Many of those who watched the scene in the 2016 film - Batman v Superman - in which Batman attempts to save Martha Kent in a violent barrage - came away with the opinion that finally there was a Batman that “moved” like the titular hero from the popular Arkham games or as one might imagine the type of actions that Batman engages in during his takedown of criminals. Many have attempted to label it as the “best” Batman fight sequence ever on screen. But is it? I am not one of those who thinks that Batman’s takedown of Lex Luthor’s goons in an effort to save Martha Kent was the best Batman fighting scene thus far. Did it look “cool?” Sure! But there has to be more to a scene than it looking “cool” otherwise Michael Bay should be a perennial academy award winner because of his propensity for style over substance. Let’s look at the Batman v Superman fight objectively and compare it to what I think is an equally good if not better fight scene from the movie The Dark Knight. Both scenes are similar in that Batman must infiltrate a building, take on multiple armed individuals, and both even use a common ploy of collapsing a floor underneath their opponents to reach their target. Here is a side by side view of both scenes.
Batman v Superman Clip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfR6gcothcI
The Dark Knight Clip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFSqcqK3KB4
I will break down the fight scenes into four parts and examine why it is or is not a good scene.
THE APPROACH
In Batman v Superman, Batman’s entry into the targeted building is anything but subtle. He flies his aircraft to the location, guns down the men on the ground floor and upon Alfred assuming the controls of the aircraft, crashes though a window onto the floor below Luthor’s goons, alerting everyone that he is there. Luckily for Batman, Luthor’s henchman were ALL conveniently gathered on one floor.
In The Dark Knight, Batman silently glides from the top of a building and enters the nearby building the Joker is held up in using a stealth approach through an opening as he tackles a person he presumed was one of Joker’s henchman dressed as a clown. Once inside, he analyzes his surroundings while NOT alerting anyone to his presence which gives him precious time to formulate a plan after ascertaining what the situation is based on information he collects while in the building.
THE STRATEGY
In Batman v Superman, Batman collapses the ground level where the criminals are standing and crashes through the floor using a grappling gun, hoists himself past them and perches on a rafter. He then releases (apparently) magnetic devices that disarms the goons. His strategy is simply to disable the weapons of the criminals and take them out. Unfortunately, it is never explained how Batman knows his bearings. He is only told by Alfred that there are people on the third floor. How does he know where the criminals are standing?….How does he know there is a rafter to perch from? (…it is a lucky thing that there was one).
In the Dark Knight, with the assistance of Lucius Fox, Batman scans the building using his sonar vision. He is able to tell where people in the building are located and get a layout of the building itself. While it may have been his strategy to head straight for the Joker initially, he becomes aware of the Joker’s ruse of dressing the hostages as his henchmen and realizes he has to rescue the hostages from the SWAT team while at the same time subdue the real criminals. This sets into motion a complicated dilemma but also highlights Batman’s ability to think on his feet and change strategies quickly.
THE ATTACK
In Batman v Superman, Batman’s attack is fierce and frenzied. He methodically kills or at least severely injures virtually everyone in his path. Displaying super human strength in the process (such as effortlessly hurling a massively large crate at criminals, kicking a criminal numerous feet into another criminal to disrupt his attempt to set off a grenade; and flinging fully grown men across the room with ease) he defeats his foes in a brutal manner. Once he has killed or seriously injured everyone in the room he moves in to rescue Martha Kent.
In the Dark Knight, Batman’s attack is mix of measured and tactical violence on the SWAT teams so as to not kill anyone, yet brutal and debilitating assaults on the Joker’s goons using targeted strikes to knock them out cold. He also lays elaborate traps using speed and the confusion of the confrontations to save the SWAT team from an ambush by having the floor collapse beneath them causing the officers to fall to their safety. In addition, Batman also finds a clever way to incapacitate even more SWAT officers by tying them together and jettisoning them out of a window where they safely dangle away from Joker’s henchman but unable to prevent him from getting to the Joker. Once everyone is (presumably) safe, and the Joker's men are captured or incapacitated, he scales up the building to confront the Joker.
THE FINISH
In Batman v Superman, Batman finally confronts the final two criminals holding Martha Kent hostage. He is somehow able to see through a wall where one of the criminals is standing and crash through it to subdue him (I guess because he is Batman). Upon confronting Anatoli Knyazev, Batman shoots the fuel canister of Knyazev’s flame thrower causing it to ignite. It does not seem to occur to Batman that he is putting Martha Kent at enormous risk by doing this but luckily he is able to get to her in time and shield her from the ensuing explosion which kills the first henchman he subdued and Anatoli Knyazev.
In The Dark Knight, Batman reaches the Joker who unleashes several dogs to distract him while the Joker tries to beat him with crowbar. Upon creating some distance between him and the Joker by kicking the Joker away from him, Batman dispatches the dogs by throwing them into a stairwell, but the Joker gets the upper hand as he hits Batman in the back of his head causing Batman’s sonar imaging device to momentarily malfunction and thereby temporarily blinding him. The Joker is able to knock Batman through a glass pane and pin Batman under a rail and taunt him about the oncoming destruction of two ferries set to blow the other up. Batman confident that it won’t happen takes advantage of the Joker’s momentary dismay that the ferries did not blow up and uses it to launch projectiles into the face of the Joker and then hurl him over the rail towards his impending death down the side of a building. Batman shoots a grappling hook snagging the Jokers leg in time to save him from the fall.
VERDICT
Both scenes are engrossing and exciting to watch, however it seem to me that one better represents a Batman fight scene more than the other. The Dark Knight depicts the superior Batman fight scene by showcasing much of the crime fighting skills that Batman is known for. In that one scene he is stealth, calculating, tactical and strategic as well as agile and at times brutal. It also details how Batman does many of his actions - for example we see how he sets charges to collapses the floor under the SWAT team, but in Batman v Superman the floor simply collapses with no explanation as to how it happened. Likewise we see how Batman surveys his surroundings using his sonar enhanced vision, whereas in Batman v Superman, Batman inexplicably knows where criminals are situated or where one is standing behind a wall. The sequence in Batman v Superman relies quite a bit on luck and happenstance. (Why Lex Luthor’s men did not just kill Martha Kent once the commotion started is curious). The manner in which Batman attacks the criminals in Batman v Superman is more akin to the Incredible Hulk, without a plan and straight on, the very things that Batman traditionally would seemingly be inclined to not do as he is usually portrayed as being trained in various martial arts and a master of the stealth attack. The Dark Knight situation also presents Batman (and thereby the viewer) with a complicated dilemma that requires shrewdness in order to overcome. Ben Affleck’s portrayal of Batman is reckless, unrealistic, impulsive and superhuman…all the things Batman is not…but hey…it looked cool!