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Zack Snyder is a brave, bold filmmaker. I'll give him that. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is a lot to take in, during the first watch, and proves to be yet another divisive film in the DCEU. As it turns out, people are apparently more hot on Man of Steel than BvS, or at least critics are. Honestly, I like Batman v Superman better...but I can't argue with anyone who doesn't fully enjoy the movie. And this should have been so much better than Man of Steel. Unanimously.

 

But Snyder put so much into this movie, plot-wise, visually, contextually...and that clearly is a problem. Excess, that word sums up my problems with Dawn of Justice. My thoughts on this are going to be all over the place...much like the film. I liked it, I didn't love it. I saw it twice. And I have a lot of problems.

 

SPOILERS

 

First of all, did we really need to see the murder of Martha and Thomas Wayne, again? This was unnecessary, and Snyder had to make it worse by filming it in slow-motion. He had to re-do it by using visuals from Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns. Just couldn't help himself - and then he had to bring this scene back up later on in the film after Superman tells Batman to save Martha. This is a small example of excess in this movie.

 

A much bigger example would be the "Knightmare" sequence. Good Lord, Zack. Batman killing with guns, Parademons, the Omega symbol...way too much to process in one scene. And it means absolutely nothing within the context of the scene that came before it. We pretty much learn that this scene is just a setup for these two Justice League movies. But as it's happening, there's no context, it's jarring and confusing. I notice the references because I read comics, but general audiences are gonna be fucking confused - and they are - especially when Flash show's up after. Which is just another setup for future movies. It's difficult to hear him and if you don't already know that Ezra Miller was cast as Barry Allen/Flash, you'd have no fucking idea that was the Flash. You'd have no idea it was Barry Allen. And you probably don't know that he is time travelling, or travelling between different universes/realities.

 

It all felt incredibly forced. If you're trying to hint at future movies, Jesus Christ, you need to be more subtle than this. This is beating me over the head with a frying pan.

 

 

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The subplot involving Africa and Scoot McNairy's character (Wally, the legless wheelchair man), was so unnecessary. The congressional hearing in this movie should have been about Superman's fight with Zod. He destroyed the city, that's more than enough of a reason to have this hearing. We did not need this additional subplot with Lois being in Africa. It seems to only exist to give Amy Adams something to do. I'm glad she had more to do this time, but this subplot was just excess.

 

It takes away from the main conflict and point of the movie. We're supposed to be watching Batman go up against Superman because of their differing ideologies. First off, Batman/Bruce Wayne/Ben Affleck seems to get much more screentime than Superman/Clark Kent/Henry Cavill. I understand Bruce Wayne more than I understand Clark Kent, Batman's motivations are made perfectly clear. Superman, however, is only fighting Batman because Lex kidnapped his mother. They're not fighting over their different ideologies and that's a problem. We don't really get to see them hash that out. Daredevil season 2 did a better job of that, in ONE episode. Clark and Bruce have one scene together. Batman and Superman have two, one where Batman's Batmobile crashes into a gas station, and then their fight.

 

We see Batman being a ruthless vigilante, sort of. We don't see Superman being hopeful. We barely fucking see him smile. I can't remember him smiling at all in this movie. He blows off the senate hearing Lois tells him about, because he's only concerned about her. "I don't care." Really? You're our hero and you don't care? I saw that Lois was trying to get him to understand everyone else's point of view. She should have been the one to convince him to go to that hearing, and we actually should have heard Superman defend himself. He didn't say anything. At all. He didn't even say anything after the bomb went off. He didn't look horrified. He barely even flinched. He just looked a little frustrated, he wasn't reacting like it was a horrible tragedy...which it was. He reacted like it was just some minor irritation.

 

I don't buy that Superman cares. I've been hearing people talk about the movie, saying that Snyder doesn't like Superman...and I'm starting to agree. He just doesn't like this character. They find his "boyscout" persona boring and they think this is more interesting. Him being an asshole. This version of him is not more interesting and it's clear that Snyder does not actually understand this character - or, maybe more specifically, he does know how to illustrate the best qualities of the character. He does not respect humanity...there's no regard for his power over us. He doesn't care. He genuinely wasn't interested in hearing people tell him why they're upset, with that congressional hearing. He wants to live here, blend in, date Lois Lane, but the rest of y'all? Fuck you. Don't question me.

 

This is no different to me than a "white ally." He's stepping into someone else's space, doing something destructive, then acts like he's above criticism. That's bullshit. Superman is an asshole. I don't care if he still had his training wheels on in Man of Steel and didn't know how to properly be mindful of his surroundings. What happened happened. People died. They have every reason to be upset. "But he saved Earth!" So? People aren't going to continue to grieve over the loss of their family members, co-workers? We're supposed to shut up and get over it? Nah. That's not how it works. Zod came to Earth looking for Kal-El, he's at least partially responsible.

 

Superman does have one genuinely heroic act, that is completely glossed over. Most people haven't noticed it. I didn't notice until someone else brought it up. Lex Luthor is evil. He's orchestrated this battle between Batman and Superman, he blew up that courtroom, he kidnapped Martha Kent. He is truly a piece of shit. When Superman confronts him, right before Lex introduces Doomsday, he could have just let Lex be killed. Because Doomsday took a swing - and he was going to hit Lex. But Superman leapt in front of him and protected him. I'll say that again. He protected the villain of the movie, the same guy who 20 mins earlier, showed him pictures of his mother being held captive. Superman was ready to obliterate Lex with his laser eyes, he was holding back so much rage. But he still saves his life.

 

That is the goodness of Superman - that is a perfect example of his heroism. That one moment, that incredibly quick moment that maybe only lasted a second, was completely ignored. Did Snyder emphasize it, and show Lex being shocked? No. It's treated just as an action beat, nothing more. It's completely forgettable. That moment, the one moment that demonstrates how good Superman is, is ignored. That's a POWERFUL moment, it should have been a huge moment. It wasn't. Snyder is not at all interested in highlighting that part of Superman. Those montages of him doing good, he was just holding giant CG objects and people were looking up at him like Jesus. That's not the same as what he just did in this scene.

 

Wonder Woman is only in the movie because she needs to retrieve a photograph. Which is incredibly stupid. If she didn't want that picture getting out, why pose for that picture at all? It doesn't make any sense. It's a picture taken nearly 100 years ago. It's a weak reason for her being in the film, she doesn't have a strong motivation for being in this story, but WW was good in her action scenes.

 

The "Martha" scene...I liked it when I saw it. Looking back, I understand why it bothers people. It was supposed to be enough to snap Batman out of his rage. I don't think it was strong enough. The motivation to get Batman to put the spear down should have been bigger. The two would then begrudgingly work together (this is if the script was completely rewritten from start to finish) and then Clark could tell Bruce his mother's name is Martha and at that moment, the two could connect as friends. And not just two guys trying to take down Lex Luthor. I get that "Martha" is supposed to be humanizing, but I don't buy it as enough of a reason to completely erase that rage and hatred Batman had for Superman.

 

Superman never even bothered to ask if his mother was okay.

 

This movie is trying to be a sequel to Man of Steel and deal with the consequences of that, be a Batman versus Superman movie, set up a new Batman, include the Death of Superman story, Injustice, Crisis on Infinite Earths and Darkseid. That is way too fucking much to cram into one movie. This is actually what I was afraid of in 2013 after MoS opened. Talking about how WB would build their DC Extended Universe, I was hoping they wouldn't be impatient and rush it. And Cavill himself even stated that he would have prefered if they took their time introducing all of these other characters. They're going to move forward with a Justice League movie, of course, but this was such a sloppy, disappointing introduction into that world.

 

I liked most of the score. Action scenes were fun, Batman busting into the warehouse was one of the best. I liked Jesse Eisenberg's performance but I understand why people don't. Affleck was fine. Cavill didn't have much to do. I liked Jeremy Irons. I liked the intro of the film (Bruce driving through Metropolis).

 

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is decent. Sure it's pretty to look at, in certain scenes. It's rushed and impatient. With so many missed opportunities.

 

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