Eveburn (Film)

Eveburn is a 2015 American superhero film. It is a highly anticipated spin-off to the 1991 American superhero film Eve which is based on the DC Comics supervillain of the same name. Eveburn focuses on the history and personal lives of mainly Eve herself as well as a few of her nemeses. It also brings forth Eve's two children and the fact that one of them was fathered by DC Comics superhero Ace.

Being the sequel to the highly successful classic superhero film, Eveburn became one of the most anticipated sequels of all time since it went into production in the beginning of 2015. With a worldwide gross of $3,941,873,623 it became the third-highest grossing American film and highest grossing superhero film of all time.

Plot
Eve walks out of the Sibley Memorial Hospital in human form, carrying her newborn daughter Everly, in a carseat. As she enters her mansion smiling, a sudden memory hits her.

The flashback shows a youthful Eve, beaming after her triumph in defeating and killing Stormfire, a member of  Justice League. Infuriated by the death of his colleague, a youthful Ace privately plots a scheme to try to avenge the death of Stormfire. He decides to befriend Eve; to try to make her believe he was on her side. Suspicion reigned Eve's mind as Ace tried to befriend her.

Finally Ace succeeds in gaining Eve's trust by feeding her confidential information of the Justice League. Smitten by his double-faced loyalty, Eve slowly begins to fall in love with him. Ace is horrified as he finds himself falling in love with Eve. As Ace tries to keep away from her, he finds himself unable to even think clearly. Ultimately Ace gives in, but what he thinks to be a brief dalliance, turns out to be much more as he soon realizes that Eve is pregnant with his child.

Suddenly Ace remembers his scheme and attempts to murder Eve in her sleep. Unable to bring himself to do so, he puts down the knife just as Eve wakes up and as the latter realizes what was going on. Enraged, she morphs out her bat wings and heavily injures Ace, swearing insults at him.

The scene shifts from darkness into bright light, while Eve can be heard screaming due to labour pain as she gives birth to a son. The only person assisting Eve through the birth, is her secretary and future nanny to her children, Millicent Deron. Millicent swiftly wraps the baby in a towel and hands him to Eve, who hugs him affectionately.

Separated from Eve, Ace somehow gets the news of his child's birth. Terrified that news would go around and mar his reputation, Ace gets desperate to eliminate the evidence of their relationship. One fateful night, he steals into Eve's mansion and tries to commit infanticide by trying to strangle his own baby. While trying to do so, sparks of lightning shoot out of Ace's hand, injuring the baby and leaving a permanent scar on his neck. Awoken from the baby's bawls, Eve once again injures Ace, kicking him down from the balcony and showering him with threats and insults while clutching the baby to her chest. Agonized by these events, Eve moves away with the baby, naming him "Acca" after the Pherahnese word which means 'light,' and "Marlowe" after the place he was born in.

The scene shifts to 5 years later as Eve begins to explain her job of being a villain to a 5-year-old Acca who seems to absorb this. As he stays at home with his nanny, Millicent Deron and plays, it is significant that Acca knows something about his past. As the years roll on and Acca turns 10, it is revealed that his mother had been feeding him on the negligence shown by his father. It turns out that Eve had told Acca everything about his babyhood and his father so that one day, he would be able to avenge himself.

Although he seems to be blanketed by his mother's love, the knowledge of his past scarred Acca and he remained a depressed and disconsolate child. Acca also seems to understand that his mother is a supervillain because she loved what she did. Thus, he never questioned her. Two years later, Acca is almost run over by a truck as he tries to cross a road. Eve, unaware of the truth thinks her son is dead and greatly mourns the loss of her only loved one.

The flashback shifts back into reality as Eve begins to cry with Everly in her arms.

The film then progresses from the point of Acca's accident. Thoroughly injured on the cerebral region Acca loses consciousness and wakes with amnesia.

The next scene shows him taken in by an orphanage where he is unable to mingle with any of the children. Although he remembered nothing of his past, Acca still remained depressed and lonesome for a reason he himself did not understand. To save himself from anymore scrutiny, Acca adopts the name Ezekiel Chase. To try to lighten his spirits, he begins collecting and learning to fight with medieval weaponry.

Dr. Killian Reaves, anatomist, atomic scientist, metallurgist and toxicologist, (alter ego of supervillain Red Hood) attends a training academy and there discovers Acca's skill in fighting, when he sees him competing with an opponent. He challenges Acca to a duel, determined to defeat him, although Acca treated him with respect. With his prestige slightly impaired after being defeated by Acca, Dr. Reaves is greatly impressed. Out of sympathy over the 15-year-old, he asks him to join the Belwich Academy; Institute of Technology, where he worked. Acca accepts the proposal gratefully, but with some dignity.

A year later at the Academy, Acca excels in his academics making some other students jealous. Taking his solitariness as an advantage, the teenage boys attack Acca in the corridors. Outnumbered by his attackers Acca struggles to get free. At one point he is heaved to the ground where his head hits the tarmac, bringing back his memory. Shaken from the assault and the terrifying memories of his childhood, he stays on the ground.

Passing the corridor, Dr. Reaves finds his favorite student sprawled unconscious on the floor. Enraged, he brings the unconscious Acca to his study and punishes the bullies. When Acca comes around, Dr. Reaves is surprised to find him having no hard feelings towards the students who bullied him. This is one of the first pointers in the film that brings into light how Acca is oblivious to the basic human feelings of anger or joy. Incapable of holding things together any longer Acca, confides in Dr. Reaves, all his childhood memories. Apalled by this information, Dr. Reaves tries to reassure Acca by telling him that he himself, as Red Hood, had in fact worked with Eve in the past. Thus, both individuals agree to keep away from light each other's dark secrets.

The scene shifts to the present as it shows a young adult Acca in his isolated mansion. Acca graduated from the Academy through his greatest invention; a multi-bot named Bennett, with whom he resides with. Acca is now an established metallurgist and collects medieval weapons and gives them a modern makeover involving metals. He also supplies them to modern tech museums.

The film progresses as Acca steps into a time portal and walks through the scenes of the past that show the panorama of Ace's wedding to his wife Amelia Hornton-Macfarlayne and also Eve's wedding to her now ex-husband Hans Magnussen. The next portal shows Ace awaiting the birth of his daughter. Although Ace looks happy Acca also observes that something is disturbing him mentally. Acca goes on watching the scenes of Everly's babyhood and the celebration of her 3rd birthday, before finally stepping out of the portal.

The film progresses to a new scene, that shows Eve plotting two schemes in her study. One of them holds the plan of murdering Batman and Nightwing, while the other is not shown. As she gazes at the second plan and softly whispers,

"You think you can hide Jay? Hide from me? [mocks] How very foolish... [utterance of maniacal laughter]"

viewers get the impression that they are in for a dramatic murder scene.

Cast

 * Angel-Kate Lorren reprises her role as Eve, main protagonist of the film and self-proclaimed greatest supervillain of all time.
 * Dennis Hollard reprises his role as DC superhero Ace and his alter ego Jay Macfarlayne.
 * Kathryn Templeton as Alex Macfarlayne, a teenage science prodigy and the only daughter of Jay Macfarlayne (Ace) and his wife Amelia Hornton-Macfarlayne.
 * Alasdhair Riscos as Jax Macfarlayne, the playful 11-year-old younger brother of Alex and the son of Jay Macfarlayne and Amelia Hornton-Macfarlayne and Jay's only legitimate son.
 * Mathew Adamson as Acca Marlowe, and his alter ego Ezekiel Chase, who is a young-adult metallurgist, a collector and supplier of medieval weapons, and the founder of Onyx Artillery. Acca is the only illegitimate child of Eve and Ace.
 * DC Marson F-093 as Bennett, the multi-bot and robot-blogger created by Acca.
 * Tabitha Hodgson as Everly Winslow, the only child of Eve and Swedish dentist Hans Magnussen.
 * Genesis Valmicorro reprises his role as DC supervillain Red Hood and alter ego Dr. Killian Reaves.
 * Drew Barron reprises his role as DC superhero Nightwing and alter ego Dick Grayson.
 * Bethany Kress reprises her role as DC superheroine Huntress and alter ego Pearl McGibson.
 * Tristan Kassimov as DC superhero Bowman and alter ego Romain Kane.
 * Mimi Ferguson as Millicent Deron, secretary of Eve and nanny to her daughter, Everly.
 * Hakon Adler Olafssen as Swedish dentist Hans Magnussen and ex-husband of Eve.
 * Zurine Estevez as Amelia Hornton-Macfarlayne.
 * Corneille Ellis Wallberg as infant Acca Marlowe.
 * Kai Alasdhair as 5-year-old Acca Marlowe.
 * Gil Devon as 10 and 12-year-old Acca Marlowe.
 * Sage Mauriello as 15 and 16-year-old Acca Marlowe.
 * Jessa Feinberg as infant Everly Winslow.
 * Mae Curden-Rousseau as 3-year-old Everly Winslow.
 * Bentley Helvquist as 5-year-old Alex Macfarlayne.

Development
The crew of Eve had been planning a sequel to be released in 1995, due to the film's immense success. The script had to be rewritten many times as critics found the story unconvincing. More complications arose and the film was chosen to be postponed for several years. Ten years later, in 2005 Norwegian-American director, Dylan Mirgogue made a proposal for the sequel to be made under him as director. Once again the script was rejected, labeling the story as being too weak. Nine years later, in 2014, producer and writer Grace McKinnley rewrote and revised the final script and chose Delvin Gryand as director, while director and producer Kerry White served as producer and executive producer.

Filming
The scenes of Eve's flashback were shot back in 1993. Filming for Eveburn began on January 14, 2015. Filming locations include Palm Springs, California and some parts of Washington DC, in the US, the suburban areas of Reykjavic in Iceland, and on the Island of Gotland in Sweden. Filming lasted for 2 weeks.

Casting
Most of the film's cast consists of reprisals, from famed actors from the previous film.

Kathryn Templeton was originally set to play Batgirl, but insisted on playing Alex Macfarlayne due to some health constraints. Batgirl's role was thus cancelled.

Mathew Adamson was originally set to play Bowman, but turned down the role, saying he would not play superheroes, or get into spandex and claiming his archery to be atrocious. The director found these excuses hilarious and said he found the perfect role for Adamson; Acca.

Drew Barron also tried to reject reprising his role as Nightwing as he found working in spandex tiring and embarrassing. Director Delvin Gryand solved this problem by having Nightwing's costume remaid with leather.

Robot-actor DC Marson F-093's casting was highly celebrated by the American Association for the Society of Robots.(AASR)

Romanian-Jordanian theater actor, Tristan Kassimov made his film debut as Bowman.

Child actor Alasdhair Riscos (and the son of renowned director Fransisco Alasdhair)  was cast as Jax Macfarlayne, while his younger half-brother Kai Alasdhair made his acting debut, playing 5-year-old Acca Marlowe.

Release
Eveburn held its first premiere in Los Angeles at the TCL Chinese Theater and the Dolby Theater, on 4th February 2015. In Iceland and Sweden, the film premiered in the SAMfilm and the Helsingborg City Theatre, respectively on 27th February. The film was theatrically released worldwide on 2nd March 2015, nearly a month after the US release.

Marketing
The theatrical poster of Eveburn was released on 24th January. On 27th January, Universal Pictures also released individual character posters for the main characters excluding the children. The posters released were of Eve, Ace, Nightwing, Huntress, Bowman and Acca Marlowe.

The film had only one teaser trailer, released on the 1st of February, just days before the film's US release.

Rating
The Motion Picture Association of America's (MPAA) film rating system gave Eveburn an R rating due to scenes of intense action and violence, moderate sensual content and slight sexual content.

The film consists of the use of no obscene or profane language.

Critical Response
Eveburn widely received positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gave the film a 89% approval rating, with a rating average of 8.1/10, based on 556 reviews. On Metacritc the film earned a score of 89.5% based on 54 critics. On CinemaScore, audiences below 25 gave the film a rating of A and audiences over 30 gave ratings ranging from A+ to A-

The film also received appraisal from renowned Forbes film critic Giuseppe Abategiovanni, for capturing the huge story in such short running time. He also said that the scenes of Eve's flashback brought the nostalgia from the original film back to audiences around the world.

Accolades
This section is currently under construction and may remain incomplete for an unintelligible period of time.

Sequels
In November 2015, Delvin Gryand decided to direct a spin-off to Eveburn, called Bowman which would reportedly explain the abrupt appearance and the origin of the DC superhero.

In December 2015, it was announced that Italian American writer, film director and producer, Mikayla Bertinelli was to join the DC project by collaborating with Delvin Gryand to direct Bowman.

Trivia

 * The name of the film derives from the so-called "burning sensation" Ace once felt for Eve.