Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice Review

For as long as comic books and superheroes have been around there have been two constants that are arguably the most loved and most ingrained into popular culture, announced 2 years ago Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice features both on screen together for the first time, and the V of that title asking the question, who’d win in a fight?

                The film follows on from 2013s Man of Steel, which for all its faults was a pretty decent way to restart the Superman story and give somewhere to kick on from. Batman V Superman opens with a re-treading of familiar ground as we bare witness once more to Bruce Wayne’s parents being murdered, if it had to be done again though, at least Zach Snyder had the thought to do it as a stylish credits sequence, presenting it with enough originality to make it seem worthwhile. The film then jumps into a Rashomon style revisit to Man of Steel’s explosive finale this time looking at it from the perspective of Bruce Wayne as the human cost of that destruction is witnessed and the seed is planted for Batman’s animosity to Superman. It’s an exciting opening with an interesting idea that establishes the nature of this films Bruce Wayne fairly quickly. So far so good then. It’s at this point where things begin to take a turn, a sharp turn in fact, a sharp turn that bounces down a rocky ravine and tumbles off the edge of a cliff.

                The film begins to bounce around incoherently for what feels like a life time, there are entire plot strands that don’t seem to amount to anything and moments that feel completely out of sync with the rest of the film. Most frustrating of these incoherent moments are the bizarre dream sequences which slow what is already a slow film to a grinding halt, and add nothing to the film other than more confusion. After this aimless bouncing around for a couple of hours we get to the big fight. After the ridiculous smashing and crashing of Superman V Zod in his last outing, Snyder should be commended for showing some element of restrain in the fight, but despite the long run-time leading up to the fight it still doesn’t feel in any way that these characters actually do hate each other and the fight ends up feeling perfunctory, particularly with a mind boggling writing decision that leads to them becoming BFF’s. Then Wonder Woman turn’s up (that’s right she’s in this too) and the three of them team up to fight a big energy monster thing called Doomsday in a very loud and explosive finale.    

                There exists within this mess elements of the film you want and it's not entirely without merit. For starters I don’t believe that any of the blame for this can be laid at the feet of Zack Snyder, the incoherence comes from the script, but stylistically the film is quite sound and there a frequent moments of visual beauty. Ben Affleck’s Batman (Batfleck) is the most impressive aspect of the film, others will bemoan the fact that Batman, previously depicted as the high watermark of moral crime fighting has actually turned into a bit of a psychopath here, but within the context of the film it works, and his moments of fighting are the most impressive in the film. In her fleeting appearance as Wonder Woman, Gal Gadot does enough to make you want to see her in a solo film (much to Warner Bros delight). It’s a shame then that other female characters are a bit blah, particularly Amy Adams’ Lois Lane who spends most of the film getting rescued from falling or drowning or potentially being shot by African terrorists. Performances elsewhere are also unimpressive, Holly Hunter as a senator and Scoot McNairy as a Superman ‘victim’ are ably performed but their characters and sub-plots are woefully underwritten. Then there’s Henry Cavill as Clark Kent/Superman. Whether Cavill is a dull actor or not is debatable, but the Superman that has been created here is tedious to monstrous proportions, long gone is the beacon of hope depicted in comics for the last 80 years, is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s the incredible sulk. Then there is the small case of Academy Award Nominee Jesse Eisenberg and his new interpretation of Lex Luthor. He is without a doubt the most irritating screen villain of the decade, it’s not entirely his fault as he is lumbered with irritating monologues that are meant to sound profound but really don’t say anything at all, but Eisenberg’s twitchiness and his hammy nature really don’t help elevate it. Luthor also suffers from having the most underwritten motives of any screen villain, it will be weeks later and you still won’t quite be able to work out what his plan or endgame was.

                The completed vision of this film is properly ludicrous, which in a way could have been very fun, but if it was meant to be fun then the film definitely isn’t aware of it because it is far too po-faced. There’s no suggestion that all superhero films have to be a laugh a minute joy ride, but the very nature of men in tights fighting bad guys is inherently absurd and if there isn’t a least some small acknowledgment of that then the film becomes unintentionally irritating and monumentally dull.

                What’s most disappointing about this is that it feels like it was very close to being a good film, but in the end it has the feel of a project where 50 people came up with 1 interesting idea each, and then they decided to put them all in, but forgot to work out how to string them together. What started out as a Man of Steel sequel has been retrofitted into a Batman V Superman film that will also see the dawn of the Justice League (all briefly feature in this). By forcing the Justice League so early rather than taking the time to build to it Warner Bros have created a complete mess of a film that could have been so much more, fingers crossed for Suicide Squad though right. (Low 3 Stars)