Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Disappointment

I like Batman.  He’s the cool superhero.  He’s rich and he’s got gadgets.  He’s holding his own against aliens, and cults, and clowns with guns.  He is super dark and edge.  He’s got no powers but he doesn’t let that stop him!  Everyone likes Batman.  Not everyone likes Superman.  I used to be one of those people.   People always say Superman is boring and that he’s too powerful.  But those people clearly haven’t tried to read a Superman comic.  The best Superman moments are when he gives other people hope, when he talks people out of committing suicide, or when even with all his powers, he can’t stop someone he loves from dying.  Sometimes I don’t want a superhero who is a drunk or has mental issues.  Sometimes I want a superhero who always tries to do the right thing.  Those to me are some great storylines.  When people with rigid moral codes come to a situation with no right answer. Those are the best superman (and also Captain America) storylines.  Also, stories like Red Son are great for other reasons. 

Naturally as a fan of both of these heroes, I would be excited for Dawn of Justice, right?  Well, you’re right.  I was excited.  I was super excited.  I was at like a 90% excitement level.  Until I saw that trailer.  You know what trailer I am talking about.  The one that spoils the entire movie.  That’s when my excitement waned quite a bit, down to like 40%.  However, one of my friends told me that he heard a rumor that the trailer was a sort of bait and switch.  They made it seems that it was spoiling the movie, but the structure of the movie was actually going to be different.  I bought into his words because I really wanted a good movie.  Excitement level back up to 60%.  After this, however, the reviews came in.  They all blasted the movie.  I didn’t read any of them, but a 30-ish % on Rotten Tomatoes is hard to ignore.  My excitement level dropped again to 20%.  Now mind you, I am still excited.  I still want to see Superman and Batman fight and be friends and what have you.   But it’s definitely waned.

Now let me sidetrack and say that I really loved Man of Steel.  I get it, it’s dark and too many people die….blah blah blah.  Great.  BUT SUPERMAN DOESN’T KILL PEOPLE!  Actually he has.  He’s killed Zod before, in a straight execution.  I will leave a link to a great article where it talks about all the times Batman and Superman have killed people.  So, no that argument holds no water here.  Superman will kill if he deems it necessary.  If Superman thinks you NEED to be killed, then you screwed up big time. 

http://www.newsarama.com/19848-world-s-deadliest-10-times-batman-and-superman-have-killed-their-enemies.html

Also, what the hell do you expect when an alien who has never used his powers before fights a highly militarized, highly trained individual who wants to destroy the planet.  This is Superman’s first day on the job, and he has to fight someone better than him.  His mother and father made him hide his powers so that he wouldn’t be taken away.  You’re angry people died?   Of course people died.  That’s what would happen.  It’s not a valid argument against it as a film.  

Tone is another thing that people try to leverage against MOS and DOJ,and I get it. Superman is not a dark character usually.  However, every director, author, artist, and editor bring their own spin on things.  Some play him lighter, some darker.  Snyder wanted to do darker.  I can totally get past that. And I think you should as well.

So, now that I have gotten those weaker points out of the way, let’s talk about what I liked from DOJ. Iloved Bat-Fleck.  This is the best version of Batman and Bruce Wayne we have ever gotten. Batman is intense, aggressive, and intelligent.  He’s a brawler, a playboy, a detective, and a businessman.  Affleck really pulls it off.  He looks like Batman, talks like him, and acts like him.  His parts are easily the best in the entire movie. 

Henry Cavill’s Superman is also great.  He just like the world around him is completely unsure of what his place in the world should be. He struggles because nothing he does is good enough, and it really does bug him.  After all, Clark Kent is more human than alien.  That means that he is susceptible to all of our flaws too. 

I thought the fight scenes were amazing.  They were quick without being jarring, Brutal without being over the top, and just plain fun to watch at the end of the day. 

Now for the stuff I didn’t like.  I hate you, Jesse Eisenberg.  Can you not act like a cock little bitch in all of your movies?  You are no Lex Luthor.  Please try to add some range to your performances or quit.  If a director asks you to do that quirky thing you always do, stand up to them and demand to do something different.  I am so damn tired of seeing you doing the same mannerisms and awkward craziness in all your movies (Though I am sure you’re a nice guy).   

Gal Gadot is ok as Wonder Woman.  She doesn’t really feel like Diana to me.  But maybe with her own movies she can blow me away.  Speaking of women, Amy Adams as Lois Lane is a waste of space in this movie.  She’s a fantastic actress, and Lois Lane is an amazingly strong character, can we please give her something to do in these movies besides getting in trouble so Superman can save her?

The Justice League is so poorly implemented in this movie, it’s almost laughable.  Seriously, that’s all you’re going to do.  An email?  That’s how you find out about them?  That’s really lame and lazy.  It would have been better with just background newspaper articles. It was shoe-horded in, and felt tacked on. 

Finally, the main thing that dragged DOJ down:  The editing and pacing.  There are so many problems with how this movie is put together. It feels disjointed and messy.  It’s so badly edited that there were scenes where I was confused because there was no indication that the previous scene was over.  There were no establishing shots.  It jumped from Clark to Bruce to Batman, back to Clark so quickly and with no set up that I wasn’t even sure what was happening.  There’s too many scenes that drag on to make a 2.5 hour long movie feel even longer.  There 2 too many dream sequences.  It’s just a crappy effort to condense what was obviously supposed to be a longer movie into a studio allotted run time.  

That’s where DOJ stumbles the most.  It stumbles as a film.  Even if you look past the tone, the destruction and the murder, you are left with an average movie. It can be very entertaining, just don't expect t be blown away. 

This is not the best way to set up your cinematic universe, DC.

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