Civil War vs. Dawn of Justice: Who Cares??

Let me preface Civil War vs. Dawn of Justice: Who Cares?? with saying that I care about both movies – and have strong opinions about what I feel about both movies! Please don’t let my opinions take away from what you enjoyed of these films!

I love that I am in an age where I can have a debate between what major movie release was better: Captain America: Civil War, or Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Are any of you old enough to remember picking up Wizard magazine back in the day and day dreaming about if any studio would even think about making movies from our favorite weekly comic book pulls? Reading the articles that would be the fantasy draft cast line ups on who would play our favorite heroes and villains in said hypothetical movie? I love that it’s a reality now. What I don’t love, is the ridiculous hate these movies have stirred up among my favorite fandoms.

Civil War vs. Dawn of Justice

Comic book movies are some of my favorite diversions every year. I really enjoy watching someone make movies out of works that I’ve read to see their visual interpretation of that work (which is why I have also sat through the Twilight movies and 50 Shades of Grey movie – just because I’ve read it doesn’t necessarily mean I love it), and I also love debating the results of those films with friends and other fans. But holy crow, I’m saddened by some of the language people are tossing around when discussing these movies. Things like I guess you’ll like it if you’re one of the Marvel-loving masses, or Marvel paid off a bunch of critics to pan Dawn of Justice, or It’s is a crime against comic book fans. Why are we muckraking people who enjoyed one film over another?

I wish we could talk about these movies – AND ALL THINGS (I pick these two movies because they’re a great example in my nerdy wheelhouse) without devaluing or trying to detract enjoyment someone else got. Did I dislike the Batman vs. Superman film? You bet. I threw pop-corn at my friends when Bruce Wayne dreamt bats levitated him out of the cave like he was rising again like some sort of bat Jesus. I didn’t want my money back after that film, I wanted my 20 years back of dreaming of the day that film would be made. If you come up to me though and tell me you loved the movie? AWESOME! Tell me what you liked about it! Tell me how much you love Batman! My disliking the film should not detract from the joy you got out of it. I’m happy you liked it. What about Captain America: Civil War? I was disappointed at first because I wanted it to be much more like the original Civil War comic book. After a second viewing, I enjoyed the movie a lot more on it’s own merits. Want to tell me how you didn’t like it because you didn’t want to watch 2 hours of fight sequences? I can get that. Want to tell me that the movie was hollow and not worth seeing? No. I won’t let you dismiss what fun I had from that film, or insult me for my taste in what I find diverting.

Our nerdy hobbies are an some sort of infinite track where many of us are colliding head on with each other, and not taking a moment to see how we’re invalidating others because they don’t agree with us. It isn’t just these movies, it isn’t just GamerGate, and it isn’t just politics. I point these movies out only as an example where we’re drawing unnecessary lines in the sand over something that is supposed to be fun. I hope we can disagree on more of our nerdy media and be critical of it, without being too harsh to the people who don’t agree with us.