So today I finally went to my local cinema and watched Zack Snyder’s latest movie and latest instalment in the DCEU; Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice. Now before I went to watch the movie, I had a lot of concerns after reading some of the reviews and reactions from friends. I had also watched a lot of the trailers and clips online and so had already articulated my own thoughts on some of the characters in the movie. For some of these characters, they would change, others they would not. I walked into the cinema room, sat down, and watched the trailers end. The movie was beginning. I encouraged myself to be optimistic and hope for the best.
By God, did I see the best. This movie IS the best comic-book movie of all time, and one of the best movies I have ever watched.
Ben Affleck as Batman
Ben Affleck is the best live action Batman to date. I genuinely felt terrified watching him on screen for the first half of the movie. That scene with the police cops stumbling upon him lurking in the corner of the room from the ceiling like a freaking bat, man that was so cool. His introduction with his origin story and the dream scene of him flying with the Bats was so captivating and so well designed. His flashback during his time in Metropolis was also very well done and dramatic, and gave us plenty of reason to understand why he was resentful of Superman right from the start.
What I found interesting is that from the first act of the movie, which was mostly in Superman’s point of view, I was actually on Superman’s side. Batman was branding criminals and had decided to relocate to Metropolis just to try to find Lex’s kryptonite. He seemed like an unwelcome threat that needed to be stopped. Yet I felt that same sentiment in the second act of the movie, which was mostly in Batman’s point of view. If Man of Steel was a movie about Superman accepting our world, then Dawn of Justice was a movie about our world accepting Superman, and no one in this movie showed that better than Batman. I didn’t feel however that the vision of a dictatorship under Superman and Darkseid was necessary however, at least for it to have been seen by Batman. He had enough reason to want to go after Superman following the Battle of Metropolis. Then for the final act, I believed his character had begun to evolve.
This film began with a pessimistic lone vigilante who had given up on the world and believed himself to be a criminal, who felt as if his twenty years of fighting criminals (‘pulling weeds’ as he humorously called it) was not a true legacy to the Wayne family, to a hero who stood in the front line fighting against an alien atrocity who was firing lasers at him. At the beginning of the movie, he wanted all super-beings dead; by the end, he wanted Diana to join him in finding them, and unite them together. Of course it may just be because he knows Darkseid was coming, but I felt that his time with Superman and Wonder Woman made him realise the world isn’t as cruel and grey as he believed it to be.
One major complaint some traditional fans have is with Zack Snyder going with the Frank Miller version of the character; I say to them that they do not have to worry as by the end of the movie, Batman evolved into the traditional character we all know. That is what excites me even more for the possible solo Batman movie directed by Ben Affleck, because now Ben will be able to take this character into any direction he’d like to, and it would be in this already established world with an array of characters and storylines at his disposable. We don’t have to sit and watch another origin movie again, or a sequence of ‘rise, fall and rise again’ Batman movies just for a good story-arch. Here, we have one of the most popular superheroes of all time in his prime in this film universe, played by a talented actor and director, and can be taken in any direction possible. Hardcore Batman fans like me have never had it so good.
Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman
I was sold on Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, but now I'm not. I just don't feel like she is a great choice for the character and isn't a great actress. As Wonder Woman, she was good, but as Diana Prince, she just felt oddly placed. Sure that's a fault of the director but her lines and the way she said them just irked me. As I watched the movie, I kept asking myself ‘What is Wonder Woman doing in this’? I assumed that she was just after the files Lex Luthor had on her to ensure that she wouldn’t be exposed as an Amazonian Demigoddess to the world, but then she allows Batman access to the same data files. Why take a chance on Bruce discovering who she is, but go out of your way to stop Lex from discovering who you are? Both businessmen are strangers to Diana, and it made no sense for her to suddenly trust one with sensitive information about her after the ‘I’ve known plenty of girls like you….’ Conversation. Yet we are given no explanation as what she is up to during this movie, and is used more as a plot device to help set up the Justice League movie and give Doomsday someone to fight against during the last act.
Her conversation with Bruce during Superman’s burial at the end of the movie also essentially spoils the ending to her origin movie next year. This is another reason why I feel it would have been best for Zack Snyder and Warner Bros. to have waited until after her movie came out first to do this one. I suppose the viewer is now meant to be intrigued by the character of Wonder Woman and want to watch her solo movie; I do, but that is because I know it’ll be set during World War One (I’m a fan of historical-based movies) and has the likes of Chris Pine and David Thewlis in it.
Ultimately, whilst I recognised Gal Gadot as being a good actress for the role of Wonder Woman, she didn’t impress me on the same scale as the likes of Ben Affleck and Jesse Eisenberg did. Maybe then, I am just being the typical entitled fanboy who just has high expectations. Either way, I will watch the Wonder Woman movie next year, and hope that under the direction of Patty Jenkins, I will be able to enjoy her character more and respect Gal Gadot in the role.
Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor
Originally upon watching all the trailers and clips for this movie, I was not looking forward to Lex Luthor. I joked that Jesse Eisenberg’s take on the character was just the same as Jim Carrey’s Riddler in Batman Forever. I read a lot of people online telling the same joke. But after watching the movie, I see how ignorant and closed-minded I was. One of the major complaints fans have about this movie is Jesse Eisenberg’s take on Lex Luthor. Let me be clear; Jesse Eisenberg is not playing the classic version of Lex Luthor here and that is actually a good thing. His character is so much more menacing and interesting than the classic version of Lex Luthor as he challenges Superman on a philosophical level far greater here.
I think the problem critics have that would've done the film some good is if we had some flashback scenes to Lex's youth which would've explained his pessimistic look on life and hatred for superheroes. When we first see Lex, he’s dressed in a white blazer and skinny blue jeans playing basketball at the place of his work like a hipster and immediately I was put off at this and just assumed I wouldn’t be interested in this Lex. I instinctively just assumed this would be an all original take on Lex Luthor; I was wrong.
Once I saw the scene in Lex’s home between him and Senator Finch talking about where devils come from and that brilliant ‘Granny’s Old ****’ conversation, I was hooked. The way he was flickering his fingers against the table and pretending to sing was just so unnerving and it was plainly obvious Senator Finch doubted herself from what Lex was telling her. Finally, I fell completely in love with his take when he first confronted Superman and finally, his façade of being an approachable kind entrepreneur dropped and he was absolutely repulsive when he threw pictures of Martha being kidnapped at Clark whilst pretending to cradle him as he kneeled before him. Genuinely I feel he is the best live-action take on Lex Luthor of all time, even beating Kevin Spacey’s version, and really hope he’s called back for later movies in the DCEU.
Miscellaneous Characters
Jeremy Irons is a fantastic Alfred, but unfortunately I didn't get to see enough of him to decide whether he is the best Alfred. He has fantastic witty banter with Bruce but for the entire movie he either just sits behind the Bat-computer or a newspaper.
In the first movie, Amy Adams' take on Lois Lane as the forever damsel in distress was tolerable, but here it is just insufferable and frustrating. There are a lot of moments in the movie crucial to the film's plot for the heroes that Lois just keeps screwing up, and if she hadn't, hundreds of lives would've been saved. She adds a lot of character development to Superman, but I just grew frustrated with her scenes.
I also didn't really like Holly Hunter's character. You could just tell from the start she was a pawn in Lex's scheme. Her scenes with Lex were fascinating to watch - but largely just because Jesse Eisenberg did a great Lex. The ending of her character in the movie makes for a both hilarious yet shocking moment that I for one did not see coming.
Now there are a lot of characters in the movie taken right out of the comics, but are either just left trailing in the background or forgotten. I'm not a fan of that, but I hope when the extended cut comes out we get to see more of them. One of these characters is KGBeast who in this movie, whilst a very menacing villain in the same way Frank Grillo's Crossbones was, never actually became the supervillain that he is in the comics. At the end of the movie with the hostage scene, I didn’t actually expect Anatoli to die but for perhaps his arm to have been horrendously burned, leading to it being replaced by a robotic arm and to set him up in Suicide Squad.
I was also extremely frustrated by Zack Snyder killing off Mercy Graves needlessly. Tao Okamoto is a very underrated actress and I had looked forward to seeing her as Mercy Graves; for Snyder to just kill her off after giving her just two lines in the whole movie was a disgrace to the Superman lore. It also just didn’t make sense in a storytelling perspective for Lex to willingly send his assistant and closest ally to her death like that, when he knew what was coming and had to expect Senator Finch to figure it out eventually with Lex not showing up at all in the Courtroom.
Finally, I only just read online a few days ago that Jimmy Olsen was in the film and was the camera man who was executed at the start of the movie. It is decisions like this that make me wonder whether Zack Snyder genuinely hates Superman. He killed off Emile Hamilton in the background, Jimmy Olsen without even introducing him and killed Mercy Graves after just giving her two lines. It is actions like this that make me want someone else to direct and write the Superman movies. It worries me that Snyder is directing the Justice League movies; knowing him, the movie will begin with Darkseid’s invasion and the first scene will be Snapper Carr’s cold corpse lying on the ground.
The Impact on the future of the DCEU
There is a fair bit of set-upping for Justice League, but not on the same massive scale as Age of Ultron. There is a really weird dream sequence that just feels oddly placed into the movie and not really explained that sets up the main villain for Justice League but it just isn't explained well. The movie literally transitions from a scene with Lex doing his own thing, then Batman just in the desert with a trench coat on top of his Bat-Suit. I almost thought it was an actual part of the movie, not a dream sequence.
We get some fantastic cameo scenes of the other Justice League members, however because they take so long to watch it does feel like forced set-upping. But because of how amazing they are I’m not complain. I've said it already but it is just so beautiful and fantastic to see these heroes do their own thing in a really grounded and modern world, like much more than the Marvel movies. The cameos had me majorly excited for Justice League and the later movies.
Watching Barry Allen stop the hold-up in that grocery store from the viewpoint of the CCTV camera just felt fantastic to watch due to how grounded it was. I wasn’t entirely sure shooting underwater scenes with Aquaman would’ve been doable, but I was blown away by the fantastic scene with Jason Momoa’s Aquaman. I may not be a diehard fan of Zack Snyder as a director, but if there is one thing he’s brilliant at, it’s visual effects and designing the perfect scenes.
The Story and Visual Effects
When the movie first began, I was immediately hooked and ecstatic. It began with a lot of flashbacks and I think it's better to have them at the beginning rather than here and there later in the movie. Then begins the first act; the first act is very clumsy as we're just thrown straight in and left to figure things out on our own, then a series of montage scenes of Superman just doing heroic things happen whilst Holly Hunter monologues over them. It is very confusing when trying to stick with the narrative as these scenes happen across days and nights and we're left wondering just what other characters are doing in the meantime. It should be remembered however, this is probably where a lot of scenes were taken out and we can see them in their entirety in the extended cut.
The cinematography is a lot better and there is SOME humour in the movie. A lot more than Man of Steel. Most of it does come from Lex Luthor and witty banter between Alfred and Bruce, but there is this funny scene between Batman and Martha Kent later in the movie which I just burst out laughing at in the cinema (Nobody stared fortunately). What I would like for the DCEU movies to do is have the same style of humour from the Dark Knight movies; subtle and clever, yet well placed here and there. This movie has begun to do that but it needs to develop it more.
The Fights
The fight scenes were absolutely amazing and I was in particular blown away at the fight between the Trinity and Doomsday. I was a bit disappointed at how quick the fight between Batman and Superman actually felt as well as the fact Batman just spammed Kryptonite a lot. Although it meant that the two had more of an equal and fair fight and shot some good blows on each other, I would have liked to have seen Batman use some of his tactics from The Dark Knight Returns, such as harnessing all the electricity in the city and electrocuting Superman with it. Still, the fight was beyond my expectations and I really enjoyed it, even more so that Batman won.
The Doomsday fight was also very well done, despite the criticism at how rushed it was. As I had guessed after watching the trailer, Doomsday evolved throughout the end of the movie and became the character we all know from the comics. But man did he give the Trinity a real change; not only did he consistently evolve and adapt to the Trinity’s attacks, but he had some sort of heat shockwave power that obliterated everything in his path, just when I thought he was already overpowered. I grow annoyed when I read criticism online that Superman should have been able to unleash his ‘true full power’, except that he couldn’t because he had just been defeated by Batman due to kryptonite and just had a nuclear warhead fired onto him and Doomsday. The fight scenes were brilliantly presented and I was overwhelmed by how dramatic and enticing they were. Again, what Zack Snyder may lack in storytelling, he makes up for in amazing visuals that make you forget about the clumsy first act by this point in the movie.
Conclusion
Ultimately, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice is a fantastic movie and is for me the best superhero movie of all time. Largely, that is a result of me being a diehard DC fanboy and looking forward to this movie for three years. That said, the movie does have a lot of problems with it. Most of these problems are down to the director, which leads me to wish that Warner Bros. have Zack Snyder step down and act as executive producer for the Justice League movie, with someone else as director, preferably Ben Affleck or George Miller. That said, it wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if Zack Snyder directed the movie as this movie showed that he listened to the criticism of Man of Steel and worked to rectify it.
I feel the critics have been largely unfair with this movie and that it is worth for anyone interested to simply go and watch the movie for themselves, and make up their own mind. For me, it is the best superhero movie of all time and I feel it needs a lot more praise on this site.
Thanks for reading everybody, be sure to hit that thumbs up button below for the flame-war I’ve inevitably ignited, and remember; DC is master-race.