This movie has been getting quite a lot of bad buzz in the media and reviews I’ve seen online. But you know what? I had a great time watching this movie. I thought it was very enjoyable. It didn’t live up to the hype (but then again, what does?) and it’s not God’s gift to cinema. It isn’t even God’s gift to superhero movies. That honor clearly goes to Batman and Robin…kidding, no honors go to that travesty of a movie.
What comes next contains spoilers, as I’ll go into some of the things I really like and some of the things I didn’t like at all.
You have been warned.
Things I liked:
Consequences: A lot of people died in Man of Steel, and that movie didn’t really address that. This one does and it forms a very good foundation for what Batman is trying to do. You really get what Batman must have felt in Metropolis that day and that if Superman ever turned bad the world would be in a lot of trouble. And Batman has seen good guys turn bad, so he knows it’s possible. He also knows he’s getting older, so if he doesn’t do something now he might be too old to make a difference should Superman turn bad in the future.
Batman: What can I say about Batman and Bruce Wayne? I wasn’t sure about the casting of Ben Affleck back in the day, but as it turns out he nails it. Batman is by far the best part of this movie. In fact, for me, he might be the best live-action Batman I’ve ever seen. Everything about Batman just worked, such as Jeremy Irons as Alfred. The banter between these two characters was great. When you’re watching the movie you really get what drives Batman and you’re rooting for him, even as he goes after Superman.
Superman: Henry Cavill is a pretty legit Superman as far as I’m concerned, just like he was in Man of Steel. I would have loved to have seen that the deaths in that movie had more of an effect on him, such as him killing Zod, but there is already so much going on in this movie that there probably wasn’t room for it. Shame though. Maybe if they’d cut out some other stuff…
Wonder Woman: Her scenes were very good, both as Diana Prince and her interactions with Bruce Wayne, as well as the fight scenes as Wonder Woman. Her appearance has gotten me interested in the Wonder Woman movie, whereas before I didn’t really care.
Visuals: This is a visually stunning movie. The action scenes are well choreographed and just plain awesome. The scene in the warehouse where Batman is wrecking face is a great example of this.
Musical score: The soundtrack was great, which is not surprising with Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL at the helm.
Things I didn’t like:
More is Less: The movie tried to do too much and this is very clear in both halves of the movie. In the first half of the movie there are a lot of cuts to quickly go to different scenes, with different locations and different characters. If they’d removed some story threads it would have resulted in a tighter, better movie. Then in the second half they’re suddenly trying to put in all the Justice League hints and cameos that really have no place in this movie at all. They should have just kept the cameo to Wonder Woman.
Lex Luthor: I get what they were trying to go for here, but it’s not the Lex Luthor from the comics that I wanted to see. Once you get past that though he wasn’t all that bad. But he wasn’t Lex Luther for me, and the twitchiness got old quick. Lex Luther is supposed to be a megalomaniac genius, but in this movie he’s just insane.
Lois Lane: The key scenes with Lois are all scenes where she is the damsel. At the start of the movie they try to have her do something with an investigation into a bullet, but that plot point doesn’t go anywhere at all. While she does figure out that Lex is behind the desert incident that ‘revelation’ doesn’t do anything in-world in the movie and it doesn’t do anything for the viewer either because the viewer already knows Lex is behind it all. I mean, come on, you practically see the hireling instigator of the desert massacre stand next to Lex the next scene he is in.
Daily Planet: The Daily Planet and its people really did nothing for the movie except serve as padding, which was not necessary as the movie is already quite padded, thank you very much. The Daily Planet also gave Superman a couple scenes where he griped about the Bat Vigilante, but his motivation for getting in Batman’s way was paper thin. These scenes never fleshed out his motivation the way they should have.
Justice League Cameos: Aside from the few scenes with Wonder Woman, which were good, there were some other cameos for the upcoming Justice League movies. Flash, Cyborg and Aquaman were in this movie…as security footage…sent to Wonder Woman in an e-mail…by Batman…which he hacked from Lex Luthor…who apparently thought it necessary to give all meta-humans in his secret file their own logo.
That’s all the writers could come up with? Really?
Assuming control: If your spacecraft can be taken over by a human with stolen fingerprints taped to his fingers you’re doing something wrong. Sloppiest security I’ve seen in a long while. And then they trump it by having the ship computer say the council of Krypton outlawed the genetic manipulation Lex is planning and all Lex has to say is “where’s the council now?” to get his way. Such mandates should not be bound by the lifespan of the people who made it, computer.
Doomsday: A.k.a. the Cave-troll. Doomsday feels shoehorned in to give Superman, Batman and Wonder woman a Big Bad to fight. Not a big fan of his looks, since we’ve seen his likeness before in the LotR movies, but I did like the fight. It was flashy. Would have liked to have seen a better creation of Doomsday though, since this one made no sense at all.
Dream sequences: In a movie that is already this long the dream sequences are unnecessary padding. They’re a clunky way of showing Batman’s PTSD, as well as his fear/motivation for going after Superman. And the time-travelling Flash, what is that all about? I can guess, as a comic book fan, but if you’re going into this movie without a good idea of what the DC universe is all about this one is really going to throw you for a loop.
Having said that, I do feel a bit hypocritical because in a short story I’m working on I also have a dream sequence. After seeing Batman V Superman I’m really reconsidering whether that scene should be in my story. And that’s a shame because I really like the scene.
Let me gaze into my crystal ball: What’s with all the precognition in this movie? Batman sees a possible future in his nightmares, a time travelling Flash appears in one of the nightmares, Lex knows Clark Kent is Superman, he also knows Bruce Wayne is Batman. How did he know this? At no point does the movie explain this and he must have known for a long time since he’s been planning this for a long time.
And, for the million dollar question, which might be answered in the next Justice League movie, how does Lex know a Bigger Bad from space is coming? Now, this can only be Darkseid or Brainiac (don’t know which and I don’t care to look up rumors, I’ll see it when it gets here), but. How. Does. He. Know? Did the Kryptonian ship tell him? Is that what happened?
Trailer 2: The infamous second trailer, the one with Doomsday in it, was basically the summary of the movie. I feared this would be the case, and it was. This doesn’t help the movie in any way. Please Hollywood, stop it with these kind of trailers.
Conclusion
Batman V Superman as a whole is messy. If you compare the two halves of the movie, the first part is more of a thriller, while the second part is superheroes throwing down. And while I liked that split neither half of the movie really lives up to its potential and that’s because the writers tried cramming too much into the movie and that made the whole thing suffer.
There are also some really lazy pieces of script writing in there – so many convenient things just happen, such as Lex Luthor knowing everything and the Kryptonian ship letting Lex do anything he wants and being equipped with a fully functional birthing pod thing.
This movie could have been really great. As it stands though it is still an enjoyable movie that I will buy when it’s released on Blu-ray and which I do want to see again. The actors were really good, especially Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne / Batman. Props to him. Visually this movie is excellent, all the fight scenes were awesome, and I had a good time watching it, but I hope the writers have learned from this movie so the next DC Justice League movies will be better.