Fair warning. This blog is more of a stream of consciousness because I’m really tired and I just saw the movie an hour ago but I wanted to get this done right away. It is, however, SPOILER FREE! so read on!
Just like Natalie Imbruglia was in the 90’s, I’m torn. I have never enjoyed a movie this much that disappointed me. DC needs to learn from the Marvel because I don’t think they did enough to hype the movie. Maybe some advertising big shot hoped that Superman and Batman on the same screen would do the work for her/him because, lets face it, they’re both bigger names than any of the Avengers. Before their Marvel movies, who gave a damn about Iron Man, Thor, or Captain America? Derf, probably, and my friend Nick because he has a nerd boner for Marvel, but the majority of people didn’t know or care. So Marvel made a movie, built hype for it, released a fantastic product, rinsed and repeated. DC, on the other hand, doesn’t do any of those things. Here’s my review.
I liked Man of Steel. I really did. It had a ton of problems but it was a fun movie that captured the spirit of Superman. I’m sorry to report that Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice had the same problems its predecessor did, but on the bright side, the spirit is still there.
You know when I have too much, or too little, to say about a movie and my thoughts seem scattered (kind of like this blog)? Now imagine half of a movie is like that. Ready for a questionable analogy? Here we go. Your dog gets a hold of a book before you can read it and starts to rip it up. You manage to get to it before too much damage is done but as you read you notice parts are missing. You can still get a good idea of whats going on, but it’s fragmented. That’s the first half of Batman v Superman. There was a lot of really good stuff including some fantastic insight from Mr Alfred Pennyworth but because of the fractured nature of the first part, it lacked impact. The powers that be behind the movie were trying to do too much in too little time. Instead of making a Justice League prequel it felt like they were taking a Batman movie, combining it with a Superman movie, and just tacking on some Justice League tidbits for good measure. The film didn’t start to come together until it was already into the second half. Then and only then did it feel like it founds its stride.
For the love of God, we know Batman’s origin story already! While the writers and producers didn’t dwell on it too much, I still saw more of Batman’s origin than I needed to. They tried to tie the death of his parents into why he’s acting the way he does in the movie, but we already know that. My parents, who never watch super hero movies or read comics, know Batman’s origins. The movie hinted at so many other things in the Batman universe that they could have used any of them to be his motivation. Jason Todd anyone? One of the cooler aspects of the movie was all the small hints to other things. Nods to Jason Todd and the Joker, the other members of the Justice League, and even who the big baddie will be for the Justice League movie. There was plenty for the writers to work with but they just wanted keep bringing up the death of Batman’s parents.
Does everyone know what time it is? That’s right kids, it’s time to talk about the acting. The most controversial thing about the movie was the casting of Ben Affleck. I think I was the only person I knew that wasn’t scared. Here’s the thing about Ben Affleck. He’s a really good actor but no one wants to forgive him for 2003 when he released Gigli and Daredevil. People forget he’s actually really good. 2006 rolled around and Hollywoodland proved that he has what it takes to be a great actor. He was a really good Bruce Wayne but there wasn’t enough for him to truly shine. According to IMDB there’s going to be more Batman movies and he’ll star in them and I think that’s when he’ll be at his best and show everyone that he was the right choice. I wanted to sympathize more with Bruce Wayne but the fragmented storytelling kept me from doing that. Henry Cavill was, once again, great as Clark Kent/Superman but just like with Affleck, I couldn’t connect with him. A reason for that could have been that this was really a Batman heavy movie. Gal Gadot was good but guess what? That’s right, not enough of her to get a good feeling.
There were only two people in the movie that I really felt had enough story cohesiveness to really show us what they were about. Jeremy Irons as Alfred and Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor. While their scenes were still fragmented like everyone else’s, the way their characters were written allowed them, as actors, to really shine. Alfred’s motivations and feelings were more subtle but he had the right lines at the right time with just the right delivery to make it all click. There was no one big scene that did it, it was little quips here and there that allowed me, and the friends I saw it with, to piece together his motivation and feelings.
Eisenberg has always played the same type of character, at least in his bigger movies. He’s always been the slightly awkward fast talking smart guy. In Batman V Superman he plays a similar character in a completely different way. He’s a slightly awkward fast talking genius who’s barely keeping a mask over the fact that he’s a raging psychopath. My favorite Lex is always going to be Michael Rosenbaum from Smallville who really captured Lex’s decent into madness but Eisenberg is coming up a close second. This Lex Luthor is quite different from any of the others but the great thing was that even though he was different, he still embodied Lex.
The second part of the movie was when it all came together and felt like something was actually happening. This was also when the majority of the action happened so there was that to help pull me in. The main plot and the side stories came together and what Snyder and the writers were trying to do became clear, but it was too little too late to save the first part. Luckily, the second half was awesome. I like to think that Zack Snyder is an alternate universe Michael Bay who doesn’t suck at making movies. 300, Sucker Punch, Watchmen, and Man of Steel all had huge action scenes just like a Bay film but they were also really good.
There was a ton of CG and it was done well. I knew it was CG, of course, but it was good enough to allow my suspension of disbelief to keep chugging along. The fights were great and the Batman Superman showdown was a joy to watch. It stayed true to how things went down in the comics. I had a huge problem with the ending of the final battle in Man of Steel and I’m happy to say I have no such problem with Batman v Superman. They changed things, of course, for the sake of cramming it in to a two and a half hour movie. Doomsday felt like a tacked on bad guy, but it was still really cool. They also tweaked his origin quite a bit but it was done in such a way that I wasn’t bothered. The writers took Doomsday’s rebirth (in the comics) and used it as his origin in the movie so it was close enough that I didn’t rage. Hell, it was better than Bane in Batman and Robin.
A quick look at my word count shows I’m 1300 words in and I’ve covered the big parts so lets wrap this up. Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice could use a lot of improving but it was by no means a bad movie. There are going to be a ton of critics who crap on it because they hearts are three sized too small, but don’t listen to them. There’s also going to be a lot of comic nerds who hate it because they’re comparing it to the comics and sure, listen to them if that stuff matters to you. But more than any of that, listen to this. It was fun. Just like I’ve said about a million movies before this one, it was fun and in the case of a movie like this, isn’t that what matters? All the bad and all the meh in the movie wasn’t enough to take the fun away. I wish they did a bunch of stuff differently, but I still had a good time. Go see this movie. Wait for a cheap matinee day or make it a day out with your friends. This is a movie worth watching on a big screen just for the epic battles. Just be ready for the first half to feel jumbled. The second half is good enough to make it all worth it.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice gets a 7 out of 11