Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Dissapointment

                                                                 

   Let's You and Him Fight: The Movie

                                                                                     

There are a lot of problems swirling beneath the cesspool that is Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. The one I’m having the most trouble with has to do with me being both a fan of the source material and a film critic. Does the film fail because it’s a bad adaptation of the source, or does it fail because it’s just a bad movie? Well, after a lot of soul searching and staring off into blank space, I’ve decided it doesn’t really matter. The film is bad, period.

As a movie, it doesn’t work. As a story trying to adapt various DC comics, it doesn’t work. More importantly, as the first meeting between Batman and Superman on film, it definitely doesn’t work. It’s basically kryptonite for comic fans and film nerds alike. So here I am, ready to rip this thing apart more violently than the staples in a comic book. SPOILERS from here on out, for a film you either have seen already or aren’t bothering with because of bad reviews like this one.

For the strongest guy on Earth, you'd think he'd flex those face muscles more

There Is No Focus

Speaking as both a fanboy and a critic, there are so many levels on which this film completely fails that it’s hard to just focus on any one element. So I’ll start with the focus. Yes, for a film called Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, it doesn’t really feel like a Batman/Superman movie. Instead, it’s more like a Batman movie, a Superman movie, a Lex Luthor movie, a Lois Lane movie, and a Wonder Woman movie all rolled into one, with no attempts made to combine the characters and themes of each "movie” into one narrative.

Logically, you’d think that a Man of Steel sequel, even with Batman, would keep the focus mostly on Clark Kent. But no, surprisingly Man of Steel wins out in having better focus and more consistent themes than even this film. Snyder opens here with yet another rehash of Bruce Wayne’s origin, followed by an admittedly stunning sequence of Bruce witnessing the final battle in Man of Steel from the ground level. I will say, this scene was an incredible introduction to Ben Affleck’s Bruce Wayne, with Affleck overcoming all doubts with his layered performance of an older Batman. This little prologue to the action succeeds in selling Batman’s hatred for Superman, but in doing so, it seems Snyder made Bruce the emotional center of this movie, when it should’ve been on Clark.

Speaking of Big Blue, remember how the whole reason for killing Zod in the last flick was supposed to give him a “No killing” policy? Well, his first scene here is him punching a completely human terrorist through a wall. Punching. A terrorist. Through a wall. And what’s worse, returning director Zack Snyder thinks he can make up for it with an all-too-short montage of Superman saving people.

Worse still, he doesn’t even crack a smile while saving a girl from a burning building, so there goes the optimistic go-getter attitude Superman is supposed to have. While Superman is off balancing saving people with intense brooding, what does the rest of the world do? Debate how accountable he is for global disasters through Senate hearings and newsreels, which talk about how people project Jesus imagery onto him. Um, Snyder? I’m all for philosophical and theological debates in hero flicks, but last time I checked, this wasn’t Watchmen.

Snyder thinks one montage can bring back the bright, hopeful imagery associated with Superman, but it can’t. Not if Clark himself has zero charisma while rescuing people, or frowns in every conversation he has with Amy Adams’ Lois Lane. Man of Steel may have added grit to the Superman legend, but Kal-El is not an antihero, something the end of that movie seemed to understand. Here, Snyder has made Superman into Batman with heat vision. He’s grim, he’s brooding, and he sees superhero-ing as a heavy burden instead of the uplifting action it’s supposed to be.

And I bring this up because, in a movie where the goal is to show Superman and Batman having a conflict of ideologies, there’s no conflict if both characters are the same. We have a reason for why Bruce hates Superman. Early in the film we see Clark getting up in arms about Batman’s vigilante activities in Gotham, which includes branding criminals with the Bat symbol, a death sentence in prison. Why would Clark hate Batman, then, when he’s totally fine with punching terrorists through walls? Maybe if the film actually put more focus on Clark as a character, we’d understand how his motivations differ from Batman and thus see the contrast that sets up their conflict. Instead, political consultants tell us more about Superman than Clark does, and it boils down to “stern-faced Space Jesus.” That’s not a character. In fact, it’s barely a symbol.

Daddy hit me so I'm evil! God, I miss Gene Hackman

Confusing Characters

This film is so obsessed with symbols and metaphoric imagery that it doesn’t even bother to explain the meaning behind those symbols, or the characters that fuel them. Since this is a new version of Batman, unrelated to Christian Bale, we should get a better idea of what makes him tick. The prologue was a nice touch, but aside from that, everything we know about this Batman is conveyed through Affleck’s physical performance. And while Affleck does the best he can, the film still doesn’t give us enough to really understand Bruce’s character either.

Not convinced yet? We get no context to the Robin suit in Bruce’s cave with the Joker graffiti on it. That one shot from the trailer is all that’s in the film. A Batman with 20 years of history and a dead Robin doesn’t get the chance to explain how that drives him. What could’ve been a chance to give this version of Batman some depth is instead just an Easter egg. It’s just one small sign of a much larger problem: the film can’t focus on any of its characters. Lois Lane is given a pointless subplot about a government conspiracy, and while we’re shooting back and forth between her, Clark, and Bruce, we have Lex Luthor as well.

Ah, Lex. In many ways Jesse Eisenberg’s performance is both the film’s worst and one of its best. While Eisenberg is clearly trying with the material he’s given, this version of Luthor is so far off base from the comics it’s sickening. But I’d be fine with that, if this new Lex came off as any type of threat. Instead, he’s a bunch of nervous ticks, a college kid who thinks he’s the next Nietzsche after slamming a case of Red Bull to cram for a philosophy final. But in a film as grim as this is, Luthor actually lightens the tone in whatever scene he’s in, and seems to be having so much fun chewing scenery that at the very least, it’s never boring to watch. But alas, he’s just another cog in a machine that never knows how to make all its disparate parts work together.

Batman had one acid trip too many

Context? What Context?

This all comes down to the editing, which rapidly cuts between subplots in the first act without any sense of continuity or narrative flow. We go from Perry White wondering where Kent is to Lois Lane questioning a government official. Why did we cut here? Why not back to Clark? There’s a scattershot sense to the first act with this editing, and by the time the finale comes around, you get the sense that half of those subplots could’ve been cut in the first place.

Like, say, all of Bruce’s pointless dream sequences. The ones which further Zack Snyder’s obsession with iconography, believing that cool dream-like visuals equate to depth when the audience has no way to contextualize what they’re seeing. Here’s some free advice for you, Zack: seeing a post-apocalyptic Batman fighting an evil Superman looks cool, but it adds nothing to the story you’re telling. And no, adding in teases to Justice League villain Darkseid, followed by a confusing vision from the Flash, doesn’t make it better. Easter eggs only work as cute references; without context to the story, they’re meaningless.

But then Snyder doesn’t really understand context, does he? No, he just tries to set up an ideological war between two superheroes that ends up being one sided because he can’t bother to give Superman an actual character. So when the heavily hyped battle does come, what happens? Clark is forced into it because Lex Luthor has his mother. Yes, you read that right. Superman doesn’t even want to fight Batman; he has to or his mom dies. So, what was the point of setting up Clark not liking Batman’s vigilantism? Who cares, let’s just watch the two most iconic superheroes of all time punch each other for ten minutes. Yeah, the fight’s over almost as soon as it starts. And while it is a visual treat and a straight homage to the iconic Dark Knight Returns fight, it too lacks context.

Let me explain something. In The Dark Knight Returns, an older, anti-authority Batman fights an older Superman who’s become a government pawn. These once great friends are now enemies because their ideologies have taken them to their farthest extremes. It feels inevitable that they fight. It feels natural that they fight. But most importantly, they don’t want to kill each other, because at the end of the day, Bruce only wants to prove to Clark he can be beaten; he has no need to kill him. What does Snyder do in the movie? He just takes some of the cool visuals- the kryptonite gas, the armored Batsuit, the various traps Bruce has set up- and runs with them. Because unlike that comic, Snyder hasn’t given us a good enough reason for these two icons to fight each other. And then the fight ends, and the real flaws begin.

Martha is the key. BFF's for life. 

The Martha Moment

Let’s talk about the scene that will surely become just as despised as George Clooney’s Bat-nipples: the “Martha” moment. On principal, it could’ve worked. The intention was clearly to have Bruce realize that Clark is in fact human, with a human mother he cares for. Saving Clark’s mother will help Bruce remember why he became Batman in the first place. And having both their moms named Martha, which is comic book canon, would be a nice way to bring that point home.

BUT, you don’t execute such a premise by having Clark scream at Bruce to “save Martha” and Bruce to turn into a blubbering baby as a result. Even if it gives way to a warehouse fight with Luthor’s goons that may go down as one of the best Batman fights in cinematic history, the lead up to it is atrocious. After waiting a lifetime to see Batman and Superman unite on screen, this is how you bring them together? Smooth, Snyder. Real smooth.

After the release, Peter Jackson got mad that Snyder stole one of his toys

DC’s Doomsday

What’s even smoother, though, is everything that comes after that fateful fight. Because while we’ve fulfilled the “Batman v. Superman” part of the title, we haven’t gotten to the “Dawn of Justice” part yet. Oh boy. It’s at this point that the film both develops a sense of fun but also exposes more grating flaws. Since Lex Luthor’s confusing plan to get Batman and Superman to kill each other failed, he goes with Plan B: unleashing a Frankenstein creature born from his and General Zod’s DNA to kill Superman. And he names it Doomsday. All in the name of proving that God can’t be all powerful and all good at the same time, because something about an abusive father. Hooray?

Doomsday’s only purpose in the film is to give Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman something to punch, and while he succeeds in doing that, he isn’t particularly interesting, plus his iconic comics look has been replaced with a Lord of the Rings cave troll. Oh right, Wonder Woman! I almost forgot she was in this too! Just like every other character she doesn’t get much focus, but Gal Gadot’s understated yet energetic performance is probably the best thing about this film. She’s basically a walking Justice League commercial that literally watches more Justice League commercials. I’m serious, there’s a scene where she watches a YouTube playlist of Aquaman, Flash, and Cyborg footage. Cool previews that, again, contribute nothing to this film’s story and just slow down an already overlong ending.

Gadot herself is great in the role, chiefly because even though she’s just set up and could be removed from the final fight entirely, she actually SMILES while fighting Doomsday. She talks of fighting creatures from other worlds, looks great in combat with her golden lasso, and we even see a picture of her and Chris Pine from World War I, which if nothing else gives me a glimmer of hope for her own movie. The fact that Princess Diana feels like she literally walked in from another movie is exactly what this film needed. She’s not burdened by the grim and gritty musings of this story, and arrives at the perfect time to show the boys how it’s done.

First meeting of the Super Friends didn't go over so well

Conclusion

But even with Wonder Woman completing the iconic DC superhero Trinity on film, the final fight is just a bunch of flashy fireworks that would even have Michael Bay going: “yeah, I could do better.” Big SPOILER for a 20-year-old headline-making comic book arc, but yes, Doomsday and Superman do kill each other here. The fight is just another example of Snyder pulling from a story he likes and shoving it into this film without proper context or buildup.

After all this time building to the Batman v. Superman fight, it’s ultimately just an anticlimactic setup for this fight, which sees Superman sacrifice himself despite the fact that we don’t care about him. Yes, this Superman is so grim and without joy that his death and sacrifice rings completely hollow. We do get a somewhat poignant scene of dual funerals, one in Smallville for Clark and one in Metropolis for Superman, which try and convey the weight of Superman’s loss.

But the fact of the matter is that in a film that should’ve been a simple Batman/Superman team-up, Snyder had to throw in the iconic Death storyline not because it was earned, but because it looked cool. It’s the final nail in the coffin (pun completely intended) for a film that was more concerned with throwing a bunch of iconic superhero stories and characters into a blender than utilizing their themes to tell a new story that made sense for this cinematic universe.

I could see clearly what Snyder wanted to do here. In some ways I admire the ambition of how big this film was, and what it was trying to accomplish. I can’t, however, agree with how it was done. I love DC comics. I love Batman and Superman. And it’s because I love these characters so much that I want to see them done properly on screen. This film is not the Dawn of Justice. It is, in fact, a massive injustice to fans of both comic books and good cinema. It has isolated moments of brilliance, yes, but they’re lost in a flurry of piss poor editing choices, piss poor character motivations, and a literal jar of human piss. I am not even joking with that last one. Superman and Batman both deserve better. This film is not it.