Movie Review Monday: Batman v Superman - Dawn of Justice

Welcome to another edition of Movie Review Monday!

This week's film is the recently released Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, starring Henry Cavill, Ben Affleck, Jesse Eisenburg, Gal Gadot, and strong (and large) supporting cast.

I talked about some of my initial impressions of this movie in my geek out last week, and I just wanted to go a bit more in depth with my thoughts here with this highly contentious movie. The critics have not been kind to this one, and many comic book purists are having issue with it as well. I will say that I think it is not as bad as some people are making it out to be, but it is not a great movie by any means. It is confusing, unfocused, and needlessly boring for the subject matter. While I don't need a MCU clone, I would have hoped for a more fun movie.

To balance things out, there were some things I enjoyed about the movie, and it seems are pretty universally appreciated. Ben Affleck did well as both Bruce Wayne and Batman where other actors seemed to do well as one or the other. He portrayal was his own and he succeeded where many thought he would fail. Gal Gadot makes the most of her (very) limited screen time as Wonder Woman, especially in the final fight sequence. I will admit to getting chills when she hit the screen and her music kicked in. It was really well done and I look forward to what is to come in her solo movie next year. Jesse Eisenburg did pretty well as the manic, eccentric, egotistical manipulative, genius Lex Luthor. While some of the confusion comes from his character's motivations, some of the plot holes could just be explained away by his paranoia and/or hubris.

While I appreciate the attempts of this movie to play catch up to the MCU, I felt like the nods to other Justice League members to be underwhelming and sort of forced. It leaves me wondering how it will all work in a bit of a bad way, but we are getting Justice League, Part 1 next year so maybe it will all be a bit of rush job. Looking back it was nice to have a movie to get to know each of the members of the Avengers before bringing them together. Part of what holds Dawn of Justice back is that we don't get to know Wonder Woman or Batman as well as we could have to have their big team-up really resonate. Wonder Woman will at least get her own movie before Justice League, but other than Superman with Man of Steel, she is the only one.

Dawn of Justice is a movie that has a lot riding on it. I would liken it to Amazing Spider-Man 2 in how it must have been viewed by the production people. They both wanted so bad to set up their own movie universes, that, especially with Spider-Man, they suffer under their own weight. We can see where Dawn of Justice falters with that weight at times, but it holds steady, despite many issues (like the ending, was not a fan! And all the dream sequences?!).

I am very curious to hear other people's thoughts, so leave them in the comments below.

You can check out Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice at a theater near you!

Thanks for stopping by!

Geeky Office Décor Series: Kristen Abell

This week we're featuring the awesome office of Kristen Abell, Web Coordinator at University of Missouri - Kansas City.

Here's what Kristen had to say about her space:

"Over the course of my career, I have moved offices several times and managed to accumulate my fair share of decorations. Admittedly, if you had come by one of my first couple of offices, you would have seen mostly bare walls with a few things here and there on the desk. My current cube is easily the most decorated one in our office.

One of the things I keep at work is my Wonder Woman collection. I do this for two reasons. The first is that I find it gives me personality. I’m an introvert by nature, so I am sometimes not the most talkative office mate. This gives my co-workers a glimpse into something I love and a topic we can easily discuss. I have a few Doctor Who items thrown in here, as well as some trinkets I’ve collected at previous universities or in my work with organizations. The second reason I keep this collection at work is because I simply have no idea where I would put it at home.

This cabinet and wall are a mishmash of geekery and family. You’ll see some of my son’s artwork and pictures of him and my husband, but you’ll also see Wonder Woman featured prominently there, as well as my Rosie the Riveter poster - because what feminist doesn’t need one of these? I also have the front of the book I edited - Committed - front and center because it is such an important piece of who I am. Finally, just in case you weren’t sure if I was into tech or anything as a web developer, I have an award presented to me by my NASPA regional advisory board claiming me as a “Techno Goddess.” One of the best awards, ever.

A lot of people neglect the space that is behind them when they decorate, but I find this to be almost as important as the space in front of me. When I do hangouts or video meetings, this is my backdrop. And without fail, it tends to impress people. I mean, who wouldn’t want Buffy fighting a demon behind them? Or Wonder Woman in many artistic forms? (By the way, if you look closely at the Wonder Woman image with the blue sky, you’ll recognize it from my blog header). There’s also a couple more pieces of art from my son in here proclaiming that his mom loves salad (he is so wrong about that) and is as pretty as a butterfly.

So welcome to my little corner of geekdom. I hope you've enjoyed your visit."

What I really enjoy about this space is that even with a cubicle, Kristen really fully decorates what she has and makes it her own. A lot of people might get discouraged by the lack of an actual office, but a cubicle can work just as well! Another neat point of interest is how Kristen intentionally covers her back wall since it is always going to be showcased during video calls (smart move!). I'm also a big fan of her plethora of Wonder Woman stuff. She is such a great, iconic character and I appreciate all the different little trinkets Kristen has embodying and representing the character.

Many thanks to Kristen for sharing her story and space with us!

Stay tuned for more awesome offices in the coming weeks.

Thanks for stopping by!