Batman Vs Superman - Dawn of Bitching (a Ranting Review)

So many thoughts... where do I begin. I suppose I will start with the positives. I didn't hate Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice. It's gotten a lot of bad reviews and I can see why in many cases. However, I set my expectations pretty low and as such I think I enjoyed it more than many others did.

Okay, that's not the best compliment really.

There were many things I really liked about BVS... which when I use those abbreviations I instantly think Buffy the Vampire Slayer. How about BvS... yeah, that's better. BvS had a lot of great fight sequences and action, which is a given for any Zack Snyder movie. Likewise, it was pretty visually sound. Good special effects, explosions, set designs...  stuff like that.

I thought Ben Affleck did a good job as Bruce Wayne and Batman. Many will disagree with this and they are entitled to their opinions. I think he brought a believable personality to a grizzled veteran Batman, bringing brooding and intensity where needed while able to pull off the occasional Bruce Wayne alter ego for appearances. I am speaking just for the portrayal, not the actions of the character... which I will get into later.

Gal Gadot's performance as Diana Prince AKA Wonder Woman was one of the bright spots of the film. She pulled off the mysterious woman part and brought a level of charisma to her alter ego. One of my favorite moments was when she was at Lex Luthor's gala and he is rambling on about how Prometheus stole fire from Zeus. Diana Prince rolls her eyes as if saying "Dude, I was there, that's not how it went down!" I don't know if that was intentional but I thought it was great.

Gadot especially shined as Wonder Woman. She wasn't in her armor for long in the film but it definitely left an impact. She brought a battle intensity and warrior. One of the best lines in the movie was when told Doomsday was from another world she replies "I've killed things from other worlds before." Just all nonchalantly. I also love when she was battling Doomsday, beyond her war cry and warrior approach to battle. I especially loved that part where she gets knocked away by the monster and she gets that grin like "finally a worthy opponent!"  It makes me excited for the Wonder Woman movie next year.

There were a few little things I liked. I like how they introduced Kryptonite. It makes it much more plausible that the stuff would be more available than the meteorite theory in the comics. I really liked how people's complaints about the extreme violence in Man of Steel was the driving force of the plot of BvS. That was clever. I also thought our 24-7 news cycle, (which by the way was also in The Dark Knight Returns, one of the inspirations of this movie), played a big part in the conveying public opinion and brought an interesting feel to their world. I did think it was weird, though, seeing real life newscasters like Anderson Cooper and Soledad O'Brien instead of DC news characters like Vicki Vale and Jack Ryder (aka The Creeper).

I will also say that the actually fight between Batman and Superman was pretty well done. It was brutal, yet methodical. I thought it was a better personification of such a battle than we would have actually gotten to be honest. Yes, an amoral Superman would kill Batman like nothing, but when Bruce gets a chance to plan ahead, all bets are off. It seemed pretty believable the way it went down.

Then we move on to some of the less good things about the movie. I'll start with a small one. For some reason it was shown that Metropolis and Gotham City are across a bay from each other. Um... no. They are close in the way that Philadelphia is close to New York City, but they're certainly not twin cities! It makes even less sense if you stop to consider how these cities would have formed. Most likely one, probably Gotham, would have had a booming population while the other was left smaller. At that point, Gotham would have likely absorbed Metropolis into it. At the very least you would have a Dallas-Fort Worth situation where one major city bleeds into the next. Like I said, small but I wanted to point it out.

As I feared, there was a lot going on in the movie. This at times felt way too much like Amazing Spider-man 2. BvS kept shouting out to everyone "HEY! We're making more movies! We're doing a Justice League movie! Hey! Check it out, a Justice League cameo!" The "meta human files" felt really forced. I would have much preferred to be introduced to Flash, Aquaman (or as we like to call him... Aqua-Drogo!) and Cyborg through films, not 30 second clips. It means Justice League will have that much more work to do in introducing a super fast kid, the King of Atlantis and a cybernetic guy... okay the last one isn't tough. But consider how much time we have to waste on them rather than developing the plot and villain.

 I am still unsure why Lex Luthor wanted Batman dead. Maybe he figured two birds with one stone. His reasoning with Superman made sense. Batman didn't seem like that big a deal to his world, the only connection between them was that terrorist Russian guy. 

Speaking of Lex Luthor, Jesse Eisenberg's performance was... interesting. I will admit that he wasn't as bad as I thought he'd be. He was actually pretty captivating on screen. However, this is not a Lex Luthor I would be intimidated by. This is Lex Luthor if he appeared in the Adam West Batman series! He was a conniving manipulator, but he never had any confidence.

Remember in Now You See Me when Jesse Eisenberg told Mark Ruffalo? "Always be the smartest guy in the room." That was more of a Lex Luthor moment than nearly anything I saw of him in BvS. I kept remembering Gene Hackman's amazing performances as Luthor in the older Superman films. This was a guy that was confident that he was the smartest guy in the room. He wasn't a babbling, mumbling all over the place weirdo. When he said he was the greatest criminal mastermind the world has ever known, you'd believe it! I kept hoping that Eisenberg's wacky performance was just a Trojan Horse, that he's pull out a Kaiser Soze moment and suddenly reveal himself as someone truly threatening... it never happened. He had a good plan and some good moments, but I could never take him seriously.

Yes, I am holding firm to my belief that Ultron from last year's Avengers movie made for a better Lex Luthor than Jesse Eisenberg!

There was one major problem that I had with the film is that Batman is kind of a hypocrite. This goes beyond Bat-fleck using guns, which is an extremely strict no-no for the character. Batman accuses Superman of being careless and reckless, using his God-like powers as he pleases at the potential catastrophic detriment of mankind, as evidenced by the end battle with General Zod. The only problem is that in BvS, Batman repeatedly causes copious amounts of collateral damage in his vigilante pursuits. In one scene he is chasing down a secret LexCorp delivery of Kryptonite, during which he lays waste to vehicles and buildings, pretty much anything in his way, to get what he wants... and yes, this includes killing a lot of bad guys.

Near the end of the movie, he lures Doomsday over to Gotham City! He's seen the amount of damage the monster can do, but he thinks it is a good idea to bring the monster toward a populated area. I understand he was trying to retrieve the Kryptonite spear to try to kill it, but he could have had someone else get it and bring it to him! See, the whole using your powers responsibly goes both ways. Batman doesn't have powers, but he has a hell of a lot of weapons and vehicles which compensate and sometimes exceeds the abilities of those with super powers.

Warning: You are now entering the Spoiler Zone! If you haven't seen BvS yet, you might want to stop reading NOW!

About Bruce's dream... I get it was supposed to be some kind of foreshadowing, but it was just an incoherent mess. Watching the movie, I wasn't sure if it was meant to be prophetic or just Bruce's warped paranoid vision of the future. Though seeing those parademons was awesome... they look cool.

Then I guess he was visited by the Flash... I think? I assume it was and most others do as well, but he didn't look like any Flash I had ever seen! Is that going to be his costume for Justice League? I'm confused.

So Lex adding his blood to Zod's corpse made Doomsday? That means that if Superman and Lois Lane ever had a child, it would be a horrible monster, right? Yes, I know the ship had the rejuvenation thing or whatever that was, but the fundamental building blocks of the "abomination" were human DNA spliced with Kryptonian. I'm just saying...

Just as Batman is about to deal the fatal blow to Superman, he exclaims that "They're going to kill Martha!" I get that they wanted to connect Bruce and Clark to unite them, but why wouldn't Superman have said "They're going to kill my mom!" Why at that moment did he call her by her real name? I call bullshit on that!

As for how it ended... I have gotten the feeling that Warner Bros. has wanted to kill Superman for a while. Before Superman Returns their was talk of doing a movie of The Death of Superman. Even Superman Returns teased killing him. So I guess they've finally done it. Kind of an odd way to start the Justice League franchise.

Why does Martha Kent have Clark's funeral at her house... does Smallville not have a funeral home? That is such an outdated custom. And... okay, I have to say it... bagpipes? Really? Why bagpipes? Kent doesn't strike me as a Scottish last name. It just struck me as weird for some reason.

Lastly, Jonny and I hope that they are setting up Darkseid to be the bad guy in Justice League (it is heavily implied). We think Darkseid may resurrect Superman and if so, he could be the bad guy of the Justice League Part 1... like the Elseworlds story Dark Side Superman! That would be awesome!

So in closing, I don't think BvS is as bad as many reviews would suggest. It was entertaining. It could have benefitted from more humor. Lex Luthor as your main source of comic relief is weird. The biggest problem I see with the movie is that in a film where the characters are trying to find their humanity, the movie itself has little humanity within.

I am getting a general impression of Zack Snyder's DC movie universe. It's bleak, dark, extremely violent and full of superheroes that frankly don't give a shit. Batman freely brands criminals or outright kills his enemies with guns. Superman, who doesn't seem to give a fuck about Truth, Justice and the American Way, is willing to risk the lives of countless people if Lois is at risk. Wonder Woman would rather go into exile for nearly a century than fight to bring peace to the warring world of man. I fret to see how dark Flash and Aquaman's films are.

It's a huge contrast to the Marvel films. Marvel's movies feel like they are set in our world. The characters tend to feel real. Superman and Batman feel like archetypes that are always bogged down in their own drama. The key here is that Marvel films don't to take themselves too seriously.  It allows them more wiggle room in their own epic story as well as the potential for humor. Not everything can or should be the serious, dark tone of Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight. Warner Brothers, Zack Snyder and David Goyer need to reevaluate how their universe is perceived because in the end, we're talking about comic book characters... it's escapism, not realism.

Live Action Casting - The Justice League

I had really meant to have this up last month but life got in the way, especially in the last week. (See, if I had one of those Black Lantern rings that wouldn't be an issue!)  So, here we are with the culmination of our months long project... the Justice League movie.

The roster for the Justice League is as follows:

Man of Steel has already established Henry Cavill here (in all his crotch bulging goodness) as Supermen...

and Ryan "2 Flops in 1 Week" Reynolds as Green Lantern.

Here are the other members we introduced in earlier Live Action Castings:

Alexander Skarsgard as Aquaman

Gina Carano as Wonder Woman

Patrick Wilson as The Flash

and Armie Hammer as Batman (which seems doubtful since he apparently doesn't want to play him.)

In this movie we would also add Cyborg to complete the current New 52 Justice League...

For Cyborg we pick Michael B. Jordan. Its funny because we picked him long before we heard he was chosen to voice Cyborg in the "Flashpoint Paradox" animated movie that just came out! We loved him from Parenthood, though. His performance in Chronicle only sweetens the casting for me.

Now for the main villain of the film, we are going back to the puppet master from Wonder Woman's movie Ares, played by Javier Bardem.

But Justice League will feature three other villains. The first is Maxwell Lord...

We want Luke Evans for Maxwell Lord. You may recognize him from Immortals or as the bad guy from Fast and Furious 6. He's a good actor and can play the master manipulating millionaire businessman with ties to the clandestine government organization Checkmate.

The second is Professor Ivo...

Michael C. Hall seems like a great candidate to play the twisted genius Professor Ivo. Granted, Ivo's role in the movie would be limited, it would establish him for future movies... possibly involving a certain "amazing" android?

The third isn't so much a villain but a whole mess of villains...

The OMACs, an army of robotic soldiers created to neutralize metahumans, will play a major role in the movie.

What follows is just a basic idea for the plot that Jonny and I came up with. If I were to actually write this, it would have to be enhanced greatly, with locations and subplots, to be a fully functioning story. We think its a great concept, so without further ado, here is what we came up with...

The movie would begin in S.T.A.R. labs where Dr. Stone is working with Professor Ivo are working on a breakthrough in Artificial Intelligence. Stone's son Vic (the future Cyborg) comes to speak to his father when an explosion occurs in the lab. Vic is mortally wounded and Ivo is (seemingly) killed with much of the research destroyed. Dr. Stone quickly uses what robotic technology he has save his son's life.

While at a fancy humanitarian fundraiser Maxwell Lord seeks out Bruce Wayne to offer him the "oppurtunity" to get in on the ground floor by helping to fund what he calls "a worldwide peace-keeping deterrent."  He won't divulge any further details but does admit to already having a major benefactor. Whane Wayne asks "Who, Luthor?" Lord replies "Bigger." Wayne politely rejects the offer until he can know more about the project. Lord walks away with a smirk. His nose begins bleeding, but he immediately stops the flow with a handkerchief.

Soon after, blue robots begin to attack various metahumans like Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash and Green Lantern. All of these robots feature adaptive means of taking on their opponents such as being equipped to to match Aquaman's speed and strength underwater while resisting deep ocean pressures. A robot takes on Superman, matching his immense strength, speed and durability. Batman shows up (I am assuming they would be friends by the end of Man of Steel 2) to disarm the robot with an EM Pulse grenade. Batman and Superman investigate the source of these robots.

It is revealed that Maxwell Lord has quickly risen up the ranks in the clandestine Checkmate organization and become its Black Bishop. Lord has been displaying the power of the OMAC project to other leaders of Checkmate (the various attacks on heroes, the OMACs sight capabilities also record what they see). He claims it to be a project to subdue the rising threats that metahumans have to the rest of the world. Lord goes onto explain that with the 'generous' permission to use of WayneTech's satellite, they can provide worldwide coverage.The White Bishop (Amanda Waller) is suspicious and decides to investigate Lord's newfound status and plans.

Superman and Batman follow the clues to S.T.A.R. labs where they meet the rebuilt Vic Stone (Cyborg), his new body built using the OMAC technology that was being developed. Vic is helping with the clean-up and efforts to get the advanced laboratory back online, partially by his own accessing of the computer systems to recover lost or damaged files. Vic tells his father as well as Superman and Batman that there seems to a lot of files missing concerning the manufacture and artificial intelligence research his father and Ivo had been working on. A small group of OMACs appear and fighting breaks out. Cyborg ends up being helpful in the battle. Cyborg should accompany Superman and him in order to stop the robotic menace.

Maxwell Lord arrives at his massive OMAC building factory and a massive super-computer to coordinate them. It is revealed that Professor Ivo survived the explosion, though not without suffering disfiguring injuries. The mysterious benefactor, remaining in shadows, tells Lord that he obtained Ivo along with the research necessary. Now it Lord up to him to get the Brother Eye system online. Maxwell Lord states that not only everything is going according to plan, but he is stepping up the attacks on metahumans. With this, Lord launches several more OMACs.

An OMAC attacks Green Lantern when Flash intervenes. They work together to defeat the robot. Wonder Woman arrives in Metropolis seeking Superman's help against the increasing robot attacks. Another OMAC appears and after a brief battle, is grabbed by the tentacles of a giant squid and smashed to bits by a blue whale... signaling the arrival of Aquaman.

Amanda Waller and an army of Checkmate agents storm Maxwell Lord's OMAC facility, citing suspicion of psychic persuasion on her fellow agents and superiors, evidenced by Lord's repeated nosebleeds after every encounter (an earlier scene would have shown Waller reviewing video records from the Checkmate 'Castle' headquarters). With a smile, Lord confesses. He is about to launch a swarm of OMACs on Waller and company when the benefactor stops him; he steps out into the open (revealing to the audience that he is Ares). The God of War decides to take them on by himself, something he hasn't had the joy of doing in quite some time. Ares kills the entire Checkmate squad by himself but only wounds Waller so that she might be able to witness the fall of man before she takes her final breath. Maxwell Lord, in a state of shock, wonders who his benefactor really is. Ares tells him that he is a God and that mortal men such as he should know that loyal servitude is the only thing that will keep his head attached to his neck. Then Ares commands Lord to launch an OMAC attack on Checkmate's Castle headquarters, resulting in an awesome, but one-sided battle that sees most of Checkmate killed... all witnessed by Waller. The OMACs then access Checkmate's computer files on every metahuman in the world.

Our details get a little hazy here. I'm not sure where Maxwell Lord's headquarters is nor where the future League members should congregate (probably Metropolis). Batman will find out that his alter ego Bruce Wayne actually did supply the information for his company's satellite to get jacked by Ivo and Lord, due to the latter placing a mental suggestion in Wayne at the fundraiser. The satellite aligns with Brother Eye's coordinates and activates 10,000 OMACs, which Ares has launched to attack every metahuman from the Checkmate files. Superman, Batman, Cyborg, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Flash and Green Lantern are forced to team up to both launch an assault on Lord's OMAC complex and fight off hundreds of the robots. There will also be scenes from around the world of other metahumans battling OMACs such as Booster Gold, Hawkman, Zatanna, Plastic Man, Shazam and more (setting the stage for more movies!).

After defeating a few hundred OMACs, the Justice League is met by Ares, whom Wonder Woman instantly recognizes and attacks. The God of War knocks her into a building, then proceeds to explain to the others that his strength increases when there is conflict across the Earth. Since the age of Gods ended centuries ago, he has been far weaker. Humans can only generate so much of the violent energies he needs to thrive, so he laid low and sowed the seeds for all out global conflict. (He almost succeeded twice.) Recently, he found that the rise of metahumans has brought him strength not felt since those days of old. Basically, with his newfound strength and invincibility, he's going to conquer the world of men.

Ares magically summons his full armor and takes on Superman, Flash, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern and Aquaman in a huge fight that sees the God of War holding his own against them all. Batman takes on Maxwell Lord in a distraction so Cyborg can break into Brother Eye and disable the OMACs. Not sure how, but the good guys win (really not sure how Ares will be stopped, but I would want him to return in a third Wonder Woman movie called "Fall of the Amazons" cuz that sounds awesome!). Cyborg disables the OMACs, Batman kicks the crap out of Maxwell Lord, Professor Ivo escapes. More shots of other super heroes having defeated OMACs or just fighting them when the robot shuts down. Waller is rescued, but it implies she now has a deep distrust for metahumans. In the end, the Justice League forms.

Look for future installments of Live Action Casting that will feature some of those other superheroes in the DCU. Until then, Stay Strange.

Toaster's Ramblings... Rebooting Batman Edition

With the release of Man of Steel only a couple of weeks away, there is increased talk of Warner Brothers and DC Comics making their Justice League movie AKA their answer to The Avengers. There has already been a lot of speculation about Batman’s involvement. Will it be Joseph Gordon Levitt under the cowl, seemingly reprising his role from the final shot of The Dark Knight Rises? Will Warner Brothers drive a dump truck full of money to the doors of Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale to get both involved in the super team movie? Will Warner Brothers just decide to start over the franchise and cast younger for the lead?

Jonny Prophet and I are honestly hoping for a reboot, which is sort of the purpose of this rambling session. Our next Live Action Casting for our (semi-plausible) fantasy Justice League movie will involve Batman. With that in mind, we realized that we needed to establish our reasoning for not just going with the default Nolan Batman franchise, hence this write-up.

Jonny and I loved the Chris Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy but all good things must come to an end, less they become sad, limping, half-dead specimens of their former glory, or to put it a better way… Two and a Half Men. The Dark Knight trilogy was great… near perfect in many ways. The story came full circle and gave a very complete and fulfilling ending. Okay, many will disagree with those statements, but you have to admit that the way Nolan ended it, bringing back Bale as Batman would be problematic. Let’s examine why… SPOILER ALERT!

In The Dark Knight Rises Bruce Wayne loses his fortune because of manipulations by Talia and the League of Shadows. After essentially revealing his identity to Commissioner Gordon, Wayne goes on to fake his own death, seemingly sacrificing himself in a nuclear explosion. Wayne Manor gets donated to orphans. Alfred moves on with his life and we find Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle have settled down with a new life abroad. Lastly, “Robin” John Blake finds the Bat-Cave and one assumes carries on the fight.

Warner Brothers would have to reverse all of that for the Christian Bale Batman to plausibly join the Justice League. That’s a lot to consider. Wayne has to return to Gotham City, explain his absence to the media that will surely question him, try to get back his fortune and his company with the Research and Development division intact, kick out the orphans, convince Alfred to come back, hope things aren’t weird between him and Gordan and figure out what to do about Blake. Oh, and Wayne’s body is still falling apart from the toll of crime-fighting.

Maybe the Justice League movie takes place before The Dark Knight Rises? When? In that gap where Batman hung up the cape and cowl after Rachel and Harvey’s deaths and he was limping around with a cane? Maybe he found the time to join after escaping the underground prison but before rescuing Gotham City from Bane? Maybe it was in between Batman Begins and The Dark Knight? Okay, we’ll just ignore that Christian Bale looks older now than when he did during Begins (a decade will do that to you). But the problem is that’s just lame. I hate it when a movie takes place before or during an established continuity like that. Let’s use the Young Indiana Jones Chronicles as an example. While it’s doubtful they would kill the main character of the show, I like knowing the possibility that they could. But if Young Indy died, there would be no Indiana Jones movies (though in the case of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, that might not have been a bad thing). Would Batman die in a Justice League movie? Probably not, but did movie goers expect Spock to die in Wrath of Khan? It’s that possibility, however slight, that helps make these movies more exciting.

What about John Blake as Batman? I am a fan of Joseph Gordon Levitt; he’s a fantastic actor. But a Justice League big screen movie has never been done before. Do you really want to tarnish it right off the bat (no pun intended) by having a Batman that isn’t Bruce Wayne? To me, it would stick out like a sore thumb and I would actually have a hard time enjoying the film for that reason. It’s the same reason why music groups who replace a key member seldom do well. It just feels off.

And I am just going to come out and say it… Nolan’s Batman doesn’t fit into the Justice League very well. Where in his trilogy would you fit aliens, power rings and Amazonian warrior princesses? The Dark Knight movies were firmly grounded in the world of organized crime, whether it was the mob or the clandestine League of Shadows. There’s a reason why Ra’s Al Ghul didn’t have Lazarus Pits and Bane didn’t have super steroids to make him grow enormously muscular… its because those weren’t realistic. All of his adversaries fit into that realistic world, including the usually over-the-top Joker. The realism of The Dark Knight Trilogy is what set it apart from previous films and gave it an edge. But that realistic Batman, with his bodily wear and tear, wouldn’t fit in so well with the likes of Superman, Wonder Woman, The Flash and Green Lantern.

Now here’s why a reboot could be great. You could have a fresh new perspective toward the franchise, possibly focused more on the feel of the current comics but with a nod to the past. I don’t mean the goofiness of the Joel Schumacher years. In the same way that Captain America and Iron Man can fit in the same comic/movie universe as Hulk and Thor, I would create a Batman that can fight crime in Gotham but also be a member of the Justice League. Nolan told Bruce Wayne’s story, what if this reboot focuses more on Dick Grayson becoming Robin under Batman’s tutelage? That could be great! Guess what? If you reboot the franchise, you can have the Joker again! Burton killed the Nicholson Joker and since Ledger sadly passed away, I doubt Nolan would have ever cast another in that role. Lets up the ante… add Harley Quinn! She’s a fan favorite who has never been in a movie. Plus, Batman has lots of other villains that could be used, many of whom have never been on film. Batman has a big universe that the films have only scratched the surface of. Why not blow the lid off it?

So continuing in our effort to not just bitch but actually explain what we would do, coming next week will be our Live Action Casting for our Batman reboot that can lead toward the Justice League movie. Until then, stay strange!

Live Action Casting: Wonder Woman

 We begin the series of DC Comics run-up to Justice League films with the Amazon Princess herself... Wonder Woman!

For the starring role of Wonder Woman, we go with Gina Carano. This isn’t really that shocking, especially given the rumors that she is going to play Diana Prince. Honestly, Carano brings something to the table that casting your average pretty brunette actress can never hope to… and that is legitimacy. What I mean by that is Carano moves like an actual fighter because (newsflash) she was one! Her moves are fluid, not the staged awkwardness that we usually get from actresses pretending to be bad-asses. Gina Carano looks the part too. After seeing her in last year’s Haywire, I have no doubt she could pull off Wonder Woman. Casting anyone else, in my opinion, would be a step down.

  Next we have Diana’s love interest and first glimpse of “Man’s World”… Steve Trevor. To be fair, this is not a part that requires anyone too specific. You need a handsome tough guy that can play off Wonder Woman. But Jonny and I both agree that what we need is a proven performer who can make up for Gina Carano’s acting inexperience and possibly give her some guidance.

 So we have chosen Matt Damon as our top choice. He is attractive, a big name and a great actor. Plus, Damon has played a convincing action movie bad-ass in those Bourne movies. Like I said, Trevor could be replaced if Mr. Damon were busy with one of the thousands of movies he appears in every year, but he is our first choice for all the reasons given. 

 As a special shout out to the fan-boys and in recognition of her legacy, we have to have Lynda Carter play Queen Hippolyta, the mother of Wonder Woman. 

 For those unfamiliar, Lynda Carter played Wonder Woman in a live action television show in the 70’s. This is especially funny when it was said that the “golden age” Wonder Woman was actually Hippolyta!

Moving on, we decided to cast the role of Artemis, the battle-ready Amazon and rival of Diana. 

 For her, I am going with Deborah Ann Woll. You might know her as Jessica Hamby on True Blood. She is a definite stand-out actress on that show and her performance as a vampire makes me believe she could easily play a tough as nails, chip on her shoulder Amazon warrior.

Now I’m not sure where she would appear in the film, but we wanted to have Donna Troy there somewhere, probably on the island home of the Amazons, Themyscira. Given the amount of material to cover, I am figuring that Donna Troy’s involvement would be little more than a cameo, but it would set the stage for her to become Wonder Girl (in a sequel?) and for a possible Teen Titans movie!

 So for Donna Troy, we decided to go with Victoria Justice. She’s a pretty talented actress and really fits the part in the looks department. I have a feeling that she could pull it off.  

 Moving on the villain of this movie, I am going to go with goddess of witchcraft… Circe. I think the idea of Diana venturing into the “world of man” on a mission of goodwill would contrast nicely with this sorceress’ eternal hatred of men. Essentially, Circe would seek to rein some destruction onto “man’s world” in a quest to free women of their bonds to them… and to serve her will instead.

 For the role of Circe we are going with Kate Beckinsale. She has star power and can definitely play a bad-ass as we have seen from the Underworld movies. I think she could easily carry the film as the villainous sorceress.

Which leads me to the big reveal… once Circe is defeated she finds herself banished (as she is immortal, she couldn’t be killed). She is visited by a deity who manipulated her from the start… Ares, the god of war. 

 He had enamored Circe with ideas of conquest and glory, perhaps with the promise of support, to attain more power to break free of his banishment. Ares reveals that he gains strength and power from war, but discovered that battles fought between beings beyond the level of ordinary humans (superheroes?) provide him with a greater lever of power than the paltry squabbling of mere mortals. To that effect, his plans are coming to fruition.

 For the part of Ares, we want Javier Bardem. Jonny came up with this one and at first I was skeptical; but the longer I thought about it, the more I loved the idea. Bardem has shown that he makes for one hell of bad guy. Remember him as creepy Anton Chigurh from No Country for Old Men? Or how about the awesomely charismatic and twisted Silva from Skyfall? He will be an amazing god of war. I figure he would be introduced looking human, then form his magic trademark armor to reveal who he really is. Jonny and I would have big plans for Ares… but that is yet to come.

Stay tuned for the next installment for Live Action Casting: Justice League!