Batman V Superman review!
This movie was a beast of a film. A massive undertaking, and a very ambitious outing by Zack Snyder. I watched with a packed house at Mann's Chinese in Hollywood and you couldn't have a better crowd to watch it with! Everybody was pumped, excited, trying to gobble up all the eye candy Snyder was throwing on the screen. Did everyone leave satisfied? That's certainly up for debate, let's jump into it.
I absolutely loved the opening scenes, seeing the destruction of Metropolis from Bruce Wayne's POV. That kind of storytelling technique is my bread and butter. My very first thought leaving this film was that we just got the best incarnation of Batman/Bruce Wayne to ever hit the screen. Affleck put his big foot in this role and dominated the film IMO. He was scary, menacing, brooding, savage, just a straight beast! I love what Christian Bale did at the time with what he was given during his reign as the caped crusader, but Affleck's Batman absolutely mops the floor with Bale's! The biggest take away here was that BvS makes me REALLY excited to see Affleck's stand alone Batman movies. Can't wait!
I don't know if anyone else felt this, but to me Superman wasn't in the film enough. He seemed overshadowed. I'm sure I need to re-watch it and wrap my head around it some more, and maybe I'm saying that because I felt like Batman was much more interesting to see, but this go around it felt like Superman was somewhat muted. And that's a shame, because this project started out as a straight sequel to Man of Steel and it evolved into this massive Mt Everest of a movie with Batman getting top billing.
With this being Wonder Woman's first entrance into live action on the big screen, they had a big task to introduce her properly and I think they did a good job of it. A lot of people including me were scared about how Gal Gadot could bring her to life, and believe me she crushes it in this movie. I loved how Zimmer and Junkie XL had those huge drums playing during her theme every time she was on screen. She completely held her own in battle and was believable as the Amazonian Princess. Excited for her solo movie now too!
Seems like this reverse engineering of the Marvel strategy might work as far as having the DC characters being introduced in a "big bang" sort of way. Where Marvel had a bunch of solo movies over the years lead up to the Avengers, DC's characters all explode on to the scene from Dawn of Justice/Justice League, then branch off into their solo movies. I'm cool with that.
Lex Luthor, a new take on the iconic villain, and one that I'm sure some people will love and some will hate. I didn't like the casting of Jesse Eisenberg from the start because I didn't feel like he embodied what I want to see in a Lex Luthor. I wanted a mature, methodical and intellectual Lex, instead we got a Lex that reminded me too much of Edward Nygma from Batman Forever. I can understand the desire to change him up into the Mark Zuckerberg mold, but Lex was a weak link here. And you know what they say, a hero is only as good as his villain. And this is where BvS started to lose some points with me.
I liked BvS, but there were some massive problems in it for me. More than there were in Man of Steel IMO. Zack Snyder is a master with his visual sense when it comes to the way he shoots action. But Zack Snyder is not a good story teller. This movie could've easily had 20-30 minutes cut from it to be more lean, or use those extra 20-30 minutes to tell more of a cohesive story. I was trying to figure out what it was that I felt was missing from it, and this morning I figured it out... emotion. I never felt like the stakes were high for anyone involved. I wasn't emotionally invested in any of the characters. Maybe Batman since he seemed to be the focal point for much of the first act. But overall I didn't FEEL what I thought I would when watching it.
SPOILERS HERE.....
I absolutely hate that Lex Luthor was the one pulling the strings to make Batman and Superman finally come to blows. Kidnapping Martha Kent and telling Superman to go and fight Batman to free her was some of the most contrived bullshit that I never expected. I wanted Batman and Superman to fight over philosophical differences! And if you want a good idea of what I mean, watch Daredevil and The Punisher on Netflix and you'll see what I'm talking about. Lex's motivations weren't strong enough to warrant how things played out.
I also hated that Lex created Doomsday!! Boo! He was basically Frankenstein and that was some ole bullshit! I'm not saying they had to go with Doomsday's origin and have him buried deep underground, but damn, Lex Luthor as Doomsday's father? [frick] off!
On to the next problem I had... this movie was 4 or 5 movies wrapped in one. There was a pretty good Batman movie in it, a Man of Steel sequel, Justice League Origins and the frickin Death of Superman. The biggest gripe is that they actually did the Death of Superman in the last 20 minutes of the film, and that to me was sacrilege. The Death of Superman at the very least is a story that should be told over a full movie, not 15-20 minutes near the end of one. It all happened way too fast, and I think that's due to Snyder's lack of storytelling, and need to jump into the action.
I couldn't believe I was sitting there watching the moments I had tried to bring to life in my youtube videos, and I didn't care! Sure I loved the action and eye candy, Doomsday was a beast, it was an epic fight! But I felt absolutely nothing. There was no buildup for me to care about this battle with Doomsday the way there should have been. I didn't care when Superman died. Doomsday should have never been in this film, and it really took the shine off Superman to have Batman and Wonder Woman helping from the outset in that battle. That was supposed to be his fight.
My last gripe with this movie was how the fight between Bats an Supes ended. 1st off, it could've been longer. I have a feeling the R rated bluray will have an extended fight. But "Save Martha"....... That's what stops Batman from killing who he thought was someone that could destroy the planet? Really? You spend a full hour or more building up to this epic battle between the two, and end it with them becoming allies within seconds? And then to have Batman save Martha Kent and say "I'm a friend of your son's". No, that wasn't earned. It felt exactly like when Anakin dropped to one knee and pledged his allegiance to Palpatine and got the title Darth Vader, then went off and killed younglings. That shit was not earned. I wanted to leave Batman V Superman feeling like those two were brothers by the end of the film, and unfortunately that never happened.
I gave Man of Steel a 9/10, but BvS falls short of that for me at 7/10. Yes it was entertaining, exciting and was fun to watch, and yes I'll probably watch it again... but I wanted a deeper, more cohesive story, I wanted more than eye candy. It feels like all the pieces were there, but it didn't come together the way it should have in the editing room. Maybe the extended cut will flesh it out some more. Oh well, at least I have my Superman Doomsday videos to watch Lol Go watch it in IMAX 3D and enjoy!