Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice Movie Review

Batman V Superman

So I'm posting my review proper of the movie a day after I posted my response to critics for their bad reviews. Check out the entry here.

Clark, Lex, and Bruce meets for the first time

 Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice opens with the murder of Batman's parents. Critics lambasted Zack Snyder's choice of retelling the story for the Nth time because this has been already told again and again in the big screen via the 1989 Micheal Keaton Batman movie and the more recent Batman movie starred by Christian Bale. But comic book fans who could remember their The Dark Knight Returns comic book pages jumped in glee upon seeing Snyder's decision to bring a page from the comic book to the big screen. This scene was the gun wrapped by Martha Wayne's pearl necklace as the robber shot Martha in the head. This was only one of a dozen or so scenes in this movie that were lifted from the comic books. The source of some critics of Snyder's works is that Snyder is so fond of bringing comic book pages to the big screen, that they accuse him of lacking in creativity when shooting his movies. This can be traced back to his 300 movie and Watchmen. But in an interview as the movie was released, Snyder defended his work stating that he has always shot his movies as a comic book fan and made these for the comic book fans. So critics' actual bias criticisms of Snyder's is borne from their bias opinions of Snyder. What follows that scene is a build up of different attempts at character development as we are refreshed to the events of the climactic battle between Superman and Zod from the Man of Steel movie through the eyes of Bruce Wayne. This sets the tone for Bruce Wayne/Batman's motivations as to why he needs to stop Superman. We are then ushered to 18 months later where we are treated to Superman and Lois Lane's story as to what was the current status quo of Superman in the present. Superman saving Lois in some african country from terrorists sets the tone of Luthor's attempt to frame up Superman for the deaths of some african bystanders. The following scenes segues to Luthor's story, and how he tries to manipulate the U.S. government (and Batman) in making Superman accountable for the threat that he poses to the world if left unchecked.

Batman's nightmare and vision of things to come?

This was basically the premise of the first half of the movie to which some critics deemed as too dragging or too confusing. I personally understood what Snyder and team is trying to build as the movie progresses, but critics found it too confusing. I do agree however that there were a lot of going ons that Snyder and team could have trimmed down further. But then again what I don't understand from critics is that some are saying that the attempt at character development was too dragging or confusing, while some critics are saying that there was no character development. I think it was a giveaway that the movie is a prequel for the Justice League movie as the subtitle Dawn of Justice suggests, so Wonder Woman's appearance as well cameos by Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg were included in the movie. But then again maybe since this is the first time on the big screen that we are going to see Superman and Batman together and in it for a mighty slugfest that critics might already have been too excited to see and could no longer wait for it that they eventually felt that the movie was too dragging (or failed to understand the build up). Believe me, I too had that sense of feeling because as the title suggests, this is Batman V Superman! So let's get it on already! So yes, the first half was spent on the build up to the Batman and Superman fight and was peppered with some Justice League cameos and even nightmares that Batman had of perhaps a portent of things to come? I personally love the nightmare stuff because we are treated to the existence of the Parademons, the evil Darkseid's army, which probably sets the possibility that Darkseid will play a part in the DC Cinematic Universe. The be all and end all of Universal comic book crossovers, DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths is even given a nod when Flash appeared in Batman's dream within a dream, warning him of a grim future and what's their best chance from preventing it from happening. To the casual moviegoers, these are stuffs that are not important in the movie, but to longtime DC fanboys, these are the moments where we excitedly look forward for the upcoming DC Cinematic Universe to come to its full fruition.

Fight Night!

I will no longer argue the merits of the opening half of the film, critics can have their feast on them, but the second half down to the climactic scenes, woah! This is the Superhero movie that we all have been waiting for. Snyder crafts an amazing cinematography and action packed scenes where we literally see our comic book pages come alive on the big screen. The Batman/Superman fight is a sight to behold as two superheroes who are responsible to perhaps one of comicdoms greatest debate (Who wins in a fight, Batman or Superman?) come alive. The intense showdown will literally put you in the edge of your seat as Batman and Superman pounds each other. I personally liked Superman's statement to Batman "If I want you dead, you'd be dead already" because as a Superman fan, it holds true to end the debate of all debates. But of course some Superman fans were turned off by Superman's arrogance in this scene. But let's get real, in character or not, that statement holds true. And Superman still did not kill Batman despite that stern warning. In fact Batman had Superman under his heel as he was about to stab Superman with a self made Kryptonite Spear. Only to be stopped in his tracks when Superman asks Batman to save Martha (the shared name of Superman and Batman's mother). To some critics, they found it silly, I on the other hand found it amusing that I only realized it now. The movie however does not end there, as we are treated to further catastrophic damages when Doomsday (or should I say DoomZod) appeared. Earlier in the movie, Lex Luthor manages to acquire the corpse of General Zod and accesses the abandoned Kryptonian scout ship that was under the possession of the U.S. government. He takes control of the scout ship, gathering information from it as he creates a monstrous figure using the corpse of Zod and his blood.

Superman, Wonder Woman, Batman on screen for the first time

Of course this new threat brings in Wonder Woman to the fray, as DC's beloved trinity is finally seen together on screen for the first time. Another round of slam bang action ensues as Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman team up to stop the world threatening threat of Doomsday. And with the heroes in a losing battle, it took a sacrifice from Superman at the expense of his life to finally end Doomsday's threat. Superman thrusts the Kryptonite Spear right through Doomsday's chest as Doomsday punches a hole right through Superman's chest too. This seemingly kills Superman and the final moments of the film would dwell on Superman's funeral and Batman's realization (under Luthor's unsolicited lip service) that an evil threat is coming, as he must gather metahumans like Superman and Wonder Woman to form a league. And right before the film closes, we are given some strong hints that Superman might not be really dead after all.    

DC's vaunted Trinity

You have to give credit to Snyder and team as they were given the task to bring DC's mythical and legendary heroes onscreen. Let me tell you something, the weight of bringing these heroes together on the big screen totally outweighs whatever Marvel has done in their own cinematic universe. You want to know why? Because none of Marvel heroes are as mythical, legendary, historical, and pop culturally as huge as DC's trinity. So understandably, I can get where the critics are coming from. The expectations were too heavy for Snyder to match. I mean Iron Man, Captain America, Hulk, and whichever Avengers member can fail in their cinematic debut and not a lot of criticisms would go Marvel's way. Because these critics don't see those characters in the same breath as Superman, Batman, nor Wonder Woman. Because let's be real, DC Comics brought about the birth of the Golden Age of Comic Book Superheroes, they were the first. I don't want to argue with Marvel fans with this statement but they can check their facts that Marvel came alive during the Silver Age, brought about by the emergence of Stan Lee. So DC and Warner has a lot of pressure to make things work, all eyes were on them as they build their own cinematic universe. It also did not help that Warner/DC has always been vocal with the direction of their Cinematic Universe, that they want to distinguish it from Marvel by grounding their movies in realism and thought provoking storylines. So yeah the pressure was on them, and critics expected too much from their movies.  

The Best Comic book Batman on screen!

The casts did well in trying to give us a satisfying movie. Ben Affleck soared well as the definitive comic book Batman on screen, beating Michael Keaton (who was more of a cinematic gothic Batman) and Christian Bale (who was more of a realistic/political Batman that you could easily substitute with a police or detective character and the movie would still work) on that front. Henry Cavill on the other hand, I have began to accept that his version of Superman is still on the rough edges and not as fully formed as the Superman that we all know. Because let's be real, his Superman has existed for around 2 years only, so he's still in the process of building the right heroic characteristics as the experiences will show him along the way. Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman did well in her fight scenes, but I will have to judge her further in her own Wonder Woman movie. Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor is polarizing to fans as they clamor for a more composed and mature Luthor, but one thing I've learned in dealing with live action movies and comic books is that to separate both, because you can never appreciate the beauty of art if you constrain them to one incarnation or another. We can always go back to our comic books if the movie universe fails us. So Lex is still a character in development. Eisenberg did brilliant work with the assigned character that he was given by Snyder and team, so why blame him. I'm partial with Amy Adams as Lois. The blonde never really worked for me, and her beauty is not the Lois that is on my mind. Teri Hatcher is still my favorite Lois, but Adams is beginning to grow on me. I just find her soft voice distracting. The other casts did ok for me. Kevin Costner's ghostly appearance was a surprise though.

Batman V Superman weighted by critics expectations and it's rich legendary history

Overall Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice is not really a bad film as critics suggests. I still stand by my opinion that the movie was just weighted down by it's own legendary expectations. And we all could not wait for the big fight to happen, so screw the build up and let's just get it on, and hanger ons like Wonder Woman and Doomsday are not welcome as critics suggests. Is the film perfect? Not really. Could it have been better? Probably. Is it worth the price of admission? Most definitely! The fight scenes and breathtaking cinematography alone is worth seeing. The movie draws heavily from the comic book storyline of the Dark Knight Returns and the Death of Superman. After you've done watching the movie, I suggest you go get these two books which are now collected in graphic novel format. Believe me, it will open your eyes to the possibilities of how great the DC Cinematic Universe will be. I'm giving the movie a solid 8/10.

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!