Warning: Some light spoilers ahead.
Kudos to GeekTyrant for the scoop: An extra on the Detroit set of Batman v. Superman has revealed some key information regarding the status quo of the film.
According to the source, the film begins during or just after the battle between Superman and Zod. So the rampant destruction wasn’t just disaster porn, kinda: It actually bleeds into the next film. Furthermore, the ending has been filmed, and although your mileage may vary, I’m going to warn you right now here is where there is potential for SPOILERS:
According to the extra, the ending of the film has already been filmed. One of the scenes shot featured Batman breaking into Lexcorp to steal kryptonite, and apparently Lexcorp had somehow gotten ahold of General Zod’s body.
Knowing about that doesn’t particularly ruin the film for me, but it just might for the uber-sensitive. I’m more fascinated about the beginning of the film.
Entertainment Weekly interviewed Ben Affleck and he opened up about what Warner Bros. told him when he signed on. They basically told him, “They’re gonna hate you, bro.”
Before I took the role, Warner Bros. gave me a bunch of past reactions to casting and said, ‘Are you sure you want to get into this? This is part and parcel of these movies now. There’s a lot of active fans with a lot of opinions.’ To me, having been through a certain amount of that, it doesn’t really [get under your skin]… Everyone’s entitled to their opinion. I wouldn’t have taken the part if I didn’t trust my instincts in terms of the filmmaking. I think Chris Terrio wrote a terrific script. Zack’s a great visual director. And there’s an interesting take. I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t think I could do it. I have the benefit of a lot of that understanding.
Remember Daredevil? Of course you do, every screaming fanboy brought it up when Ben Affleck was announced. But that was over ten years ago, the state of cinema was different and people change. Says Affleck:
“You know what? It’s great that people do care that much. They want to see the movie that much. And it is incumbent on you to honor the story. There are the Greek myths and these are the American myths. The American myths are these superheroes. People care about ‘em a lot. And it’s incumbent on you to do a good job and make it as excellent as you possibly can. At the end of the day, the movie’s all that matters.”
I like to imagine Ben Affleck picturing in his head his buddy Kevin Smith whenever he thinks of comic book fans. “Would this make Kevin angry or happy?” he questions, pondering whatever bat-thing the prop department handed him.
You’ll hear everyone and their mother voice their opinion about this film. It’s already the most polarizing pop culture item and no one but the people making it have seen a second of it. For me, there’s a lot of wrong the film has going for it — starting right from the dumb title — and it has nothing to do with Ben Affleck. I don’t like how Man of Steel is the starting point, a film so flawed that I wonder how they saw it and go, “Yeah, let’s launch a multi-billion dollar franchise from this.” I know that DC wants to be successful doing their own thing and not copy Marvel, and if it works for them then great, we’re all the better for it. But it just feels wrong from the start and appears to stem more from an immature measurement of manhood than it is trying to make a good, unified film series. It’s like they looked at Marvel and went, “We have toys like that too!” then begged to go to the toy store.
Even with my hesitance, I’m still excited for the movie. We’re gonna see Superman and Batman punch the crap out of each other. That’s worth $10.50 alone. But then we’ve got Ben Affleck, who I actually like and am excited for, and it will bring us finally to a proper Justice League film. Even if the film ends up terrible, let’s just have some fun while we’re on the ride.
