I may be wrong here, it's just speculation on my part, but I really think those were mostly the result of the studio desperately wanting BvS to basically tease an entire universe of spin-offs. Watchmen has way more flashbacks including the whole Dr. Manhattan's origin sequence, and handles it all beautifully in my opinion.

What does seeing Bruce's parents killed for the 48th time (is there anyone on this planet who doesn't know how they die!?), and that stupid Batman tied up nightmare have to do with setting up future DC spinoffs? :P

Conan the Barbarian isn't even a movie that I think about having fights in it, not because they aren't good, but because they're kind of secondary to what is going on. It's just great for other reasons.

The Wayne murder is key to setting up the finale of the big fight with Supes. The two scenes mirror one another. Even if everyone knows the murder happened, you can't have that mirroring composition without the first scene, and it's detail have to be specific, it cant just relay on the general fact everyone knows that the wayne's were shot. It has to work like panels in a comic mirroring one another, like in Knightfall: panel 1 panel 2

And the nightmare is all about setting up the invasion from Apokolips. You've got the parademons, Darkseid's trademark cannon fodder, you've got his giant Omega symbols burnt into the ground. There's more about Apokolips in deleted scenes, like Luthor presumably in contact with Steppenwolf, Darkseid's right hand man. And then you've got Flash appearing with a warning from the future, presumably to do with the invasion. Or it could be something like what happened to him in Crisis on Infinite Earths. Anyway, it will only make sense once we get to whenever he was from.

The Big Heat is great. It's probably my favorite Fritz Lang movie and definitely one of my favorite noirs.

Hal Ashby while great and Being There is considered by many to be superb it falls flat for me with its dryness. All of his other early films are stronger to me (Harold & Maude, Shampoo, The Landlord, The Last Detail etc.) at least in terms of their comedy.

One of the modern classics of psychological thrillers.

One of the great Kurosawa movies. Definitely deserves the top spot on your list.

I think I mentioned this before, Snyder is a very talented director, but his work really shines when the material he is directing, has already been story-boarded by somebody actually talented. The Watchman and 300 graphic novels are just that, the storyboards for the movies Snyder filmed. Unfortunately when it comes to him storyboarding an original film, like Sucker Punch, Man of Steel, Batman v Superman... well... we've all seen the movies and know their problems.

I haven't rewatched Dawn of the Dead and Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, since their initial release, so they're no longer fresh in my memory, so I won't comment on them.

I don't quite agree, as Man of Steel is a great movie in my opinion, and BvS is still pretty good (especially the director's cut), but I'll agree that Sucker Punch is a barely watchable mess. Then again, I've seen far more acclaimed directors make even worse at some point. I've never seen Dawn of the Dead, but Guardians was pretty good. Ok, the story was on the bland side, but it had some nice worldbuilding, and I think it's still quite remarkable in terms of visuals. Seven years later and I still feel like the rest of the industry hasn't cought up. I can only imagine how great it would be if Snyder had a script to work with as good as something like How to Train Your Dragon back then.

As far as Guardians goes, I also remember liking the worldbuilding in it, which lately seems to make the difference between the movies I love and those I watch only once. I'll have to rewatch it one of these days.

Unfortunately, as it stands, BvS and MoS are part of those films that I watch only once. Actually I watched BvS twice, once in theater and a second time the extended cut. Maybe if Justice League ends up being a really good film, I'll give them another shot, like I did with Marvel and the Ed Norton Hulk movie.

I know I'm in the minority about this, but I liked the Ang Lee Hulk movie much more. Then again I'm not crazy about most Marvel movies (marvel studio that is). The first Avengers and Thor are really the only ones I think I'll ever go back to.

I never liked Ang Lee's Hulk movie, and once I realized why, I just couldn't get past it. You could always split the scenes into two piles, as if they were part of two different movies, and the film was long enough to almost feel like two movies. The only character I liked from that movie was the General, but that's because I really like Sam Elliott.

And it's a shame because Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is a masterpiece.

I don't like it at all. It is my least favorite / I think worst Kurosawa movie.

It's definitely not his worst film. It certainly doesn't have the action of some of his others. Some of his early and later work are far more questionable in terms of story, theme, characters or design.

I don't remember what the special features are on that disc but maybe check them out and they may give you something more to chew on to at least appreciate it even if you may not enjoy watching it.

I'm in the same boat. I really like that movie, and think it is a lot better than the sequel. And I'm also not a massive marvel studio fan. Not that I think the movies are bad mind you. I think they're very good for the most part, just not as engrossing for me as their DC contemporaries.

That's pretty much exactly my opinion of the "phase one" marvel movies. They really went downhill fast and hard once in the sequel territory. I hope the third Thor might be an improvement, since I know the director is capable of some great stuff, but the trailers look way too "guardians of the galaxy-ish".

heh, nah, don't really need help on trying to figure out how to appreciate a film, I'm more than pretty-well versed in film literature :þ