Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Starring:Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Jesse Eisenberg, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Jeremy Irons, Holly Hunter, Gal Gadot, Scoot McNairy, Lauren Cohan, Michael Shannon, Ezra Miller, Kevin Costner, Jason Momoa, Patrick Wilson (voice)
Directed by: Zack Snyder
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action, Adventure, Science Fiction
2016

Times Seen:
Tim: 2

Summary: As the world struggles to make sense of Superman (Henry Cavill), Batman (Ben Affleck) begins to worry about the power he wields and what it means for the human race.

Review:

Tim: Full disclosure: because I'm such a massive fan of Marvel, I do feel a slight smugness when DC's films struggle a bit at the box office. It's the competitive side of me coming out. Now, while I may experience some joy from their struggles, the overwhelming sense I feel is one of genuine disappointment. Having DCEU films not realize their full potential doesn't benefit anyone. I don't want to waste time on movies that aren't worthwhile. So, in spite of my initial confession, I truly do want DC's movies to be good and to succeed. That will push Marvel to not get complacent and deliver quality entertainment to audiences.

Unfortunately, while Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is a legitimately good movie, it's also a deeply flawed and ultimately disappointing one. I really wanted to love this movie- how cool is it to see Batman and Superman grace the silver screen at the same time? That's never happened before and I geeked out during those moments. This film has some undeniably cool sequences, but ultimately, there's far too much wrong with the movie. It felt like DC was rushing to catch up to Marvel, crammed way too much in this bloated film. There's enough here to be a good movie, but man, this should have been so much better.

I actually liked the basic premise of the film. It makes total sense to have this movie deal with the fallout from Man of Steel. I actually bought into the basic reason why Batman and Superman would be on opposing sides- Batman believing the Kryptonian was a threat to all humanity makes logical sense. Unfortunately, outside of a few of these strengths, there's far more that is wrong with this movie. Lex Luthor's whole plan was never really clear to me. What was he trying to accomplish? How did he know what he knew at the end of the film? The whole Doomsday thing was awful. I still remember buying "The Death of Superman" comic when it first came out. I can close my eyes and describe some of the strips from that iconic comic. If the DCEU wanted to bring in Doomsday, they should have built a film around him, not crammed him in at the end of an already bloated film. All I can do is shake my head and feel regret that one of the coolest moments in the legacy of Superman was rushed and wasted. It was also frustrating to see the bizarre ways this movie tried to connect to the larger DCEU. Bruce Wayne's bizarre dream/premonition made no sense unless you were pretty deep into comic lore. Even worse, it just felt slapped together, rather than intentionally aligned. Counterpoint: Marvel suffered some of these same issues, most visibly in Iron Man 2. I'm not suggested Marvel didn't have these same issues, but they just felt more egregious here.

I need a special paragraph for the thing that totally lost me- the "Martha" resolution to the titular heroes' fight. I don't want to spoil more than necessary, but this is one of the weakest, more absurd things I have ever seen in a movie like this. It makes no logical sense and immediately opens the film to ridicule. Even worse than the initial realization is how quickly everything changes. I get a migraine headache just thinking about it.

Let's talk about the massive cast. One of the biggest early complaints of this film was the casting of Ben Affleck at Batman. Fanboys were up in arms about it. Surprise, surprise, Affleck emerged as perhaps the best aspect of the film. He made me forget all about Christian Bale. He was incredible and I loved him in the role- I loved how he looked as Bruce Wayne, I loved his performance, and I thoroughly enjoyed his performance as Batman. That's insane, because it was the biggest point of contention early on. The guy just absolutely delivers, though. He was great in this movie. Henry Cavill is fine as Superman. He's not the most engaging actor, but he looks the part for sure.

Jesse Eisenberg was woefully miscast as Lex Luthor. It seemed like an odd choice from the beginning, but I tried to trust in DC. That trust was misplaced. His Luthor is awful, way too over-the-top and clownish. I never felt any sense of awe of him as a villain. I wanted to laugh at nearly everything he did. I tend to like Eisenberg, but this is him at his worst. He really, really hurts the film with a terrible performance. Shame on director Zack Snyder for allowing this to happen. Amy Adams was fine, but outside of a few nice scenes she doesn't have enough to do. Diane Lane and Laurence Fishburne always add to the quality of a film and make the most of their limited screen time. Jeremy Irons proved to be an incredible Alfred. Gal Gadot was fine as Wonder Woman. She looks the part, but I'm not convinced of her skills as an actress. There's a ton of other cast members, but I mentioned the most important ones. Truly, the cast is impressive and it's a big strength overall.

This film has major flaws, but there are a few things that you can't take away from this. You get to see Batman and Superman fight in a battle that was far more evenly matched than I would have imagined. Truly, Superman could kill Batman in less than half a second. The movie did a great job of setting up how the battle could actually be competitive. I did enjoy that sequence. Also, you get to see Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman team up for the first time ever on screen. That's amazingly, undeniably, incredibly cool. I loved those scenes. You have Affleck straight delivering as Batman, shocking the world with how good he was. And, despite the ridiculous ways it got there, the movie did set up Darkseid, which is going to be pretty cool.

I wanted to like Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (by the way, terrible title) more than I did. It's a step backwards from Man of Steel. While this is still a good movie, the flaws come more readily to mind than the strengths. It truly does worry me about the DCEU- we're two films in now, we have zero great movies, and a downward trend. Marvel started with the incredible Iron Man (still one of my favorite MCU films) and then the legitimately underwhelming The Incredible Hulk. That's a good perspective to keep in mind, but the DCEU needs to take some drastic actions if they want their cinematic universe to endure.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Man of Steel, Suicide Squad