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This Weekend Is The Big Test For Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice!

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Two things happened with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice last weekend: One, It was panned by critics, and two, it made a ton of money at the box office.  For some reason people were surprised that a movie featuring two American icons fighting made money hand over fist even though the critics hated it, but the first movie with Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman was always going to make a lot of cash the era of mega-blockbuster weekends.  The big question is will it continue to make money.

Last weekend industry analysts (I wish I had a job I could be wrong at all the time) said Batman v Superman was going to make a little less than $150 Million, and maybe even less than that due to bad reviews.  The movie went on to make $166 Million.  There are some troubling signs for Warner Brothers/DC however.  The movie made an enormous $82 Million on Friday (including all the Thursday previews), but it dropped all the way to $34 Million on Sunday.  That is the biggest same weekend drop of all time.  Now there are a couple of factors at play here: Thanks to reasonable Thursday preview show-times Friday numbers are getting very inflated.  They need to start counting Thursday as its own day.  Also Sunday was Easter.  Which is a day for being outside hunting eggs, not inside watching hyper-violent superhero flicks.  So analysts aren’t sure if that historic same weekend drop was due to bad word of mouth or reasonable Easter weather.

For mega-blockbusters a second weekend drop of about 60% to 65% is the norm, so if Batman v Superman is truly critic-proof we should see a total of $65 Million to $60 Million this weekend.  A much bigger drop than that Warner Brothers/DC should be concerned about the future of their franchise.  If it takes in more than that Warner Brothers should be very excited since they were able to not only dodge a bullet, but that they were able to truly start competing with Disney/Marvel.

As for me, as much as my review of Batman v Superman was mixed, I kind of hope that it is able to truly shrug of critics and become a massive success.  I think critics often get an overinflated view of themselves.  They feel like they are they are the gatekeepers of entertainment, and that they are the reason movies, books, music or whatever live or die.  When honestly their job is to simply inform the public of their professional opinion and then let the public decide, so sometimes it is great when the public just completely ignores them.  I will say that Batman v Superman has some really great big-screen moments that will just not be quite the same when it comes out on video, so the public may be right in ignoring the critics because some things, good or bad, you just need to see for yourself.

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Pitch Perfect 2 Fails To Hit The Same Notes

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The first Pitch Perfect surprised me with how fun and different it was, but Pitch Perfect 2 doesn’t build on its predecessor.  It instead just follows the same formula.  The songs are catchy, and it is still silly fun, but it feels like watching a lesser clone of itself.  It is a shame too because with this talented cast it could have been much better.

The Barden Bellas continued their winning ways after the events in the first movie, and they have successfully defended their National Title twice, but when Fat Amy (Rebel Wilson) rips her pants at President Obama’s birthday they once again have to sing their way to the top.  Because to save themselves from being disbanded the Bellas will have to win the World Championship.

Pretty much the plot just serves to make them underdogs again so they can do a bunch of random stuff while singing.  Thankfully the music is the best part.  It is well choreographed and funny.  Everything else plays out how you would expect.  Even right down to the only way to win is to embrace the new girl’s (Hailee Steinfeld) talent.

Rebel Wilson is reliably goofy, so there are quite a few laughs, but sadly the rest of the cast just pretty much gets to hang around and sing.  The only other full character arc belongs to Anna Kendrick, but it isn’t super interesting, and it is confusing as to why she is keeping her dream of being a music producer from her friends.  Well they do give a reason it just isn’t a good one.

If you are just looking for some more songs and a few laughs Pitch Perfect 2 might be perfect for you, but if you were looking for the movie to try something new, or for it to be better than first Pitch Perfect, you will be a little disappointed.  Pitch Perfect 2 was hugely successful, so Pitch Perfect 3 comes out next year.  I just hope they can figure something out to shake things up.

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Daredevil Season Two Wrap-Up: If Ninjas Are Boring You Are Doing It Wrong!

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I figure enough time has passed for me to give my final judgement of Daredevil season two.  Which will be way better than my midseason impressions I assure you!  For the most part this was a pretty successful season.  The Punisher stuff was very good.  Frank Castle becoming the terrifying murderous vigilante was great.  Surprisingly what wasn’t great was the Elektra/Ninja storyline.

I mean Elodie Yung was an excellent Elektra, but that story really never went anywhere, and it mostly served as a distraction from all the good stuff that was going on with Frank.  It just seemed like any time there was a lull in the story they just threw some random Ninjas at it and started talking about ‘The War’.

The only real positive the ninjas served is bringing up the question of if superheroes should kill or not.  For the most part we can all agree that they shouldn’t because then they would be replacing the law, but in the case of the ninjas their clan would just sweep in and collect them, so none of these guys that Murdock was knocking out were ever going to serve any jail time.  He was just going to have to fight them again tomorrow.  So if he was truly fighting a centuries old war, maybe, just maybe, he should stop pulling his punches.  Maybe then he could have saved us from a couple of those boring ninja fights.

I have to tell you that I never thought ‘boring ninja fight’ was something I would write, but here we are.  Daredevil has boring ninja fights.  Now like I said they are only part of what happens this season, and I do think they are building to something bigger, but they are kind of forced in to a holding pattern until Iron Fist shows up.  Once all the Marvel TV series are launched we can probably get to the interesting ninja fights.  At least I hope so.  If the Luke Cage show is filled with boring ninja fights I am going to be ticked!

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Shmee Takes On The Automatron!

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Fallout 4 got its first piece of DLC, and I have to say it is pretty good.  I wasn’t so sure about Automatron when I first heard about it.  Sure it had more robots and a random villain, The Mechanist, to shoot, but no new city to explore.  Well I was wrong okay!  It turns out Automatron was just what Fallout 4 needed: more loot, and more ways to use the loot you already have.

Automatron starts off with you getting a new radio frequency to listen too, and if you tune in, you hear a distress call from some traders.  When you rush to help out you will be too late, but you will find Ada the robot programed to defend the caravan, and she will want vengeance on The Mechanist for her fallen group.  If you help her, you will gain the ability to build a robot work shop to customize not only Ada, but bring to life as many robots as you have the scrap for.  Of course you can only bring one robot companion with you at a time, but it still it really lets you build some pretty great robots.

Making the bots is the best part of the Automatron DLC pack.  If frees you to design the perfect companion.  Auto laser canon? Sure.  Freezing canon and a hammer to break apart your foes? Absolutely.  Need someone to pick locks for you? The bots got you covered!  The robots can fly, walk, or roll on the ground it is up to you.  Well provided you have the perks to do it.  The perks to build the robots are the same as all the other crafting perks: Armorer, Gun Nut, and Science.  Since you will be fighting a ton of bots it might also be good to have Robotics Expert as well.

Now if you don’t have those perks don’t fret.  There is another way to build the bots you want, and that is from killing other robots.  They will drop parts that will go in to your Mods inventory that you can attach to your robot pals.  The cooler the robot you destroy, the higher the likelihood that they will drop something sweet for you to take home and strap to your favorite metal friend.

When you start Automatron you may disappointed with the apparent lack of customization offered, but don’t worry once you beat the quest all robot mods will become visible to you.  You will still need the perks to build those mods, but at least you will be able to see what you need to get what you want.  Side note: It was nice that this quest offered a couple of outcomes which is sadly rare for Fallout 4.

Automatron has made Fallout 4 better.  The quest, while generic, did at least have a couple of endings, but the creators of this DLC really understood what makes Fallout 4 tick, and that is loot.  By giving players more ways to use loot in a creative ways it really adds to Fallout 4’s already addicting feedback loop.  While the main quest-line in and of itself probably isn’t enough to recommend Automatron, building cool robot friends is.  Even if after a while they do seem to be a little over powered.