR) Matt Sobel directs this drama about a California teenager who goes to Nebraska for a family reunion and finds himself at the center of a buried family secret. Wed., Apr. 6, 5 and 7:30pm, Plaza de Oro (Opens Wed., Apr. 6)
(Opens Thu., Apr. 7)
Demolition (100 mins.; R) Jack Gyllenhaal stars as an investment banker who unravels after his wife is killed in a car crash. He writes a letter of complaint to a vending machine company, where he makes an unlikely connection with customer rep Karen (Naomi Watts). Paseo Nuevo
(Opens Thu., Apr. 7)
Hardcore Henry (96 mins.; R) Sharlto Copley and Tim Roth star in this action film shot in first-person format, with viewers seeing everything through the eyes of Henry, who is brought back from death as a cybernetic super-soldier. Camino Real/Metro 4 (Opens Thu., Apr. 7)
Meet the Blacks (90 mins.; R) Mike Epps stars in this spoof of the sci-fi/horror film The Purge, about a family who inherits $1 million and decides to move from Detroit to Beverly Hills hoping to make a better life. Their plans go awry, however, when they reach Los Angeles just in time for the annual purge, when all crime is legal for 24 hours. Fiesta 5
NOW SHOWING 10 Cloverfield Lane (105 mins.; PG-13) It has a lot to live up to, this sequel to the brilliant, innovative and genuinely frightening Cloverfield. The personnel are beyond dream team; J.J. Abrams produced, brilliant directors Matt Reeves and Drew Goddard advised, and Damien (Whiplash) Chazelle worked the script over. And though it is subtly innovative, beginning with a mysterious abduction and morphing into phantasmagoria, the film is just mostly good. Mary Elizabeth Winstead and John Goodman star. (DJP) Camino Real/Metro 4 Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (151 mins.; PG-13)
It’s hard to believe a film this stupid could have been produced by a studio that reviews products before release. Make no mistake, this is a product. Basically, it’s a half-assed reimagining of the DC heroes borrowed from Frank Miller’s 1980s Dark Knight comics,
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G-EAZY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .APRIL 19 THE 1975 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .APRIL 21 CHRIS STAPLETON . . . . . . . . . . . . . .APRIL 26 PENTATONIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . APRIL 30 ADAM SANDLER, DAVID SPADE, NICK SWARDSON, ROB SCHNEIDER . . MAY 22 WALK THE MOON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MAY 27 THE LUMINEERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . MAY 28 IRATION, FITZ & THE TANTRUMS, WOLFMOTHER, THE STRUMBELLAS . . . . JUNE 3
SLIGHTLY STOOPID / SOJA . . . . . . . JUNE 26 FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS . . . . . . JULY 1 LYLE LOVETT / EMMYLOU HARRIS . . . . JULY 8 GOO GOO DOLLS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JULY 16 BONNIE RAITT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . JULY 29 REBELUTION / THE GREEN / STICK FIGURE . . AUG 13 STEVE MARTIN / MARTIN SHORT . . . . . AUG 14 BEN HARPER & THE INNOCENT CRIMINALS . . AUG 20 JACKSON BROWNE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . AUG 27 RAY LAMONTAGNE . . . . . . . . . . . . . .SEPT 10
TICKETS AVAILABLE: SB BOWL OR AT AXS.COM / SBBOWL.COM / GOLDENVOICE.COM
independent.com
march 31, 2016
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