Starting things off with some reviews from the archives. Here's my thoughts on Batman vs Superman.
I’ve had a lot of people asking for my opinion on the Batman vs Superman movie, so here’s my review. I’m borrowing a lot of the format from the guys at A Comic Book Education, which is a great resources for people who want to know more about the material all these movies are based on (and for a possibly more enlightened review). This review is NOT spoiler free, so if you haven’t seen the movie, abandon hope all ye who enter here.
Expectations: I did not like a lot of things about Man of Steel, so my expectations for this movie were pretty low. I would give the movie about a 5/10 over-all, which is about what I had expected.
Easter Eggs: I caught the Chris Pine as Steve Trevor reference in the photo, but only because I spend too much time on IMDB. Jason Todd’s Robin outfit in the Batcave was a creepy reminder of Batman’s history. I didn’t catch any other “Easter Eggs”, besides possibly the symbols of the other DC heroes-to-come on the Lexcorp computer files.
Action: The action scenes in this movie were actually quite good.
High points: 1) Everyone got to do what they do. Superman saving people and sacrificing himself for the greater good. Batman taking on groups of armed bad guys with superior skill, planning, and gadgetry. Wonder Woman fighting monsters and showing she can keep up with Bruce Wayne when it comes to subtle infiltration. 2) Batmobile chase scene. Lots of fun stunts. Lots of cool shots. 3) The action in The Big Showdown was about everything you’d want from a fight between Batman and Superman. It followed the tropes, but that’s not a bad thing, necessarily. Batman won the fight, but would have lost the war if he’d taken things all the way, which is an interesting way to showcase the heroes’ inter-dependence for later.
Music: Classic Hans Zimmer. Very fitting for the film, but not something I’m interested in just having on in the car. I felt the same way about his work on Dark Knight, Inception, and Amazing Spider-Man. Lex’s theme is the only one that really stood out to me because of the pipe organ, operatic villain feel. It fit this Lex fairly well...which is kinda sad, as I’ll discuss later.
Costumes/Visuals: Great. If there’s one thing I did like about the first movie, it was some of the costume design and the otherworldliness of the Kryptonian homeworld and technology. With this movie, I enjoyed the look of Batman (even in the homage to Dark Knight Returns with the power armor). Wonder Woman was spot on in both battle costume and, I think, the self-confidence evident in the Diana Prince outfits. The sets were well constructed from the Batcave to the Planet to Lexcorp to Lois’s apartment. I felt like these could be actual places. Some of my favorite touches were in this area...
Original Material: ...Which brings us to Original Material. Things I liked: 1) Lois and Clark sharing an intimate moment in her little Metropolis apartment. It’s the first time in their entire on-screen relationship that I bought them as a couple. It was sweet, tender, and gave us a glimpse of the humanity behind the ‘S’ without showing us a truckload of angst. 2) The Fallen Wayne Manor. They never explain why the manor is a burned out shell. Bruce just wakes up next to model #23 in a very modern glass box by the lake and we don’t even know why he’s there until later in the film. It gave some heft to the presumed twenty years of crime fighting, as did the momentoes in the Batcave. 3) Wonder Woman’s extreme longevity. I don’t know enough about her character to know how original this is, but I loved it as the set-up for her movie. It has me intrigued and made every comment about her skill set and experiences (ala “I’ve fought monsters before.”) a guerilla ad campaign for her character. 4) The dream sequences. Batman has nightmares about who he’s become and dreams of an apotheosis or deliverance involved in that becoming. It humanizes Bruce, which is oddly refreshing for a figure who is so often required to have mythic overtones in order to stand alongside demi-gods.
Screenplay: Almost all of my issues are here.
First off, Dialogue. Here’s some memorable events:
1) “The Bat is dead. Bury it.” Huh? Why is Superman delivering a deadly sounding ultimatum based on no first hand knowledge? He’s a reporter. Where are his original sources? Also, why doesn’t he go stop the other guys who are ALSO driving like crazy men and shooting up the neighborhood while he’s trying to make a point to Bruce? The context makes this comment both contrived and contemptible, neither of which should be associated with Superman.
2) “I thought she was with you.” Why would you think this? She’s in a photo from 1918. Superman didn’t show up until two years ago. She and Superman have no rapport and different powers. Why would one of the greatest deductive minds in the world put the two together with evidence leading him in other directions?
3) Everything Lex says or stutters in his fundraiser speech. This is not manipulative. This is not intelligent. This is just a crazy man off his medication. I’m not sure what we were supposed to learn about Lex Luthor in this scene, except that he cannot inspire or awe or even encourage. He has zero charisma and we’re left wondering why anyone comes to his parties. It was a complete let down and is indicative of what was wrong with the direction they took that character.
Which brings me to Lex Luthor’s motivations. He hates God because God let daddy smack him around. I get that. Why does he believe that Superman is representational of God? Does he blame Superman, who’s only been around for two years so far as he knows, for his childhood trauma? What does he stand to gain by committing kidnapping and murder, attacking the U.S. capital, forcing two extremely powerful opponents into confronting one another, and creating a doomsday weapon that he has no way to control? All the while leaving his fingerprints on everything. Best case scenario for him: Superman kills Batman or vice versa and then Doomsday kills the winner, followed by the rest of the planet. Why would he do this? Especially when he reveals that he knows that Darkseid is now aware of Earth and on his way. He is not a supervillain. See my comments about Lex’s dialogue; This is the plan of someone bent on murder-suicide because he is delusional.
Next up: The motivations for The Big Showdown. This is where the movie really falls apart. If you’re going to make a movie the title of which points everyone to the most beloved showdown in the history of comics, you cannot do it poorly. Now, as I stated earlier, the fight looked great and flowed well. The problem is it never should have happened. Why?
Let’s talk Batman.
First, we’re given the reasons that Batman distrusts Superman. He’s got too much power and no oversight. He’s at least indirectly responsible for thrusting Earth into an alien war that cost thousands of lives and caused billions in damage. He upsets the balance of power among Earth’s governments. But...we are only ever shown him getting involved in natural disasters. A flood, a fire, an accident at liftoff. Everything he’s done since the moment Zod died has been to help the people of Earth without allying himself with a specific country or ideology. Is he aloof? Yes. Should he be? Yes! If he allows himself to be governed by anyone, their side wins every conflict, forever. So, his character seems to be benevolent and his actions, up until the start of the movie, governed solely by goodwill and/or political necessity. Batman knows all of this.
Second, Batman is shown to be obsessed with Superman. If the World’s Greatest Detective is obsessed with you, he is going to investigate every incident involving you with utmost precision. He found Ma Kent in minutes with no leads beyond “Lex took her.”, yet he can’t uncover who the guards were at a compound in the desert? Or question what caused the explosion at the Capitol Building and who might have wanted to cause it at that time and place? It is, to my mind, an extreme reach to think that a guy who’s been around so long and who trusts so little would not do more to place the blame where it belongs. The movie gives us an answer- Bruce is emotionally compromised by the death of friends and the dreams of a totalitarian future. But Batman does not become emotionally compromised. His vengeance is on a slow burn and he requires of himself precision in its application. Even Frank Miller’s Dark Knight. This Batman should not be an exception.
Now for Superman. I get his motivation to fight: he can’t find Martha fast enough. Not on his own. But, he even states that he needs Batman’s help. Sure, Bruce is gonna use the sonic cannons and the machine guns at first rather than listen. That’s fine, because it’s in character for Bruce once the fight starts. But Superman’s reaction is to hit back. And that is not in character for two reasons: 1) Pa Kent ingrained in him an isolationism and restraint of his power. His gut reaction to human violence is to apply minimum necessary force… 2) ...Because he can’t be hurt. For Clark, the opening moments of The Showdown are not a fight. They are the antics of a hurt child, a temper tantrum. He could easily have grabbed Bruce, pinned his arms to his sides, and flown up forty stories, whereupon Batman has no choice but to listen while he explains what Lex is up to.
The only reason this does not happen is because movie go-ers paid $11 a ticket to watch Superman and Batman slug it out. This is not storytelling; it felt like crass commercialism.
I love comic book movies. I’m stoked about the upcoming Wonder Woman movie. I enjoyed Guardians of the Galaxy, a movie that prominently featured a shotgun toting racoon and a sentient vegetable with a three word vocabulary. If you give me the slightest verisimilitude, I will roll with it. But if you intend a dark, gritty, serious take on your heroes, you had better give me serious reasons for them to do anything dark and gritty. Barring that, I feel that you respect neither your audience nor your characters. And that will lose you my attention fast.
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