Right OK, similar to SPECTRE, I thought I would do another relook at one of my previous and more recent posts, which was on Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice. This is a film that split fans of the DC universe and in this version I will mention a bit more about the Blu-ray release, which came out this week and features the Ultimate Edition, which has 30 extra minutes of footage. And does this footage add anything???? Well let's find out.....
And two warnings are coming up, first, this post will be a BIG one! And second is the usual warning:
SPOILERS ARE AHEAD!!!
STORY
OK so the story begins 18 months after the events after Man of Steel where Superman (Henry Cavill) has become a figure of controversy, where public opinion on him has been divided, where some people think he is a saviour to humanity and others see him as a threat. And one of the people who sees him as a threat happens to be Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) who was in Metropolis the day that Superman fought against General Zod as he tried to rescue some of his employees only to find they died as a result of the chaos wreaked on the city during Superman's battle with Zod. And as a result of this Wayne then decides to keep close tabs on Superman's activities, weary of his power and realising that could one day, if he chose to, destroy the Earth.
Meanwhile Superman's alter ego, Clark Kent, is now in a relationship with Lois Lane (Amy Adams) and they live together. Superman however despite his good deeds is now coming under close scrutiny from the media and figures of authority after an incident in the Middle East, where Lois was taken hostage but Superman rescued her. However his intervention came under criticism as the locals deemed that Superman chose who to save rather than prevent the deaths of other innocents during the hostage crisis.
Clark however is also aware of Wayne's activities as Batman (although does he know at this point he is Batman???!) and also sees him as a threat as he thinks Batman is above the law and is a ruthless vigilante who takes the law into his own hands. And despite the protests of his editor and boss, Perry White (Laurence Fishburne) Clark continues investigating Batman.
In the meantime Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) an ambitious businessman and CEO of Lexcorp attempts to convince Senator June Finch (Holly Hunter) to allow him to import kryptonite retrieved from the Indian ocean in order to use it as a deterrent against the possibility of future Kryptonians. Luthor makes a deal however on the side with Finch's aide in order for him to access Zod's body and the Kryptonian scout ship, however Finch denies Luthor's request.
Wayne soon after attends a party held by Luthor at Lexcorp where he meets a mysterious antiques dealer, Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) and Wayne during his attendance, retrieves data from the company's mainframe, however Prince steals the data drive herself before Wayne can take it. Prince eventually returns the data drive to Wayne as she could not decrypt the data on it and when Wayne returns to the Batcave to decrypt the data, he receives a vision of the future where he leads a group of rebels against Superman, but he is eventually captured by Parademons and killed by Superman.
Wayne however awakens from his nightmare and is suddenly met by the superhero, the Flash (Erza Miller) who tells him of Lois Lane's crucial role in the future and also he is to try and find "the others". Wayne then fully awakens from the dream and finds that the drive decryption has completed and he makes a surprising discovery about Diana. Wayne then decides to steal the kryptonite and weaponize it in order to use it against Superman should it be necessary.
And when Wayne as Batman intercepts the delivery of the kryptonite by the weapons smuggler, Anatoli Knyazev (Callan Mulvey) he throws a tracking device on the truck carrying it. However Batman is stopped by Superman who warns him to cease being the Bat and takes off as Batman defiantly vows to make Superman bleed.
Meanwhile, Superman attends a congressional hearing where he is questioned by Senator Finch (Holly Hunter) over the validity of his actions but a bomb planted by Lex Luthor goes off in the wheelchair of Wallace Keefe (Scoot McNairy) who attends the meeting, and was a former employee of Wayne. The bomb then kills everyone at the hearing except Superman who manages to save one survivor from the wreckage. Superman then questions his own self worth and frustrated by his failure to stop the incident decides to fly off and go into exile.
In the meantime, Wayne as Batman raids Lexcorp and steals the kryptonite and weaponizes it and creates a spear tipped with it as he trains and builds himself up to prepare to do battle with Superman. Luthor meanwhile accesses the Kryptonian ship where he learns the details of its alien technology and he also uses the corpse of General Zod and splices his own blood with the body in order to create a new life form.
Meanwhile, Lois pieces together what happened at the congressional hearing and that Luthor was behind the bombing and not Keefe as she discovers that his fridge was full of groceries, suggesting he had no intention of sacrificing himself at the hearing but just to speak up about his reservations on the superhero. Lois however is soon met by Luthor on a rooftop (not sure which one!) and he pushes her off only for her to be suddenly rescued by Superman who confronts Luthor, who reveals that he has kidnapped Supe's Earth mother, Martha (Diane Lane).
Luthor demands that Superman kill Batman in exchange for Martha's life and he only has an hour to do it so Superman flies off to confront Batman in Gotham. Superman first off tries to reason with Batman, who has no intention of listeing and this results in the two of them doing battle against each other, but who will come out on top????
THOUGHTS
As one of the most highly anticipated films in recent years, Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice was always going to have a tough time delivering on its promise. And I myself was far from impressed by Man of Steel as a film as I felt it took itself way too seriously and it lacked much in the way of warmth or humour. And.... it would be very easy to raise the same accusation at BvS: DOJ aswell....however it does work better as a film than Man of Steel does as the main thing it has going for it is introduction of Batman/Bruce Wayne to the story.
So suffice to say when the film was initially released it received alot of stick from fans over its overtly dark tone, the depiction of Batman and Superman and the fact that it crammed in too many subplots that didn't make a whole lot of sense. Fortunately however the Ultimate edition does go in some way to remedying some of the loose plot strands even if the overall film isn't wholly satisfying.
However I still think that Snyder had a tough job in trying to please the DC fans not matter what he did and I do have to say there are still quite a few choices that Snyder made that I disagree with but I will get to them more in the flaws section. Regardless of that though Batman vs Superman does give us something that no film has up until now and that is a film that features these two great superheroes onscreen together and for that the film does deserve some credit.
PERFORMANCES AND NOTABLE SCENES (Warning: this section will contain spoilers!)
Moving onto the performances in the film, well they are mostly pretty good even if not all the actors are given the time that could be afforded to them or are even rightly casted!
Anyway so to start off Ben Affleck it has to be said, despite any fears of his casting in the role as Bruce Wayne/Batman, is excellent in his dual role as the billionaire businessman and the dark knight. Affleck however does play the part very seriously, so there isn't much room for his character(s) to have any real levity but despite that he still manages to really lend a good dramatic weight to Wayne's responsibilities aswell as provide a good physical presence as Batman.
And I have to say I quite like the new batsuit as the rough velvety threaded texture (much the same as we get for Supe's suit) is very well suited to the character. And for the sake of doing battle with Superman his powered exoskeleton suit Batsuit is actually pretty cool even though I'd imagine given how big and imposing it looks it must have weighted a tonne!
I would also like to revise my opinion on Batman's voice a little as I originally wasn't too keen on the idea of him using a voice modulator but in retrospect I think its work fairly well in the film. The only problem I felt with it was that Batman didn't really speak enough in the film to get used to the sound of it. However in one scene in the ultimate edition, toward the end where Batman confronts Luthor in prison, we hear Batman's voice more in that scene and there it made me think that the modulator actually didn't work too badly. So suffice to say I will remove that paragraph from the flaws section in this updated review.
Affleck also has his share of good scenes in the film that include the one where Wayne meets with Clark Kent while they attend Luthor's party. And Clark challenges Wayne on the Batman saying "Civil liberties are being trampled on in your city; good people living in fear" and Wayne says "Don't believe everything you hear, son". And Clark says "I've seen it, Mr Wayne. He thinks he's above the law" which prompts Wayne to say "The Daily Planet criticizing those who think they're above the law is a little hypocritical, wouldn't you say? Considering every time your hero saves a cat out of a tree, you write a puff piece editorial about an alien who, if he wanted to, could burn the whole place down. There wouldn't be a damn thing we can do to stop it".
Then there is the scene where Batman goes after the Kryptonite consignment but he is stopped by Superman who destroys his batmobile and warns him "Next time they shine your light in the sky, don't go to it. The Bat is dead. Bury it. Consider this mercy!". And before Superman walks away, Batman says to him "Tell me, do you bleed?" and Superman flies away, leaving Batman to look up at the sky vowing "You will!".
Another good scene is when Bruce argues with Alfred over his decision to fight Superman and how Alfred believes Bruce "wants to go war". And in the scene Bruce angrily says to Alfred "That son of a bitch brought the war to us two years ago. Jesus, Alfred, count the dead... thousands of people. What's next? Millions? He has the power to wipe out the entire human race, and if we believe there's even a ONE percent chance that he is our enemy we have to take it as an absolute certainty... and we have to destroy him!".
Then there is the showdown scene between Batman and Superman and in the scene Batman fires his kryptonite grenade at Superman, which burst into a vapour over him, which severly weakens Supe. And Batman gloatingly stands over him saying "That's it! Breathe it in! That's fear. You think you're brave? You're not brave!" and as Superman tries to punch Batman, he suddenly finds himself vulnerable and Batman says "Men are brave!" and kicks Supe's ass.
Then we have the scene where Batman takes down Knyazev's men, which is one of the best scenes in the film where we finally get to see the Bat kick ass. And after (SPOILER!) Batman sees of Knyazev by shooting him flamethrower tank, he covers Martha and says to her "Its okay. I'm a friend of your son!" and Martha says one of the very few humourous lines in the film "I figured. The cape!".
And last of all there is the moment where Bruce (SPOILER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) stands over Supe's grave paying his respects, he is joined by Diana. And Bruce says to her "I've failed him... in life. I won't fail him in death. Help me find the others like you". And as Diana says to him "Maybe they don't want to be found" Bruce says to her "They will. And they'll fight. We have to stand together". And as Diana asks Bruce "The others like me. Why did you say they'll have to fight?" Bruce replies "Just a feeling....".
Henry Cavill also does pretty well in reprising his role as Superman/Clark Kent, although it has to be said his physique is frankly getting a bit ridiculous looking and out of hand! Superman is a big strong guy but Cavill in this film is built almost literally like the side of a house!! That aside, Cavill still does a pretty decent job at showing Superman's turmoil in having to deal with the adversity of the public in their opinion of him aswell as his animosity towards Batman.
Cavill also has some good moments that include the scene where Clark confronts Wayne at Luthor's party about Batman's activities in Gotham by saying to Wayne "Civil liberties are being trampled on in your city; good people living in fear" and Wayne says to him "Don't believe everything you read, son". And Clark says to Bruce "I've seen it, Mr Wayne. He thinks he's a above the law". And as Wayne expresses his concerns over Superman and his power to do destroy the world, if he chose to, Clark says to him "Most of the world doesn't share your opinion, Mr. Wayne" and Wayne says "Maybe it's that Gotham City and me... we just have a bad history with freaks dressed like clowns!".
Another good scene comes when Superman and Batman first face each other after Superman stops Batman from intercepting the truck carrying the kryptonite. And in the scene Superman rips open Batman's car doors and they face each other and Superman says "Next time they shine your light in the sky, don't go to it. The Bat is dead. Bury it. Consider this mercy". And at this point Batman asks Supe "Tell me. Do you bleed?" and Superman just looks at him and takes off, leaving Batman to look and say "You will!".
Then there is the scene where Superman meets with Lois after (SPOILER!!) a terrorist bombing occurs, which he was powerless to stop. And Superman dispondently says to Lois "All this time I've been living my life the way my father saw it. Righting wrongs for a ghost, thinking I'm here to do good. Superman was never real. Just the dream of a farmer from Kansas". And Lois says to him, touching the "S" on his outfit "This means something. It's all some people have, it's all that gives them hope". And Superman sadly says to Lois "It did on my world. My world doesn't exist anymore" and he flies off.
And last of all is the scene where Superman is about to help Batman and Wonder woman take on Doomsday and he says to Wonder woman "This thing is from another world. My world". And Wonder woman says to Supe as she takes out her sword "I've killed things from other worlds before" and Superman looks to Batman and says "Is she with you?" and Batman puzzled says to him "I thought she was with YOU".
Jesse Eisenberg on the other hand.....well, while he is a fine actor, has really been miscast here in his role as Lex Luthor, as he plays him like the evil version of Mark Zuckerberg and not as Superman's cunning and ruthless adversary. And Eisenberg is hardly the stuff of great villains in this film with his dweeby, fast paced delivery, its about as far from Lex Luthor as you could possibly get.
Regardless of that, Jesse still has some good scenes in the film that include the one where Luthor meets Wayne and Clark at his party. And Luthor greets them saying "Boys! Mm, Bruce Wayne meets Clark Kent. Ah, I love it! I love bringing people together! How are we?!". And Luthor shakes Wayne's hand and then he shakes Clark's and exclaims " Lex. It is a pleasure... Ow! Wow, that is a good grip! You should not pick a fight with this person!".
Then there is the scene where Senator Finch turns up at Lex's place and denies him the request to access the kryptonite. And Lex then moves toward her, menacingly and says to her "The Red Capes are coming! The Red Capes are coming!" and drums his fingers against the side of a table.
And lastly to keep things short there is the scene where (SPOILER!!) Luthor summons Superman to fight against Batman. And Luthor says to Superman "And now, you will fly to him, and you will battle him to the death. Black and blue. Fight night. The greatest gladiator match in the history of the world. God versus man. Day versus night! Son of Krypton versus Bat of Gotham!".
And then Luthor shows Superman the pictures of Martha who has been kidnapped and he taunts him saying "And now God, bends to my will. Now the cameras are waiting at your ship. For the world to see the holes in the holy. Yes, the all mighty comes clean about how dirty he is when it counts. To save Martha, bring me the head of the Bat!". And Luthor's chopper arrives and he takes out a timer and he says to Superman "Mother of God, would you look a the time. When you came here, you had an hour. Now it's less!".
And last of all is the scene where Batman meets Luthor when he is in prison and Batman holds his hot branding iron up ready to use. And Luthor, not fazed says to Batman "This is how it all caves in, civilization on the wane, manners out the window. But who would believe me, I... I'm insane. I'm not even fit to stand trial". And as Batman tells Luthor he will be transferred to Arkham, Luthor taunts him again and Batman angrily punches the wall, leaving a branding mark on it. And Luthor runs toward the closed cell door and yells at Batman "The bell's already been rung! He is coming! And he is hungry! They heard it; the creatures among the stars. They'll come... He'll come, ring ding, ding, ding, ding, ring, ding, ding, ding, ding!".
Amy Adams on the other hand does pretty well as Lois Lane although her character is still rather underwritten and I felt that she is starting to look a little old for the role (sorry!).
Amy does have her moments her and there such as her scene where Lois returns home after her ordeal in the desert and she has a bath and Clark comes in with a bag of groceries and some flowers and she expresses her concerns to Clark over the incident. And she says to Clark "I'm saying I want to understand what happened. I'm saying, thank you for saving my life. I'm saying there's a cost. I just don't know if it's possible". And Clark asks "What's possible?" and she says "For you to love me and be you" and well then we have that moment where Clark get's into the bathtub!
Then there is the moment where Superman turns up at Lois's apartment (or their apartment I guess?) and she tries to reassure him that he is doing the right thing after the congress bombing. And Lois says to Superman of his story of his father being the inspiration for him and now it means nothing "That farmer's dream is all some people have. It's all that gives them hope".
And last of all there is the scene (SPOILER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) where Lois turns up just in time to prevent Batman from killing Superman with the krpto-spear. And as Superman says to "Save Martha!" Batman repeatedly asks "WHY DID YOU SAY THAT NAME???!" and Lois runs in and shouts "Please! Stop! Its his mother's name! Its his mother's name!" which of course stops Batman in his tracks.
Laurence Fishburne also reprises his role well as Perry White although he is somewhat wasted in the film given that his role as White is again quite brief. Still Fishburne does get to have a fun moment in the film where White wonders where Clark has vanished off to and says "Kent? Where the hell is Kent? Where did he go? Where DOES he go?!!".
Jeremy Irons, I have to say while I don't think he was the perfect choice for the role, he still does pretty well as Alfred, Wayne's butler and trusted confidant.
Irons also provides some rare moments of humour in the film and glib one-liners that include one from his first scene where Wayne enters the Batcave. And in the scene Wayne says to him "Still working? You're getting slow in your old age, Alfred" and Alfred replies "It comes to us all, Master Wayne. Even you've got too old to die young, though not for lack of trying!".
Another good Irons scene is where Wayne goes to Luthor's charity event and he goes downstairs to hack into Luthor's mainframe but the hack will take seven minutes to access the data. And Wayne says to him over an earpiece "I can't stay down here, Alfred" so Alfred says "Go upstairs and socialize. Some young lady from Metropolis will make you honest" and he says to himself "In your dreams, Alfred!".
And finally there is the scene where Bruce and Alfred argue over the merits of what they are doing and Bruce says they've always been criminals and nothing has changed. But Alfred says "Oh, yes it has, sir. Everything's changed. Men fall from the sky, the gods hurl thunderbolts, innocents die. That's how it starts, sir. The fever, the rage, the feeling of powerlessness that turns good men... cruel!".
Gal Gadot also is pretty good in her role as the mysterious Diana Prince, who we later on find out is in fact Wonder woman. Gadot plays the part with a good mixture of sexiness, ambiguity and also a little bit of vulnerability.
Gadot also has some good moments altough I will only quickly mention her scene where Wayne meets up with Diana for the second time and questions her about stealing the data drive. And in the scene Diana says to Wayne "You know, it's true what they say about little boys: born with no natural inclination to share. And Wayne says to her "I guess I'm the first to have seen through that babe in the woods act. I've known a few woman like you" but Diana smiles and says "I don't think you've ever known a woman like me". And Diana says to Wayne "I didn't steal your drive. I borrowed it. You'll find it in the glove compartment of your car" and she says louder as she leaves "Mr Wayne" and walks off.
And third to last is Diane Lane does well in reprising her role as Clark's adopted mother, Martha Kent although again she is reduced to a bit player and only reall appears briefly. And one of Ladd's best moments comes when Martha tries to reassure Clark/Superman what to do in reaction to the negative outcry against Supe and she says "Be their hero, Clark. Be their angel, be their monument, be anything they need you to be... or be none of it. You don't owe this world a thing. You never did!".
And lasty there is of course the scene where Batman turns up to save Martha from Knyazev and his men. And after Batman takes them out he says to Martha "Its ok. I'm a friend of your son" and Martha looks at him and says "I figured. The cape!".
And second to last is Holly Hunter who does well in her role as Senator Finch, who works briefly with Luthor but ends up denying his request to utilise kryptonite for his own purposes.
And Holly has one or two notable scenes such as the one where Finch turns up at Luthor's place to turn down his requests to access the kryptonian tech. And Luthor asks her "May I call you June?" and Finch replies "You can call me whatever you like. Take a bucket of piss and call it granny's peach tea. Take a weapon of assassination and call it deterrence. You won't fool a fly or me; I'm not gonna drink it!".
And lastly there is the scene where Finch goes on TV and discusses the validity of Superman's actions. And she says to the experts "The world has been so caught up with what Superman can do that no one has asked what he should do". And when one of the experts asks her "Are you, as a United State Senator, personally
comfortable saying to a grieving parent, "Superman could've saved your child, but on principle we did not want him
to act.". And Finch replies "I'm not saying he shouldn't act. I'm saying he shouldn't act unilaterally". And the expert asks her "What are we talking about her? Must there be a Superman?" and Finch replies "There is".
And last of all is Kevin Costner who very briefly reappears as Clark's adopted father, Joanthan Kent but basically his appearance is nothing more than a cameo and is actually pretty pointless in the film really, which was a pity in a way as I thought Costner didn't do too badly in Man of Steel.
DIRECTOR AND MUSIC
Finally moving onto the director, Zack Snyder who does a reasonable, if far from perfect job here with BvS as he appears to confidently handle the film's action scenes, which while they are pretty damn loud, although they are rather chaotically staged at times they are good. Snyder however doesn't do so well at telling a coherent story and the film's pacing lengthy two and a half hour run doesn't do it many favours overall as it leaves quite untied loose ends story wise although the Ultimate edition does to some extent resolve that.
But in the end it really has to be said that even though Synder's visuals are very impressive, his ability at storytelling here falls a bit flat. But to be fair Snyder does what he can with the material he has at hand but I think you could safely say that direction wise Snyder has made BvS a film more of style over real substance.
Music wise the film features a pretty decent score by Hans Zimmer and the Dutch musician, Junkie XL but its not a particularly memorable one though and it certainly doesn't stand as one of Zimmer's best scores. And the score is very much doom and gloom and filled with plenty of BWAMMS and DUMMSS and only offers rare moments of optimism so it has to be said its not one of the better scores to feature in a superhero film.
FLAWS (Warning: this section ALSO contains spoilers!)
As for the Batman vs Superman's flaws....yeah OK I've already mentioned quite a few but I will mention a few more here in my revised review so this will be a BIG section.
Well for starters I think, just like Man of Steel, this is a film that takes itself VERY seriously and the overall tone here is very dark and dour and somewhat soulless. Now to be fair for Batman, a dark tone to the matieral is very appropriate given that he is the "dark knight" but even by those standards, Bruce Wayne and Batman are presented in a mega dreary and serious fashion. And even though Ben Affleck does a commendable job in both roles it would have been better if they did allow for just a little bit of humour in his role but instead its left to Alfred to provide one or two specks of levity in an otherwise pretty dour film.
And this brings me onto the pacing of the film which is in general is a problem as it takes way TOO LONG for the film to go anywhere and it is filled with too many so-called brooding scenes that don't really lead to much enroute to the scenes where we FINALLY see Bat and Supe go at it! And again its almost like they have to make superhero films running times feel epic these days and the best way to do that would be to make them longer, well no actually. I think this film would certainly have benefited from being trimmed length wise by 30 minutes or so and it would have helped cut down the tedium factor in the film.
Another issue, or several in fact are to do with the omission of certain scenes that help explain others but are restored in the ultimate edition. And as a few examples in the theatrical cut, how does Clark all of a sudden turn up at Luthor's charity ball? Well in the ultimate edition we see Perry White hand Clark a ticket and tells him to go cover the event. Then there is the scene at the start where Superman turns up to save Lois in the desert but he just appears out of nowhere. However again in the ultimate edition we hear Knyazev (who is there with his men) mention that Superman is coming and Superman turns up to prevent US missiles from destroying the area, then he appears to rescue Lois, so this help his appearance make more sense.
And then there is the whole reasoning for Superman to not twig that Wayne's former and disabled employee, Wallace Keefe's wheelchair had a bomb hidden inside it, which without the additional scene in the ultimate edition we wouldn't have really guessed that the wheelchair was in fact made with lead. And as we all know Superman cannot see through lead but again this was left out of the theatrical cut but again it was never even mentioned in Man of Steel that Superman couldn't see through lead, but that's a whole other issue.
This also brings to mind the whole character of Jimmy Olsen, who was totally brushed over by Snyder here and in fact he doesn't even get him right! Instead of Jimmy just being a photographer, here he is in fact an undercover CIA operative (at least I think its CIA) who is in the film for about two minutes tops (and that is including the ultimate edition footage!). Its just a joke by Snyder who dismisses one of the regular characters in the series who also doesn't even feature in the Daily planet once either! And Snyder even said he basically killed off Jimmy Olsen almost as a joke. I mean, what a dick!
Another issue for me was to do with the depiction of Superman as there are times where they just want to make Superman appear as a somewhat impotent figure who can't influence anything and even when he does good in the world, the world still bitches and moans about it. In short there are moments where Superman get's to do his thing but at no time does he get much thanks for it, except maybe when he rescues the girl out of a fire and in the ultimate edition, where Supe saves a lone survivor from the congress bombing. But that's your lot for Supe, he just get's treated with alot of disdain for most of the film itself leaving you with the feeling that his character really has been short changed.
And I also have to say I was pretty disappointed with the overall lack of action throughout the film and its only in the film's last 30 minutes or so that we get to see the superhero trio actually kick some ass. And Batman's scene where he rescues Martha is easily one of the best in the film and it would have been better if we had more moments of action in the film like that one rather than just a bunch of brooding but ultimately boring scenes instead.
I also had a problem with Lex Luthor in general as he was basically nothing more than just a fairly dimunitive, intellectual loony dweeb than an actual imposing figure Superman and Batman to deal with. And Luthor's creation of Doomsday was also a bit stupid in how the combination of his own blood and General Zod's corpse would somehow amalgamate to create a massive monstrousity such as Doomsday. It doesn't really quite add up and it would make more sense if what we did get was more just an amalgamation of Zod and Luthor themselves as the Nostalgia critic Youtube channel amusingly depicted with Doomsday just as Zod with Luthor's long hair! ;-)
I also find the whole concept of Batman and Superman fighting against each other a bit ridiculous anyway in the first place. I mean the fact that Bruce Wayne sees Superman as a threat is a bit silly, and yeah OK there was huge collateral damage that went down the day, Superman fought General Zod, but its hardly Superman's fault that it happened that way. Its not like Superman invited Zod to show up in the city and have a showdown infront of millions of people and let them get in the way! Not to mention both these guys are about keeping peace and justice and yet they don't see that's what they have both been doing in their respective cities (and in Superman's case the world) and just see each other as a threat. It doesn't quite add up.
The film also includes some characters that unless you were already a DC fan that you wouldn't have a clue as to how or what they were! And a prime example of this are the parademons that turn up in Bruce's nightmare sequence in the desert, who knock him out. I mean when I first saw the film, my first reaction was: who the hell are they???! Then there is the inclusion of Aqua man and the Flash and again if you aren't a DC fan you are left scratching your head going: who the f*** are these guys???! And again its down to Snyder's messy direction and poor storytelling that leaves the unaware viewer perplexed.
In fact you feel this film was being a bit more pat in making up for a way to avoid more lost lives by staging the battle on an uninhabited island rather than slap bang in the middle of either Gotham or Metropolis! And yeah OK its almost like Zack Snyder was trying to pay attention to the issue of all those lives lost but its still pretty convenient that Batman can find an abandoned place big enough to try and contain Doomsday's near unlimited power.
And last of all there is still of course that whole ongoing problem with Batman's morality, or the inherent lack of it as here Snyder has Batman kill people. Is this wrong??? Well, yes I think it is and it even pisses me off a bit to think that Snyder so blatantly wants to ignore Batman's moral code from the comic books and just throw it out the window so he has a thrill of seeing Batman mow down a bunch of bad guys with his Batmobile's machine guns.
And this lastly brings up the whole stupid idea of Batman branding his enemies with a branding iron shaped like a bat. I mean why???? At no point in the comics, at least to my knowledge, had Batman ever used a branding iron and for good reason as the whole idea yet again violates Batman's moral code. And Batman would not use such a thing as it would clearly set him up as a judge, jury and executioner which is something Batman had never been before this film as the branding iron here is a deathmark which will ensure a branded criminal will get killed in prison. Its just a daft concept and idea and again just appears to appeal to Snyder's onscreen bloodlust, which is a good reason Snyder probably shouldn't direct future DC films (but alas he will!).
Anyway so that's it for the flaws!
SUM UP
So to sum up Batman vs Superman is a bit of a mixed bag, on one hand, its very dark and dreary tone is a bit alienating, but on the other, the film still manages to be quite entertaining and for me it is still an improvement over the dreadful Man of Steel. And the dynamic of having both Batman and Superman onscreen is ultimately what helps save this film from being a write-off even if it isn't a wholly satisfying one.
And there is no denying that Synder knows how to make a stylish film although I have to say the visuals are impressive but also remarkably dreary (not to mention the photography is VERY grainy!) and yes he provides some good moments of action. And yes the main cast are mainly pretty good, particularly Ben Afflect as Bruce Wayne/Batman who is easily the best thing in the film and also to be fair the ultimate edition also helps flesh out some moments that didn't make sense in the theatrical version.
However the film's pacing, dark tone, incoherent plotting and its inclusion of a number of so called brooding but actually boring scenes really drag the film down. Is it a bad film??? No not really, it still has its moments and its great to see Batman and Superman do battle on the big screen even if it is just for eight minutes!
But in the end Batman vs Superman is still a jumbled mess, but regardless of that its still worth a watch and the ultimate edition does help improve it somewhat. Unfortunately for the hardcore DC fans, Zack Snyder will continue to direct the future Justice League films, starting with Justice League due for release next year. And unless he learns from the flaws of Batman vs Superman, can we ever be sure that he will produce something better??? Who knows? I guess we will have to wait and see.
However as for some better news, Ben Affleck a couple of months ago confirmed that he will be directing a new solo Batman film and he said that production is under way and he wants to ensure he does the character justice and make a good film. And let's hope that Ben can do just that as he already showed real promise as the dark knight in BvS. And let's also hope that he does away with that stupid bat branding iron and get's Batman's morality (i.e. no killing) right this time and if he does then kudos to Ben as he really could bring Batman back to form on the big screen.
Right! So that's it for my EXHAUSTIVE revised review of Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice and I will be back soon with another post soon.
Till then bye for now!
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