BvS Batman v Superman - Reviews Thread [TAG SPOILERS] - Part 1

[Plaidchuck]

Lol go back.to commercials Zack. Take your entourage with you.

 

[Daywalker89]

Yeah I feel pretty much the same. I'm going to see it again just to see if it was just a bad first impression. I think there were some good moments in the film but they just didn't fit together properly. I liked the lifts from dark knight returns, but overall it was underwhelming. Good performances by the leads but in a poorly executed story. Can't believe Snyder didn't do a good job with the action sequences. Ugh.

I feel exactly the same way, they were quite average and most of it was spoiled in the damn trailers. The cartoony CGI didn't help either. In my opinion this had less action than MOS. I will be seing it again like yourself to iron out some scenes but damn this film has been a shock to the core.

P.S which company or companies done the CGI for this movie. I know it has progressed but it didn't seem good enough in this film, especially superman's cgi double.

 

[Kobra]

DC good. Marvel bad. You mean that?



Lying gets you no credibility but it does get you on my ignore list. See ya

Good luck with your crusade

 

[TheFuture]

Maybe I don't know anything anything about films, or maybe I'm just immune to Snyder, but I actually really enjoyed the film and LOVED the last 40 minutes or so. Yes, that's right, I loved Snyder balls to the wall final act because there was an excellent motivation to it.

Before the final act I was enjoying the performances but there was something missing to hold the story together, and for me this is because Lex Luthor was quite forgettable as the villain. That's not a dig at Eisenberg, it's just that the character was weakly fleshed out. He was just some quirky dweeb that I couldn't believe was capable of pulling the strings of those around him.

However, both Lex and Jesse came into their own on the rooftop with Clark, and that's when the story became compelling. The ensuing action absolutely makes sense and isn't just smash smash for the sake of it.

I didn't find it dull or a drag and the runtime absolutely zipped by. Credit where it's due to Snyder because the action in the final act never once became grating to me, and he delivered a huge emotional payoff in the end. One review I read called the ending a downer, and it is, but since when is that a negative? Or are these films meant to end with quippy backslapping?

I have to give credit also to the cast, particularly Cavill, who came into his own particulary in the final act. He really improved from MOS and I say that as someone who thought he struggled big time last time around. I'm not sold on certain aspects of this Batman but Affleck absolutely nailed it at the same time. I can understand why they went with certain decisions on the character as how many times can you build a film based on the same fundamental character traits? It at least leads to plenty of interesting avenues to explore for the first time in solo films.

I'm not ashamed to say I was absolutely entertained and if the film has its detractors that's fine. But it'd be an absolute travesty if what they've started here is in anyway curtailed because in my opinion it wouldn't be right. It'd be an absolute farce in particular if Snyder is asked to stepaside as director for the JL (he'll never be ****ed out completely because he and his wife hold big stakes in the DCEU) because for me this is his best effort to date, considering what he had to fit in at the behest of WB.

Excellent effort and a 4/5 for me.

 

[GR8GODZILLAGOD]

Saw a 9:30pm showing last night. I walked out of this film feeling so damn indifferent to what I just watched. There was little character development for anyone except some for Batman. The many plot threads in the film ended up having it all feel convoluted and overstuffed. The Justice League teases were so shoehorned in and felt extremely out of place for the film. The third act honestly felt like a video game. Nothing about it was convincing and the CGI was so cartoony. Ben Affleck did a good job as Batman. Not great but good. The opening scene with Bruce's point of view of Metropolis' destruction was great. Jesse Eisenberg I thought was just terrible. I don't know what he was playing but it sure as hell wasn't Lex Luthor. The forced bit of the [BLACKOUT]death of Superman[/BLACKOUT] was ham-fisted in and had no weight because once again, Superman got screwed on character development and I just didn't care for him that much. I also found the soundtrack to be pretty obnoxious at times. Often times to music will get very loud and intense for scenes that really don't call for it to.

All in all, this film was a mess with some good parts and many bad parts. I want the DCU to be great but I just don't see it happening with Snyder at the helm.

4.5/10

 

[DieSmiling]

Probably 3/5 for me.

Maybe it was just tempered expectations due to the bad reviews but my biggest takeaway was probably how standard a blockbuster it was relative to some of these acidic, toxic reviews. It's clear the movie was ambitious and didn't reach the lofty goals it strived for, but the idea that it's some abominable mess doesn't hold that much weight with me.

The bad:

It definitely has a bit of a herky jerky narrative with too much stuffed in. The fact that there's a 3 hour cut of this is pretty incredible -- there needs to be a 2 hour cut, IMO. There are far too many superfluous subplots that really don't stand up or seem necessary at all -- I think you can trim 15-20 minutes off this without losing a thing.

I don't like

Spoiler

Batman killing people. It's not some horrendous deal breaker for me, but it seems wholly unnecessary and against he spirit of the character. I know this is supposed to be an old, hardened, jaded Batman but it still seems out of place...

Personally, I also wasn't a fan of Lex. I pretty much knew this was going to be the case as soon as Eisenberg was cast, but I just don't like the eccentric youthful evil Mark Zuckerberg deal. It's a personal bias but it's just not what I want out of that character, and what I want we've never gotten in live action.

The good:

Outside of

Spoiler

the killing

I liked just about everything else about Batman. He was a fearsome beast, larger than life, his presence felt like what a dark Batman presence should be. He looked great and the fighting sequences were awesome. Affleck did a good job.

Superman and Lois were fine. I get the criticism of a more downbeat Supes but that's part of the story being told and I don't have a huge problem with it. He was definitely heroic, I don't get that criticism at all.

Visually it's a beautiful movie with some impressive action. The Wonder Woman reveal was well done, she was pretty great despite limited screen time.

The frustrating thing is that there were probably the ingredients here for something more -- I don't think this movie was THAT far away from being really good. But somehow the scattershot narrative ended up too bloated and too many of the films weaknesses ended up emphasized. It'd still give it a mild thumbs up.

 

[shinlyle]

Okay, my spoiler free opinion of Batman V Superman:
It was good. Nowhere NEAR great.
Bat-Fleck was good. He bordered on great. Actually delivered some lines from Dark Knight Returns! The Batman action was a highlight for me. They channeled the Batman Arkham series VERY strongly, which is always a good thing.

Wonder Woman was brief, but believe it...Gal Gadot takes her small role, and makes it huge! When she is fighting, we get that she is a force to be reckoned with!

Superman is in it. That's about it. He's much better than he was in Man of Steel, and they really took the mess that was MoS, and made something of it.

Now, the bad.

The dream sequences will make you roll your eyes, as you'll be unsure when they begin, and unsure if they're just dreams, or if they are visions...it's never truly explained.

Luthor. He borders on cool and ridiculous. Most of the time, he annoyed me. Sometimes he borders on madness, and that's when he's at his best.

Cameos. For those who want nothing spoiled, one of the cameos will just anger any fan of a certain DC comics show. Also, Aquaman's cameo was about as useless as can be...especially as built up as that was. We've been shown more than we saw in this movie in movie stills.

The Desert fight. It was so laughably bad. My buddies and I thought it was so dumb. Dozens of men with guns trained on Batman not shooting...and the fight choreography was awful for that scene. The only good thing about that part was who it hinted at...which was cool.

Lois Lane is an idiot. She does some stupid things, but she does also further the plot along, so there is that.

Doomsday. He is there to end the movie...but he isn't wholly terrible. Those who gripe about mindless baddies when the Avengers are fighting together will find that the Justice League is starting off the same way.

Honestly, it's worth a watch. I'd give it a 6.5 out of 10. If my children love it, then I'll bump it up to a 6.75.

 

[Predator jp]

I also found the soundtrack to be pretty obnoxious at times. Often times to music will get very loud and intense for scenes that really don't call for it to.

the JL cameo theme song was pretty obnoxious and i laughed second time the music came on.

 

[GR8GODZILLAGOD]

the JL cameo theme song was pretty obnoxious and i laughed second time the music came on.

When the music kicked in the whole scene just straight up become a teaser trailer in the middle of a movie. It was so not good.

 

[Kobra]

This film was a big middle finger to people who b*tch about MOS. This was Snyder saying: "Ok A-holes, this is my movie, my vision, i will do whatever i feel like doing. You don't get to write my movie".

 

[bapi]

There are already some BvS/The Room fanarts... t:t:

 

[C. Lee]

This film was a big middle finger to people who b*tch about MOS. This was Snyder saying: "Ok A-holes, this is my movie, my vision, i will do whatever i feel like doing. You don't get to write my movie".

That's a bad attitude for someone who wants to make a blockbuster movie. If he wanted to make a home movie....he should have done that. If a bunch of people express their dislike for somethings in a movie...the studio usually doesn't ramp up the things they disliked in the sequel. Seems like that is just alienating people.

 

[Tony Stark]

the JL cameo theme song was pretty obnoxious and i laughed second time the music came on.

On that note wonder woman's theme is terrible. I hope Zimmer isn't going to be involved with her solo movie.

 

[Kobra]

That's a bad attitude for someone who wants to make a blockbuster movie. If he wanted to make a home movie....he should have done that. If a bunch of people express their dislike for somethings in a movie...the studio usually doesn't ramp up the things they disliked in the sequel. Seems like that is just alienating people.

He and Nolan are close friends and that's probably the reason he has so much freedom. Snyder even mentioned that Nolan made sure nobody at WB interfered in MOS, because he didn't want a "studio movie" or something like that.

 

[BH/HHH]

This film was a big middle finger to people who b*tch about MOS. This was Snyder saying: "Ok A-holes, this is my movie, my vision, i will do whatever i feel like doing. You don't get to write my movie".

Lol

 

[Kobra]

One thing i missed was the lack of memorable lines. TDK trilogy has a ton of them.


"Ohhh, you think darkness is your ally. But you merely adopted the dark. I was born in it. Molded by it. I didn't see the light until i was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but blinding! The shadows betray you because they belong to me"

To me that's bad ass and epic. I think they missed a great opportunity of having Batman delivering bad ass lines while beating up Superman. Just schooling and tauting him.

Man, there was so much potential wasted in this movie.

 

[chicagodave]

Saw it last night no where near the worst cbm of all time but it dragged it soo much and when it finally started picking up you were just exausted from the from the first 2 hours. Its dissapointing too because it was suppose to give us this bigger world of the dcu. I really hope they can right the ship here because its going in a bad direction 6/10.

 

[bapi]

Ray Fisher on Twitter: "I'm so excited for you guys to see BvS so I can finally have people to geek out with about it! #BORGLIFE #BatmanvSuperman #Fans>Critics"


Personally don't like that they take fans for granted. Their logic is: "ok we just made a movie about DC heroes so people will love it no matter what. They just have to love it.".

 

[Forever Evil]

Not long out of my screening and I adored it. Just smiling non stop and I applaud Snyder for this ballsy move. It's certainly not for everybody, but I felt like it was especially for me.

I can't wait to go see it again a few more times.

 

[BlueLanternKal]

Ray Fisher on Twitter: "I'm so excited for you guys to see BvS so I can finally have people to geek out with about it! #BORGLIFE #BatmanvSuperman #Fans>Critics"


Personally don't like that they take fans for granted. Their logic is: "ok we just made a movie about DC heroes so people will love it no matter what. They just have to love it.".

I see no harm in it. I remember a red carpet interview of Affleck, before the Fallon interview, where he said that they made the movie for the fans and hopes that they did right by us. I don't think they're taking it for granted or it's "damage control" if they've been saying it before early screenings.

 

[JOE]

I can't even rate this movie yet, I'm just how baffled by how good I thought it was going to be. I've NEVER been this let down since the Green Lantern.

 

[Rowsdower!]

The Sum of All Fears?

Let me say that I wish I had gone into Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice unaware of the RT score and all the bad reviews. Although I didn't read any of them to avoid spoilers, I can't deny that I walked into the film yesterday expecting to find a lot of problems. Maybe if I hadn't seen it in that frame of mind, I would have wholeheartedly enjoyed it. I honestly don't know. But it's a bit like trying to find a completely impartial jury for a heavily publicized court case; unless you're living in a bubble, you're already at least somewhat aware of the situation.

That said, did I like the film? I would say... I enjoyed it, and maybe even liked it, but I definitely didn't love it. The first act is a mess, but it eventually evens out and becomes enjoyable. But I think it's a problem that I didn't love it. Because shouldn't I? For all its problems, I loved Man of Steel. Superman and Batman are my favorite superheroes, and Lex Luthor is my favorite supervillain. Lois Lane is the best superhero love interest. Wonder Woman is awesome and a feminist icon. Hell, I joined this forum in 2002 (as That-Guy back then) because a Batman vs. Superman film was announced and I spent a lot of time back then making joke posts about what the movie would be like if [INSERT DIRECTOR HERE] made the film.

But now we finally have our BvS movie and... it feels like a missed opportunity. I feel like there are some great scenes here that really work and they belong in a less convoluted movie. There are great actors giving great performances, yet it's hard to feel invested in them because there's so much going on. And yet, despite the fact that the movie seems to have 10 different subplots, the story is actually fairly simple - and I don't mean that as a compliment. [BLACKOUT]Ultimately, Lex's big plan involves getting Batman and Superman to fight each other and then when that doesn't work, he unleashes Doomsday upon Metropolis, in a manner that was (facepalm) similar to what Kevin Spacey's Lex did in Superman Returns - a film I hated. And I just kept thinking to myself, shouldn't this have been better?[/BLACKOUT]

I think the key problem is that this doesn't feel like a team-up/versus movie. It doesn't feel like Batman and Superman occupy the same amount of space. It feels like a Batman movie where Superman is a supporting character. And that pisses me off. I've defended this movie for the past three years because I drank Snyder's Flavor-Aid (I know everyone says Kool-Aid when they make this reference, but I go for accuracy). I believed that Superman was going to be, at the very least, half of the story, sharing the space with Batman like Kirk and Spock did in JJ Abrams' first Star Trek film. That would ahve been great. Instead, they went the route of Bryan Singer's first X-Men film, which I SEE SPIDEY once brilliantly referred to as "Wolverine and his backup dancers." Only the result here is worse because we've seen Batman a lot before and it almost seems unnecessary to force him down our throats this much just because he's the more popular character.

Let me say that all of the performances range from good to great. Ben Affleck is a good Batman. He's not at Bale or Keaton level, but he nails the role for the most part and makes it his own. Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor is also very good in my book. I can see why his performance is polarizing for many people, but I actually really liked what he did in the role. His best moments are when his mask of sanity starts to slip and you get glimpses into how f***ed up he really is. Again, I can see why it didn't work for some people, but it worked for me. Irons, Gadot and Fishburne have small roles, but do well in them. And it was great to see Harry Lennix again.

Henry Cavill and Amy Adams, despite being the film's best assets, are criminally underused. These are two actors that were BORN to play their respective characters, and Snyder and Terrio don't seem to know what the hell to do with them. Superman is given such little dialogue that it's difficult to feel for him. I never really got the complaints of a lack of dialogue in MOS, because he spent a lot of that movie by himself. But here, he's interacting with people a lot more, and most of the scenes consist of other characters lecturing him. And I don't blame Cavill for that. He can handle more dialogue; he had a lot more in Man from UNCLE and he did fine with it (and in an American accent, so that's not the problem). It's that Snyder and Terrio don't know what to write for him, probably because they just want to make a Batman movie with other superheroes in the background And as for Amy Adams' Lois... she's in the movie a good bit and she makes the most of it, but it's still not enough. I loved what she did in MOS and here she almost feels like an afterthought.

[BLACKOUT]As for the story... as I said before, the beginning was a jumbled mess. From Affleck's weird voiceovers to young Bruce flying (I know it was a dream sequence but still, WTF) to the Metropolis battle to the scene in Africa... the pacing is so frantic that it's a little hard to follow at times and even harder to become engaged in. The "Knightmare" sequence feels so out of left field it's painful to sit through. It's also never followed up on. I guess the presence of the Omega symbol means that Darkseid shows up and uses the anti-life equation to corrupt Superman or something, but accordingto Ezra Miller's Flash, it's actually because Lois Lane dies and Superman goes nuts or something. I don't know. That whole scene would have probably worked better as a post-credits stinger. Or better yet, leave the whole thing out. I mean, we get our first good look at Batman in costume DURING this sequence, when he's wearing goggles and a leather jacket instead of a cape.

Anyway, after that, the movie does start to find its way. We get to see Bruce doing some good detective work. We get our Justice League tease, which is pretty cool; I especially liked seeing Joe Morton as Victor's father... I had no idea he was in this. The scene with Lex on top of his skyscraper is pretty great. And the Batman/Superman fight is pretty good. One thing that surprised me there was that one of the characters actually "won" the fight; I figured it would end in a draw. But of course, this is a Batman movie first and foremost, so he had to ultimately win.

And then we get the Doomsday sequence. And while it's cool seeing the trinity fight together, ol' Doomsy himself is pretty underwhelming. He looks like a big naked version of that mutant giant thing from 300 at first. Later, he grows some spikes and resembles his comic book counterpart a bit more, but he's still not that impressive. In fact, I think the CGI in that scene we saw in that second BvS trailer is the scene where he looks best. You'll remember that everyone poked fun at the CGI in that scene when that trailer dropped. And then we have our conclusion. While Superman's "you are my world" scene is very well acted and well done, I still couldn't help but feel a little irritated because I knew what was coming. I knew the film was going to end with Superman dying. And while I know he'll come back, it clearly wasn't obvious to the kid I heard crying at the end of the movie a few rows down from me. And you know, that really bothers me because I remember going to see the animated Transformers film when I was a child or so and I can still remember walking out of the movie crying because Optimus Prime died. Ending a film like this on such a downer is a misstep, thought I suppose by the end, Snyder has made so many other missteps that it doesn't matter.

I've heard people say that Snyder wants to be Chris Nolan. Perhaps. But I think he actually wants to be Peter Jackson. The way Superman's death plays out, it feels more like an attempt to emulate the (apparent) death of Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring. Yet Snyder doesn't have a clue as to why that scene was so emotional. Instead of LOTR Peter Jackson, we get Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies Peter Jackson, in which story and character are sacrificed for shoddy (yet still expensive) CGI. Cavill is as much Superman as McKellan was Gandalf, but Snyder didn't know how to utilize him. He thinks that just giving us a quick montage of Superman saving people interspersed with a bunch of cameos will do the trick and it won't. Instead of just a quick scene of Superman appearing and saving fire or flood victims, why not expand on it a bit and have him interact with them a bit, telling them that it's alright, that they're safe now. Give Cavill some material to work with so his sacrifice at the end feels more emotional. Or better yet, don't kill him at all and end the movie on a positive note, with our three heroes agreeing to find the others like them.[/BLACKOUT]

So yeah. If you're still reading this, thank you for indulging me. I had to get all of that out. I wanted to love this movie. I really, REALLY did. And I owe a lot of people around here an apology for aggressively defending it the past three years. Maybe this is the movie I deserve, but it sure as hell wasn't the one I needed right now (sorry, couldn't resist). As for Justice League... I hope they do get George Miller to direct. I've had my reserves about that because he said in an interview that he finds Superman boring. But perhaps that would make him strive to develop the character and make him more interesting. [BLACKOUT]Or maybe Superman will just stay f***ing dead until the last 20 minutes of the movie, as apparently WB doesn't know or care what to do with the character and is content to waste Cavill.[/BLACKOUT] I don't know. All I know is that I wanted this movie to really excite me for the future of the DCEU, and right now, I'm not. I'm bummed out.

6/10

​

 

[BH/HHH]

Not long out of my screening and I adored it. Just smiling non stop and I applaud Snyder for this ballsy move. It's certainly not for everybody, but I felt like it was especially for me.

I can't wait to go see it again a few more times.

Makes me happy to hear you say that mate, you probably loved it a little more than me but I have such happy feelings from it.

 

[bapi]

69% after 1400 ratings on a local movie database in my country so far. Man of Steel has 73% after almost 29k ratings. Every movies drops few % after DVD release so right now I'd expect BvS to 'finish' with 63-66% here.

 

[Nvmyprixgt]

I can see why some critics weren't huge fans but it's RT score is obnoxious: