Going back to 2013, one of the most
anticipated movies of the year would have had to be Zack Snyder's "Man of
Steel." The first live action portrayal of Superman on the big screen since 2006, it
was a movie that many were incredibly excited for. Unfortunately, the final
product was lackluster to say the least. It was a rather uninteresting origin
story filled with little character development, bad writing, and questionable
design decisions. In my opinion, it might have been one of the most disappointing movies in
years. So when a sequel was announced shortly afterwards, I wasn't particularly
interested. But when it was announced that Batman would play opposite to the
titular hero, it got my attention. While there was an initial uproar about Ben
Affleck playing the Dark Knight, many put their doubts aside when the first
trailers premiered. So while "Batman v Superman" had all the
potential in the world I still had my doubts, manly about the director. Zack
Snyder has returned to as the director, but the problem is I don't think he's
very good at his job. Other than "Watchmen," I've never liked any of
his movies. He's the ultimate "style of substance" director, and many
of the stylistic choices he makes don't turn out well when transferred to the
silver screen. So going into this movie I had my doubts. And afterwards, almost
all of them ended up being true.
Eighteen months after
the events of "Man of Steel," the world is still trying to recover
from the earth shattering fight between Superman and General Zod. Thousands
died in the attack on Metropolis, but people are getting by. Superman is trying
to live the best life he can as Clark Kent with his Girlfriends Lois Lane,
while trying to balance his duties as Superman. At the same time, Bruce Wayne
has been investigating criminals all over Gotham in order to find someone named
the White Portuguese, who might be bringing a dirty bomb into Gotham. But what
he's even more worried about is Superman, who he views as a possible threat. On
the other side of the planet, some young boys find a part of one of Zod's ships
in the ocean. The part contains a large piece of kryptonite, which has been
known to affect Kryptonians. The piece is bought by a man working for Lex
Luther, who plans on weaponizing it in case they need to fight Superman. And
not long after, these three forces start to collide.
The idea of a movie that
puts Batman against Superman sounds like an awesome one, the comic book rivalry
millions of fans all over the world wanted to see. Unfortunately for those
fans, the movie they've been waiting years to see is a mess. Let's go ahead and
talk about some of the good. There are a lot of really solid performances in
this movie. Henry Cavil did a much better job as Superman in this movie than he
did in "Man of Steel." And Gal Gadot is a great Wonder Women;
unfortunately though her character was underutilized throughout the movie. But
surprisingly, the true star of the movie is Ben Affleck. When Affleck was
announced to play the Dark Knight, people had flashbacks to
"Daredevil" and thought he'd be terrible in the role. But he proves
all the haters wrong, because he is fantastic in this movie. Acting both as
Batman and Bruce Wayne, he was by far the best part of this movie. I also liked
this portrayal of Batman as well; he's an older, tired Batman that doesn't have
the same morals that we usually see from the character. He was so good that I'm
now looking forward to the standalone "Batman" movie we're getting in
a few years. And regarding the designs of the characters, I loved there costumes. They pay respect to the source material while looking different enough to be original. But of all the major stars in this movie, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex
Luther falls short. Eisenberg is a very good actor, but he did a bad job as
this character. The portrayal of Luther annoyed me because all they did was
make him crazy. He's supposed to be an evil genius, not insane. And the way
Eisenberg acted was like watching Jim Carrey play Lex Luther. And while I'm
still talking about the characters, I have to say Doomsday was wasted in this
movie. His character design is terrible, they ruined his back-story, and they
gave him powers that he wasn't supposed to have. Doomsday is one of the most
iconic DC villains, but in this movie he is poorly done. One of my favorite
aspects of this movie would have to be the visuals. The cinematography
is great, and the CGI is well done (mostly). I'm also glad that Snyder decided
to have some color in this movie, unlike "Man of Steel." But like
I've already said, Snyder is a style over substance director. So while he a
great job with the visuals, the story has more than a few problems. First off
there are pacing issues, with huge chunks of the movie feeling out of place or
downright uninteresting. Several of the movie's plot points also felt
unnecessary; for example, there is a whole segment about Superman getting in
trouble with the law that ends suddenly half way through the movie. And after
it's over, I was left wondering what the point of it was. This movie also
featured some pretty bad dialog. With many of Luther's lines being random and
out of place, as well as dialog that hits you over the head with foreshadowing
instead of having any hint of subtlety. The movie also featured a lot of lazy
plot set-up. On more than a few occasions things happen very conveniently, for
no reason. Like Doomsday's creation, the ending of Superman's legal troubles, the set-up for the fight between the two title characters, and worst of all the set-up for future movies in the series. Without getting
into spoilers, there are cameos from other heroes. Early in the
movie they allude to them in a subtle and clever way. But later on the
reference them again in a way that is lazy and blatant. "Batman v
Superman: Dawn of Justice" had all the potential in the world. From a big
budget to an impressive cast, but it ended up being a waste. And I can't help but
feel that it really is Snyder's fault. While he can put together a good action
scene, he can't direct a good movie. At this point Snyder has basically become
Michael Bay, and that is far from a good thing. I feel this is going to be one
of those movies that will divide audiences. There are a lot of people out there
who really like this movie, as well as a lot of people who think it's bad.
Unfortunately, I'm part of the latter group. I wanted to like this film, but I
just can't get behind it. While I think the future of this new DC Universe is
promising and has a lot of potential, "Batman v Superman" will likely
be remembered with little fondness from many fans.
Pros: Ben Affleck is fantastic as Batman, Henry
Cavil gives a better performance as Superman, great
cinematography and CGI, several
cool action scenes, Gal Gadot is great as Wonder Woman, some well done costume design.
Cons: Pacing issues, unnecessary plot points, Jess Eisenberg is a bad Lex Luther, Wonder Woman is underutilized, wasted Doomsday, Zack Snyder still not a good director,
forced cameos, lazy plot set-up, plenty of bad dialog.
2/5 Stars
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