My thoughts on the critics of Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice

The long wait is finally over! After 3 long years, the movie that DC FANS (with an emphasis on DC FANS) has finally hit the screens, and boy oh boy, it's getting mixed reviews and being clobbered by film critics. My take? somewhere in the middle, but leaning towards on the positive end. How did I arrived with that judgement? There are two train of thoughts here. One can review it as a casual movie fan who is accustomed to superhero movies done by Marvel because Marvel seemed to be the trendsetter for superhero movies because as of now, they get the head start in terms of the volume of superhero movies produced. Secondly, one can review it as a longtime DC fan who is well knowledgeable about the DC Universe. As much as I am a DC Fan first, I will try to review it somewhere in between those two train of thoughts. And that's why I'm giving it a mixed review. But it doesn't mean that YOU should not watch it, because there are a lot more good reasons for you to watch it if you wanna get introduced to DC's cinematic universe's way of telling their story.

But let me get this off my chest first. I absolutely hate the bias that critics are giving the movie. Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice (BVS for short) does not deserve the negative ratings that the critics are giving it. Mixed would be acceptable, but Negative? No! it is wrong. I'm numerating the most common criticisms in the movie below.
 
1.) It's joyless/humorless
2.) Too Dark
3.) Dragging
4.) Too many plot threads happening all at once
5.) It's done by Zack Snyder! (and the bias kicks in for all Snyder movies)

Smile Superman please?

If you look at number one, it can only mean that critics has preconceived biases that superhero movies should be light, humorous, and fun. They have already put superhero movies in a box in the same way Western movies should be about cowboys, horses, indians and shootouts. Or terrifying horror movies should have a traditional ghost in the mold of Sadako (of The Ring Fame). They have already put Marvel as the gold standard for Superhero movies, which is really unfair. Because in the world of comic books, Marvel and DC is never the same. To be fair, let us commend Disney/Marvel for their attempts to connect their superhero movie to kids, because this brings in the dollars in terms of merchandising, and what nots that widens their products reach and not limited to a few. In fact if you compare Marvel's animated series/movies to DC's animated series/movies, Marvel's always are lighthearted. But the problem is, it doesn't get too much legs as they have to compete with other kiddie shows. DC on the other hand is serious in tone, and it owes to the success of Batman: the animated series, which spawned the so called Timmiverse (named after producer/director Bruce Timm), extending their animated series to multiple titles like Superman, Justice League, Justice League Unlimited, which lasted at a minimum 3 seasons each. BVS cannot win the critics over because they have already prejudged and shoehorned the Superhero movies, and that started with how they blasted Zack Snyder's Man of Steel, the precursor to BVS.

Batman is the Dark Knight, get it? So why should he be sunny?

Number two works almost in similar with number one, but to be fair, Critics let Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Trilogy pass and get rave reviews. Wanna know why? Because Batman works for them! If the word "The Dark" is no giveaway, Nolan's epic trilogy is grounded on crime drama and sets it's feet in a world where Batman can be real. And it works for the critics. But when Man of Steel hits the theaters, it was bombarded by negative reviews. You can read my reactions about that movie here. The criticisms of BVS being too dark can be solely trace back to Man of Steel. Most often critics still hasn't gotten over with the thought that Superman should not be dark. They still have a hangover with the Christopher Reeve Superman. As a fan, I can understand that, because I too never gave the DC New 52 Superman comic books a chance, because I was too hangover with the idea that my Superman is the Post-crisis Superman that John Byrne started. Batman works well being Dark as evidenced by the Nolan trilogy, it's just that they could never accept Snyder's Dark Superman. So how can a movie that has Batman in it too Dark?

Superman dragging a ship, like BVS opening moments?

Number three in some way I will accept. I agree the first half of the movie tends to be too dragging. But maybe it's because we want Batman and Superman to fight already? Snyder and his writers (Chris Terrio and David S. Goyer) valiantly tried to set up reasons why Batman and Superman should fight. To some the reasons worked, to others it don't. So let me recall the reasons, Luthor set up Batman and Superman to fight each other by playing their emotions. And I personally love the fact that Luthor used Superman's mother Martha Kent as his bait for Superman to fight Batman. While Batman's reasons smartly interconnects with the Man of Steel climactic battle was a brilliant move. In the comic books, Batman has this paranoia that Superman might turn evil when left unchecked. So yes their interpretation of the fight remains faithful to the source materials. Snyder and team could have shorten the groundwork for that to happen though.

Dawn of Justice right? Of course this is a Prequel for the Justice League movie

But then number four can be tied directly to number three. Because Snyder and co. were also setting up Justice League as the title Dawn of Justice suggests, there were plot threads that were incorporated in the movie that eventually made the movie dragging. I personally have no problem with that. Because I understand that this movie is also a setup for Justice League, in the same way that Iron Man 2 was a set up for the Avengers movie. The only fault DC had is that they only have one movie prior to BVS to set up their Justice League. So understandably it gets crammed up in one movie. Contrast that to Marvel where they had 5 movies to set up their Avengers movie. But again we shouldn't compare DC to Marvel because both are not the same in the first place. But yes I do agree that there were too many plot threads going on. Let me count the ways, there's Batman's story, Superman's story, Lex Luthor's story, Wonder Woman's mini-story, factor in Lois Lane and the Daily Planet, so yes there were too many going ons.

Zack Snyder movies anyone?

Lastly number five, Zack Snyder! Critics had already killed the movie the moment Zack Snyder is mentioned as the director. It is ostensibly the same way when Michael Bay is mentioned. Transformers is being killed by critics and fans but it didn't stop Michael Bay from creating more Transformers movies. When it comes to Snyder, I thoroughly enjoyed his 300 movie (though I haven't seen the sequel yet). Watchmen is also a movie of his that I thoroughly enjoyed, although critics lambasted it. Watchmen is almost a complete page by page adaptation of the graphic novel (except for a revised plot thread), which angered critics because Snyder never made any effort to differentiate his movie from the source material. But really, there was no other way to do Watchmen but to try to faithfully adapt the source material because for me that is the only way of telling the Watchmen story on screen. BVS combines elements from perhaps two of the best Batman and Superman comic books, The Dark Knight Returns for Batman and The Death of Superman for Superman. And like Watchmen, I saw some scenes that faithfully appeared in the comic books. Simply put, it's like the scenes jumped right out of the comic books! As a comic book fan, these were the best moments of the film. Critics won't appreciate it because for sure they couldn't view the film from the eyes of a comic book fan. Take my advice, read those books, it will help a lot in appreciating this movie. Zack Snyder is a great visual director. And I'm all for him for the DC cinematic universe moving forward. Maybe to tightening up their story telling, DC should consider to hire brilliant writers moving forward. Chris Terrio is a step in the right direction. For this movie, he just came in too late as basically the premise is already set, and Terrio had to do rewrites under the given premise.  

See it in IMAX. All your money's worth!

In closing, Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice is far from being a perfect movie. Could I say that so far this is the best Superhero movie to date? Probably. If we take out the dragging setup and just watch the movie starting from the Batman vs Superman fight down to the last frame of the movie, then hell yeah! This is the best Superhero movie ever! What we saw from those action scenes and climactic battles is worth the price of admission (not to mention the breathtaking cinematography). And I'm telling you, you should not miss this movie. Screw the critics! There was never a perfect movie anyway. Each has their flaws, it's just that critics were dead set on killing this movie before it was already released yet because of the critic's baggage of the Man of Steel movie. My feelings as a whole is mixed If I'm not going to be biased because of the flaws of the storytelling, but like I said earlier, it's mixed leaning towards the positive because the fight scenes and the cinematography eventually will totally outweigh the negatives of the movies. Take my advice, do not miss this movie!