by Ed Travis
One Critic, Two Reviews
Conversationally and mentally debriefing Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice was giving me whiplash. For every criticism that threatened to crush the film entirely, a decisively cool and bold choice would counter the criticism. And each time a thrilling set piece promised an ultimately successful film, a new twist derailed the progress made. In an experimental attempt to create a film review that wouldn’t suffer from as much whiplash as the film itself did, and in celebration of the opposing and confrontational (read “punching”) nature of BvS, I’ve written two totally independent reviews of the film. Each are true and represent my genuine feelings about the film, as does everything I write. They can be read independently, but perhaps would be best when read together. I hope you enjoy some parts and wildly hate others… in which case the experience of reading my review/s will closely mimic the experience of watching BvS.
Marvel has its troubled heroes; DC has its gods.
And now those gods get to flex their cinematic muscles in Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice (henceforth BvS), sharing the big screen in the biggest way possible. Always known as a visual stylist, director Zack Snyder has brought imagery to the big screen that many of my generation never dreamed possible. Superman and Batman appearing in the same frame, duking it out. Wonder Woman’s lasso in action. The seeds of the Justice League being planted. There’s an unmistakable sense that it’s some kind of miracle that this movie exists, even if many feel it’s taken far too long.
As much as DC has seemed to lag behind Marvel in their building of a shared cinematic universe, that’s allowed for a bit of “sameness” to creep into the Marvel machine. BvS takes advantage of that by offering a distinctly different-feeling super hero universe which offers surprises that haven’t been felt in a Marvel movie in quite some time. There’s been no lack of spectacle in Marvel movies, but the gods of DC certainly bring a scale in their film that rivals the biggest comic book films ever. The delay in bringing this type of shared universe to the screen also allows the changing expectations of super hero cinema to impact it in a positive way. Gone is the need to offer a fully fleshed out origin for each of these iconic heroes. Warner Brothers was able to assume every human being seeing this film is already familiar with its culturally saturated characters, and this allows for a pretty action-heavy story sans excruciatingly long origin introductions.
Getting right down to it, Batman is the very best part of BvS. Well, Batman and Alfred (Jeremy Irons). Ben Affleck looks flat out amazing as Batman, with every iteration of his costume achieving Peak Frank Miller. His introduction is frightening, his action sequences are breathtaking. And his “wonderful toys” veer just the right amount into sci-fi territory to make him fit in amongst the gods of the future Justice League. The fact that he’s already an established Batman who’s been operating in Gotham at length is among the very best strengths of BvS. He’s already got a history and it allows the audience to be reintroduced to Batman as played by a new actor, but also allowing us to hold on to the storylines we already know and love.
As introduced in this movie, Bruce Wayne beheld the destruction which occurred in Man of Steel and began to harbor anger and resentment towards Superman. This ostensibly serves as the motivation behind the “V” of the title. But because this movie is massively scaled beyond belief, the conflict between the two also hinges upon some antics from Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor. And somehow Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) gets mixed up in things too. Gadot was perhaps an even bigger question mark than Affleck as far as casting goes, and she acquits herself well.
The ultimate success of BvS lies in the iconic visuals it manages to create. Superman floating in space, injured but revived by the sun. Batman leaping across walls and buildings with a grappling hook. Wonder Woman wrestling a giant beast with her lasso and arm bands. I routinely found myself in a state of disbelief that these thrilling visuals were now writ large on the big screen forever. Snyder brings another level of visual flair to the table by allowing dream-like sequences and visions to occur, showing us bizarre portents of things to come in future movies, or just things occurring only in dreams, or perhaps alternate dimensions? Yes, the film goes quite sci-fi; which it had to in order to introduce such a wide array of fantastical characters to mainstream film audiences for the first time.
Snyder and writers Chris Terrio (Argo) and David S. Goyer (tons and tons of superhero movies) were tasked with a fairly thankless project. Write a screenplay that lays the foundations of an entire new cinematic universe in more or less one film. Introduce us to an array of characters new to the silver screen and continue the established stories of those already introduced in Man Of Steel. Oh, and make sure the film is as big and brash as the DC gods are on the page. While the story is big to the point of breaking, the visuals match the scope of the story, and Snyder the visualist once again provides the imagery you’ve perhaps always dreamed of if you’re the kind of person who always dreamed of seeing Superman and Batman fight. So while the job was an almost impossible one, and while the script clearly pales in comparison to the action and costume design, Snyder and Co do manage to create a film with almost as many merits as it has flaws. A divisive film from its first announcement, BvS will forever have detractors as fervent as its fans. It’s quite possible there was no scenario which would have pleased everyone here with this title.
But BvS brings the scale and visuals required of such a large film. While I’ve generally been a big fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe thus far, I’ve begun to know what to expect. The bar of quality is set quite high and is routinely met, but the surprise has more or less worn off. I found myself shocked at the developments of BvS, whether for good or ill. And I have lots of questions about where the story will go from here. I’m curious, and it’s nice to feel that way.
And I’m Out.
Don’t miss Ed’s equally honest (but diametrically opposite) negative review here.