Qui Gon Jim

I think the issue is that BvS is written like it has the 8 years of back-story that the MCU has. The joy (if that is the right word) in a moment like Zemo revealing the video of the Starks' deaths is that we had YEARS of buildup to it. There is so much going on in that scene that is very satisfying for long term viewers.

DC has the assets to challenge the MCU but the studio doesn't have the patience to let it happen. Marvel has a framework but takes care with each film to make sure it is satisfying to audiences while paying off again and again the long-range planning.

I guess I can't fault DC's idea of going the reverse direction of MCU, where the team-up happens first, and the individual films happen afterwards. Maybe if BvS were a better movie, this would prove to be successful (I mean that the MCU way isn't necessarily the ONLY way). They just need someone to put on the brakes when the story is not up to snuff.

Mike86

Deadpool wasn't really epic to begin with. It was just a well made film but even when I saw it the first time I could see it was smaller in scope than a big event film like Batman V Superman or Civil War.

RichC2

Yeah, Deadpool was very small in scope, but very enjoyable. It's a movie of basically 3 major locations and 3 minor ones.

Kal-El

No comparison necessary whatsoever. Civil War will be looked upon as one of the best movies--superhero or otherwise--by the end of the year. BvS' legacy will be on how many "worst movies" lists it ends up on.

RichC2

It won't be on many "Worst" lists I don't think, it scored a lot of 2 and 2.5 out of 5 reviews (its average score is almost exactly 2.5 out of 5). Most Disappointing, perhaps.

HN

Mike86

Yeah not the worst but I think it left many people underwhelmed. The hype for it really died off pretty fast and I think it'll be viewed as just another comic book movie rather than the big event film it should have been.

stingermck

Yup, I mentioned that to a friend the other day. BSV is dead, no one is talking about it anymore.

HN

it's true. it took me a sec to figure out what 'DoJ' was in this comment even tho its' the topic of this thread

Solid Snake

What it really should be is WB. There is no DC. DC is just a property. Not a creative production film studio.

There SHOULD be a DC creative production studio w/ their own Kevin Feige. You know.. like... a Bruce Timm. There isn't. Fucking WB. So many things they have at their disposal for sources and creative. And they waste it on Snyder and Goyer.

Mike86

I don't even agree here. The showdown between Batman and Superman was kind of a letdown I thought. Pretty short with fairly bad build up (at least from Superman's perspective) and ends in one of the stupidest moments ever put to film.

Both the fights between Team Cap and Team Iron Man were better I thought. The characters had better motives for why they were fighting and reasons why you'd want to get behind either of them. Both felt a lot more epic and lasted a good amount of time and the way things ended both times were logical and heart wrenching.

Solid Snake

The drama just made it better. Like there was weight to the fight. BvS didn't have that.

james2025a

Daredevil and Jessica Jones both trump anything on TV that DC has done. Marvel wins both.

fumanstan

While there may have been a small vocal minority of fanboy fighting, as with anything, a lot of the negativity around the movie had nothing to do with any sort of Marvel vs DC stuff. It's weird to me how people still keep trying to attribute this or some sort of bias to the movie universe - most people WANT a good Superman and Batman movie. The poor critic reviews certainly aren't because of fanboy hatred, and it felt general audience reaction was similar.

It confused me too, I don't think i've heard people call Batman v Superman using the subtitle acronym.

Anyway, after seeing Civil War -

-The conflict between the main characters was better established, and the history of each character across multiple movies was more real and organically developed.

-While I enjoyed the Doomsday fight, the Airport scene was much better even with way more characters. Better choreographed, framed, and a better showcase of each character and their abilities.

-Civil War introduced multiple new characters, and juggled existing ones, much more effectively then BvS - even though I really enjoyed Wonder Woman.

Villains

Count Dooku

How's this for a comparison:

I went to a late afternoon showing on opening Friday ffor both movies.

Even though the reviews for BvS were negative, the theater was sold out and the crowd was energetic.

Civil War was half full, and there did not seem to be excitement at all.

Orbi-Wan Techno

From my review of Civil War:

"Seriously, the rumble at the airport will make you go back to the box office and demand a refund for your Batman v Superman ticket. (obligatory DC burn)"

TomOpus

And your conclusion is BvS is twice as good?

RichC2

Man was BvS so bad that it actually hurt enthusiasm for future comic book movies?

BvS made $81.56m on its first Friday ($27.7m from Thursday night) compared to Captain 3s $72.5m ($25m from Thursday night). So BvS was slightly busier.

Obi-Wanma

We will see with the numbers from today and tomorrow. BvS started to drop even the first weekend, though Sunday was Easter. This may be more spread out (though this Sunday is Mother's Day, I don't think that's as big of an obstacle as Easter).

Count Dooku

No.

I think it is interesting that even though reviews shitting all over BvS had been out all week before the movie opened, there were still packed houses excited about seeing it.

Preview word on CA:CW was that the movie was (at least) very good, but that did not result in a packed theater.

No conclusion, just an honest observation and comparison, like the thread is about.

Count Dooku

That's one thing to wonder about.

Both movies opened on the same # of screens (4242 vs 4226) but if BvS ends up with better box office in the wake of shitty reviews, then I think it is definitely probable that their bad experience scared a lot of people away from CA:CW.

fumanstan

The opening for BvS was critic proof, and in some cases i think the negative reviews fueled interest and curiosity given the characters involved.

Not sure if it will hold, but the overall weekend predictions still have Civil War winning out.

The Antipodean

I think BvS had a big opening more from the general public - everyone alive knows who Batman and Superman are. I think CW leans a little more toward the Marvel fanboy crowd; it certainly requires you to have watched the previous movies for it to make a lick of sense. It'll do a hell of a lot better than BvS of course but at this point if a superhero movie doesn't break every record in the book there's always gonna be some pundits proclaiming "peak superhero fatigue." (Which is entirely likely to happen at some point, of course, nothing succeeds forever.)

Mike86

I don't know about that. Certainly it's beneficial to have seen the previous MCU films but I think people could still watch and enjoy this without having seen all the previous films. Marvel has done a pretty good job in that respect in my opinion because they've built a lot of backstory for their universe but have kept things pretty easy for casuals to follow too. Ultimately Batman V Superman was always going to do well during its opening weekend but Civil War will have better legs to stand on and positive word of mouth will lead to it doing well in the coming weeks.

james2025a

A month after release CW will still be bringing in respectable box office, BvS was struggling after the first few days. Repeated viewings count for a hell of a lot and DC/Warners I think are under valuing it. Releasing an R rated version (trying to piggy back on some Deadpool dollars) will only fail. If people had liked the regular movie more than sure they could make more money from an R rated version, but the normal version was generally hated by most.

CW I still feel confident will break the $1 billion mark. Looking back I would have thought the race would have been tighter I box office, but audiences simply are not connecting as much with DC properties as much as Marvel. The house of mouse has spent it's whole existence creating movies designed to entertain the whole family, and it's only strengthening the Marvel movies.