And the new Batman is......

[Justice]

Superman Returns was 'meh' at best and that was with it using the Williams theme.

The chaingun scene was good. There were a number of scenes like it in the movie, but that was the only one that really worked for me.

Superman Returns is one of those weird movies where there are some good scenes, funny jokes, great performances... but all of it seems to be killed by the whole of the movie itself.

[Havok]

Yeah, it was more a remake instead of a continuation and that killed it for me.

[Lord Insanity]

If you haven't seen Daredevil Director's Cut you haven't seen Daredevil. I have no problem with Affleck playing Batman in "Man of Steal 2".

Though I love Reeves' take on Superman, the last two of his Superman movies sucked donkey balls. Superman 3 blew chunks other than the witty "evil" Supes part. Quest for Peace was pure unadulterated crap. No redeeming feature. Hell, Superman Returns was batter than 3 & 4.

Interesting, I thought Superman III was one of the good ones. (the whole evil supes part and how can you not like the giant 80s evil supercomputer of doom) As bad as Superman IV was I still thought Superman Returns was worse. Superman Returns had the same problem The Phantom Menace did. Massive dead air space in the middle of the movie where you just wanted anything to happ... hey look a podrace chaingun.

[Borgholio]

They proved they can do Batman. Superman's last two films were rather dour all things considered and could have done a lot better.

I still remember what happened with the first Batman film series. They managed a decent 4, but 5 killed the franchise for about a decade.

Really? I thought the first Batman was the only really good one. The series got really corny, really fast with Batman Returns and Batman Forever, then shit all over itself with Batman and Robin.

[Batman]

'Batman' was the only really good one of the series. 'Batman and Robin' stunk to high heaven (the only halfway decently done character was Fries and that was Arnold for Valen's sake). 'Forever' could've been a good movie if they had made up their mind whether they wanted to do grimdark or goofy, and at least for me, 'Returns', while an atmospherically well done movie, severely suffered from their patently idiotic handling of Cobblepot and Selina.

[Iroscato]

'Batman' was the only really good one of the series. 'Batman and Robin' stunk to high heaven (the only halfway decently done character was Fries and that was Arnold for Valen's sake). 'Forever' could've been a good movie if they had made up their mind whether they wanted to do grimdark or goofy, and at least for me, 'Returns', while an atmospherically well done movie, severely suffered from their patently idiotic handling of Cobblepot and Selina.

The first time I watched Forever, I was quite impressed with how Two-Face was introduced. For a split second I thought 'Hey, maybe this won't be as bad as people were saying.' Then...the rest of the film happened.

[Tsyroc]

'Batman' was the only really good one of the series. 'Batman and Robin' stunk to high heaven (the only halfway decently done character was Fries and that was Arnold for Valen's sake). 'Forever' could've been a good movie if they had made up their mind whether they wanted to do grimdark or goofy, and at least for me, 'Returns', while an atmospherically well done movie, severely suffered from their patently idiotic handling of Cobblepot and Selina.

I'm glad that I'm not the only one who feels that way. I hated the cheesy, over-the-top campy Carey being Carey version of The Riddler. Add Tommy Lee Jones trying to out camp Carey and to me Forever is the worst one of the series. About the only good thing in that one was that I liked Val Kilmer a little more as Bruce Wayne than I did Keaton in the same role.

Arnold as Fries, and the freeze gun effects, were the only things I liked about Batman & Robin. The rest was terrible. I was able to justify the typical Arnold puns as being the humor of a very bitter, gone off the rails Victor Fries. I pretty much blocked out the rest of that movie.

With Burton's interest in the freaky and monstrous I'm kind of surprised that he didn't go with Killer Croc or Clay Face in the second movie instead of Catwoman. Of course, they had to have Catwoman but Croc would have fit pretty well with the Peguin sewer thing. He might have seemed redundant though.

[Alkaloid]

Am I the only [person on earth who doesn't think Daredevil was some sort of crime against humanity? Elektra was an awful, awful film, granted, but I don't get where the hate for Daredevil comes from. I always though it was a meh sort of film at worst.

[Crazedwraith]

Am I the only [person on earth who doesn't think Daredevil was some sort of crime against humanity? Elektra was an awful, awful film, granted, but I don't get where the hate for Daredevil comes from. I always though it was a meh sort of film at worst.

I liked Daredevil when i saw it in cinemas. And when I got in on DVD. But I've not watched it for years. And was never familiar with the source material.

[Tsyroc]

Am I the only [person on earth who doesn't think Daredevil was some sort of crime against humanity? Elektra was an awful, awful film, granted, but I don't get where the hate for Daredevil comes from. I always though it was a meh sort of film at worst.

I thought Daredevil was okay. The director's cut is a little bit better than the original version. Overall I think the movie is pretty good except they really don't explain how Matt Murdock is able to do the physical things he does. They show his powers extremely well but some of his wire-fu style moves are not explained, and don't fit with Ben Affleck's physique.

Elektra was disappointing because I thought they were going to do a movie on a bad ass female assasin but instead there was all this mystical super villain stuff. It's not horrible but it was certainly not what I was expecting. It's kind of like the differences between Pitch Black and The Chronicles of Riddick. A significant divergence from what I thought I knew about the universe things were set in. Not necessarily bad, but it's such a change that it takes getting used to before I really enjoyed it.

[Ted C]

Am I the only [person on earth who doesn't think Daredevil was some sort of crime against humanity? Elektra was an awful, awful film, granted, but I don't get where the hate for Daredevil comes from. I always though it was a meh sort of film at worst.

I thought it was adequate.

[Kane Starkiller]

Man of Steel was the best Superman movie yet and as far as I know they have some of the makers of the Dark Knight trilogy working on the Batman/Superman so I have faith that they know what they're doing.

[Batman]

You gotta be fucking kidding me. Bad as 'Quest for Peace' was, at least it was undeniably a terrible Superman movie. 'Man of Steel' was a bad Batman movie using Clark instead of me.

[Kane Starkiller]

This is the first Superman movie where the guy throws a decent punch and I actually believe he could kick my ass even without his superpowers.
Quest for peace? Where he is guilt tripped into ridding Earth of all nuclear weapons after a kid writes a letter? Fetus growing from Supermans hair when thrown into the sun? I mean it actually did have potential, more so than that Richard Pryor slapstick comedy movie a few years back but low budget and badly executed story killed it.

It really comes down to the first two movies (and let me just say I absolutely loved the movies as a kid).
The first one obviously was a great hit but it was 1978 with absolutely no competition in the superhero arena. Lex Luthor was ultimately a goofy villain whose acquisition of Kryptonite is probably the most convenient piece of writing I've ever seen in a movie. The less said about punching Earth backwards in time the better.
The second one is my favorite of the old movies as it actually pits Superman against a decent foe. Unfortunately Lesters predilection for slapstick routines were beginning to show even then and as memorable as Stamp was as Zod he is ultimately a dimensionless villain whose only motivation is quite specifically "to make son of Jor El kneel before him".

It is interesting to see people accuse the new Superman of being Batman since Superman's characterization in Man of Steel is actually pretty similar to the one seen in the beginning of 1978 movie while he was played by Jeff East. Then he enters the Fortress of Solitude and out comes the perfect smiling conflict-free Christopher Reeve. Man of Steel opts out of the body snatcher moment for Clark and has a more gradual path to Superman at peace with himself and his place in the world.
Ultimately Superman is the complete opposite of Batman: Superman ran away from being Superman while Batman is obsessed with being Batman.

I like the new punching, neck-snapping, spy-drone-destroying, surrendering-himself-into-the unknown-for-the-sake-of-humanity Superman much more than the old american flag waving sissy that gets beaten up by random truck driver the moment he looses his powers but then exacts petty revenge on him the moment he gets his powers back.

[SAMAS]

I like the new punching, neck-snapping, spy-drone-destroying, surrendering-himself-into-the unknown-for-the-sake-of-humanity Superman much more than the old american flag waving sissy that gets beaten up by random truck driver the moment he looses his powers but then exacts petty revenge on him the moment he gets his powers back.

Right, because MoS Superman never took petty revenge on truck-driving assholes. (But you gotta admit that was funny )

Truthfully, I liked Man of Steel a lot when I saw it, but I still had some complaints (could've done without Zod in his entirety, awesome fight or no), heard a few good points against it, and I worry if I'll feel the same on a subsequent viewing.

[DesertFly]

Having just watched the "Dark Knight" trilogy back to back, all I can say is that I'm confident that Ben Affleck at least has a chance to be a better Batman than Christian Bale. Don't get me wrong, I think he did a good Bruce Wayne (with shades of Patrick Bateman), but I think he was an extremely poor fit for Batman.

[Crazedwraith]

Having just watched the "Dark Knight" trilogy back to back, all I can say is that I'm confident that Ben Affleck at least has a chance to be a better Batman than Christian Bale. Don't get me wrong, I think he did a good Bruce Wayne (with shades of Patrick Bateman), but I think he was an extremely poor fit for Batman.

How so? Aside from the overdone batvoice. (which I just watched Batman Begins and it was fine there. So maybe it just got exaggerated later)

[Batman]

I don't see what was wrong with Bale's costumed me either but I have to agree they overdid the batvoice from the word go. Team Timm handled the voice shift from Bruce Wayne to Batman both a lot more competently and a lot less blatantly. And until and unless someone manages to do better, the Timmverse is the standard I hold DC superhero movies to.

[Ziggy Stardust]

Honestly, how do you even judge the actor's performance when you separate "Batman" from "Bruce Wayne"? I mean, if you cut out all of the parts of the film where he talks and shows his face, you are mostly left with action sequences, which seems to me like a poor way to judge the performance.

It's like saying David Prowse did a terrible job as Darth Vader.

[Batman]

Um no it isn't. Because David Prowse didn't say a word as Skywalker Sr, James Earl Jones provided the voice. Whereas Christian Bale voiced me in both my Bruce Wayne and Batman personas.

[Ralin]

I didn't really like the Batrasp (though it did grow on me), but I thought it was fitting for the tone of the Nolanverse. I don't think it would have worked to have Batman try to project the nigh-supernatural aura of menace that he does in other incarnations. Wouldn't have meshed with the gritty realism feel they were going for, especially with a Batman that was just starting out.

It's just, you know. The Batman I grew up with never needed to rasp or shout in someone's face.

[Iroscato]

The only time Bale's voice got to me was the "WHERE'SH THA TRIGGAAAAH!! WHERE ISH IT?!" bit. Other than that, I didn't really notice it until it was pointed out to me.

[Lord Revan]

I didn't really like the Batrasp (though it did grow on me), but I thought it was fitting for the tone of the Nolanverse. I don't think it would have worked to have Batman try to project the nigh-supernatural aura of menace that he does in other incarnations. Wouldn't have meshed with the gritty realism feel they were going for, especially with a Batman that was just starting out.

It's just, you know. The Batman I grew up with never needed to rasp or shout in someone's face.

for me Bale's "batman" voice came as him either as an actor or as the character trying too hard to sound gruff and menacing, it probably would have been better if they shown Batman slowly loosing the gruff voice for a more refinied but still menacing voice (like the DCAU voice).

[Tiriol]

Wasn't Bale's voice digitally altered to sound more gruff? So it might not be the actor being the one screwing up as much as the people in charge of sound effects.

[FSTargetDrone]

The second one is my favorite of the old movies as it actually pits Superman against a decent foe. Unfortunately Lesters predilection for slapstick routines were beginning to show even then and as memorable as Stamp was as Zod he is ultimately a dimensionless villain whose only motivation is quite specifically "to make son of Jor El kneel before him".

Stop right there and go find the "Richard Donner Cut" of II and you'll see just about all the nonsense has been excised:

Some background on the Donner version.

Loads of photo comparisons between the 2 versions.