Batman v. Superman Dawn of Justice Review

Style Over substance

*Full spoilers

Three years in the making, the collective excitement that went through everyone’s mind when the title for this film was announced at comic con in 2013 was at an all time high. The first time we can finally see Batman and Superman on the screen together for the first time, and it is just mediocre at best, a jumbled mess of a story that drags this clash of the titans down.

This film should have been a slam-dunk, so many things were going for it, including having arguably two of the most iconic characters in all of fiction.

The film follows the 2013 film Man of steel, with the world still coming to grips with super powered “Meta humans” existing in the world. Many people-worshiping Superman as a god and messiah figure. While some including, Kentucky senator Finch wanting Superman to answer for his involvement in the deaths of thousands, and the leveling of a large part of Metropolis in the fight with General Zod.

The film introduces an older, bitter and violent Bruce Wayne and Batman (Ben Affleck) during the fight with Zod driving through an exploding Metropolis to get to his Wayne tower in the city. He witnesses the tower fall as Superman has his fight, killing hundreds of his employees. This starts his hatred for Superman. Clark Kent/Superman is suspicious of The Batman who lives in Gotham, feeling he is violating civil-rights and needs to be stopped.

Meanwhile the whole time eccentric Billionaire Lex Luthor (Jessie Eisenberg) is manipulating them both from behind the scenes. The whole time the mysterious Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) is in the shadows hunting for something stolen by Lex Luthor. It is pretty obvious from the start she is the Powerful Wonder Woman the whole time. As the title states this is the “Dawn of Justice” and the DC “trinity” aren’t the only super powered beings on the planet.

The film is two and a half hours long, filled with preachy messages and almost depressed, brooding characters. No one in the film seems to be having fun or any type of enjoyment. Isn’t being a super hero supposed to bring some joy?

The editing is a choppy mess, making it hard to follow where exactly the film is going. The opening 20–35 min is excellent and a great start to the film. Then it all falls apart. Scenes seemingly thrown in with no context including a mountain scene with a soul searching Superman.

As is with most Zack Snyder films the story takes a back seat and is almost completely forgotten in favor of action figures smashing together action, up and down CGI and setting up every other DC film on Warner Bros future slate.

Clearly the highlight of the film is Ben Affleck’s portrayal of Bruce Wayne and Batman. When we first see Batman he is a brutal and violent take on a character, a fresh new take at that. Batman seemingly haunted by his past with his parent’s death and what we catch a glimpse of in the Bat cave a burnt and tattered Robin suit with the words “ HAHAHA Jokes on you” spray-painted on the chest. Hinting at a possible “Death in the Family” past.

We finally get to see a Bruce Wayne who seems to have real mental problems. He isn’t 100% healthy mentally. Bruce Wayne repeatedly has these nightmares/visions its not made totally clear what they are. The biggest one, he sees a destroyed world with hints to the DC maniacal villain Darksied, we see his Omega symbol and his “Parademons.” Bruce wakes up to again not sure if a dream or vision of the Flash warning him of the future.

Jeremy Iron’s Alfred also gets a great showing in the film. He and Bruce’s relationship is a close but sarcastic one, both taking jabs at each other when talking. I walked away form this film beyond excited for Affleck’s eventual Solo Batman film. He took hold of the Batman role and is the new peak for playing the character.

Wonder Woman shines, to me she delivered lines and showed a range of acting I didn’t know that Gal Gadot had, having only seen a few films she has been in, in her young acting career. Her action scenes are a plus to this film.

Cavills Superman again shows very little emotion, as was the case in Man of Steel. Outside a few scenes with Lois Lane (The lines in these scenes were atrocious) he seems to always be frowning and never shows range. I have to come to terms that this isn’t my Superman. Superman is one of my favorite Comic book characters and I like him for his emotional message and his inspirational side. Cavill and Snyder seem to not want to dive into that Superman.

Lex Luthor is a mixed bag, if you like or hated his portrayal in the trailers you will come out with the same feeling. He has some highpoints particularly early in the film, but he divulges into over acting and he seems to be trying to create an iconic performance like Heath ledgers Joker, but he ultimately fails and just seems silly by the end of the film.

Now for the main attraction, The Fight between Superman and Batman was actually an entertaining part of the film, just try not to think to hard about it. Lex Luthor kidnapped Martha Kent to get Superman to Kill Batman, that is all the background and motivation for their fight.

When Superman first flies down he simply could have said, “ Hey that Lex guy has been manipulating us to hate each other and he took my mom lets not fight and go get him.” Instead Superman walks into a few booby traps set by Batman and forgets all about that and pretty much says ‘oh well Batman has to die.’ The fight itself was entertaining seeing batman a mere mortal fight a god with gadgets. The ending of the fight though, yeah not so much, Batman as he is getting ready to kill superman hears Superman man say “save Martha.” This being his own mothers name screams at him asking how he knows that name, it takes Lois Lane who somehow arrived at the fight to tell Batman that is Clarks Mothers name.

That’s it end of fight, Batman drops his weapon and goes on a trek to save Martha Kent. That’s it, that is the Batman v Superman part of the film, the next time we see them together they are the super friends, pretty much forgetting the fight they just had. Lets get to that part later.

Because the film is called “Dawn of justice” there are of course references and clips of video revealing Aquaman, Flash, and Cyborg. The flash security video was the best of the three. Aquaman and Cyborgs felt very cheesy and didn’t seem to put much thought into them.

Now because the trailers spoiled as much we knew the superman villain Doomsday would show up and be the excuse for the DC trinity to join forces. The fight was just a CGI fest with Wonder woman and Superman punching and cutting Doomsday while Batman sits in the background not really doing anything. It was sensory overload, feeling like a Transformers movie where the good guys and bad guys fight smashing into each other. The CGI for the fight and Doomsday were up and down as I stated before, sometimes falling into the awful category.

It was a waste of the character Doomsday this could have been literally any other big brooding bad guy because the fight is over in 10 minutes.

All together the film was a mess and a CGI overload. The films story is weak at best and there is almost no point to the film, no consequences whatsoever. The absolute worst part of this is (because I said spoilers) Superman’s death to Doomsday was a complete waste! Because after his funeral we see dirt on his coffin rise up revealing he isn’t dead at all but just recharging. I don’t hate the film as a lot of the film critics do I just see the story really bringing down the good parts of the film. The 3 hour long directors cut hopefully brings up the quality of this film.

I fear for Justice league coming up with Zack Snyder at the helm, DC/Warner should find a new director because clearly this direction is not working.