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
