Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice Review

This is one of the most anticipated films in recent memory, at least in the comic book landscape. The first time that the Dark Knight himself appears on screen alongisde the Man of Steel. It's an exciting time to be a comic book fan. But, does Zack Snyder's latest attempt to make a great superhero movie finally do the job? Unfortunately not completely, and Dawn of Justice is yet another Snyder film that can't quite bring together amazing visuals with solid storytelling. But, does that mean you shouldn't see this movie? Absolutely not. When else can you get to see Batman and Superman toegther on screen with Wonder Woman? Fortunately for Snyder, he's walked into some of the greatest source material imaginable, and this is definitely an enjoyable experience because of it.

If you're a human being, you've probably heard about this movie and know what it's about. But, just in case you haven't, the basic premise is that Bruce Wayne experienced firsthand the carnage in Metropolis at the end of Man of Steel. He blames Superman for the destruction and death, and as a result, has set out to stop Supes from using his power to harm the world in any way. Clark Kent, on the other hand, has caught wind of the mythical Bat of Gotham City, a vigilante that takes the law into his own hands and doles out his own brand of justice. Conflicting ideologies and some manipulation on the part of crafty businessman Lex Luthor send the two comic book titans on a fast track to fighting each other. That's the simplified version anyway...

And that might be my biggest problem with Zack Snyder's giant superhero epic. It wants to do a lot of things, but doesn't quite have the time or wear-with-all to accomplish them fully. It wants to introduce Batman into the Man of Steel universe. It wants to establish Clark Kent's new life at the Daily Planet and his relationship with Lois Lane. It wants to depict a society that is apprehensive about the presence of Superman and questions his place in the global community. It also wants to set up the Justice League and provide a foundation for new heroes to arise. It wants to be an allegory about religion and politics. And then finally, it also wants to pit these two heavyweights against each other, if only temporarily.

All these plot threads and character arcs do not mesh together seamlessly, and Batman v Superman is kind of a mess because of it. The storytelling is sloppy at times, the writing a little lazy at others. And I could never quite figure out what Snyder wanted to focus on at any given moment, as the narrative shifts between different characters and plot points ad nauseum. Yet despite all this, I have to say I enjoyed the movie overall. Ultimately, that's due to my love of these characters, and the joy I felt seeing them on screen together for the first time. For all of this film's problems and shortcomings, and there are quite a few, I left the theater with a positive feeling inside, with an optimistic hope that this was actually a sign of great things to come for the DC cinematic universe.

First things first, Ben Affleck kills it as both Batman and Bruce Wayne. As the Caped Crusader, he's a lot more brutal and hardened than previous movie incarnations, which I personally loved. It reminded me of the character that I grew up on in the comics and animated show, the character that helped shape me during my formative years. As the charming billionaire, he was equally great, exuding a debonair seriousness and world-weariness that intrigued and engaged me every time he was on screen. All the people that were critical about Affleck's casting will owe him an apology after witnessing his excellent portrayal. He was the best part of the movie as far as I'm concerned. The one thing that did bother me about this rendition of Batman is that he isn't nearly as concerned with preserving life as audiences have become accumstomed to him being. There's a lot of collateral damage that he causes that does result in death. I had a hard time getting on board with that aspect of the character.

As for the other controversial casting in Batman v Superman, the results were a little less successful. Jesse Eisenberg was a very curious choice to play the iconic comic book villain that is Lex Luthor. Rather than being the confident and menacing Luthor that we know, he plays a spastic, twerpy kid that I could never really latch on to as a character. If I'm perfectly honest, I just found him annoying almost every time he was on screen. There were a couple moments where he made me laugh, but I realized that I was laughing at him rather than with him.

The lack of a strong central antagonist would have been fine had the film chosen to focus its story on the conflict between Batman and Superman and not devoted so much time to the "plan" of Lex Luthor. I put "plan" in quotes because there really is no coherent plan to be found; the motivations behind Luthor's character are nearly impossible to decifer and his character ultimately feels superfluous and out of place as a result. While Eisenberg's interpretation of Lex Luthor was lackluster, the rest of the cast does a solid job. Besides Affleck, there wasn't anyone that really stood out to me, although there is a show-stealing appearance by Wonder Woman that has me very excited to see her solo movie.

As with any Zack Snyder film, the action and effects are awesome. Everything looks beautiful and the action was exciting, although there were a few moments when the fights devolved into CGI fests that were difficult to figure out what was happening. Even so, the large majority of the action was well-done, especially the fights involving Batman. His fight scenes were perfectly executed, and we finally got the type of hand-to-hand combat sequences we've been waiting to see on screen.

In addition to great action sequences, the film actually had a handful of effectively emotional scenes. Despite its inconsistent storytelling, I felt like there were truly heartwrenching moments of emotion. They may be few and far between, but they're there nonetheless. I felt the same about Man of Steel; even with some notable flaws in the script and storytelling that Snyder employed, there were moments and scenes that affected me. Thus, it's unfortunate that he's unable to string together these emtoional vignettes into a cohesive and powerful storyline.

In the end, I liked this movie. It wasn't flawless by any means, and it wasn't the foundation for the DC cinematic universe that I was hoping it would be, but it did enough to get me excited for the future of this universe. The character of Batman is in good hands, and I still like Henry Cavill as Superman. Jesse Eisenberg may have been miscast, but even his misguided performance couldn't ruin the movie for me. As an avid lover of these characters, I found myself in awe of certain moments in this movie, and the fact that these characters are finally on screen together filled me with an undeniable joy. There's plenty of good things to be found in this messy film, and for that reason, I recommend giving it a chance.

B-