Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice
Movie Review by Brian Wezowicz
"I'm here to talk to you about the Avengers initiative." With those simple words, the Marvel cinematic universe was born. In the years since Nick Fury first spoke to Tony Stark, the Marvel cinematic universe has spawned the most meticulously planned series of films in cinematic history. Marvel knew what it wanted and it more than delivered. In the same summer as Iron Man changed the cinematic landscape forever, DC Comics most popular superhero was in the middle of the most critically acclaimed, and commercially successful film trilogy of all-time (Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy). At the time, nobody could imagine the billions and billions of dollars to come. Flash forward to today, and it seems like every film studio is trying to spawn its own universe of films. From Ghostbusters, to Transformers... trilogies are no longer good enough. Every franchise is looking for ways to keep the gravy train going with a series of unending interconnected films. However, it seems like the last company to get in on the action was DC comics. The Dark Knight trilogy wouldn't wrap up until after the Avengers were already tearing up Manhatan. DC knew they were already behind the eight ball in terms of a cinematic universe, and so after a relatively underwhelming Superman reboot (Man Of Steel, a film that I've grown to like the more times I watch it), the fast lane to The Justice League (DC's version of The Avengers) was laid. I understand why they went with the fast track, I just don't agree with their method. The problem is thus... In an effort to get The Justice League on the silver screen, DC (and Warner Brothers) forgot to develop any interesting characters. They skipped what made The Avengers work (a series of individual films that laid the ground work for the super hero team up), and went straight to the end game, creating a film that should have been a crowning achievement, but feels like a giant missed opportunity. Batman v Superman: Dawn Of Justice.
Going in to this film, I couldn't help but ask myself, has Zack Snyder become the new Michael Bay? The reviews of this film were brutal for sure, but the brutality of the reviews seemed almost personal. Critics seemed to get off in their own sense of cleverness, the likes of which I had not seen since the architect of Total Bayhem released his last Transformers film. I've always liked him. 300 is perhaps the best page to screen comic book adaptation, and I really enjoy his take on the unfilmable Watchmen. However, I do not celebrate his entire catalog (Sucker Punch is one of my least favorite movies of all-time.). He does have a tendency to showcase style over substance, but in my opinion, not to the length of Bay. The bar was pretty low when I went in to the theater. It couldn't be that bad, could it? After sitting through nearly 2.5 hours of spandex induced destruction, I feel safe to say that this film is not the scourge on cinema as the reviews made it out to be. It's not a good film, but it's not necessarily a bad film, either.
Dawn Of Justice picks up during the end sequence of Man Of Steel. However, we view the destruction from Bruce Wayne's point of view as he rushes to save his employees a Wayne Enterprises. The valiant effort that Gotham's most famous resident makes it a case of too little, too late. Wayne Enterprises, and the people inside) are turned to dust in a scene almost too heavy with 9/11 style imagery. After the opening scene, we flash forward to a later point in time. Bruce Wayne (and his bat alter ego) are obsessed with stopping Krypton's last son. The distrust of Superman is not limited to Wayne, either. Congress is investigating an incident in the desert that paints Superman as a murderer, and public opinion is also split on whether Superman is a benefit or a menace to society.
We are also introduced to Lex Luthor (played with the Asperger's Syndrome turned up to 11 by Jesse Eisenberg), who is looking to weaponize Kryptonite as a way of defending Earth against other invading forces. He, along with his company LexCorp, do not trust Superman, and believes that Kryptonite is the answer to Earth's inferior weapons systems. Bruce Wayne senses that Luthor's noble intentions are not what they appear to be, and so he embarks upon a mission to get to the bottom of things. For about half of the movie, Dawn Of Justice is a compelling tale of cat and mouse. The only problem is that Snyder doesn't do a great job of setting up who is the cat and who is the mouse. I could on more with plot, but the plot is almost secondary to getting the two superheroes together to fight. It seems like when the film gets going on a solid path, it feels the need to change things up and jump around to a different story.
This film struggles with identity. It doesn't know whether it's a Man Of Steel sequel, or a Batman origin film, or a Justice League prequel. At 2.5 hours, this film should be long enough to answer that question, but I actually think it should have been longer. It does not devote enough time to either Superman or Batman's story. It seems like good parts of this film were left on the cutting room floor that should have been in the movie. It jumps all over the place, and gets to the final fight without fully explaining the motivation of its two main characters. They start using each others secret identity names without explaining how they figured them out. It acts like it's the 5th or 6th movie in a cinematic universe, when in reality, it's just just the 2nd. I would have liked to have seen a Batman solo film and a Wonder Woman (Wonder Woman appears out of nowhere) before jumping to the big show down. Then DC (and director Zack Snyder) could have made a compelling film out of what should have been a no brainer cinematic triumph.
That's not to say that Justice is a film without merit. Affleck does a compelling job at showing an older, more vulnerable Batman. Gal Gadot uses her limited screen time to do enough to make me want to see next year's Wonder Woman adaptation. I enjoyed Eisenberg's over the top portrayal of Lex Luthor. And Snyder does a solid job of showcasing his signature big time action sequences. It has a lot of good parts that didn't add up to a great whole. It is, at great lengths during the film, almost joyless (I counted two jokes in the entire movie). It skips around at will and gets to conclusions without using logic. I'm not mad that I saw the film, but I'm not in love with it, either.
I give Dawn Of Justice 2 stars out of 4. It's worth a view and shouldn't be written off to the extent critics want it to be. It could have been great, but just didn't live up to the hype. My suggestion is to have some more fun. Just because Christopher Nolan was successful without having any fun, doesn't mean every film has to be that way. I also think it's time to move away from Zack Snyder. He's had two successful films in spite of the critics, but how long can that last?
