World's Finest

Sandy Collora, the guy who made the fan film "Batman: Dead End" returns with another one this time the short fan-film is packaged in much the same way "Grayson" was (Ie. trailer for a non-existent movie) While John Fiorella's "Grayson" worked marvelously for me, this one just didn't for some reason. Yea, Clark Bartram who reprises the role as Batman from "Dead End" was pretty good (despite the costume not working quite as well in the direct light), but, Superman in this short just didn't worm for me and their was a tad too much banal banter. It has a few good shots, and Nina Kaczorowski DOES make a extremely hot Lois Lane, but the short as a whole just didn't sit well for me and wasn't as good as "Dead End"

My Grade: C

"World's Finest" is an unique project. It's a trailer for a Superman/Batman crossover movie that doesn't exists and will also never exists, at least not in this form, with these characters, actors and plot line anyway.

So the movie is one big tease, even more than standards everyday real movie trailers. The trailer will hype you all up for nothing. In that regard, I really didn't liked this short project. When watching this trailer it makes you hungry and excited for more and at the same time sad- and perhaps you'll even feel cheated afterward, when it turns out that a full length movie of this trailer will never exist at all. Sort of makes you wonder why this project was made in the first place. Surely to show off Sandy Collora's skills but couldn't he had also done this with a real movie short, like his earlier movie "Batman: Dead End".

But when you have to judge this short purely for what it is, so from a movie technical point of view, it's a really great one. It's great looking and way more professional than you'll perhaps at first would expect, although the people who've already seen "Batman: Dead End" will already know better than to expect a short with cardboard sets, cheap homemade costumes and third-rate actors. The short is not constantly impressive looking and obviously the budget wasn't sky-high but for most part it's very impressive and professional looking, with nice costumes, sets, special effects, cinematography and lighting.

The short has a good quick and typical trailer build up, with perhaps a bit too many posing shots too completely find it credible but hey, it works well for the trailer style. It has some impressive shots but also a couple of lame ones, mainly the Superman flying sequences. It was obvious that the guy was just standing at a moving car, with a camera aimed at him from an angle below. I even found it a pretty laughable thing to watch. But really the better and more spectacular moments really compensate for this.

Michael O'Hearn seemed like a pretty good Superman/Clark Kent, although he obviously isn't the greatest talented actor around. Clark Bartram reprises his Batman role well again and Kurt Carley seemed like an awesome Lex Luthor. The rest of the cast also served its purpose well enough.

It's especially interesting to watch this short after the recent new modern reinterpretations of the two main superheroes of this movie, in the movies "Batman Begins" and "Superman Returns". It's interesting to compare the style and character treatment of those movies with this one. It's actually amazing and fun to hear how much Kurt Carley does sound like Kevin Spacey, the actor who played Lex Luthor in "Superman Returns".

It's a good looking and well made and constructed trailer that however will makes you hungry for more, even though you know that there won't be more. Whatever happened to the Waner Bros. plans to create an actual full length Superman/Batman movie by the way? I thought that developments were underway for it a couple of years ago but nothing has been heard of it ever since. Instead two new separate Batman and Superman movies were made; "Batman Begins" and "Superman Returns".

7/10

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Sandy Collora's World's Finest is a faux film preview featuring the cinematic team-up of D.C. Comics' two greatest heroes and cultural icons, Superman and Batman.

Collora opted for a different approach to filming his comic book heroes, this time using less atmospheric, lighter fare and giving his audience what constitutes a three-minute tease.

Having said that, World's Finest is a very fine display of the directorial talents of Sandy Collora and is a great follow-up to his masterpiece Batman: Dead End.

Clark Bertram returns as the Dark Knight Detective, and is in fine form, but it's Michael O'Hearn's Man of Steel that really steals the show. O'Hearn does a tremendous job of embodying Superman on screen, and carries the physical presence to pull it off realistically and seriously. Once again, Collora evokes the artwork of comic book painter Alex Ross in his choice of actors and set pieces, and once again, it works terrifically.

Kurt Carley, the Predator of Batman: Dead End, portrays a fleeting, but ominous Lex Luthor, and the gorgeous and sultry Nina Kaczorowski is fine as Lois Lane.

The trailer is a spine-tingling experience for comics fans and fans of superhero movies, but it does leave the audience a bit wistful with its short running time and cliffhanger feel.

Sandy Collora has proved once more that he is a capable filmmaker and here's hoping this will be a further boost to an already impressive career.

Highly recommended!

Sandy should stop making "Movies". He doesn't know what he is doing. Dead End belongs on the Internet along side starwars kid and video's of people getting there hands cut off. He claims to know what feel Batman needs but he doesn't know how to make the audience feel it. Dead end felt so forced and silly. When I was a kid, 9 or 10, I used to put on shows for my family. They were batman stunt shows. Dead End felt as childish and silly and my old shows were only with more money. Sandy has got to be a moron, he took 30 thousand dollars and made a fan film? A good film maker such as Robert Rodriguez can take 7 thousand and make a full length movie of his own, than after he got into the industry he started making his Comic book movies. Sandy doesn't have a chance in hell, from what I've seen, to make it as a director. Worlds finest is one of the saddest things I've seen. It's so easy to make a trailer look exiting and make you want to see the movie, this trailer didn't. It was boring, silly and pretty much crud. I hope he doesn't continue making "movies" we really don't need another Uwe Boll running around.

This is a fan-made short film that pretends to be a preview for a new movie that pairs Batman and Superman! It's the sort of film that fans adore and watch at places like ComicCon and was made by the same person who made BATMAN: DEAD END, Sandy Collora.

As far as this film goes, I could easily pick it apart. Sure the CGI effects aren't perfect and the costumes are far from perfect. BUT, this was made on a shoestring budget and for a fan film this is incredible. I was particularly impressed by the very buff Superman--he was no wimpy little guy! If only this were a preview for a real film--they'd have fans lined up from here to Omaha to see it. Great job.