Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice review

 Dawn of Justice: The DCU Rush-Job

Batman V Superman: It’s not a great film. It’s not a bad film either. It’s an experience which had an incredible amount of potential from the title alone. The result: with certain great performances aside, it has followed other instalments to franchises that buckle under the heavy and unnecessary chore, to sell cinema tickets for films that don’t even exist yet (looking at you, Amazing Spidey 2). How does the film actually deliver on the promise of its name? The answer: “Meh”.

Characters & Casting

Firstly, let’s get positive. Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman is a triumph. Damaged; violent, brutal, bitter and fuelled with rage. Batfleck carries out a much darker version of the caped crusader that has exceeded expectations by far. The character’s train of thought and motivations connect beautifully as a hero who is clearly worn down by tragedies of his past. He is now facing a god-like being whose existence creates dire potential for further horrors of both death and destruction. Even Jeremy Iron’s portrayal of a rough Alfred is a sample of great casting. The onscreen back-and-forth of this Bruce Wayne-Alfred pairing could be enjoyed for hours.

The saving grace of BvS, Ben Affleck's best performance to date.

Continuing the praise of the cast, Henry Cavill delivers a strong second performance as Clark Kent/Superman. Carrying the additional weight the character burdens from the events of Man of Steel, Cavill soundly brings the character’s interior conflicts into his personal scenes. “Am I following the right path?” “Does my presence outweigh the negatives in the form of positives?” “Does the world need, or even want me”? The Superman actor has drawn from the strengths of his previous performance and improved them, to align for the necessary evolution of the character, even though the exploration of this growth appears to have been misplaced within this film instead of a Man of Steel 2 (to be touched on later). Gal Gadot also defied fan expectations with an epic portrayal as Amazonian warrior, Wonder Woman, enough to make you starving for more of what this character is capable of. Even Laurence Fishburne stands out amongst the supporting cast as Perry White for a providing a well-earned chuckle or two in the delivery of some good “haha” dialogue. Amy Adams as Lois Lane continued to make a decent pairing with Cavill’s love interest (in the scenes where needed at least).

Jessie Eisenburg as Lex Luthor is the edge of the cliff before we drop into the pit of issues with the film. For those who were concerned regarding Eisenburg as this film’s villain (one of them) after seeing the trailer, your concern was well placed. The character of Lex Luthor is a nut. There’s no doubt about that. The difference between The BvS Lex and forms in other media is that in the latter; there is a cold, calm, cool and collected mask in front of the madness. A sophisticated villain would have not only been an intellectual rival for Batman/Bruce Wayne but also would have been a better foe for Superman because of that reason.  Eisenburg has done his best with the script that was given to him, only that the Lex Luthor in this story came off like Jim Carrey was meant to play the role as Joker, if he just happen to become a CEO billionaire.

Story and Structure

The large size of the role of Lex Luthor in this film is an example of the too many cogs in the overloaded machine that is this story. Instead of one film with one great storyline, we get 3 films jammed together, including story lines that are never fully explored.

Motivations for the two characters of Batman/Bruce Wayne and Superman/Clark Kent building up to a clash are established early on: Superman is seen by Batman as an imminent, unchecked threat to human life and Batman is viewed by Superman as an over-the-top vigilante who thinks he is above the law. These two reasons are perfectly sound to expect an epic gladiator match between the two most popular super heroes in our culture.

A noticeable film in this DC Universe-fast track is storylines which seem to belong in a Man of Steel Sequel. Approaching half way through the first act, the film begins to immediately feel bloated with added plots of Lois Lane’s investigation and a Lex Luthor plot for evil shenanigans. Lois Lane’s role in the film overstays its welcome all the way to the climax of the Batman v Superman brawl, to the point where her role’s contribution to good story telling is sacrificed for the sake of giving Lois Lane more screen time. The storyline that analyses both the damage and deaths caused in Man of Steel, along with the presence of an all-powerful alien presents the question: “Does the world need a Superman?” Exploring the answer to this question, possibly with the Lois and Lex stories thrown-in together, would have created the possibility for a lean, hard hitting Man of Steel 2. Sadly, these are all never fully explored in this jumbled film with little to no pay off for any of them.

As for a second film mixed into BvS, a Wonder Woman/Justice League adventure’s in there. As brilliant as Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman is, her appearances are too few and too short. As mentioned earlier, this makes you hungry for more but in a way that you feel unjustly robbed. This is a deep shame because the action scenes and soundtrack being brought with the character’s presence is a massive highlight worthy of making audiences cheering, but cheering only a couple of times. To viewers of the second trailer who were worried about an unnecessary Doomsday addition, again, that worry is far more than well-placed. In a film called Batman Vs Superman, an extra villain is unfittingly clogged in. Not only is the direct premise of the film’s title and previous two acts being taken on a 180 degree turn, but time that could have been perfectly utilised for seeing and exploring more Wonder Woman is wrongly wasted.

Just like jamming in Doomsday for a fast track Justice League team-up, unneeded scenes are added between main events of the film to impatiently create support pillars for the foundation of future Justice League films. There is nothing wrong at all with referencing other/future films, especially those established in larger universes. However, this is only the case if the quality of the individual film being viewed at the time is unaffected and the viewer’s attention isn’t being dragged away from the story for the sake of a future film tie-in. Instead of a Marvel-esque post-credits scene that tells audiences what the next chapter is, AFTER the story at hand wraps up, BvS’s story gets interrupted to loosely connect this film with those of other DC heroes which will be released in the next few years. I felt as if the film had been stopped mid-act just for Zack Synder to tell me that these films would be coming out and DC is playing catch-up with Marvel. The escapism being compromised in a film by the film itself just feels wrong.

Thirdly, the actual fight between Batman and Superman, following Batman’s personal struggles, fight scenes and Batman-isms were the best part of this film. Although, again, these are too few and far between everything else mashed into the film. Instead of a tense, emotional, powerful build-up to a fitting and enthralling cinematic brawl, there was too much fat before you got to the steak. By the time you get to the main course that is the fight you come to see, every second of it should be loved and savoured because as brilliant as this showdown is, it’s confusingly over far too quickly for the sake of hashing in that untimely Justice League team-up. It is definitely not worth the final battle you get with an incredibly unnecessary and terrible-looking villain instead.

Verdict

Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice has both pros and cons. Unfortunately, the latter greatly outweighs the former. However, taking in this experience for the sake of seeing a fantastic and breath taking onscreen Batman, by Ben Affleck makes it worth your time and curiosity. Whilst there is joy to be found in fight scenes and soundtrack, the film becomes far too clouded by trying to become far more than it needs to be. Sadly, Batman vs Superman is a film that does not deliver on its premise. In exchange for sacrificing the opportunity to become an individual masterpiece in its own right, Zack Synder has chosen to lay out this film as the very rocky, crumbly foundation for DC’s cinematic universe.

5/10.

By Ben Williams, Pineapple Carpet.