DC Universe

[Randall]

Yes, the same word that came to mind for me. Just an awful time for his family. He is doing the only thing he can--- he and his family need each other now.

Incredibly, Joss Whedon is to finish Snyder's work on the film.

[Ben]

Including the reshoots. Knowing what I do about the feeling on set, I would half think that the mod played a part in Snyder's decision. He had said he was ready to go back to work, but with what he's going through, and looking at going back into the lion's den to deal with a lot of egos (including, to be fair, his own), I can see that playing no small part in his wanting to step back, especially as he's basically turned in his cut and it's WB who are again "suggesting" the additional/alternate material be shot.

I'm actually betting that this serves as the moment that he steps back entirely from the DCU and let's Whedon get on with things, also serving up delicious irony for Whedon to poke Marvel further in the eye and really take on Snyder's supervising role for DC too. Of course, this will only please DC, who will give him full creative control because what they really, really want is for the DCU to become as well-loved and successful as The Avengers.

Allowing Snyder the time he needs, and pulling Whedon in by way of both stealth and as a mutually creative partnership, really does set things up nicely for them, and now they have one of the architects of the MCU willing and able to play with their train set...something Whedon will have much fun with given that WB are much, much more hands off when they have full confidence in their director.

It is, naturally, under horrible circumstances, but this is the pivotal moment when the DCU makes a massive change. For good or bad, we'll have to see, but this is the big moment, not just because Snyder is steppIng aside, but because of who is going to be filling his shoes. I wouldn't be surprised to see Whedon drop out of Batgirl, unless he's really, really wedded to that title specifically, but drop into the second Justice League, where he'll have made friends with the cast through this additional shooting.

Yep...awful reason why, but there's suddenly hope for DC's films yet...

[EricJ]

Yep--Since Snyder already finished 90% of the shooting, it unfortunately takes away from what would have been that great historic "Warner/DC gives in and hires Joss Whedon after all" moment that would have seemed like the comic-book-movie equivalent of the Falling of the Berlin Wall.

Here, Snyder gets sympathy and gets to seem like a nice guy, which sympathy will either quickly fade once the movie comes out, or all the "bad stuff" will be unfairly blamed on Whedon and the last-minute shakeup.

[Ben]

Actually, he'd finished 100% of shooting all the footage. The film was finished and Snyder had turned in his first cut (with only post effects still being completed).

It's just that some people felt the first cut could have some other elements in it, hence the reshoots and additional shooting, which is what Whedon will do.

But it's Snyder's film. It's done and there's a full cut out there right now, even though it's not (now) the "final cut".

[EricJ]

Yep...awful reason why, but there's suddenly hope for DC's films yet...

Yeah, when I saw "Warner picks Joss Whedon to replace Snyder on JL reshoots", and then found out the reason why, I did wonder whether someone had made our wish on a monkey's paw...

[LotsoA113]

WONDER WOMAN
IS
AWESOME!!!!!

Oh does that ever feel good to say that!

Yep, Patty Jenkins Wonder Woman movie is a delight, a surprisingly thoughtful and meditative tale that evokes real pathos out of examining its titular lead characters discovery of the complex morality of human beings. Coupled with that actually really well handled hefty theme is a bunch of memorable spectacle relying on the kind of showmanship the best superhero movies have in spades. Wonder Woman itself is no slouch in that department, creating some incredibly memorable sequences in Wonder Woman's journey, one of which (Wonder Woman walking into a No Man's Land battlefield) may serve as the new go-to iconic visual for Wonder Woman.

Allan Heinberg's screenplay should be commended for crafting such pleading sequences, though, conversely, there are some plot lines that do oddly fizzle out, most noticeably one of the villains (played by Danny Huston) having a gas that makes him super strong that doesn't go anywhere and a trio of humans helping Wonder Woman and Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) that feel like they needed more of a pay-off in the climax, which itself feels like it has some overstuffed moments (it tries to have Wonder Woman and Steve go on separate missions that sometimes can't quite gel together). On the other hand, the same script does a great job handling the romance between Steve and Wonder Woman (it may be one of the best superhero movie romances in ages) and even incorporates the very qualities of compassion and love that make this superhero such an enduring staple of 20th Century fiction into the climax in a thoughtful manner.

All of this wordy stream of conscious (which I'll try to make more cohesive in my proper review that may go up tonight but more likely will be up early tomorrow morning) is all just an elongated way of saying that Wonder Woman rules. It has more than a few moments that made me wanna cheer and Gal Godot is absolutely fantastic in the lead role, giving a warmth to the characters optimism and really tugging at our heartstrings with just a facial expression once her character discovers the darker nature of the world beyond her island home. Take a bow Gal Godot and Patty Jenkins (the latter of whom shows real skill at crafting action sequence here, there's some early battle scenes with a bunch of Amazonians fighting German soldiers that exude a majestic quality in the way they're well shot), y'all deserve it cuz Wonder Woman is a...........joy!

(Ha! You thought I was gonna say Wonder instead of joy right? Nah, I save top quality puns like that for my proper reviews!)

[Randall]

And it feels very good to hear it, too!

DC/Warner desperately needed this to be great. So did the fans.

[EricJ]

Four words of praise and male-audience relief: "It's not Agent Carter."

[Dacey]

Wonder Woman is terrific.

Sort of like a mix of the first Captain America and Thor movies from a narrative standpoint, the movie truly feels epic, with absolutely speculator action and an incredible sense of scope. I strongly suspect the opening weekend of Justice League has gone up by at least $25 million now.

Go see it!

[Ben]

Too bad we already have tickets for Pirates tonight, but WW is on the cards for next week.

[Vernadyn]

I wasn't keen on the overuse of slo-mo (I believe there was more slo-mo here than in Man of Steel and BvS combined), the musical score was a derivative snooze (Zimmer acolytes can write good scores, but this is not one of them), the villains weren't interesting (a malady of many of today's superhero films), and the the film introduces three side characters late in the game whom I couldn't care less about. But Gadot and Pine were delightful, the action (slo-mo aside) was entertaining, and the film maintained a brisk pace throughout. Gadot makes the role her own, and the girl who played young Diana gave a winning performance as well. The DC Snyderverse can finally boast a film that can comfortably sit among the better (though not absolutely top-tier) MCU entries.

[James]

The Three-Hour Extended Cut of Superman: The Movie Is Finally Getting a Home Release

https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-three-hour- ... 1818543643

[Randall]

Ben and I are all over this. I haven't seen this cut in over 30 years.

[EricJ]

I also remember not seeing this since TV, and don't remember what exactly of the Extended TV Cut we DIDN'T get in the first default 2-1/2 hr. Blu-ray "Superman: Special Edition" from '08 that's also now co-packaged with it.
That version also put back in more of the Krypton scenes, longer dialogue cuts and Superman walking through Luthor's fire and ice traps, but it didn't have the long General Zod backstory from the beginning of the movie.

The SE seemed like it was the best final compromise between the TV and Theatrical cuts--Like Amadeus and JFK, "Longer" and "More restored" isn't always "Better".

[Ben]

The Donner Cut is now pretty redundant what with this coming out.

The theatrical is the best cut, save for the "gauntlet" that Superman has to get through to get to Luther (yes, he already knows that fire and bullets can't hurt this guy, but he still has a try and we enjoy the results! That was the biggest change between the theatrical and Donner Expanded Edition).

This Extended Broadcast Version, as is the correct labelling (although WB won't want to call it that to get away from the TV nature of it) wasn't known to have existed in widescreen. It was cobbled together on videotape in pan and apscan format, so this is either some kind of reconstruction or it was in fact created on film and then transferred, which is also likely.

It doesn't really add much Zod to the beginning, but much more mumbo-jumbo talk between Jor-El and the Council, which isn't too exciting. We get a bit more in Smallville, too.

My favorite little moment is after Clark saves Lois in the alleyway, when after describing the exact contents of her purse, they walk off after a taxi, the camera panning down as their feet leave frame to catch Otis walking in from the other direction. The theatrical and Donner versions have a simple cut and seemingly place a certain amount of time between these moments so they don't join up, but I love how their paths cross and none of them know it!

I'll be interested to see how the effects are: the TV versions didn't have their effects finished for them, so some scenes have some quite shoddy wire work which was either cut or would have been finished off properly. However, the Salkinds were being paid by the minute so they basically shoved everything back in!

It'll also be interesting to see how much of the 188 minutes is "new". The Donner Expanded Edition added a fair chunk, but this Extended Cut was split over two nights and a lot of the runtime was given to showing the end credits twice and a lengthy recap at the beginning of the second night. Of WB's claim of 40 "new" minutes, or so, it'll be interesting to see if they retain the two-parter aspect, or are running this all together as one, in which case I either don't quite see how we make 188 minutes or would imagine there are even more "new" scenes included...!?

I last watched this version around ten years ago, and am tempted to take a look again before this disc comes along, but the fan in me is saying to wait and watch it in all its goodness on my new big screen and become a kid again.

I found it an odd pairing with the Donner Expanded Edition, but figure this is a way to keep him happy, since he wasn't pleased with the Extended Broadcast Version (or Salkind Cut, to give it its other name) and I'm surprised he allowed this out.

In many ways, his Expanded Edition is now redundant: you either want to see the original theatrical, or the all-in Extended Cut. The Donner cut wasn't perfect in itself: the awkward scene of Reeve talking to Jor-El is painfully wrong in tone and feels out of place: it was one of the first things shot, Reeve was still finding the character and the filmmakers were still finding his hair - this is the one scene I hate with a passion in the Expanded Donner edition.

But you'll get loads of that kind of thing in the Extended Cut, which is kind of where it belongs. So, for me going forward at least, I'll be sticking to the theatrical version that I know so well, and watch the Extended Cut for the kitchen sink edition, keeping the original soundtrack and not the over the top added effects that they tried to recreate for the Expanded Edition.

So, yeah, I can see that they included the 2000 Donner cut to please him (and include that disc's extras), but I'd have much preferred a double bill with the Extended Superman II. That version is basically everything from both the Lester theatrical and reconstructed Donner cuts, minus the alternate beginning, any Brando and the hotel audition scene. But everything else is in there and is, in fact, my favorite version of Superman II.

Hopefully we'll see that in widescreen too! Superman III and Supergirl had "alternate" cuts, but nothing as long as a two-night extended version (Supergirl's "long" cut has already made it to DVD in the past as an "International Edition").

The biggest change to Superman III was the main titles being run against the traditional space background instead of across the opening comedy sequence of Clark walking to work, which then doesn't make much sense, since it's a random piece of slapstick with music and action breaks for the credits to run...but they aren't there! It's quite a surreal experience but padded out the runtime for the Salkinds again, who really didn't care about anything other than the length they were being paid for!

Maybe a double bill of Superman II and III would be cool. Supergirl doesn't really warrant it, and Superman IV never had a longer cut - though lots of deleted scenes exist, they were never part of anything more than a workprint, and unfinished at that. A longer cut of around two minutes was issued internationally: the moments when Superman saves the family from the storm in the cornfield (Reeve's daughter among them!), and some villagers from the volcanic eruption were included everywhere else but in the US cut, for some reason, but there was never an "extended" version.

It'll be cool to see the first again in a "first time" kind of way and be awed all over again (are you coming over to watch this or what, Cyrenne!?) but I do hope we at least get the extended II at some point too!