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.
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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.
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