Since 2013, Man of Steel has left some what of a bitter taste in the last interpretation of Superman. It left the whole fan community in a total shock of love and hate towards the movie, truly a divider stood between the two. As inevitable as a release date of a Marvel movie, a sequel was in place to not only give us a continuation of Man of Steel, but a movie featuring the Caped Crusader himself, BATMAN. So much has rode on this movie, the cast, the director, the choice of story, the idea of opening up a cinematic universe similar to Marvel has been met with praise but yet again hate, a divide again of some sorts. Does this movie happen to capture the magic that Marvel movies hold with fans though, does it manage to keep the casual fanboy at bay with an excellence in filmmaking? In short, YES.
What this movie delivers is a tour de force action mayhem film. Everything about this movie not only just tries, but it wants you to love what it has in store, it doesn't go the pompous route, it asks and you say YES to what you get. The film begins of course during the final battle of Man of Steel between Superman & General Zod, it mixes in the final battle & Bruce Waynes point of view in his trip to Metropolis. The sequence was nothing but nerve shattering. Viewing this in IMAX opening up this new level of sound, it broke the sound barrier to me as much as Superman does when he goes into flight. What also struck a chord in me was how well the scene was shot, and how nerve wrecking it was to watch it considering the events of 9/11. It was a flashback to me of sorts, something no comic book movie has ever done which was to make me felt like I was. As the scene ends into modern day Metropolis, the film unravels with Lois Lane doing a journalistic report on a supposed dictator, meanwhile Anatoli Knyzaev, played by Callan Mulvey, who happens to be the connection with our films main villain Lex Luthor. While this small scene didn't feel like much, it did show our cub photographer have a horrifying death. Now we know exactly how Snyder feels about his character. ANYWHO. Moving on the movie explores a lot themes that we really don't speak about in movies that much. Do our heroes have consequences? Do our actions have consequence
where it seems like all we do is act rather than think upon what is right and wrong? This is one of the many themes explored in the film that not only just feel completely great but they also feel completely natural rather than just thrown in. Hnece the scene of news clips showing their true feelings towards Superman and what he is to this world. Should we fear him? Should we trust a man with that much power? It is obviously not the same world that Christopher Reeves inhabited where having Superman felt like a Saturday morning cartoon to citizens of Metropolis. No, this feels more like Post 9/11 Metropolis, a realistic portrayal. Clark Kent, while he isn't given a lot to do other than investigate Batman while being turned down, he does seem a little more hurt by houw the world views him, they view him. Every move he makes, every decision he decides to do is instantly important to know that his actions will have consequences, regardless of whether or not he can choose to accept what he has done or not. As for Bruce's role, it seems he is more in line to find Anatoli, only to unravel something bigger and have his hatred for Superman still consume him. Jeremy Irons, plays a wonderful Alfred that sometimes can seem second note, but every line he has seems well executed rather than just there to add an extra character for Gotham. Amy Adams is given the same amount to do as in Man of Steel, she is there to except play investigate which again leads to Lex Luthor. As for how I feel about him, he seems like that nerdy kid in high-school who tries to fit in but on the inside he is plotting how to kill the entire school with a machine gun; except a machine gun it's a monster and instead of the high school it's just Superman. He can be very neurotic in a sense that he often feels he is this humaniarian when it is obvious he has a lot more deep personal issues going on between him and his forever mentiong of his father. Every character in here, is doing something, you never get the feeling that maybe there should be a little more going on, it never feels that way. Everyones purpose seems to inter-connect in some way shape or form, which works well to the story. Gal Gadot for example seems to be on the search to protect her name, but obviously comes across other meta-humans in very subtle cameos (The best one will be with Bruce Wayne)
I don't ever feel that their expanding world feels completely out of place, I feel like the world is just oh so expanding rather than playing coy, of course we still have a lot of surprises left in store for us till the future, but it was enough to keep me wanting more and I'm sure other audiences too. The action and how everything is resolved feels like you are on a wild rollercoaster, from the moment Lex demands Superman to kill Batman, and probably delivers the most scariest Superman face I have ever seen, it just takes you on to the insane moments. The big moment of course is the showdown between the two idelogies of Batman & Superman. I don't speak and say they both have different idelogies in the film, which they do, but their battle seems more inclined that Lex plotted the whole battle for Lex's purposes to destroy Superman. The showdown itself was astonishing to watch, of course I won't spoil the winner, but it was obvious who the clear victor would be during the fight, as impressive as the showdown was, the showdown didn't really do anything for me as in terms to what the last 20 minutes of the movie did. I feel like this part should not be spoiled and if already did by others, than you know what I am speaking about, it does give me this heavy feeling that me, my son & wife had no choice but to shed tears.
One scene that did leave me in utter shock was the Capital Building bombing, the whole imagery of it once it exploded left me in this state of cringe and shock. It made me realize how craqzy and sick Lex Luthor is than any other film interpretation ever made. Sure Gene Hackman was smart and witty, but not as evil as Eisenberg. Sure Spacey was methodical & shared a jealousy with Superman but not as evil as Eisenberg. Another scene that I loved was Doomsday fighting Superman, it felt like a comic book brought to life, if you view this in IMAX you will feel the sheer might between Doomsday & Superman shattering through your seats. It rattles the seat literally.
As for my closing thoughts, this is like the Wrath of Khan, the Empire Strikes Back of superhero films. While I do see how The Dark Knight was that at one point, this film does it so well it is so easy to forget that movie for just a moment. The ideas and themes happen to mesh completely well with great written dialogue rather than having to hamfist and guess situations on their own, everything is written in such a clever way it's very hard to underestimate Snyder & Terrio now. While other characters I didn't mention because they were either minor and added very little to the story, or perhaps were just cameos, since I didn't mention them, there you go.
GO SEE THIS MOVIE