By Sheersho Zaman
Picture this: A dark room, two adults whispering while standing at the door as light crawls in. They leave, closing the door. Suddenly there are traces of movement within the sheets of the bed in the room. A little boy rises from the bed and lights his torch. He takes out the issue of “Action Comics” that he had been reading before his parents came up to check on him and continues from where he left off.
Many people around the world, especially those who have had the luxury of an ordinary childhood, can picture this scenario. Superheroes and comic books hold a special place in a lot of people’s hearts, and this month, these people were given the opportunity to watch two of their favorite heroes on screen together for the first time. This month, on 25 March to be more precise, “Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice” premiered all across the globe.
People rejoiced at the thought of getting to see arguably the two most iconic superheroes duke it out on the silver screen for the first time. However, this excitement soon turned bittersweet. Enter Critics. Movie critics are sort of like that friend people have that has a tendency to mouth off about whatever the topic of conversation is as if they have a degree on it but actually don’t know anything on the matter. They are also similar in that regard that regardless of what past record shows, people are still willing to listen to this “friend”, or critic in this case, and let the critic’s opinions influence their own.
Before anything, it is worth noting that critics are not some evil entities that spout lies to feed the general populace for whatever world domination plan they got going for themselves. The whole title of “Critic” is given to them because they know what they are doing and surely, for many films their critiques have sound reason and explanation that rang true. However, things get somewhat complicated when the films are not ordinary films, but superhero movies.
Now, from a critic’s point of view, a movie is usually judged in comparison to similar movies belonging to that specific genre. This is where one of the problems popped up. When one looks at the status-quo for superhero movies, it’s mostly Marvel movies. Marvel movies, much like their comics, are usually bright and filled with humorous bits here and there. When one compares that to the dark and grim world of DC, or better yet, when one walks in expecting the usual good-vibe colorful world of Marvel and sees the bleak atmosphere of DC, it can be expected that that person will not like it. This does not undermine Marvel or DC in any way whatsoever. They are both good in their own ways. However, someone who is not particularly involved with comic books, who went in expecting the usual Marvel blockbuster movie recipe, would probably leave with mixed feelings.
The movie of course is not without its faults. It had a few kinks here and there, but it was in no way as bad as the critics made it out to be. Many fans all over the world loved it. A lot of others however felt it was missing something.
This is just how it is. When watching a movie, which is in essence an art-from, the way someone perceives it is supposed to be different from others. It is their own life experiences and everything in between that made them feel a certain way from watching it. That is what makes movies or any kind of art so beautiful. Unless, it is the new fantastic four movie. Yeah, that was bad.