Warning: Full Spoilers in the Review
At one point in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’s bloated two hour plus runtime, Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) gave a speech to a baffled audience at a fundraiser. He rambled about one subject to another and was generally incoherent. I couldn’t keep my eyes off the screen, but not out of admiration.
Eisenberg’s Luthor was the perfect villain for the film. Like the film, he wanted to be the villain, the comic relief, and the philosopher. And he failed at all three.
There are aspects of this film to like: Great action scenes and some solid performances. But in the end, the film couldn’t rise above its muddled narrative.
“God versus man! Day versus night!!”
This film should have been a fan boy’s dream: Batman, the brooding vigilante who works in the shadows versus Superman, the ultimate hero who stands for truth and justice…Day versus night.
Batman fulfilled his part. He was dark, brooding and brutally violent. The scene where Batman takes on a bunch of thugs in the warehouse was probably one of my favorite Batman action scenes.
Ben Affleck was actually awesome in the role, portraying not only the anger and violence of the character, but also the world weary look of a man who was traumatized in the past. Batman killed in this film, with no explanation as to why…and I actually bought into it. There were hints to Batman’s sudden violent change on screen (The vandalized Robin suit for instance), but Affleck wore it. You could see it in the way he carried himself throughout the film.
On the other hand, Superman was not handled well. I wanted a confident Superman who believed absolutely that what he was doing was right. Not in a cocky or arrogant way, mind you…but simply because it was the right thing to do. Superman should represent hope.
Instead we see the return of the brooding and self-doubting Superman from Man of Steel. Batman did enough brooding for everyone, so I didn’t need Superman to do the same. The innate likability that made me like Henry Cavill in his first outing as Superman was not there.
The fight itself, like most of the action, was great. Getting there was the problem. There was a built in conflict here: Batman hated Superman for the death and destruction he caused in Man of Steel and Superman was wary of Batman’s violent ways in Gotham. I was expecting a clash of “superhero philosophy,” but I got an over complicated and contrived plot from Lex Luthor.
First of all, what were Lex Luthor’s motivations for destroying Superman? Because he’s a “god?” Because his father believed that no one stayed good forever? Was he working for Darkseid? It was never very clear.
Why did Luthor have to fool Batman into the fight? That extra motivation came in Wallace Keefe (Scoot McNairy), the security guard who lost his legs in the Metropolis battle. I had the impression that it was more of a passing, friendly acquaintance than a deep rooted friendship. This was the death that pushed Batman over the edge?
And Luthor’s plans for Superman weren’t any better. Framing him for the terrorist camp massacre at the beginning of the film was just weird. Did everyone think that Superman killed with bullets?
And then there was the Congressional Hearing. It was emblematic of the whole film. I thought that this was where Superman would explain himself. Maybe we would have a tense scene between Senator Finch (Holly Hunter) and Superman where Cavill’s innate likeability would win over both the everyone in the hall, but also the audience.
But an explosion interrupted, as though the film suddenly remembered that it was a dumb action movie.
Every conflict could have been resolved if people just talked. Both Batman and Superman were absolutely allergic to speaking, so it led to a misunderstanding . That took away from their conflict. If the stakes were real, the fight could have been much more interesting.
“You flew too close to the sun. Now look at you.”
There was a lot going on this film: Establishing Batman, Catching us up on Superman and sowing the seeds of the Justice League. I actually admired that Snyder and his writers attempted such a gargantuan task, but the result suffered from a lack of focus and overly serious tone.
It started as a Batman film. Then it was a Superman film. And then a Justice League film. Then back to Superman. Then Batman…The poor editing made the transitions between stories jarring. It was like they took parts of three scripts and haphazardly put them together. All the story lines suffered because of this.
While I did nerd out a little seeing Aquaman, the Flash and Cyborg, having them show up in a video was ineffective. If they had found a way to insert them in the same way they did the Flash during that interesting dream Batman had, it would have been more effective. And would these scenes have a taken anything away if they weren’t in it? I don’t believe they would have.
Did we really need to reestablish Batman’s origin? I understand that they wanted to establish that their moms had the same name, but that scene was so clumsily handled. Batman finding out that both have a mother named Martha should have been an amazing moment. I’ll admit that I was touched a bit because of the loss of my own mother. But again, it was rushed so that moment very quickly for me. Suddenly Batman was Superman’s best friend when he was literally seconds away from killing him over a name?
And Superman was barely in the film. When he was on screen, he was mostly posing for Snyder’s loving slow motion shots. He was an object to be worshiped as the writers did their best to hammer the “God Amongst Men” theme that they literally drop by the third act. Maybe if they had a full movie to flesh out this theme, which was actually interesting, it would have been more effective.
Simplicity would have saved it.
Here’s my “What if”:
What if Superman was working with the government? Not to the extreme that “The Dark Knight Returns” storyline had, but just cooperating with government. The violent and murderous Batman catches Superman’s attention and they come into conflict. It then could become a lawful Superman versus a Batman on a violent rampage. You could have the whole “nature of a good superhero” theme as Superman finds out why Batman was suddenly killing.
In this version, maybe Lex Luthor was still manipulating things. Instead of doing the indirect plans he had in Batman v Superman, they could have Luthor be more direct. What if Luthor makes it look like Batman took a shot at Superman or vice versa?
And then they could have given Lois Lane something to do other than being a plot device like she was in this film. What if she was the one who discovered Luthor’s manipulation and she was the one who stops the fight between our two heroes?
I know madness right?
If they insisted on having that Justice League storyline, you could still have Wonder Woman in the background, possibly trying to get Batman and Superman to join with her to find the rest of the league.
I’m not saying that my idea is better…it’s just the simplest scenario I could think of. And if I could do it, I’m sure they could have done so too.
Then there was the tone. I didn’t mind a serious tone (The Dark Knight Trilogy was a personal favorite), but the film is devoid of any kind of humor or joy. Luthor seemed to be the only source of humor and that was hit or miss (mostly misses). I’m not saying that it should have been a laugh fest, or even the tone that Marvel movies have, but a jokey line here and there would have been nice.
I think that was why I loved Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot). She had a small role, but made the most of it. During the final fight with Doomsday, Wonder Woman was knocked down. As she picked herself, she smiled. After all the brooding and whining from both Batman and Superman, I genuinely smiled: Finally, someone who embraced being a superhero!
Doomsday himself was a typical CGI creation and again, was a shoe horned plot line. I understood that they needed a common threat to unite the heroes, but couldn’t it have been Luthor? They could have played up the mad scientist thing with Luthor as he created something else to threaten the city. And while it was fun seeing the trinity of Superman, Wonder Woman and (Well, sort of) Batman tag teaming the monster, it was action for action’s sake.
I really hated the inclusion of Doomsday because it meant the film would have that ending…
Superman died.
And I felt nothing.
The world mourned.
And I felt nothing.
Superman’s death was not earned. I would have bought him sacrificing himself for humanity if he was the confident believer in justice that he was meant to be. But he wasn’t that. In fact, it seems like he flew to his death simply to save Lois.
And the world’s reaction wasn’t believable. A few days before, half of the world wanted Superman gone.
If Snyder and the writers were going for an emotional wallop for the end of the film, they completely failed. Especially when they took back Superman’s death in the final seconds.
We’re going to get a whole lot of Jesus metaphors in the next movie.
“The bell has already rang!”
Seeing Batman and Superman together in one film was an amazing accomplishment. And like I said, there is a lot to like in the film. The action was unbelievable.
For a lot of fans, it was enough to see Batman throw a punch to Superman’s face, seeing hints of Darkseid or promises of seeing the Justice League.
It was very obvious that everyone involved loves and reveres the source material. Scenes are composed like they were right out of a comic book.
But I needed more than fan service to think the movie was great.
But let me give you a personal example. When I was young, I loved Snake-Eyes from G.I. Joe. When I heard they were making a movie about them, I was very excited. I was about to see a childhood hero on a movie screen, something I thought I would never see.
And then the movie came out and…wow. It was terrible. It was cool to see Snake-Eyes but I couldn’t overlook how bad the movie was. Put down your pitchforks fanboys…I’m not comparing the two movies (I would give the G.I. Joe movie a 2 or 3 so relax), just the situation.
And yet, I looked forward to the sequel.
The same is true here. I’m looking forward to the next movie in the DC Universe, even if it’s just to see where they go with it.
SCORE: 5 OUT OF 10