‘Superman & Batman’ movie will follow ‘Man of Steel’
- Thread starter JoeZhang
- Start date
Honestly, I'm not even sure I'm going to see this in the theater. The climax of Man of Steel was physically almost unbearable to me, a barrage of nearly uninterrupted visual chaos and noise and blaring music just going on and on and on, and it almost drove me out of the theater because I'm just too sensitive to handle that much sensory bombardment for that long. And that's not some hyperbolic criticism of the movie, it's a literal fact about my own innate fragility, my low threshold for sensory overload. I can't stand that much noise for that long, which is why I rarely go to nightclubs or the like, and why I've avoided New York Comic-Con for the last couple of years, now that it's gotten so incredibly crowded.
So I'm going to wait until I can find out if this movie has comparably extended and noisy action sequences, the kind that just drag out for minute after minute with no respite. And if it does, then I'll probably wait to see it until it comes out on home video. That way I'll be able to turn down the volume to a tolerable level.
So I'm going to wait until I can find out if this movie has comparably extended and noisy action sequences, the kind that just drag out for minute after minute with no respite. And if it does, then I'll probably wait to see it until it comes out on home video. That way I'll be able to turn down the volume to a tolerable level.
I am hoping to see this in theater because I had to wait to see MoS on DVD, actually Vudu. 
I certainly don't envy you on that, Christopher. Such an inner fragility as you've mentioned would definitely take the enjoyment out of such experiences as they were meant to be had.
Well, I don't have that problem with most movies. It's just that the climax of MoS went on so long without much variation or interruption to give me a respite, and there wasn't any dialogue or plot to speak of to give me a reason to put up with it, and the music and sound effects and destruction imagery were just so relentless. Maybe I overstated it a bit -- it's not that I literally couldn't tolerate it, but it was very unpleasant and repetitive and went on so long without respite and didn't really contribute anything to the story. So it felt like a gratuitous assault on my senses, and the longer it went on, the more frustrated I got and the more unwilling I was to put up with it.
So it's a matter of degree, really. If the scenes had been shorter, I could've handled them better -- and the movie would've been better. Filmmakers today do tend to drag things out a lot longer than necessary. So that's what worries me, that Snyder will do the same thing in BvS and just pile on the CGI devastation for just as long, and with just as much repetitive Hans Zimmer blaring driving me crazy. (I really like Zimmer's work on a lot of other movies, but his work on superhero movies with Christopher Nolan's involvement is very unpleasant.) So I might prefer to wait for home video, where I have access to the volume control and the fast-forward button.
Well, I don't have the inner fragility that Christopher describes, but I found the huge block of nonstop disaster porn pretty grueling myself.
^Okay, can we eighty-six the "inner fragility" line? That makes it sound like a character flaw. It's more of a heightened sensitivity to stimuli. And it has its assets, like a keen awareness of detail.
That's right, it was your innate fragility...we were misquoting you. 
Oh, I did say that, didn't I? I guess I was in a melodramatic mood. And it can be hard to choose the right words to describe one's own inner experience of things to other people, because it's just normal for us and we don't often think about how to describe it. So it can take a few tries to dial it in.
Just out of curiosity Christopher, is it just a sound thing? I'm highly sensitive to loud noises, to the point I can't be around Fireworks, and I had to leave and get my money back before the first trailer was over at an IMAX showing of the last Hobbit movie, and I had no issues with MOS.
It's not just sound, though that's probably the main one I have an issue with. I hate fireworks myself. But with MoS, it was as much the visual barrage of all the CGI buildings collapsing one after the other as the noise and the aggressive, blaring, repetitive music. It was as much the situation as the sensations, though -- not just the fact that it was unending and gratuitous and unnecessary for the story, but that it was such a monumental exercise in overkill and an insult to my intelligence. I mean, it was silly that the buildings collapsed like houses of cards the instant something hit them. Buildings are generally designed not to do that.
And yes, I know the destruction is very relevant to BvS, and I'm glad of that, because it's the only thing that redeems it. I said years ago in my review of MoS that I hoped the sequel would actually address the consequences of the devastation, so I'm glad that's happening. But as far as MoS itself is concerned, you could cut out almost the entire interminable city-destruction sequence without losing a single plot point. It's pure CGI indulgence with no connection to the story and no basis for emotional or intellectual engagement, and it was the sheer emptiness of it that enraged me as much as the sensory barrage. Imagine going to hear someone give a talk and then have them scream incoherently in your face for 15 minutes.
As for The Hobbit, I didn't have an issue with the sound, although I didn't see it in IMAX. I don't know how loud the speakers are in those theaters. Oddly, I didn't feel that The Battle of the Five Armies dragged on too long with the action, even though it was mostly action. I mean, sure, the last two films were basically one long film with a six-month intermission, and they could've easily been cut down into just one film, but somehow the third film just seemed to race by. I was surprised when it ended, and then I realized it was because so little had actually happened that it didn't seem to be nearly as long a movie as it was. Which is an odd contrast from MoS, where essentially nothing but CGI indulgence was happening for a huge amount of time and it made me very, very bored and irritated. I guess it's subjective and situational. Heck, maybe it's musical. The right or wrong music can have a lot of impact on my enjoyment of a scene, and as I said, Zimmer's scoring for the MoS climax was one of the most unpleasant parts of the experience. The music in Five Armies was probably more to my tastes, which would help explain why I found it less tedious.
Obviously my problem makes it hard for me to judge, but the IMAX sound seemed probably about twice as loud as a standard theater's set up. For me it's purely volume, I can withstand a pretty constant barrage of sound as long as it's volume is under control.
^Yeah, if the speakers are that loud, I'd probably hate it. The nature of what I'm listening to matters a lot -- I can handle a symphony much more easily than a heavy metal concert -- but sheer volume is a factor too.
I don't have reactions like that, but I saw MoS in IMAX and literally got dizzy watching that final battle sequence.
I think there's a lot to like in MOS but to me the ending was like a Transformers movie but with CGI Kryptonians instead of CGI robots. Totally uninvolving. That's my main gripe with it. But hey, here's hoping they've learned from that experience.
More than that, I disliked the way it tried to invoke the imagery of 9/11 while totally ignoring the human cost of such a tragedy. Real tragedy can be invoked in a meaningful and cathartic way, but using it purely as fodder for a detached, impersonal exercise in computer-animated spectacle just struck me as tasteless and gratuitous. And then they just kept doing it on and on and on and on, which just compounded the gratuitousness of it. On reflection, I think that was as upsetting to me as the sensory overload, but it's easier to think about the latter. (I had a similar problem with the climax of Star Trek Into Darkness -- Hollywood really got carried away with the CGI disaster porn that year -- although it didn't drag it out quite so long there, and that film did at least acknowledge the loss of life in the closing ceremony, rather than ending with the Daily Planet building miraculously rebuilt and everyone happy and joking as if nothing had happened.)
But you're right -- there is a lot to like in MoS, and that's why the sheer wrongness of the climax is so deeply frustrating. This could've been the best Superman movie ever made (aside from getting Jonathan Kent totally wrong), but the third act completely ruined it for me. I don't know if I will ever want to see this movie again, even on DVD where I can fast-forward through the unnecessary stuff. And that's a shame, because there's a lot to admire in it.
It seems they have, since the whole plot of BvS appears to be driven by acknowledging the tragedy and consequences that MoS thoroughly ignored.
Still, my mixed feelings about MoS give me serious reservations about anything Snyder directs from now on. I'm hoping he's learned from his mistakes, but what new mistakes and excesses might he be capable of? I'm kind of afraid to find out.
Theater sound systems have volume controls and if anyone thinks to complain about overtly excessive volume, managers are often happy to at least have the volume checked. (projectionists aren't above being dicks sometimes)
If the volume is normal but it's still annoying, fashion a custom pair of earplugs with some tissue. Use as much or little as needed to achieve your comfort level. Or, you can also buy real earplugs in a variety of decibel allowing/blocking formulas for customized audio comfort.[/the more you know]
If the volume is normal but it's still annoying, fashion a custom pair of earplugs with some tissue. Use as much or little as needed to achieve your comfort level. Or, you can also buy real earplugs in a variety of decibel allowing/blocking formulas for customized audio comfort.[/the more you know]
