First Tracks from Danny Elfman's Justice League Soundtrack!

Watertower Music has released the first tracks from the Justice League Motion Picture Soundtrack by Danny Elfman. The first track is titled "Hero's Theme" and the second is "Friends and Foes". While Hero's Theme is a new composition, Friends and Foes does contain hints from John Williams iconic Main Theme from 1978's Superman The Movie. Random Angst is hoping that Danny Elfman also includes themes from previous DC movies and is able to weave them into his original compositions. I think that having this musical continuity is key to tying in previous films and stories recently released by WB and DC. Rupert Gregson-Williams was able to do it with the Wonder Woman soundtrack in a satisfying way, so he was able to show that it can be done and be done well.

Stay tuned for more releases and the entire soundtrack can be pre-ordered now and will be available on November 10th, 2017 (per iTunes).

Watertower Music has also released the titles for the 2-Disc soundtrack.

Disc 1 01. Everybody Knows - Sigrid 02. The Justice League Theme - Logos 03. Hero’s Theme 04. Batman on the Roof 05. Enter Cyborg 06. Wonder Woman Rescue 07. Hippolyta's Arrow 08. The Story of Steppenwolf 09. The Amazon Mother Box 10. Cyborg Meets Diana 11. Aquaman in Atlantis 12. Then There Were Three 13. The Tunnel Fight 14. The World Needs Superman 15. Spark of The Flash 16. Friends and Foes 17. Justice League United 18. Home 19. Bruce and Diana 20. The Final Battle 21. A New Hope 22. Anti-Hero’s Theme 23. Come Together – Gary Clark Jr. and Junkie XL 24. Icky Thump – The White Stripes

Disc 2 01. The Tunnel Fight (Full Length Bonus Track) 02. The Final Battle (Full Length Bonus Track) 03. Mother Russia (Bonus Track)

You can currently stream or buy these two songs on iTunes, Spotify, Soundcloud, and other digital music services.

UPDATE: As of today, Oct 30, 2017, Friends and Foes is no longer available to stream or buy (at least via iTunes).  My speculation is that it will be released as a single sometime over the couple of weeks prior to the film release in the theaters. Then it will be available once the album is fully released on November 10, 2017.

Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice pt. 1 – Prologue

 

"There was a time above. A time before. There were perfect things. Diamond absolutes. But things fall, things on earth. And what falls, is fallen. In the dream, they took me to the light. A beautiful lie."

As Batman vs. Superman starts we are shown a prologue that plays an important role in  the story and has major repercussions for the rest of the movie. I haven't seen too many prologues that have such an influence on the rest of a film as this one does. In this prologue we are shown the death of the Bruce's parents at the hands of Joe Chill, we see Bruce's discovery of the caves near his home, and we see the final battle of Kal-El and Zod in Man of Steel but from Bruce Wayne's perspective. This is a lot of ground to cover in the short 10 minutes that is devoted to these scenes.

The prologue starts with the Death of Thomas and Martha Wayne while the haunting score of Hans Zimmer's 'Beautiful Lie' plays during this scene. We also hear the above quoted dialogue from an older Bruce Wayne during this scene.

In regards to the death of the Wayne's, this is a scene that has been shown many times on the big and small screen. I myself have seen it four times in various formats prior to this movie. However, I believe this one is the most impactful of the ones that have previously been shown. This scene focuses solely on the mugging and murder of the Wayne's. Only one word is spoken in this scene, "Martha". This scene focuses more on the loss of Martha Wayne and how a little boy had to watch his mother die. While Batman Begins had focused on the relationship between Bruce and his father, Thomas, this movie is more about the loss of Martha. This scene is juxtaposed with the funeral of the Wayne's and in this film, Bruce discovers the cave full of bats near his home during this time. As Bruce discovers the cave of bats they end up carrying him up to the light and out of the cave as the older Bruce says "In the dream, they took me to the light. A beautiful lie."  These two short scenes are the essence of Batman and are the impetus of how he comes to be. Bruce Wayne becomes Batman because his parents are killed and he desires to right this wrong for the rest of his life.

From there we jump ahead in time to the events that we see at the end of Man of Steel (2013). Bruce Wayne arrives in Metropolis via helicopter from Gotham and witnesses first hand the final battle between Zod and Kal-El while driving on the streets of Metropolis. Bruce has an office building full of friends in Metropolis that he is trying to reach as Metropolis falls apart around him due to the World Builder wreaking havoc in the city. As Bruce reaches his office building, he is too late as he witnesses Zod destroy the building with his laser vision. Bruce can only watch in horror as his building collapses killing his friends and coworkers. Bruce then makes his way to the building to try and find survivors. He helps a security guard, Wally, who is trapped in rubble. He also is able to save a young girl from being killed as debris collapses almost killing her. As Kal-El and Zod continue to fight in the sky above Metropolis, Bruce watches with hatred towards these two aliens who are destroying a city and killing innocents.

This is the moment that Batman starts planning to stop Superman. This is the moment when Batman vs. Superman starts. A common complaint of this movie is that there were only a small amount of actual fighting between Batman and Superman. When in reality, Batman vs. Superman starts 9:50 into the movie.

Zack Snyder does an excellent job of tying in Man of Steel to this movie and propelling the overall story forward. Including this prologue scene setting up Bruce Wayne's hatred of Kal-El and what he did to Metropolis was a smart move in more ways than one. Not only does it move the story forward, Snyder validates one of the biggest complaints from Man of Steel. This complaint is about the wanton destruction of Metropolis during the final battle and the major loss of life. Snyder doesn't attempt to excuse or explain why it happened, but instead infuses those complaints into Bruce Wayne and his motivations for Dawn of Justice.

Before this horrific moment, the public and even Bruce Wayne did not know of Kal-El and his existence on Earth. Then all of a sudden in a matter of days, the world changes and these aliens are destroying cities and people are dying as a result of their feud. Dawn of Justice deals directly with this fear, from Bruce Wayne and others being scared of what Kal-El can do, to the media having a heyday with biased reporting and trying to pit half of the population against the other half. In real life we can't even have a presidential election without arguing and protests, with the media fueling hatred for the two parties to go against each other. Imagine if an event such as what happened in Man of Steel actually happened and how the media would cover it and try to influence the population. I imagine it would happen pretty close to what is portrayed in this film, half of the population would hate Superman, the other half would love him and the media would do all it could to demonize the other half it doesn't agree with. I believe this to be a genius move by Snyder and the story writers. This isn't your father's 1978 Superman feel good story, and nor should it be. A lot has changed in 35 years and a modern retelling of Superman should reflect that.

Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice

"Black and blue. Fight night. The greatest gladiator match in the history of the world: God versus man; day versus night; Son of Krypton versus Bat of Gotham!"- Lex Luthor

Batman versus Superman. When this title was announced at San Diego Comic Con in 2014, it blew my mind! I was eagerly awaiting the announcement of a Man of Steel 2 movie, but this! This, my fellow nerds, was paramount to the Second Coming! Then to top it all off - Wonder Woman was announced to be a part of the movie too!

Batman AND Superman in the same movie?! The Man of Steel AND The Dark Knight at odds one with another?! Wonder Woman fighting alongside the two most iconic superheroes of all time?! Finally! This will be the first time The Trinity would appear on the big screen for fans to enjoy. For the first time we will see Diana Prince in action on film. The potential for greatness and movie making history was finally announced! And let me tell you, this film did not disappoint.

Wait, WHAT?! What is this you are reading? I'm sure you're asking yourself, "Am I truly reading a review of Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice that isn't disparaging the film left and right?" or "Am I understanding this correctly? This guy actually LIKED this movie?!" The answer is yes, you are.

But all joking aside; yes, I did enjoy this movie from the first viewing. I saw it multiple times in the theaters, four times in fact. I would've gone once or twice more had I had the time to do so. I bought the Ultimate Edition when it came out on home video and my appreciation and enjoyment of this film grew even more. The storyline and character development was fleshed out to be more fulfilling and robust with the Ultimate Edition. If this Ultimate Edition had been released in theaters, I believe it would have been better received.

I intend to break this film down into various parts from beginning to end, as well as to write a character analysis for each of the main players in the film, over the next few weeks. To discuss and analyze everything this movie event has to offer would be too long for one blog post. I will attempt to win over those that dislike, are ambivalent, and even hate this movie; as well as reinforce the greatness of this movie with those that do enjoy it. I'm looking forward to this experience as I delve deep into this film, which in my opinion could be considered the greatest movie of 2016. It's only competition being Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

But at the end of the day, if you don't like the film - that's fine, if you do like the film -great! Either way, life will go on and Warner Bros. will continue to produce and release films from the DC Universe for those that enjoy them.

Listed below are the topics I will address and expound upon, I will activate links to the various topics and characters as I finish writing them.

Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice pt. 1 - Prologue

Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice pt. 2 - The Setup

Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice pt. 3 - Investigations

Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice pt. 4 - The Plan is Set in Motion

Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice pt. 5 - War

Bruce Wayne/Batman

Clark Kent/Kal-El/Superman

Diana Prince/Wonder Woman

Lex Luthor

Lois Lane

Alfred

Zod/Doomsday

Man of Steel II

Wait, I thought he was dead?! Spoiler Alert!!

TheWrap.com is reporting that Warner Bros is starting development for a Man of Steel sequel. Just when you thought Superman was dead (as shown in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and solidified in Suicide Squad), he's back! Ok, I don't think anyone really thought he was dead Dead, but now we know for sure that he isn't.

Even though it has been speculated and planned previously that DC and WB would eventually do a MoS sequel, I guess it's now official. I'm glad they are moving forward with this, I'd love to see The Batman (directed by and starring Ben Affleck) and Man of Steel II in theaters in the same calendar year. DC could create some great excitement from releasing them in the same year, months apart, and have the stories be interconnected on some level. I guess we'll see what DC and WB have in store for us as more details are announced.

The Dark Knight and The Man of Steel Collection

The collection is growing! I can't wait to add Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman,  Justice League, and more to my shelf.

Justice League Footage!

One of the most exciting things to come out of San Diego Comic Con this past weekend was a trailer of sorts, of the upcoming Justice League movie. In this exclusive footage, we get to see Bruce Wayne visiting Arthur Curry (Aquaman) and Barry Allen (The Flash) and inviting them to join with him for an upcoming, unknown threat. We see Bruce and Diana Prince (Wonder Woman) planning out how to create a super team. We also see three of them (Bruce, Barry, and Diana)  together, along with Cyborg (Victor Stone) walking into an abandoned room.

Following on the heels of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, where we saw very small glimpses of Aquaman, Flash, and Cyborg, it was great to see them a little longer in this trailer and see more of their personalities as we watch them interact with Bruce. We also briefly see a Mother Box being buried in the ground. We saw two Mother Box's in Dawn of Justice, one that essentially combined with Victor Stone and presumably turned him into Cyborg. The other was in Ultimate Edition, when we see Lex Luthor communing with Steppenwolf (a DC villain and Darkseid follower) and a Mother Box is present.

Justice League is set to be released November 17th 2017.

https://youtu.be/gglkYMGRYlE

Wonder Woman SDCC Trailer

We got our first look at the upcoming Wonder Woman movie, as the first trailer and teaser poster was released this weekend at San Diego Comic Con. The trailer was great in that it showed some great action, showed the main characters and gave us a little of their motivations and personalities, but didn't reveal the main plot and left us intrigued.

We were able to see Wonder Woman's abilities and fighting style, which is amazing and promises some great visuals that hopefully are just a glimpse of what we'll see in the actual movie. Wonder Woman is due to be released on June 2nd 2017. Check it out below!

https://youtu.be/5lGoQhFb4NM