Acting as a sequel to the Man of Steel film, Batman v.
Superman: Dawn of Justice is an introduction to the DC films: Batman,
Wonder Women, and other members of the Justice League. Visually, it is a very
pretty movie and the actors give it their best shot at making it entertaining.
The problem is that the story is lackluster and the editing makes the movie
difficult to watch.
Bruce Wayne, played by Ben Affleck, narrates his parents’
death then flashes forward to Zod’s attack on Metropolis where Bruce Wayne does
whatever he can to save people. 18 months later Superman is still saving people
while causing controversy and Batman has appeared in Gotham, stopping crimes
with vigilante justice. The two figures do not agree with each other’s methods of
crime stopping so the villainous Lex Luthor is able to manipulate them into
fighting each other.
The movie has some scenes that are lovely to look at;
Superman saving a woman from a burning fire on the Day of the Dead or when he
saves people on the roof of a house in a flood zone appearing like a floating
angel above the people. These images create memorable moments that are
impressive. Ben Affleck and Gal Gadot are a welcome add on to the film but feel
under utilized. Ben Affleck spends most of his time looking angry and Gal Gadot
spends most of her time wandering around looking pretty.
The casting of Lex Luthor is baffling. Jesse Eisenberg does
bring a different mannerism to the character, coming off like a twitchy, nerdy,
caricature of Mark Zuckerburg. At no point was his portrayal threating and he
came off like a guy that was just angry that he was picked on in high school. The other odd casting choice is Jeremy Irons
as Alfred. All previous portrayals of Alfred have been caring and smart but
they were also Bruce Wayne’s butler. In this film it is more confused as to
Alfred’s roll in Bruce’s life. For example, Bruce even serves Alfred coffee in
the morning.
The editing for this movie was a mess. There are more dream
sequences then a Freddy Krueger film. There are scenes that even seem out of
sequence of time that are not established and seem thoughtlessly put together.
Even the character of Doomsday seems shoehorned in and looked like they were
facing a cave troll from The Lord of the Rings movies. The fight scenes are fun
to watch when you can see through the darkness.
The movie is very long and it takes a lot of time before any
real action takes place. Meanwhile there are lots of shots of characters
walking, brooding, and whining about one another. The other Justice League
characters are introduced as well as foreshadowing of the threats they will
face in the future. The movie adds these sections without explanation so it
will likely fit together as new movies come out but as it is it is like having
a puzzle with pieces that come in installments. All these parts might come
together brilliantly one day but as the movie is it is very confusing as to
what is dream and what is forecasting the future.
Batman v. Superman: Dawn
of Justice is not a terrible movie but it is also not worth seeing in
theaters. It is too long of a sit and not as thought out as it should have
been. It is obvious that DC wants to have the same success as Marvel in their
cinematic universe. The big difference that is working for Marvel is that it
took its time putting out solo movies first to create an established universe
before putting the heroes together as a team. With DC it feels like a big game
of catch-up that is very rough and not nearly as entertaining as the individual
films. Batman v. Superman: Dawn of
Justice is a grim movie that will likely scare many audiences from future
DC movies.
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