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 earned its team up movie, and fans and critics alike embraced The Avengers.
DC has lagged behind in the “shared universe” department, stumbling in most every project not helmed by Christopher Nolan, so many cheered their bold move to ramp up their own shared universe with a quickness when they announced Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice. Would their bold strategy pay off?
As of this writing, the box office hasn’t yet spoken. Nor have the majority of fans. Critics, however, have overwhelmingly concluded that no… DC’s rushed introduction of an expanded story is not successful. In many ways, I stand with that majority.
There’s a basis of a story here in Chris Terrio and David S. Goyer’s screenplay that’s compelling and smart. The use of the destruction of Metropolis as seen in Man Of Steel as the catalyst for Batman’s anger at Superman is rather inspired, even if it is a course correction from the fallout over audience’s own anger at that destruction. The efficient introduction of a brand new iteration of Batman is also a strength of the film. But for every element of storytelling efficiency displayed in the film, there are two examples of bloat. And almost progressively so. Each new character or plot development introduced in the two and a half hour runtime of this film further bogs down the initially compelling set up until a giant battle ultimately ensues featuring too many characters and too many CGI pixels and everything seems to collapse under the film’s own bombast.
As fantastic as Batman is in this film, both as portrayed by Affleck and as costumed by a team of geniuses, Henry Cavill’s Superman is largely sidelined here. Superman as a metaphor is explored; the worldwide fallout of his presence on earth is interesting stuff. But as a character with meaningful things to do, Superman mostly spins his wheels in this movie, brooding as heavily as Batman ever has and quixotically choosing to engage in fisticuffs with Affleck’s Batman when he knows full well that good old fashioned conversation is all that’s really needed to resolve the source of their dispute.
Oh, right, the dispute. Every excited fan on earth worth their salt should have entered into this movie with a full and complete understanding that this movie would not end with Batman and Superman as enemies. That’s just a given. But how they got to the point of coming to blows, and how the eventual camaraderie comes about could have been the stuff of compelling character work and action/drama. Instead, the studio mandate of “bigger/darker/more” crept in ever so exponentially until the film chokes on its own bloat.
Lex Luthor as portrayed by Jesse Eisenberg is a trainwreck, albeit a memorable one. Oddly his storyline brings in the most head scratching science fiction elements and his actions directly bring about the giant CGI creature battle at the end which requires the titular “Dawn of Justice” to occur… AKA several of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes teaming up to take down a big bad. But this pixel fest of a final showdown is so bogged down by shoehorned characters and convoluted motivations that all the wonderful imagery of the film is worn thin by its relentlessly over complicated story. Not only is the team up aspect of the film not earned, but DC appears to have doubled down and begun dangling all sorts of “mystery box”-syle crumbs of clues for future storylines right into the middle of this already convoluted film. There were whole dream sequences and allusions to future characters that felt like neat Easter eggs but which never had any payoff in this film and served only to further dilute the potency of Batman and Superman, and also left me scratching my head.
Where the film suffers most is in its emotional potency. Early on, we have an extended sequence of Bruce Wayne rushing further and further TOWARDS the destruction of Metropolis from Man Of Steel. It’s iconic and emotionally powerful. It’s Bruce Wayne in a nutshell. And that’s the most effective the film ever gets on an emotional level. Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman looks cool and seems powerful and mysterious, but she has no character development and nothing to do. Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor is so over the top in his costuming and delivery that his muddled villainous plans are easy to miss whilst trying to sort out why he’s talking like that. Amy Adams’ Lois Lane is captivating and tenacious, but has nothing much more to do than be saved by Superman a whole bunch of times. But don’t worry, that’s all part of Lex Luthor’s plan. Fairing the worst in all of this is Henry Cavill’s Superman. He’s a side character in a movie bearing his name. He’s a symbol. A force of nature. But he’s not a compelling character here.
Where BvS largely succeeds as a visual feast of imagery and action spectacle, it fails in creating an emotional backdrop for its gods to resonate with us mortals. We’re terrible enough in real life at selecting leaders and role models to guide us. It’d be great if our fictional super heroes could just be a little smarter and more compassionate than we are. Instead they punch each other a lot. And when that looks awesome, but has to get sidelined so they can punch another, bigger thing together, that’s all well and good… but it simply doesn’t carry much emotional weight. While DC’s gods battle it out in a stunningly large scale manner, we mortals need some meat to hold onto in order to feel something.
Snyder probably did the studio proud. There are a ton of dangling threads left to be resolved in future installments. There are several clumsily introduced future members of the Justice League that many fans will be clamboring to see movies for in the coming years. Warner Brothers and DC can branch out in about a million different projects after this. But none of it is earned.
Batman and Superman are two of the most iconic fictional characters in the history of mankind. And on a purely visual perspective, their first silver screen team up does them justice. But narratively, these characters deserved their own movie. Are we to be led to believe that two of the grandest and most oft adapted characters in history weren’t big enough to support their own film? We also needed half a dozen other heroes to be introduced, and a questionable Lex Luthor, AND a giant, characterless CGI cave troll too? No. We didn’t need all that. And Warner Brothers’ rush to build a universe placed cracks in that universe’s foundation which may not ever be sealed.
And I’m Out.
Don’t miss Ed’s equally honest (but diametrically opposite) positive review here.