Article by Gabe Zia
Lazy Film Critic Movie Reviews
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
(Spoiler-Free)
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is the latest attempt by DC and Warner to make a movie so they can catch up to Marvel. It's the second DC movie in a row to be directed by Zack Snyder, and this one stars Henry Cavill as Superman and Ben Affleck as Batman. Gal Gadot is also in there as Wonder Woman, but "starring" isn't really the most accurate word for her role in the movie. The big divide between DC fans and critics has lead me to one question - as both a DC fan and a critic, what am I supposed to make of this movie?
Well, let's start with the good. Much like Man of Steel, the acting is mostly just okay. The best part of this movie overall was the Batman stuff, specifically Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne. While I wish it was under the wing of a better director, the action scenes involving Batman were all pretty entertaining, and the back and forth between Bruce and Alfred is just as good - if not better than it was in the Nolan trilogy. Even the backstory was cool, the shooting of Thomas and Martha Wayne is one of the better versions of that scene I've seen in a movie. Gal Gadot was pretty entertaining as Wonder Woman, all doubts anyone had about her as WW can be officially put to rest in my opinion.
And yeah, that's where the good ends. It begins and ends with Batman and Wonder Woman. Remember how in Man of Steel the action was one of that films best features? Well here the action is barely even present, and when it happens, it's often ruined by either the films unconvincing CGI, the total lack of imagination or creativity, or the downright lazy editing in this movie. This is one of the few movies where I'm actually looking forward to the directors cut, because the way this movie is cut together it feels less like an actual film and more like Zack Snyder took a bunch of scenes and Frankensteined them together to create this.
The score and the cinematography were also features I really enjoyed about Man of Steel, and neither of them are as good here. The cinematography isn't terrible, but as I said before, the editing is so choppy you can barely get a chance to notice a shot. And the score is just really annoying, most of the songs are just boring and uninteresting to listen to. The few songs I enjoyed listening to? Yeah, they're from Man of Steel. They're just the same songs from Man of Steel, and those were the only ones I liked in this movie.
Now for the plot, I've been waiting to rip this movies plot apart. Of all the things I said about Man of Steel, there was never a moment that killed the movie for me and turned it into something I actually hated. Batman v Superman has that element, and it's the plot. This movies story is so in-cohesive, and has so many sub-plots shoehorned into it, it makes you not even want to try to follow what's going on. This movie is filled with scenes that prove this movie had little to no revision process for the script. There are a dozen story arcs happening all at once, and none of them are even remotely interesting, which leads to the movie being a word I hate to use - boring.
Now let’s talk about the characters of this movie. Batman is the same character he always is, and again Ben Affleck is really good as Batman. Wonder Woman is fairly interesting, the set-up for her standalone movie was the only set-up I thought was handled well (The Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg are all really forced and unsubtle). Superman… Yeah, he’s about as interesting as a block of wood, and with a personality to match. However, the real issue here is Lex Luthor. Not exactly Jesse Eisenberg, as it’s obvious he’s trying to make this character work, and is clearly the only actor who’s having fun with his role in this movie. No, the character of Lex Luthor itself is what sucks, and it really sucks. This has to be one of the most annoying and obnoxiously written movie villains I have ever seen. His motivation is confusing, his character development is nonexistent, and his lines range from stupid to pretentious with no in-between.
I think the lesson to be learned here is: don't overthink Superheroes! More specifically, don't overthink superhero movies! What are the three best Superhero movies from the last 5 years? Well, it's all subjective, but in my opinion, it's Captain America: The Winter Soldier, X-Men: First Class, and Deadpool. What do these movies have in common? Well, they focused on being good movies. They didn't shoehorn sub-plots specifically to set up future movies, and their focus wasn't on the franchise as a whole. The focus was on making a good movie, and that's clearly not what Batman v Superman was. And unlike Nick Fury showing up at the end of Iron Man, the setting up of future Justice League movies doesn't feel like an amazing thing, it feels like a warning that we're just gonna keep getting terrible Superhero movies from DC and Warner Bros.
Final Rating
I'm not gonna lie to you and say Batman v Superman is decent, or that it's just okay. There's no dancing around the subject here, this is a terrible movie. And I'm not just some angry, jaded critic who wanted to hate this movie. I love DC, I love Batman, I love these characters, I wanted so badly to love this movie. But, as both a fan of DC and a film critic, I walked out of Batman v Superman with a genuine sense of betrayal.
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