Was Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice as bad as the critics would have you believe? Absolutely not!
Is the film as good as what the fanboys would have you believe? Abosultely not!
In truth, the film most likely falls somewhere in the middle. Visually, Dawn of Justice is as good as anything you'll see in a recent Hollywood blockbuster. However, the pacing and overall plot is at times, downright cringeworthy. The best analogy I've read was from someone who describes Dawn of Justice as a breadmaker who's about to bake a cake using the best ingredients money can buy. However, he decides to not follow a recipe and relies on his skills as a breadmaker. The result, is a cake that still tastes good but ultimately dissapoints becuase there's knowledge that a pastry chef could've produced a cake from such high quality ingredients that was greater than the sum of its parts. This is Dawn of Justice in a nutshell.But regardless of how you or I may personally feel about the film, it looks poised to perform very well at the box office; thus ensuring that Warner Bros. stays the course regarding their aggressive plans for the DC Extended Universe. Yet, Dawn of Justice leaves us with a number of questions - some intentional, some unintentional. For example, what source material is serving as inspiration for the DCEU moving forward? And how did Lex Luthor acquire the data on Wonder Woman, Flash, Cyborg and Aquaman? Where possible, I'll attempt to answer these mysteries, however, some of these questons can only be answered by the creative decision-makers.
1.) What is Lex’s motivation for hating Superman and metahumans?
Dawn of Justice never truly explains why Lex hates Superman and why he apparently has an agenda against all metahumans. At varying points in the film, Lex gives three different reasons for hating the Last Son of Krypton but the movie doesn’t really care about following up on any of these notions because the audience is already armed with preconceived knowledge that in all mediums of storytelling, Lex Luthor and Superman are mortal enemies. Sure, The Dark Knight, never gives a clear explanation of why the Joker does what he does either, but we do get that clever analogy from Alfred about ‘Some men just wanting to watch the world burn.’ At least Christian Bale’s Bruce Wayne took a moment to try and figure out the villain’s motivation before Alfred effectively told him to stop banging his head against the wall. That was a message to the audience as much as it was to Bruce. No one in this film stops to try and figure out the WHY behind Lex Luthor’s actions, Luthor included.
Did Luthor always hate metahumans or was this a sentiment he developed after the Black Zero Event in Metropolis? That picture Luthor had of Wonder Woman is almost a century old and if he has had such incriminating evidence for any length of time, wouldn’t Diana Prince have come knocking at his door long before the events of Dawn of Justice?
2.) How did Lex acquire the data on Wonder Woman, Cyborg, Flash and Aquaman? How long has it been in his possession?
The amount of work and struggle necessary for Tony Stark to craft his Iron Man suit in the first solo film is an example Dawn of Justice could have used in showcasing Luthor’s quest to track down other metahumans. How does Lex even know to look for these super powered individuals? If he starts his research after the events of Man of Steel, is he looking for other Kryptonians? Did he stumble across these individuals while trying to discover Superman’s secret identity? The viral marketing for the film teased LexCorp building an O/S that would put Windows to shame. Was the deployment of this operating system the means by which Luthor acquired the footage? Perhaps our answers will show up in the extended, R-rated “Ultimate Edition”.
3.) Why is the World Engine wreckage just left floating in the ocean?
In the 18 months since Man of Steel, has Superman decided that he wants nothing to do with the kryptonian race? That would be understandable, considering his interaction with Zod and the rest of his crew destroyed a city and nearly the entire planet. However, he learned from the holographic projection of Jor-El that not all kryptonians had Zod’s war-mongering disposition. Surely Clark still wants to learn more about his homeworld, right? Plus, that scout ship was effectively serving as a launching point for Superman to build his Fortress of Solitude. He can't build it without some form of Kryptonian technology.
4.) Why do people think Superman pulled out a gun and killed people in Africa? Why would Superman need a gun?
Superman was head-scratchingly blamed for a crime in Africa where villagers and terrorists were killed by guns with experimental bullets. Killed...by….bullets. This is the most powerful man on the planet, who flies through the sky and shoots laser beams from his eyes. In the 18 months since Man of Steel, he’s been selflessly saving people around the globe and halting natural disasters, yet he suddenly kills innocent bystanders?Perhaps the media could’ve spun the story to highlight the fact that Superman didn’t save anyone except for Lois, but do ficticous populace of the DCEU honestly believe Superman picked up a gun and mowed down an entire village?
Furthermore, why is a United States Congressional hearing being called about what’s happening in Africa? Kudos to whoever came up with the clever idea to have Superman in a courtroom where a bomb explodes, killing everyone except him. That scene illustrates to both Superman and the audience that even someone as powerful as him has limitations. However, there was apparently a struggle to figure out a reason to get Superman in the actual courtroom. The long, contrived plot of Lois in Africa, Jimmy Olsen as a CIA agent, framing Superman for the murders and riling up the Kentucky Congressional representative was all just to get Superman in the courtroom. A more logical and less complicated reason should have been used to get Superman to the hearing.
5.) Why does a bombing in the US Senate turn public opinion against Superman?
Following the nonsensical belief that Superman killed villagers in Africa with a gun, public opinion on the Last Son of Krypton sours even further after a suicide bomb attack at a US Senate hearing kills everyone present except Superman. Why is Superman held responsible? It's not as if he brought the bomber. It's not even certain that Wallace Keefe even knew his wheelchair was a bomb. Thankfully, the film doesn't paint the populace to be so dimwitted as to believe that it was Superman that caused the explosion.
However, that in itself creates a stark contradiction with the film very first action beat. The public is dumb enough to believe that Superman might have used a gun to kill inhabitants of a remote village but is then smart enough to quickly figure out that it was a suicide bomb and not Superman that blew up the Senate hearing?
6.) Why does Luthor kill Mercy? Was she originally intended to be a robot? The film seemed to imply that she heard Bruce’s microphone at Lex's party.
Mercy was incredible perceptive of Bruce Wayne’s subterfuge at Lex Luthor’s party. The only other people to take notice were Superman and Wonder Woman, lending credence to the notion that there was something extraordinary about her. However, the film never really has Mercy do anything of consequence except maybe to show that Lex doesn’t give a damn about anyone, even his close, personal assistant.
Was there originally, something more to Mercy? In some modern interpretations of the character, Mercy is actually a robot and personal bodyguard for Luthor. In the Senate hearing, when it became incredibly obvious that a bomb was going to go off, I kept expecting Superman to use his powers to get a warning and immediately suspect the wheelchair, only for it to be revealed that Mercy is a robot and/or that she’s the bomber.
7.) Why did the Wayne Executives need Bruce Wayne to call and tell them to evacuate the building?
Is there something in the company rulebook which states that in the event of a natural disaster, employees must remain exactly where they are until Bruce Wayne calls to
give instruction? There’s an alien ship hovering over your city, blasting a strange beam into the ground and destroying buildings. You have to suspend realism in practically all blockbuster films but this was a stretch, even for a comic book movie. It's obvious that Snyder and co. wanted to establish Bruce Wayne as a hero but their execution throws logical human behaviour out the window. In fact, that scene wasn't really needed at all, Bruce Wayne arriving in the aftermath and helping to clear trapped survivors from the rubble would be just as effective.
8.) Why did Superman let the bad guys get away when first confronting Batman in the Batmobile?
Superman has x-ray vision and super hearing among his many other super powers. Surely he utilized one or both of these abilities and zeroed in on the gunfire and commotion caused by Batman’s pursuit of LexCorp's smuggling convoy. Both parties are exchanging gunfire back and forth and yet Superman only stops Batman? To make matters worse, his effortless halt of the Batmobile only serves to underline the ridiculousness of Superman not doing the same to the LexCorp truck.
9.) Did people at the underground MMA fight recognize Bruce Wayne or not?
When the film cuts to Bruce Wayne at an underground fight club, it looks as if Bruce is sponsoring a fighter and Anatoli Knyazev also sponsoring a combatant. Don’t you think it a tad bit conspicuous that after you cross paths with Bruce Wayn, a short time later, Batman is knocking down your door? The scene would’ve been the perfect opportunity for Bruce to adopt his Matches Malone disguise and showcase an element of the Batman mythos not previously seen on film.
10.) Man of Steel established Superman’s X-ray vision, so why doesn’t he use it in Batman v Superman?
11.) Is Superman's future in the DCEU inspired by Superman: The Dark Side, Superman:TAS “Legacy” and Injustice: Gods Among Us?
Superman: The Dark Side, an episode of Superman: TAS titled "Legacy" and the video game, Injsutice: Gods Among Us - it seems Zack Snyder or someone in creative control on Dawn of Justice is a fan of one or all three.
12.) Does Lex Luthor know about Darkseid and Apokolips? If so, how?
It sure as hell seemed like Lex Luthor's nonsensical mumblings at the end of the film were actually hints at Darkseid's impening arrival! How long did Lex Luthor have this knowledge? Is this knowledge somehow tied to Lex’s search for metahumans? This raises a ton of questions but Lex’s hint at the (likely) villain of Justice League Part One comes at the very end of the film, meaning we'll have to wait quite a while for answers. However, it can probably be presumed that Luthor learned this knowledge while aboard the Kryptonian ship during his mad scientist experiment on Zod’s corpse. After all, he did tell the ship's computer to show him everything. With Superman now dead, Luthor apparently believes that Darkseid will see the earth as vulnerable and launch an attack.
13.) How does Lex gain such a quick understanding of the Kryptonian Matrix and how does he know that mixing his blood will result in Doomsday?
The answer is actually found on a Man of Steel blu-ray extra and the “Planet Krypton” documentary which features the US government decoding a cache of encrypted Black Zero transmissions which contain the line, “Beware Bertron's curse, for he is named Doomsday.” In the comics, Bertron was an alien scientist who wanted to create the ultimate lifeform. He went about this mission by abandoing an artificialy created infant in the most hazardous and deadly locations on Krypton, where he naturally perished rather quickly. However, Bertron would repeat this process many times, over decades, making a new test subject from the leftover genetic material, simulteaneously improving the physical weaknesses that brought about its predecessor's demise. It would seem that a similar event has occurred in the DC Extended Universe based on the encoded data on the Black Zero and the warning the scout ship gives to Lex in Dawn of Justice that the Kryptonian Law Council have expressly forbade crossbreeding. This would ndicate that a Doomsday abomination has been created before. Perhaps the true Doomsday is somewhere out in space and he’ll make his way to earth in Justice League Part One? Zack Snyder has already stated that Doomsday’s mythology will be further explored in Justice League. “Well, you have Doomsday, right? He doesn’t just crawl out of the ground. He has his own mythology, right? So that has to be explored…”
14.) Was that a Mother Box that fused with Cyborg?
Cyborg has been given several origin stories in the decades since the character's debut in 1980. However, it appears the DCEU will be utilizing the most current origin tale of Cyborg as told during Geoff Johns’ run on Justice League. While Dawn of Justice doesn’t reveal what accident left Victor Stone in such a dire state, we do see what appears to be a Mother Box fuse with Cyborg’s body.
This begs the question, how does Silas Stone acquire a Mother Box? Has Darkseid and his forces already visited the planet once before? Or have agents of New Genesis and Highfather beat Apokolips to earth? It's a very intriguing mystery, however, we’ll more than likely get our answers to these questions in Justice League Part One. This was one of the world-building clues that probably excites comic book fans the most.
15.) How did Lois instinctively know that Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman would need the kryptonite spear when fighting Doomsday?
There were certainly lots of questions left unansered in Dawn of Justice. Some were intentional, serving as set-ups for future story-telling and others were just glaring plot holes and ill-defined character moments. Do you have your own questions and theories about the film? Sound off in the comment section below and discuss among your fellow CBMers.