Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

I am yet to be convinced with Zack Snyder’s directorial brilliance. His previous films 300, Watchmen, Sucker Punch, andMan of Steel were all a big mess of CGI and explosions. His latest film: Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice is the sequel to Man of Steel and officially opens up the DC cinematic universe to compete with Marvel’s.

Batman v. Superman is really a tool used by the studio to open up their cinematic world to more action figures and spin-off films. Because of that, the film is a bit of a mess in terms of story. The movie opens up with the ending in Man of Steel; Superman (Henry Cavill) has destroyed half of Metropolis in his battle with the evil General Zod (Michael Shannon). However, we are seeing this battle from the eyes of Bruce Wayne/Batman (Ben Affleck). Seeing all the destruction caused by Superman, Bruce Wayne sees Superman as a threat to humanity, so he seeks to hunt him down and eliminate him. You would think that this is a sufficient plot for the movie, but Zack Snyder and Warner Bros. did not think so, so they threw in a bunch of other villains and obstacles. One of which is Superman being tried by Congress (portrayed here by a Senator played by Holly Hunter) for all the casualties from Man of Steel, and then we have Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) who is the power-hungry CEO of a tech start up that wants to eliminate the two superheroes. And if you think that was enough plot, you were wrong, queue Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) who floats around opening doors for the audience to see teasers for future sequels, and yet another villain towards of the end of the movie, which I will not address in respect to spoilers.

I have to say that in the beginning of the film I had my hopes up; the premise seemed to be calculated and it had a dark realism aura around it. However, as the movie progressed the whole story became entangled and ended up a mess. It is briefly saved by a satisfactory final fight sequence, but then an elongated and extremely predictable ending ensues and has the audience begging the credits to roll.

But if I have to point out the big errors with this film I will narrow down three. First is the storytelling, obviously, it is a mess and the dialogue is incredibly clunky. Second is Snyder; look he might be a really nice guy, but his vision for films is chaotic, and while the actual film looks really cool with all the CGI, the actual execution is dreadful. And third is Jesse Eisenberg. Eisenberg is a decent actor, known for playing very erudite characters, but his Luthor is so goofy and cartoonish you never once buy into it, not to mention he never really seems evil or menacing at all. And as the saying goes “the film is only as good as your villain.” And Eisenberg is painful to watch as he embarrasses himself and, somehow, the audience.

But not everything in this movie was terrible. Despite receiving much criticism after being cast, Ben Affleck is one of the best parts of the movie. He perfectly embodies Bruce Wayne’s isolated demeanor (and his chemistry with the new Alfred, Jeremy Irons is great). Affleck had big shoes to fill in after Christian Bale, and he more than stood up to the challenge and some may argue, did better than Bale in embodiying the true Batman from the comics. Thankfully, he was also half the movie, which made it all the more bearable. I really look forward to seeing more of his Batman in the future. Then there was Gal Gadot, who despite the unnecessary push of having her in this film, she kept us entertained and intrigued with her mysterious Wonder Woman. And finally I have to commend the great Hans Zimmer whose musical score was, along with Affleck, the best part of the film.

In the end, despite some few highlights, the film is a mess. The lack of proper directing, a terrible miscast, and the incredible amount of studio involvement makes for a disappointing feature.

6.3/10