Aww man! In this last day of 2015 and the One above give me this piece to read? Is this a proof that NDA is a piece of sh*t nowadays? Thanks to some brave soul (God bless him) over in Reddit, we had quite a spoilerific piece of information surfaced hours ago, about an alleged attendance of a BvS: Dawn of Justice secret screening, and he is, yep, literally ViolatingNDA to share with us a hell lot of seemingly very, very legit insights about the film.
As usual, SPOILER ALERT! Back off to safe pasture if you won't wanna spoil your virgin experience in Cinema for this flick.
Still with us? Alright, prepare to be HYPED TO THE NINTH HEAVENS folks! This is definitely gonna excite you more! In this piece I'm gonna try to sum up as much as I can gather from the piece, before it gets removed (if it does at all, which will more than confirm its content rather than to try and cover it up).
P.S. the piece is formed by the body of the piece and ALL replies I can follow as of around 10:30pm (can't continue... vision's getting blurry after crawling through hundreds of comments...) CT and the comments keep growing exponentially. So read them up where I've left.
About The Movie in General:
(Can't get enough of the trailer? Let's review it here before reading on~)
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Pacing and tone:
It's a long movie but it didn't drag though; every minute of the film was used effectively.
Movie pacing is great, never a dull moment.
About the tone in BvS, the film had a lot more humor and spectacle to it, but it still has the sense of realism and grit to it.
There is way more humor, but there is still balance. They knew when to inject humor and when not to.
About the scores: Hans never disappoints, the score was top notch. Junkie's Batman theme is reminiscent of Danny Elfman theme, in the sense of its grandiose.
Acts:
The first and second acts are about "Batman v Superman", and the third act is entirely "Dawn of Justice".
Third act was mindblowing, doomsday is but just a tip of the iceberg. There is a lot of action.
Opinions:
Eisenberg's constant praising of Terrio is definitely justified, the way Lex was written is nothing short of brilliant. Ben made the right call bringing in Terrio. He added depth to what would've been a regular summer blockbuster. These heroes aren't perfect, but neither are we. However, we can all strive to be better. Terrio's writing made the writer appreciate these heroes more.
There were about 20-30 audiences during the screening, but everyone was cheering and happy with the film. The writer believes this film will be critically praised, naysayers will eat their words. It is that good.
The writer thinks it will win the general audience over and instill faith on the DC brand, helping the solo films.
In the writer's opinion, This movie made MoS a better movie.
The most surprising moment for the writer is definitely the spectacle that is the third act with all the JL members.
In the writer's opinion, there is no doubt that this Batman will come across as villain-y because of moments where he takes things too far.
Now about plots, rumors and general curiosities:
It starts out like any normal day in Metropolis, Bruce is having a board meeting. Then the the world engine turns on, chaos ensues, buildings start collapsing. 9/11 vibes during the whole sequence. The writer had goosebumps during the whole thing. It makes you sympathize with Bruce.
About the Zod's broadcast, the Wayne board members talk about it, but Bruce didn't believe it...but then of course he realizes too late. Looking back at it now, that might've been a cause of his paranoia and guilt.
About possibility that the film will have controversies on the level of the Zod neck-snap, such as Batman using real honest-to-goodness-bullet guns or something along those lines, the writer reveals that the most probable controversy might just be the whole Batman enjoying the torture of criminals, but that gets resolved. He learns from Superman and of course Alfred also tells him how it is.
Knightmare scene is sort of a PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) from what Bruce experienced during Metropolis incident.
It's a recurring nightmare, it's not one long continuous sequence. We get fragments throughout the film.
About the parademon-lookalike flying bugs in the knightmare sequence, it is not explained in the film, it's most likely what Bruce imagines aliens to look like, but it would be a plot hole if they looked exactly the same as Parademons if they were to be used in JL.
About those skeleton face painted people surrounding Superman and why did he looked so sad, it was Day of the Dead and he came there to stop a fire. He was stop because people view him as a hero/god, but he doesn't believe he is because of all the lives that he failed to save during the Zod attack.
Sorry, according to the writer, Shazam is not in the movie.
Senator Finch and Lex Luthor both blame Superman of leveling Metropolis. The Daily Planet all support Superman. Lois wrote a piece about how Superman saved the world.
The movie does have a lot of characters, but all of them play a specific role. Senator Finch, Jimmy Olsen, Lois, Perry, Swanwick, and etc. are all pieces of the puzzle if you will. Instead of crowding the film, they all play a role.
About the context of the scene where someone is diving into the water grabbing something, Lex sent some workers to look for Kryptonite at locations of the world engine. One of them was in the ocean. So, the boy diving into the sea was just a random LexCorp worker.
About Michael Shannon's role in the film, what you see from the trailers is pretty much what you get. Lex has his body, experiments on it to make Doomsday. No speaking part, he's as dead as the Waynes (savage!).
The scenes shot in New Mexico was about the Knightmare. The horsemen are rebels fighting the tyrant Superman.
You will see a full assembled Justice League by the end of the film.
About the Justice League's fighting Luthor's drones, similarities could be drawn between it and the final act of Avengers: Age of Ultron, but the JL has different powersets, which in ViolatingNDA's opinion are way cooler to see than the Avengers.
The film will have no cliffhanger. It ends with the JL members knowing about each other and agreeing to work together again if anything bad happens like this again, Batman was reluctant though. Lex goes to trial, but most likely won't be found guilty, because he has people on the jury and people willing to be scapegoats.
There is no montage, no post-credits scene, and no indication whatsoever about who the big bad could be in the JL movie.
Final shot is Superman overlooking Metropolis, he doesn't say anything.
Casualties known: General Swanwick (for opposing Lex's drone system) and Senator Finch.
What Brings the Heroes Out of Their Rabbit Holes?
Remember what Amanda Waller said in the Suicide Squad trailer? She mentioned that Superman is like a magnet that draws out super/metahumans. But in this film's context, the threat seemed pretty real that in Act 3, pretty much all members of the New 52 Justice League lineup showed up to quell the Drone War. So let's dive in to the details of the big bads that we are going to see:
Doomsday was a mutated General Zod (Zombie Zod! Well at least I got this right, or am I? So much for the Bizarro appearance...).
About creation of Doomsday: Lex created Doomsday because he was pushed to the limit by Superman. He wanted Batman to kill him, but when he didn't, Lex felt like he had no other choice. This Lex is true to the comics in the way that he is extremely jealous of Superman and wants nothing else than to see him fall.
The namesake "Doomsday" is created by Wonder Woman (girls like name-calling?).
Doomsday will grow more spikes during the fight, and will end up looking more like his comic counterpart (so any chance of Zod's flippers?).
Everywhere they hurt him, a new layer of spikes would form on top of it. Wondy stabbed him in the chest, he pulls it out and then grows a chest guard.
About minimizing collateral damage, you see Superman saving a lot of people and they made sure to take the Doomsday fight to an abandoned part of Gotham.
About Doomsday's death, they (Superman and Wonder Woman) fire a Kryptonite laser at him, pieces of flesh start rotting and falling off and then he falls down dead. (Aww, sad, that sounds pretty lame...)
No, pity Doomsday did not kill Supes.
LexOS has nothing to do with Doomsday, but it is thrown into the plot so that there are more things to fight at the end.
LexCorp is basically developing a worldwide drone system to protect against alien invasion. There is fierce opposition to it, especially from General Swanwick. He believes that humans should always be in control of powerful weapons such as the drones.
This leads to a pretty cool scene of Swanwick sending his best pilot to compete against a drone, Hal Jordan! (played by Dan Amboyer. Please note that Dan Amboyer's official information mentioned that he's playing a certain drone pilot, but this might just be one of those veils due to NDA, and no, Hal Jordan didn't violate NDA XD)
Lex's drones looked like militarized versions of drones in the Kryptonian ships. Small, durable, fast and in abundance.
Lex went bald because of Kryptonite poisoning XD.
Jesse Isenberg as Lex Luthor is multi-layered, reminds the writer of Heath's Joker. He stole every scene he was in, and left you wanting more. the writer loved how much he hated him.
Lex invites Senator Finch to his mansion. Finch is the most vocal against Superman, which is why Lex wants to work with her. They both don't trust this alien that came out of nowhere and leveled a city. Lex goes on a monologue about how humans have survived and thrived for thousands of years without the help of a god. This scene was interesting because it's the first time Lex stops putting on the fake public persona and gets really serious and lays it out to the audience about why he does what he does.
Lex's public persona is what we saw in the second trailer. Quirky and goofy. His actual persona is a man who is filled with blind hate and will use all the resources available to him to get what he wants. He believes he is the one who should be seen as the most powerful because he worked to get everything he has. Anyone who supports Superman is a traitor to mankind.
While that sums up about the BBEGs in BvS, I'm left wondering what went wrong with Lex's drones until they become a threat. Aren't these drones supposed to "protect mankind from Aliens"? Or Ultron is behind this? We are getting a JLA/Avengers Crossover! Now here's the craziest rumor that I'm spinning up: ACTUALLY, JLA part 1 and 2 are the same movies as Avengers III part 1 and 2! And the BBEG they'll get is Darknos or Thaseid!! OMG OMG~
(Joking... you know, right? Hah, this writer is now in overhyped mode with over-dosage of super-spoilers today.)
Now, Let's See What We Have About the Individual Heroes:
A) The Big Blue Boy Scout
Now good old big blue boy scout might be the so-called de facto protagonist of the DCEU, but what we had in the spoiler posts are quite scarce. I managed to salvage these information, which is, uh, not really that interesting. Anyway here goes:
The whole movie is dealing with the thought that Superman faced no consequences in MoS. You know, as grounded as it can be, you don't just pile up dead bodies and walk away.
About Supes' arch: He accepts the responsibilities he has because of his powers, but the world still needs to accept him. He is established as a world protector at the end.
About if Supes had regrets and remorse for the destruction of Metropolis and killing Zod, he came to terms with what happened with Zod, but he does feel guilty about all the civilian lives lost.
Jimmy Olsen does have fake legs, no robotic heart though.
About the question that Superman seems to be in Lex's presence (without beating the shit out of him) a lot is because Supes has an image problem with the government. Lex is well-liked by everyone, making him untouchable to Supes.
About Supes bowing down to Lex, Lex had Lois taken by Mercy Graves, which is why Supes wasn't in a position to argue. Lots of Lois, she is investigating Lex.
About the Kent Farm funeral scene: Clark remembering Pa Kent and the advice that was given to him, and how he does regret not saving him (he damn should be! This is one of those most bizarre decisions in MoS script that is still bugging me).
Supes' surveying the flood when he's hovering about those houses instead of saving them.
One of the more interesting reveals is about the discovery of Supes' fear of Kryptonite: It happens during an early confrontation between Superman and Lex at LexCorp. Lex has a Kryptonite rock on display to remember the Metropolis incident, Supes begins to sweat and stagger and then that is when Lex notices the effect of Kryptonite. He doesn't let Superman know that he knows the Kryptonite is affecting him however. Once Supes leaves, he realizes he needs to find more.
Clark Kent is humble and unassuming, very soft spoken.
Superman has a lot more confidence in himself. He does not back down from a fight (wonder if the Kryptonite gun that killed Doomsday can kill Supes as well).
B) The Old Grumpy Bat
As expected, this is the longest part. People are just freaking crazy to dig about ol'Bat's details. I needa split this into minor categories.
About Ben, Bruce and Bats:
Ben Affleck had a standout performance as Bruce Wayne/Batman (yey?).
When Bruce puts the mask on, he becomes very different, and will come across as a villain to some viewers.
He enjoys inflicting pain on criminals. There was a scene where he was branding a criminal, and he had the biggest smile on his face (the most possible controversy so far).
About ol'Bats' fighting prowess:
This Batman has more gadgets than any previous iteration.
In writer's view, this Batman would beat Captain America in a fight (I don't share that view. Captain America is too enhanced. Unless Bats is in his armor). He's huge, but also extremely agile.
[Went nuts copying replies, so I wrote some jokes here] So let's assume Captain America saw this piece and got angry. He confronted old Batsy: "Hey! You're just a man in a suit. Take away an armor, and what are you?"
Replied Batman: "Genius (yep, of course!), Playboy (Bruce sleeps around, according to ViolatingNDA XD), Billionaire (legit), Philanthropist (yea, rebuilding Metropolis.)!"
If you've played the Arkham games, that's more or less how Batman fights.
Batman does not have guns that fire bullets. (Phew~ But his vehiles do I guess...)
Batman has a voice synthesizer for his regular batsuit too, it's less booming though in the regular suit compared to the armored suit. So, no, he doesn't growl the Balebat's way.
Batman is a master at stealth, there is a scene that showcases this.
He can glide. He can kinda control so that he can target an area to land, but don't expect to see him flying around long distances and doing lots of turns and stuff. Think of it sorta like a parachute/wingsuit hybrid.
About the gun thing Bats was carrying in the latest trailer, it's a grenade launcher with sticky bombs (pictured above).
About Batwing bombarding some cars: Those weren't civilian cars, but it was Batman flying the Batwing when it happened. It's one of those things where you assume no one died from that.
About Batman's sniper rifle, it's actually a "line launcher".
Batmobile doesn't transform into Batplane, sorry Transformer fans.
Batman does not get a (self-instilled) heart attack.
About the Bat Cave, the Butler and the Bat Manor:
Batcave was bigger than expecting. He has a Batsuit display with old Batsuits. There was a Batsuit that kinda looked like Michael Keaton's! Robin had his own room, complete with a staff display and motorcycle.
The writer confirms that there are Batsuits displayed in the Batcave, like one that was blue and grey and one with the yellow Bat symbol like in the animated series. This is sure gonna make fanboys very, very happy!
Jeremy Irons as Alfred is a badass and shares many scenes with Bruce.
Poor Wayne Manor was in ruins because the Joker blew it up after killing Jason Todd!
And speaking of the Joker and the Robins:
Joker definitely knows Bruce Wayne is Batman.
There's a whole subplot of Joker taunting Batman throughout the film.
Joker sends the letter to Bruce Wayne (now isn't this clear? Or the asking guest is hoping an answer like Joker/Red Hood.)
About the claim that Joker sent Bruce a letter, Bruse gets into a conversation with Alfred about how Jason's death changed him. An angry Bruce talks about how he's going to get the clown after he's done with Superman.This is where the "turns good men cruel" line comes from.
You'll see Robin in a flashback: Jason Todd was beaten to death 5 years ago by the Joker, in the Wayne Manor! You don't see Leto though. Just a white glove holding a bloody crowbar, with a Robin on the ground. Robin suit has a black cape and red shirt. You don't see Robin's face because his hair and mask is covering his face, and he wasn't the main focus of the shot. He was lying on the ground, with some shadows covering.
Dick Grayson is alive somewhere, and was a former Robin.
Joker is teased a lot and according to Oracle (Yep! Barbara Gordon is Oracle in this DCEU), Dick is in undercover somewhere. We could really hope that means he's played by Scott Eastwood in Suicide Squad.
Bats doesn't retire after Jason Todd died, he catches Joker, nearly killed him, and puts him into Arkham (I would certainly wanna see that!).
And yea, about poor Thomas and Martha Wayne, who die over and over again:
You do see the Wayne murder in its entirety, they spent like an estimated 5 minutes on it.
About Bats' backstory: We see the Wayne murder in its entirety, followed by a funeral, and then young Bruce leaving to go see the world. In the writer's opinion, they spent the right amount on it. Everyone knows Batman's story, but it doesn't hurt to remind us what drives Batman.
Jeffrey Dean Morgan is playing Thomas Wayne, but the writer didn't recognize the actress that played Martha, it might be the actress from Watchmen that played Dr.Manhattan's ex, but he's not completely sure. However, Martha Wayne is not played by Lauren Cohan.
About other references to Batman rogues: Riddler graffiti in many shots in Gotham, Harvey Dent is referenced, freeze gun on display in Batcave.
Phew, that finally concludes ol'Bat's info. It could be another stand-alone article altogether! So, after the Supes and Bats, let's continue on the third hero of our trinity:
C) About That Wonderful Woman:
Wondy is probably the fourth most hyped about Gal (pun not intended, but inevitable) in the film after Superman, Batman and Lex. Regrettedly her information isn't as much, but it should be good enough since she might not be as heavily featured anyway:
Wonder Woman's seen throughout the film and is known as the Themiscyra ambassador. She is against LexOS and is trying to get people, such as Bruce, to join her cause.
Gal Gadot is a believable and beautiful Diana Prince, every line she says is always backed with a sense of sincerity and purity, but also carried with weight.
She goes by the alias of Diana Prince.
She's simply known as the Themiscyra ambassador, no one knows she has powers. At the end, she doesn't try to hide her identity, but there's no one there to take pictures of her.
And yes, Gal Gadot keeps her accent as Wonder Woman.
About Wonder Woman, you don't see it in the trailers, but Wonder Woman actually has a white cloak/robe. She takes it off prior to fighting Doomsday. She uses all of her weapons during the fight (lasso, shield, sword, gauntlets). She fights as technical as Batman, but with the power of Superman behind it. She's not eager to fight, but she knows she has to and won't stop until she is the victor.
Wonder Woman uses the Lasso of Truth for fighting, but not for it's magical purposes. Probably saving it for solo WW film.
About Wondy's power: She has super strength, speed, no flight but she can jump really high. She uses her lasso, sword, shield, and gauntlets.
Fortunately, the writer has more faith in the solo WW film now after seeing her in this movie.
That wraps up for our trinity. Now let's head on to the rumors about other JLA members!
D) The King of Atlantis:
He is NO JOKE this time, at least according to the writer:
Jason Momoa was scary as Aquaman. Out of all the JL members, he was the most fun to watch. Pure savagery!
Aquaman has an onscreen presence other JL members wished they had. Most badass character in the movie.
He has blonde highlights, yellow boots, and generally the toy is an accurate representation of him.
He was protecting some ships from the drones, before going inland to fight the rest of them.
And this is important: Aquaman did not talk to fish, sorry!!
E) The Crimson Speedster:
Regrettedly, it was not specified that Ezra Miller's Flash is Barry Allen or Wally West. But the piece revealed quite a lot about Flash, and even crowning him the most powerful hero in this DCEU! Let's see what we've got:
Ezra was never out of costume, all Flash. He did not have blond hair from what was seen from his eyebrows. It's either black or really dark brown.
Flash's superspeed is essentially the same as the one on the TV show, but Snyder does include a slow mo sequence.
Flash is noticeably faster than Superman.
Flash helps stop the drones at the end. His costume, from what ViolatingNDA can infer, is made from the same material as Superman's costume. He has armor plates on it, and parts of the suit glows yellow. It was really cool.
Flash is young and witty, it felt as though he didn't take things seriously during the whole battle, which the writer felt worked because he was clearly the most powerful of all the JL.
F) The Playboy Lantern:
If the rumor is valid, the relevation of Dan Amboyer as Hal Jordan is surely the biggest spoil as up till now, nothing is mentioned about the Green Lantern's involvement. So here we go:
Hal Jordan is already a Green Lantern. He reveals himself at the end during the drone fight.
Hal Jordan's outfit is practical but with CGI enhancements. It has a classical look with white gloves and domino mask, but the green is kinda muted.
Hal Jordan gets to do lots of fighting, expect to see some tank and jet fighter constructs.
No backstory given on Hal Jordan becoming Green Lantern. He just reveals himself.
Dan Amboyer as Hal Jordan was funny. He was cocky and he had every right to be with all the cool stuff he did.
Hal Jordan's first line when he revealed himself sold me on him: "What? You didn't think i'd join the party?" (Widow: I... I don't see how that's a party...) with a huge smile on his face.
G) The Tinman with A Heart:
Yep fans of Cyborg, he's in! And fully geared up in the third act and seeing actions!
There is no actual college football scene, Just something on the TV.
Ray Fisher as Victor Stone is seen on TV in Lois and Clark's apartment in the beginning of the film.
We see him scoring a touchdown and winning a championship. He is then interviewed, saying that he wished his dad was there to see him.
He gets hurt during the Doomsday breakout because he was visiting his father Silas, a LexCorp scientist. He of course gets enhanced.
Cyborg was enhanced with Kryptonian tech. He has an arm cannon, shoulder missiles, jetpack, and HUD. Very basic, we might see him get upgraded with some Apokolips tech in JL.
Cyborg was in act 3. He awakes from his coma and freaks out at the sight of his new robotic enhancements. He then escapes from the LexCorp lab and sees all the drone chaos.
So there you have it folks, all seven of the Justice League members are going to appear in the film in their full glory! Excited? Booyeah! Let's see how they fare with one another:
The Justice League
Here we'll get a glimpse of the interactions of our heroes in the rumors:
The Cavill and Affleck were by far the most gripping scenes in the movie. They're two sides of the same coin but they fail to realize it, and it was interesting seeing it play out. It's an uneasy alliance, but they do respect each other, but still some tensions, at the end. The writer was sure we will see their bromance develop in JL.
Bats and Supes found out of each others' secret identities pretty early on.
About the fights between Supes and Bats:
1) Supes confronts Bats during a warehouse sequence. Bats tries to fight him off using the Batmobile, but it doesn't work out. Supes tears open the doors and tells Batman that what he is doing is wrong. Superman realizes that Batman is Bruce Wayne and leaves.
2) Second fight is of course the one with the Bat armor. About the first thing happened after Supes landed hard in front of Bats, they rush at each other, Supes grabs Bats and flies into the air and throws him down into a building. Bats uses Kryptonite to weaken Supes and leaves him battered. But it is to note that Supes is holding back during the second fight. Bats' victory speech to Supes is a variation of it. "I want you to remember that you are not indestructible, I want you to remember the one man who beat you."
After winning, Bats takes Supes to the Batcave, he constructed a Kryptonite cell to hold him. I'm telling you, this Batman is really angry and unhinged. Alfred eventually lets Superman out, which angers Bruce.
The cell is kinda like the one Iron Man uses on Hulk in Age of Ultron, but smaller with windows. The inside is lined with Kryptonite.
Superman is stronger, Batman is mentally unhinged in the writer's opinion.
About Diana and Bruce: They're both intrigued by one another, as if they know there is more than meets the eye.
Not anything as strong as love, but there might be more to them than what the writer saw in the movie.
The extent of Diana and Bruce's relationship isn't revealed in the film, but it can be safe to assume that they know of each other. She's not looking for any macguffin if that is what you're asking, but she's definitely curious about Superman and Batman.
Flash and Green Lantern have great banter, so we know they've known each other for a while.
Aquaman and Flash both help stop Lex's drones in the third act.
No explanation given to what were the other heroes doing during MoS and why didn't they help out.
No hierarchy in JL yet.
The coming together of the JL didn't feel tacked on, when the world is in peril, it made sense for them to appear. They all interact with one another. It was cool seeing Batman's reaction to GL, Flash, and Aquaman, it's as if his world exploded again (exactly how many freaks we have in this world?!). They have a little scene at the end when they formally introduce themselves to each other.
In term of power levels in the film, the writer ranks like this: Flash, Supes/Wonder Woman, Aquaman/Green Lantern, Cyborg, poor ol'Batman.
About why Flash was ranked so high in his power level, there is a quick scene of Flash tearing through dozens of drones in slow mo.
The Major Casting Rumors (probabbly) Confirmed
Now we have been wondering for ages, just who might Scoot McNairy and Jena Malone be? And today, we are (probably) enlightened:
Scoot McNairy is playing a crippled Jimmy Olsen, who runs a popular blog about Superman.
Jena Malone is Barbara Gordon (Yeyyy! Fanboy mode ON!), she was crippled in an amusement park incident (from the Killing Joke reference), and Jim Gordon is retired.
Callan Mulvey is the head of security at LexCorp. Sadly he doesn't do much in the film besides getting the shit beaten out of him by Batman.
And What About Reference to The Skwad?
I've only found one (if not counting Bats sending Joker to Arkham), that is Lex mentions how ARGUS wants to collaborate with him on LexOS, but he doesn't wanna deal with the "bureaucratic lady in charge of it." (Amanda Waller isn't gonna like that remark XD)
That's all?
Yea it seems so, at least until ViolatingNDA reveals more or writes a full synopsis. Fortunately, the reveal gets quite a lot of us even more hyped and eager to watch the film! It's gonna be epic!
We'll see how the news goes. In the mean time, sit back and relax, while fantasize on more crazy theories of the first extravaganza adventure of our favorite Superheroes!
