Batman V Superman · 7:05am Apr 10th, 2016
WARNING!!! Non-pony content approaching!
Some of you might not like or care for this sort of thing, but I really felt like hammering out my thoughts on this topic and this is really the only forum I have. My facebook page has cobwebs, as it has been, quite literally, years since the last time I used that site. I don't have any other blogs or a tumblr account. I'm not even signed up on Twitter and I'm not interested in doing any of those in the near future. So I shall now subject those of you who are willing to read this post to my ruminations on Batman v Superman.
I almost think this would have made a better film than the one we actually got.
Finally, I got to see this film. I'd been waiting for it, though not with as much excitement as many fans, I suspect. I'll fully admit that I went into this film and will probably go into all DCEU films with a considerable bias. I have always been more of a Marvel fan by a considerable margin. On top of that, for me at least, every DCEU film that comes out will forever be tagged with a massive asterisk, leading to a footnote that reads We thought our viewers were too stupid to go along with this shared universe concept and didn't change our minds until The Avengers made over a billion dollars, but we're pretending that we were planning to do this all along in hopes that you won't notice our low estimation of your intelligence. Perhaps because of this bias, but also because of general problems, I found the film to be not particularly good. Oh, I don't think it's the steaming pile of excrement that some reviewers, (including my favorite, Moviebob) seem to think it is, but it's definitely a long ways away from the movie it could and should have been.
Ultimately, I think my bias actually ties into one of the major faults of the film, namely that it's clear that Warner Brothers and DC oh so desperately want a slice of that delicious MCU comic book film profit pie. To that end, it really felt that they were essentially trying to play several years' worth of catch-up in a single film. Imagine if most of the Marvel Phase 1 productions after the first Iron Man movie were mashed together into a single movie in an effort to rush The Avengers out of the gate and I think you'll get some idea of the ultimate aim of the creative team behind Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. These guys are in such a hurry to get to the big team-up film that's going to make them bongo-bucks that they're trying to cram as much as they can into this one film in a rushed effort to lay the groundwork for it. Unfortunately, the whole production smacks of the filmmakers biting off way more than they can chew. We get so many story-threads and expository sections trying to introduce these characters, showcase their motivations, and develop their backstories, before trying to bring them all together for the big final action sequences that the whole execution winds up feeling like a cluttered mess that feels, all at once, both rushed and that it takes way too long to get where it's going. We're constantly given jarring leaps from one character to another as the film tries to develop their stories separately, even as it tries to bring them together.
The consequence is that we get bombarded by bits of exposition piecemeal throughout the film that continually gums up the wheels of the plot progression while, at the same time, never quite providing us enough about these characters to actually view them as characters and instead transforming them into walking plot-devices to move things along so that we can get to our big finale. As a consequence, many questions are left unanswered and not in the good "come see the next film to find out" kind of way.
All of this makes it a crying shame, as I really feel that there are the bones of a good, if not a truly great film buried in that morass. There are real issues at stake here, such as how the world deals with Superman and the idea of someone who has such godlike power, but the discretion of an ordinary human being. Batman's clearly dealing with several years' worth of trauma, thanks to the efforts of his rogues gallery (one member in particular), including the loss of his sidekick. Lex Luthor...has issues...we'll get back to that in a moment.
The initial plot is all about reconciling how the world views Superman, how Batman's trauma affects how he views Superman, and how Lex is trying to manipulate it all to his own ends. That's some interesting stuff. We even see the major contrasts between Superman as a hero and Batman as a hero. Bruce Wayne goes off at Clark Kent about the Daily Planet writing puff pieces about Superman every time he "rescues a cat out of a tree." However, it goes to the root of the major difference in how these heroes choose to be heroes.
Clark Kent isn't really being hypocritical about criticizing Batman's efforts because he approaches heroing in a different manner. His bailing out of Lois Lane at the beginning of the movie aside, all of Superman's other heroics appear to be focused on saving lives. He rescues people suffering from disasters and getting them out of hopeless situations. I actually got the impression that Superman was deliberately avoiding tackling street-level crime precisely because he's worried about becoming too overbearing in the use of his power. In the meantime, Batman ruthlessly hunts down and beats up street-level criminals before branding them and the fact that his plane and car are now sporting some serious dakka and he shows absolutely no reservations about using it show that his morals about his famous "one rule" have clearly loosened up in the past few years, obviously as a consequence of his trauma. All of these are excellent examples of storytelling through action, using, as we writers are so often told, "show over tell."
However, the big issue of Superman's role in the world ultimately ends up being little more than wallpaper and ultimately becomes moot when he's killed off at the end. Although he'll certainly be resurrected, it will most likely be just in time to help the Justice League face off against a massive alien menace (cough-Darkseid-cough) the threat of which will be enough to render the issue moot yet again. The point being that the issue is brought up to give the story the appearance of depth, but is never truly addressed or resolved in any meaningful manner as the entire debate is sidelined by Doomsday.
Likewise, the character of Lex Luthor is also wasted. Jessie Eisenberg caught a lot of flack for how he played this role, which I don't quite get. Maybe I don't really have eyes for telling who's giving out a great performance and who's a total hack. I'm certainly not some connoisseur of Lex Luthor portrayals in various media. But I thought Eisenberg's Luthor was certainly an interesting take on him. I adore quirky characters, even more so if they're quirky villains. I found Lex's quicks to be, at once, endearing and off-putting, an excellent way to sell the concept of a man who is, at once, a brilliant businessman and a dangerous psychopath. Furthermore, his quirks help underline the fact that Lex is a very damaged individual, which we come to understand was a result of the abuse he suffered at the hands of his father, which, unfortunately, gets hurled at us piecemeal over the course of the story in bits and pieces, which brings us to the waste of the matter. During the Gala scene, where Lex goes up to give his speech, he stumbles around, wanders off on tangents, loses his train of thought, and (to my view, at least) even comes close to having an emotional breakdown on stage. I thought that was brilliant as it showcases the sheer brokeness that defines the Lex Luthor of the DCEU.
Unfortunately, Lex doesn't actually get to be a character. In between bombarding us with exposition, he's largely shown just doing things, saying stuff, doing stuff, and saying things. His entire roll in the story is simply to grease the wheels of the plot in service of setting up the titular prize-match and kick off the final battle by unleashing Doomsday. If the film weren't so busy trying to spin so many other plates at the same time, his characterization could have been integrated much more organically into the story.
One of the film's bright spots is unquestionably Wonder Woman. Her presence buoys up the otherwise lifeless feeling of the film and she puts on a good showing in the final battle in away that actually shows some of her character. Unfortunately, her role is relatively minor, all told, which means there's only so much she can do to improve the film overall.
Finally, there's the tone...which is grim. When I heard the press talking about how "grounded" and "real" the film was going to be, it immediately started setting off alarm bells in my head. One of the biggest stumbling blocks in superhero films is when the creators try too hard to hit those two magic words or to make them "grim and gritty." See 2015's Fantastic Four. To me that smacks of the idea that Warner Brothers is still actually ashamed that they are creating a film based off of comic-book characters and want to distance themselves from that as much as possible. This, even though across the twelve films they've made so far, Marvel has yet to produce a single flop. Even their least successful films still manage to garner a "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes and the franchise as a whole has proven to be a critical and financial juggernaut (although, sadly, without the real Juggernaut so long as Fox holds the film rights to the X-Men). All this in spite of, or rather because of, being perfectly willing to showcase the wild designs and flashy colors of their major characters, completely without shame.
Which isn't to say that "grim" doesn't have its place in these movies. Batman is, by design, a grim character. He's a traumatized child in an adult's body who channels his rage into beating up criminals on the street because he's never gotten over the night where his parents were killed in front of him. Or...to put it in terms that the movie's Perry White would use..."Newsflash! Batman is grim. In other news, water is wet." That's not an issue. The fact that Batman has only been further traumatized by his rogues gallery over the years he's spent fighting crime in Gotham makes that more natural and expected.
That said...why then does Superman have to be so grim in a movie that already has Batman? That's not his character. Yes, he's allowed to be upset and troubled over the press and public questioning his right to be there and his willingness to try and use those powers for good or the fact that a lot of people are blaming him for things that he had no or only marginal control over. ("It wasn't my World Engine after all. Hey, I'd like to see you take on Zod without any collateral damage. Oh! That's right. There wouldn't be any because he'd turn you into a paste by flicking you with his pinkie finger so there'd be no need to trash the set. You're welcome!") However, at the same time, the issue of Superman is that he resolves to do good, not because he's obligated to, but because he wants to. In all those scenes where he's pulling people out of burning buildings, saving flood victims, rescuing astronauts from their exploding spacecraft, he should be allowed to take satisfaction in those moments, crack a smile or two because he likes doing the right thing. Showcasing that would have improved the tone of the film much more.
Oh...they didn't use the jitter-cam as much as they did in Man of Steel, but only by a slim margin. There are still way too many scenes where the camera has been mounted on a giant bobblehead for no apparent reason, certainly not the scene in question. For God's sake people, learn to compose a shot properly and hold the camera still. Non-stop shaky-cam doesn't make your movie look "edgy" or "real." It makes it look stupid.
All told, the film was a disappointment. It had the potential for greatness, but ultimately fell flat because the creators were trying to do too much at once and were unable to balance it all out, along with a tone that only worked for one of the characters in attendance, but felt forced and out of place for the rest of them. I certainly hope they can improve on this in later films.
Well...I've said my piece. Feel free to add your own critiques below or simply tell me to get back to work on my story (it's coming). Otherwise, this is me, myself, and I (all three of us), signing off.
Eagerly awaiting Godzilla in 2017.
This is why I prefer the Animated movies to the live action, cause they flow better in terms of story etc
Although Wonder Woman might have been good to see, there is a major issue in that we have no idea of who she is. We know she's Wonder Woman not because the film told us, but because we knew her before. If we were someone who had never even heard of DC before, her placement would be utterly confusing. Compare to the Marvel Universe, where most characters had their own film introducing them, and even the characters that didn't like Black Widow and Hawkeye were in films before so their placement in the Avengers wasn't out of place. Wonder Woman, on the other hand, I don't think the film even mentioned her name. I understand DC for not wanting to copy Marvel's idea of having multiple films building up to one film, but there's got to be a better way than what they chose.
Batman VS. Superman can be aptly summed up as "Like The Avengers but worse."
Any arguments to the contrary will be swiftly silenced at the point where Bruce Wayne puts on his Iron Man cosplay.
I agree with Angry Joe when he said they tried putting to much in a single movie needed to either be two movies or have a prequel that took place during the 18 gap
The one thing that I didn't expect to get out of the film was that I would want to see a Wonder Woman film. The actress who played her was fantastic; perfect casting. Besides that, I didn't get much of anything from it other then confusion. The story had been reworked to the point where I felt like I was watching three or four movies simultaneously with no ending.
They should have just taken directly from "Superman: Red Son." That would have been a terrific film.
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The animated movies were infinitely better
Leave the live-action to Marvel