Home Opinion Let's talk about BATMAN V SUPERMAN (full of spoilers!)

Let's talk about BATMAN V SUPERMAN (full of spoilers!)

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THIS POST IS PURELY FOR PEOPLE WHO HAVE SEEN BATMAN V SUPERMAN AND WILL BE FILLED WITH SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. SCROLL DOWN PAST THE POSTER BELOW AT YOUR OWN PERIL.

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I’ve now seen Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice twice already, and I cannot recall when last multiple viewings of a movie has left me this conflicted. Oh wait, I can! It was Man of Steel! Just like director Zack Snyder’s first crack at the DC Comics universe, there are several aspects of BvS which made the comic book geek in me go into squee overdrive like a teen girl at a One Direction concert, but it would appear that the more I think about the movie, the more glaringly obvious its problems become.

So lets talk about those squee-inducing successes as well what I think Snyder and co stuffed up.

WHAT WORKED

  • The way Snyder and writers David S. Goyer and Chris Terrio reworked the excessive damage criticisms about MoS into a central plot point in this sequel may have been a bit too reactionary, but there’s no doubt that it actually retroactively made its predecessor better. And gave us that awesome opening to BvS.
  • How ironic that the two castings in BvS that drew the most internet hate-mongering – Ben Affleck as Batman and Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman – were easily two of the best aspects about the movie. In the case of Affleck’s Dark Knight, we got both the best looking Batman ever as his costume is almost a 1-to-1 adaptation straight from the comic book page, as well as the most badass (DAT WAREHOUSE FIGHT SCENE!). Meanwhile Gadot’s Wonder Woman adds a vital spark to the otherwise overtly grim film and kicks some serious butt of her own (and has the coolest theme song!).

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  • Our heroes are also involved in some hellacious action sequences. Yes, they may get very CG heavy in the end, but their scale is just incredible.
  • There’s also no denying that BvS is one gorgeous looking film. Snyder has always been a fantastic visual artist, and he definitely doesn’t drop the ball here in that regard. Similarly on the audio side, Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL’s partnership produces a hell of a score (even though it gets a bit overt at times).
  • Also, despite being resigned to be nothing more than a voice on a mic in a very limited role, Jeremy Irons’ Alfred is pretty great and he has a fantastic rapport with Affleck’s Bruce Wayne, leaving me very excited for the Batman solo film.
  • And speaking of other film’s, while the “Knightmare” sequence may have just been dropped into the film with zero subtlety, its Justice League teases – specifically those of Darkseid, his parademons, and what I assume is the Anti-Life Equation controlling Superman and his soldiers – should leave any hardcore fan giddy.

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WHAT DIDN’T WORK

  • While Batman is an incredible badass – and I can’t believe I’m going to say this – he’s actually too much of a badass. Actually let me put that clearer: He’s an effing straight-up, cold-hearted mass murderer. Over the decades since Batman was first created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger, there have been so many different iterations of the character that pointing to one as the definitive version over another is almost impossible. But through all of those variations though, there have always been two core facets about the character: Batman never uses a gun and never takes a life. Both of these convictions are as a result of his parents being shot and killed, the utmost defining moment in Batman’s entire life, leaving him feeling a dire sense of failure just from anybody losing their life on his watch. And yet in BvS, Batman doesn’t just use guns and kill, he freaking swiss-cheeses people with mini-guns and racks up a body count worse than anything any villain actually does in the movie. Hell, he ramps his Batmobile right through a dude’s chest! Zack Snyder defends this perversion of Batman’s character by saying that he’s drawing from Frank Miller’s more extreme Batman from the iconic The Dark Knight Returns, who does in fact kill. But what Snyder fails to grasp is that while TDKR does see Batman kill a man using a gun, it happens once and ONCE only, with Miller designing it as a very shocking and desperate moment, and making a massive point of highlighting every other instance where Batman refuses to use a gun or take a life every single chance he gets!

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  • Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor is… different, and I actually have no problem with that. The problem is that he is inconsistent. The smarmy, cocky, smug young tech billionaire we first meet as he coerces an army general to give him what he want, is a far cry from the publicly fumbling fool at his house party, as well as the herky-jerky tic-heavy cartoon that confronts Superman on the rooftop of the Lexcorp building. It’s like Eisenberg couldn’t make up his mind how to play Lex, so he did it all.
  • And speaking of Lex, his plan makes absolutely zero sense, right? Just how did he get people to believe that Superman was responsible for the deaths in Africa? Because last time I checked, Superman never ever needed to shoot anybody with a gun before. Because that’s clearly what happened there. Right next to a world-renowned reporter that was right there when everything went down, and yet nobody seems to ask her about it. And why use experimental bullets that trace right back to Lex? All they did was give Lois a plot line that ultimately led nowhere.

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  • And why did he convince Scoot McNairy’s Wally to blow up the senate? He already smuggled his Kryptonite into the city despite Holly Hunter’s Senator trying to block him, he doesn’t hurt Superman one bit and everybody clearly sees that Wally is the culprit and that Superman was duped into going there. Hell, the only reason his plan even remotely works, is because Supes decides to take off and be a mopey bastard instead of just staying around and helping people after the explosion – you know, as Superman tends to always do!
  • And lets just admit that he uses a very silly reason to get Superman and Batman to actually fight, because why didn’t Superman just use his senses to try to find his mom in the hour he was given? He could hear Lois in danger on a different continent, but not his mother in a warehouse across the bay? I mean, yes, it gave us that amazingly cool Batman fight scene, so I’m willing to give this one some slack, but still…
  • And finally, is Lois Lane telepathic? That’s the only reason I can think of for why she knew to run back and get the Kryptonite spear to kill Doomsday – a creature she had never seen or heard of in her life before then, but somehow immediately knew what it’s one weakness in the whole entire world is.

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Now I know that some of these points could be considered a bit nit-picky, but they still irked me. Especially since I believe that with a few small script tweaks, much less of what was obviously a studio mandated laundry list of plot points and characters to setup for the future cinematic universe, and a director who cared for the characters as much as did the cool action scenes, we could actually have received the absolutely mindblowing superhero epic that we fans have been dreaming of for years instead of just the decently cool, but flawed movie we ended up getting. At least its making a crap load of money though.

So you’ve heard what I thought about the movie (twice!), so now it’s time for you to sound off below on what you liked or didn’t like about it! And remember, this a SPOILER ZONE so feel free to talk about anything and everything in the movie!

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Critical Hit as an organisation.

Last Updated: March 29, 2016

9 Comments

  1. Awesome Post!

    Reply

  2. RinceThis

    March 29, 2016 at 11:04

    I am hoping the extended movie will cover many of those plot points. It was bad enough when one nuke blows up the bad guy and suddenly proof that he can absorb energy is spilling out of the general.

    Reply

  3. SojournZA

    March 29, 2016 at 17:30

    you say batman never uses guns? please see below:

    http://www.newsarama.com/26211-the-history-of-gun-toting-batman.html

    Reply

    • Kervyn Cloete

      March 29, 2016 at 21:37

      Well, that very article says that he may have used guns in his original incarnation (which is nothing quite like the Batman we know now) but it became the rule for him to not use them. There have been exceptions, but they have generally been, well, exceptional circumstances. He never used them to the extreme degree that Snyder has him use them.

      Reply

      • SojournZA

        March 30, 2016 at 07:43

        my memory is clearly jaded here could you please let me know where he used it to the “extreme degree” in this film

        Reply

        • Kervyn Cloete

          March 30, 2016 at 09:25

          Mini-guns on both his Batmobile and Batwing turning cars and the people inside it into fireballs, and using a whole lot of handguns and assault rifles in the Knightmare sequence.

          Reply

          • SojournZA

            March 30, 2016 at 10:00

            all the movies of batman has bombs an guns etc on his vehicles this is no different, I see Batman living outside of the normal “definition” of a hero, he does what he likes, so to speak, this makes him a better hero then the likes of Superman etc due to not being controlled by a specific “code”

            the knightmare sequence was a dream, not sure how else to explain this….

  4. theBicycleBandit

    April 1, 2016 at 11:01

    the score made up for a great deal in the movie.
    and Jeremy irons did a great job as Alfred, the little that we saw/heard was enough.

    Reply

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