Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice Review

There is a lot of mixed emotions for the Batman vs Superman film, and since I was really only watching it for the Wonder Woman parts, I was actually pretty happy with her scenes. But my own inner nerd has mixed with my writing intensive college degrees, my love for obscure film trivia, and my obsession for reading DC Comics to lead to this review.

Crew

Throughout Batman vs Superman, I was constantly thinking about Battleship Potemkin a film from 1925 Russia in which the use of the “montage” (where a series of rapid shots are used to heighten the suspense of action scenes) was successfully popularized by filmmaker Sergei Einstein. In Batman Vs Superman, the shots were off the clock and even slow motion scenes seemed to be made of an uncountable number of shots. (SHOTS SHOTS SHOTS). Apart from appeasing a fan of 1920’s Soviet cinematography, the montage style had no affect on the overall piece.

The sets harkened back to Zach Snyder’s days working on 300 and Sucker Punch where a natural floor space set (for example a real rocky cliff surface for 300) with a green screen backdrop set the scene for most of the film. The old days of set design- again a bit biased coming from someone who loves pre-1970’s cinema- where paint-on-wooden walls blending the stage sets of Broadway with the magic of Hollywood were completely absent. (I am a fan of minimalism.) The film included three sets for Gotham City, five sets in Metropolis, two Washington DC sets, among others. Because there were so many non-synthetic sets (so sets where there is no computer generated background), the overall quality of each set was bland and uninteresting. (I say this as someone who used to build sets for plays, so I care more than most people.)

Costuming and make-up were not bad. Batman’s base outfit was well designed and the suits Bruce Wayne wore were interestingly color coordinated to Batman’s suit. The alien-busting metal armor used for the fight with Batman was almost identical to the suit worn during the Frank Miller Dark Knight Returns armor. Superman’s costume from Man of Steel returned with no observable changes and quirky Clark Kent’s farm-boy flannel returned in full force. The final superhero in the film- who gives her name to this blog- had some serious props. The Lasso of Truth and the martial tiara joined forces with a hoplon shield and a sword reminiscent of Sarmatian warriors while Diana Prince’s dresses came with the glitz and glamour of a foreign royal.

To sum all of this up, the best feature of the film in terms of cinematography were in costume design. Michael Wilkinson designed the costumes in Batman vs Superman after having designed the costumes in 300, Man of Steel, Watchmen, and American Hustle. The commendable long lost of costume department (which I am way too tired to write here) can be found on IMDB and includes individuals who have worked on X-Men: First Class, Dawn of the Dead, Thor, and The Hunger Games.

Cast

As far as characters go, there was an insanely long list of major characters in the film. In past DC films where more than one Justice League hero played major roles in a story, side characters played a small role- if any- in the overall film. A good example is with Justice League Unlimited where characters like Lois Lane or Tim Drake never show up. Essentially, there are what I refer to as horizontal and vertical characters in superhero stories. In Detective Comics, there are characters like Commissioner Gordon and Detective Bullock who are non-superheroes used to contrast with middle characters like Robin, Batgirl, and Huntress used as side-kicks and side characters for the central figure- Batman. This makes a vertical cast. Then there are horizontal casts like with Justice League (cartoon) where there is only central-figure superheroes like the Flash, Martian Manhunter, and Wonder Woman. Batman vs Superman attempts to combine both vertical and horizontal casting by having characters like Lois Lane and Alfred Pennyworth beside central-figures like Batman and Superman, then adding bottom-level figures like Martha Kent. The experiment did not go well and the overall effect was a montage (SHOT SHOT SHOT) of stories that were barely interconnected.

Ben Affleck actually did a great job at portraying both Batman and Bruce Wayne, but the writers added way too many flashbacks to his character’s past. In the film, Batman has been in Gotham for over twenty years and is already older than his father and the latter’s time of death. The film is definitely told from Bruce Wayne/Batman’s point of view, but the writers’ way of approaching that was to add nightmares and flashbacks that would only happen to Bruce in a Batman: Year One film. Henry Cavill returned to play Superman who was played off as a character skirting the line between mortal and deity, but it seemed like every character except Clark Kent/Superman responded to the plotline. Finally, Gal Gadot (in my opinion) stole the show in her portrayal of Wonder Woman. The fight scenes as Wonder Woman had me holding my mouth to keep from cheering in the theater and her scenes as Diana Prince had me whispering (F*ck yeah!) every time the character subtly called attention to Bruce Wayne’s sexist dialogue.

In the opposite corner were two villains of the film, Lex Luthor and Doomsday. (spoiler?) Jesse Eisenberg played his character of Lex Luthor more like Jack Nicholson’s Joker- meant for PG audiences. The more comic-al Luthor was a genius billionaire who masked his sinister intentions with an innocent front. In Batman vs Superman, Lex Luthor is an awkward 20-something who has inherited a business from his abusing father and who uses it to bribe politicians with Jolly Ranchers. Either the writing for the character or the acting (or both) was just off and every scene with Luthor was just bland. Doomsday only appears in the last moments of the film and is not given the full credit as a character as it deserves. In Death of Superman, Doomsday and Superman duke it out for an entire graphic novel where the end result is the death of both characters. In the film (spoiler.) Wonder Woman and Batman finally restrain Doomsday before Superman deals the final blow and in the end, both Doomsday and Superman are killed after a ten minute fight scene.

The overall heroes- among the actors- who simply nailed their parts were Ben Affleck, Jeremy Irons (as Alfred Pennyworth), and Gal Gadot. Kristy Carlson and Lora Kennedy both cast for Batman vs Superman along with Wonder Woman and Sucker Punch, so I can only assume they played a major role in casting Gal Gadot. Zach Snyder does deserve credit for directing, though the best acting came from three actors. The majority of the other actors gave off unimpressive impressions- mostly because they had few scenes and the writers invested little time into their backgrounds.

Story

Batman vs Superman weaves three stories into one film, The Dark Knight Returns, Justice League: Origin, and Death of Superman. In The Dark Knight Returns, Bruce Wayne is an old man taking medications to stay on his feet. Crime in Gotham is at an all-time high and after years of freedom from the cowl returns to his role as the masked vigilante to save his city. In Justice League: Origins, Batman is a fresh face in a world full of inexperienced superheroes. Batman has to join forces with other heroes in a battle against alien invaders to save the planet. Finally, in Death of Superman, Superman is faced with his most difficult opponent yet and has to come to grips with the reality that he cannot win the fight he has entered. All three films are set in three different points in the DC timeline. Justice League: Origins takes place early while Batman and Superman are both new to fighting crime. Death of Superman takes place sometime in the middle of Bruce Wayne’s adult life. The Dark Knight Returns tells the story of Batman’s last major campaign.

In the film Batman vs Superman, the film pulls these three plot points together to tell the story of how the Justice League is established. Bruce Wayne witnesses the destruction caused by Superman’s first fight and uses the experience as a reason to become defender of humanity. Meanwhile, Lex Luthor is trying to find a way to convince the US government to kill Superman with the kryptonite he has recently acquired. But hang on, Bruce Wayne has stolen Luthor’s weapon to use it for himself, so Luthor created a different weapon using the corpse of General Zod. Diana Prince is in town (for reasons the film doesn’t explain) and learns that Superman and Batman are getting into a spitting contest while Luthor’s new weapon- Doomsday- is activating. Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman work together to destroy Doomsday, but Superman is killed in the fight so Batman and Wonder Woman agree that there needs to be a formal team of superheroes that can work together to defeat the next threat heading to Earth.

The film is called ”Batman vs Superman,” which might be the biggest mistake of the movie. The whole concept of the film is to act as a prequel for a Justice League movie. The Marvel Cinematic Universe was faced with the same issue. Their approach was to make origin films for each major superhero (Iron Man, Iron Man II, Captain America: the First Avenger, and Thor). Each origin film was honestly pretty bland- save for Iron Man II- but they allowed the Avengers films and subsequent sequels to have deeper back stories. The only prerequisite for Batman vs Superman was Man of Steel which did a good job of setting the scene for future uses of the Superman character, but it meant that Batman and Wonder Woman were shallow characters that anyone outside of the nerd community was unimpressed by.

Final Impressions

What Batman vs Superman did best actually had nothing to do with Batman or Superman. This was the first time Wonder Woman has ever been seen in a movie theater in a live-action film. Gal Gadot was phenomenal, but her screen time was way too short- which leads to the reverse. The film began as a project to pit Superman and Batman against each other, but it became a prequel to a Justice League movie without changing the name of the film. The movie tried to be three separate movies and it just didn’t work. A Death of Superman film would be amazing with Henry Cavill, if it was the only plotline of the film. A Dark Knight Returns film could be amazing as well- and Dark Knight Rises did a decent job at telling that story. The heart of the film is about three superheroes coming together in the end to work together and fight a bad guy- a classic trope for a superhero team-up, but the three don’t even suit up together until the last few minutes of the movie and the female hero of the film is totally underplayed- and I only went to watch that character!!!!!! I paid ten dollars to go watch Wonder Woman kick ass and Batman and Superman fight each other. Batman and Superman fought for about fifteen minutes and Gal Gadot’s total screen time was probably under twenty total minutes.