Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice

photo courtesy of latinpost.com

     Zack Snyder’s Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice is the loooooong-awaited follow up to DC’s Man of Steel and the effective launch of Warner Brothers’ DC Extended Universe. As such, it is DC’s first real answer to the comic book movie empire that is the Marvel Cinematic Universe. How is it? The answer is a complicated one. The film, though (at the time of this article) financially profitable, has been divisive at best and utterly lambasted by critics at worst. Ultimately, the film has some truly bright moments and is not utterly irredeemable…but also suffers from serious problems.

SPOILER-FREE REVIEW                    

     Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice follows—you guessed it—Batman and Superman in the wake of the destruction of much of Metropolis during the events of Man of Steel. The world is divided over the presence of Superman (Henry Cavill); some respond with thanksgiving and adoration, and others with skepticism and fear. Among those in the latter camp are some senators, Batman (Ben Affleck, controversially), and Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg, controversially).

     Superman attempts to navigate the rising pressure from the government and society to be held accountable for his actions while also balancing a job at the Daily Planet and his relationship with Lois Lane (Amy Adams). Batman, afraid of the malevolent potential of Superman’s power, works to bring him down. Lex Luthor, meanwhile, is working to confront Superman on his own terms.

photo courtesy of ew.com

     This movie throws a lot of things at the screen. Some of them are great, some of them are there but may not quite stick the landing, and some of them…yeah. I’ll take each of these in turn. A note before we begin in earnest: the fact very well may be that if you’re a comic book fan or just a super-interested person, you may not care if certain things suck. You might enjoy the movie just because Superman fights Batman. And that’s okay. So, if that’s the case, you do you, fam. With that duly noted, let’s dive in…

THINGS THAT WERE GREAT

     Most of the fundamentals of this movie (and by extension, the DC Universe), were actually there and were actually pretty solid. It introduced a bunch of new characters into the universe; Ben Affleck’s Batman and Jeremy Iron’s Alfred were well-cast and well-paired. Gal Gadot performed excellently as Wonder Woman. There’s a new and interesting villain on the scene, and some groundwork is laid for future threats. All of the character relationships found solid footing in this film.

     The new Batman may struggle under the weight of the Christian Bale/Christopher Nolan-verse, but manages to distinguish himself well enough. There’s one especially great scene in which Batman takes on an entire group of thugs, and the choreography and pacing shows off the menacing and formidable threat that is the Batman. Unfortunately, like many good things in the movie, that scene was largely spoiled in trailers.

photo courtesy of screenrant.com

     There are, at certain moments, some genuine surprises. Not many, but they are there, and when they come, they’re usually pretty exciting. I won’t point them out so as to preserve their impact.

     Finally, the movie has a certain unmistakable visual style. It demonstrates the steady hand of a talented director, Zack Snyder, who has the titanic 300 under his belt. Batman plays much more like a true piece of art than its Marvel counterparts; there are shots with depth and meaning, that tell a story even taken alone.

THINGS THAT WERE EH

     Jesse Eisenberg’s performance as Lex Luthor is one that will be…debatable. Eisenberg and Snyder try to twist around the predictable aspects of the character to offer something more unusual, more sinister, more scary. Basically, they’re trying to make Heath Ledger’s Joker happen with Lex Luthor. It’s largely a matter of taste for fans. Personally, I think the choices were mostly refreshing. Though at times it seemed a bit much, I found Eisenberg’s approach generally interesting and enticing. It probably stops short of being the truly chilling, maniacal delivery that they were hoping for. Suffice it to say, it will not go down in the record-books like Heath Ledger’s Joker.

photo courtesy of moviepilot.com

     The score, provided by the wonderful Hans Zimmer, was likewise debatable. Blasphemy, I know. He takes some risks with Luthor’s and Wonder Woman’s themes, and in both cases fans will largely make up their own opinion on whether or not they work. Luthor’s dramatic music will probably serve to increase whatever perception you already had of his performance; Wonder Woman’s theme is either goosebump-inducing or a bit cheesy.

     Batman V Superman makes a marked effort to introduce the larger elements of the DC Universe. That is, there are plenty of Justice League cameos and references. A diehard fan will probably be pleased enough not to care, but let’s face it: the introductions were sloppy, unnecessary, forced, and even distracting. So, while it’s cool to see the Justice League…nah, bro. You gotta do the work.

     Also, maybe this is just me, but in certain cases, let’s just say…the CGI left things to be desired.

THINGS THAT WERE DOWNRIGHT AWFUL

wonder woman being cool and stuff. photo courtesy of comingsoon.net

     The characters, though cool in presentation and idea, were not given hardly any room to breathe in the script. There’s way too much going on to have that kind of space, and the result is flat characters. Superman, Batman, and Lex are all of basically one mind throughout the entire film. There’s little emotional complexity involved, which is surprising seeing how dramatically they soliloquize throughout the film.

     Which brings us to the main crime of this movie: there’s wayyyy too many things happening. It attempts to tell a Justice League movie, set up the entire DC Universe, and be a sequel to Man of Steel all in one. It does none of these things to complete satisfaction at the expense of all the others. It’s like a much worse version of Marvel’s Iron Man 2, a movie distracted by the weight of a shared universe. What’s worse, it seems self-aware that this is the case: it is, after all, not Man of Steel 2 but Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. In other words, it’s not a movie proper, it’s a shameless spectacle with Justice League tie-ins.

photo courtesy of techinsider.io

     For instance, Wonder Woman did not need to be in this movie. As I said above, Gal Gadot’s great, but there’s literally no reason for her to be here other than to randomly show up and be legit. She adds almost nothing to the story, and spends most of the movie being Catwoman from The Dark Knight Rises.

     All this comes at the expense of the actual titular fight, which, if you’re hoping that takes up a decent part of the movie…it doesn’t. It comes and goes as quickly as the Flash, and it’s all the worse for the long buildup. And it really ends up not being the point of the movie, which may feel like a deception to some moviegoers, if not a surprise. The film also plays a lot of very valuable cards very quickly, all of which seem like they deserve a more detailed look or like they would be better saved for some other movie.

     Batman looks dumb. That’s right, I said it. It’s a terrible costume design, and at certain points in the film, it’s almost laughable. It might not be that bad if it were set in a campy Gotham like Adam West’s rendition of the character, but it’s not. In the midst of all this serious action, it’s utterly out of place. Which brings me to another point. The movie takes itself so seriously; it’s deep, dark, and borderline depressing. At times, it’s boring. But sometimes it just doesn’t work. People in the audience laughed at things I’m pretty sure they weren’t supposed to laugh at. The veneer is spread thin.

     The absolute lowest point of the film comes at the end of the fight between the Dark Knight and the Man of Steel. To explain it in any depth involves spoilers, so at this point the spoiler-free section will conclude.

photo courtesy of screenrant.com

     Despite having made all these mostly negative points, I can’t deny: I had fun. I enjoyed my movie experience. So if that’s all you want out of this movie and you’re a die-hard comic fan, you should see this movie. If you’re willing to embrace mindless action and CGI, have a great time. If those things don’t resonate with your spirit, then Batman V Superman’s probably not for you.

SPOILERY DELICIOUSNESS

     Back to that lowest point of the film: what is it? It’s the resolution of the fight between Batman and Superman. Batman is at the point of killing the Man of Steel (which is impressive), but decides not to because, it seems, he realizes that his mom and Superman’s have the same name. From what I can tell, this revelation is really supposed to be more of a wake-up call that Lex is playing them both. But this makes no sense from the character’s standpoint. Superman is being played by Lex directly; he’s aware of it. But played by Lex or not, Batman’s motivations are still the same. He wanted Superman gone independently of Luthor’s conniving, so no revelation of this sort should wake him from what has been his month-long ambition: to defeat Superman (especially when his plan has finally reached fruition!). As far as the audience can see, Batman decides to play buddy with Superman because the script calls for him to do so.

doomsday smiling pretty for the camera. photo courtesy of screenrant.com

     The film also wastes the character of Doomsday and its accompanying story arc, the Death of Superman. Doomsday is thrown into the end of the movie to be a mindless killing machine and to, of course, kill Superman. Those goals are accomplished, yay. But I can’t help feeling like all of that happened just to create artificial stakes to unite our heroes and, (in the case of Superman’s death) set up exciting future events. Also, can we take a moment to recognize that when people complained the trailers ruined the movie…they were totally right? Almost no major plot point left untold.

     There were some more minor gripes, too. The whole thing with the kryptonite spear was weird and unnecessary. Why does Lois throw it into the pool? It’s hard to say. No discernible reason, really. Also, Batman kills fools right and left in this movie. Which, yes, sometimes Batman kills in the comics, but his overarching character trait is one of restraint. Killing is the exception, not the rule. If this is the Batman you want people to know for the next decade as part of your DC Universe, you should probably have him be representative of the heart of the character. As for his origin—falling into the well and all that business—did they really think everyone forgot that Batman Begins happened? Cuz we didn’t.

     But having said all that, Batman V Superman wasn’t all bad. For the entire opening, I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw. The visual panache in the murder of Thomas and Martha Wayne was stunning and beautiful—the way the gunman’s weapon gets caught in Martha’s pearls was heartbreaking. Likewise, the scene in which Bruce Wayne drives through Metropolis in the wake of the destruction caused by Superman and Zod is an inventive and exciting character beat. The trouble is, those moments weren’t enough to carry the movie.

photo courtesy of moviepilot.com

     All in all, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice suffers from overstuffed syndrome, proving, for the time being, that not just anybody can pull off the ensemble wonder that was The Avengers. It combines a plethora of plot threads with shallow character motivations and CGI spectacle to produce something of a mess. That said, there’s enough there to provide a fun movie-going experience and a decent base of characters for DC’s shared universe. If you go into the film expecting a divine spark and the delivery of everything you’ve ever hoped for, you’ll probably be disappointed. If, however, you go in having read the myriad scathing reviews and expecting an absolute failure, you might be pleasantly surprised at times. A mixed bag of epic proportions.