Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice Review

When the early reviews came out for Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice came out critics were slamming it, HARD. At the time this post was written the movie has a "rotten" rating of 29% on Rotten Tomatoes, a score lower than Ben Affleck's last venture in the superhero genre Daredevil which sits at 44% (a "rotten" rating). However, it's audience score (at the time this review was written) sits at a positive 73%, a staggering difference to say the least. So what has split critics and audiences? Well lets take a look. (SPOILERS AHEAD!!!)

Batman V. Superman takes place after the events of Man of Steel which saw Superman destroy the city of Metropolis in order to stop General Zod from destroying Earth. A government case is made which puts Superman on trial for his actions. While some view Superman as a hero, other see him as a threat. One of the people who sees the man of steel as a threat is Bruce Wayne, who witnesses first hand the destruction Superman is capable of and because of what he saw has started a crusade as Batman to bring down Superman. His quest to fight Superman leads him to discover some interesting scientific expeditions led by Lex Luthor, who is also on Superman's watch list. Lex apparently has files on select Metahumans (humans with exceptionable abilities) like Barry Allen (The Flash), Cyborg and Aquaman. One person looking for those files is Diana Prince a.k.a Wonder Woman. Lex has also been medaling around with Kryptonian technology to bring about the end of Superman. Lex has discovered that Wayne knows about his experiments and kidnaps Superman's mother to blackmail Superman to kill Batman, all while preparing the creation of Doomsday (A being that can kill Superman).

So yeah that's a lot to take in during one sitting. It feels like there are 3 different movies taking place. One theory I'm floating around is that the movie's director Zack Snyder wanted to make an adaptation of the Batman story The Dark Knight Returns but the studio wanted the movie to bring about the creation of the Justice League. These two stories that do not work well with one another are jammed into the movie in an attempt to set up an "extended universe" as DC and Warner Brothers call it and let me tell you it shows, badly. On the one hand, there is this excellent recreation of The Dark Knight Returns that is bogged down by sloppily shoe-horning in Justice League set up because the studio said so. It's only an opinion but it does have some credential to it.

The story telling in this movie is atrocious. One moment we're with Superman as he saves Lois Lane from terrorists, then we go to Batman waging war on Superman, then we cut to Lex Luthor being evil, and so on and so forth. There is no seeable thread tying these stories together. It feels like a scene happens and then we  move on to another scene. It's messy storytelling if I've ever seen it. With so much story being thrown at the audience in such a messy way, they have no idea how to react to it. I saw this movie in the same theater I saw Force Awakens when it opened and compared to Star Wars, this audience was dead. Whenever something epic like Wonder Woman's appearance happened, I only heard a few people silently cheering. In Force Awakens, when a character like Han Solo showed up the audience went nuts. It shows that throwing everything story wise at your audience is not a good idea. It didn't work with Spiderman 3, The Amazing Spiderman 2, and Daredevil season 2 but will get to that in due time. Bottom line: Don't give us 3 stories in one movie.

But enough negativity, lets focus on some positives. Ben Affleck is great as Batman showing once again that the internet shouldn't over react to casting choices. In fact, most of the cast does a great job with their characters. Your mileage may vary on Jesse Eisenberg's Lex Luthor though. I could see him being the son of a Kevin Spacey/Frank Underwood style Lex Luthor but his spastic and annoying attitude can ware on a man quickly. Back to positive stuff, the visuals in this movie are spectacular. Zack Snyder's bread and butter is his visuals and no where does he shine better than with comic book movies. You feel like the pages from a comic are leaping out on to the screen. Anything having to do with Batman is the highlight of the movie which got me to wonder if Zack Snyder wanted to make a Dark Knight Returns movie.

Sadly, that is not what we got. We got an over 2 hour mess of a movie with glaring problems overshadowed by certain positive aspects. All in all, Batman V. Superman is a failure for DC comics and Warner Bros. as not only has this movie further divided the fan base but it might have turned people off to the DC movie universe entirely. If the rest of DC's films mirror this one, expect groans every time the DC comics logo appears at the beginning of the trailer. The studio should take a step back and look at Marvel's universe. Giving us bits and pieces of other events in movies based around one of many major characters instead of trying to put as much into one movie as possible. Is it a 29%  worthy movie? For me, no, it was entertaining enough to feel like a quick sit and some positives over shadow the negatives. It's on par with Man of Steel, a sentence the studio wanted to avoid as much as possible given the reaction to that film but sadly these two films having glaring problems. If you are curious about seeing it I do recommend it but if you hated Man of Steel I say avoid this movie.

Grade: C-