B v S - Critique
Here are a few criticisms on the film:
(SPOILER WARNING)
I believe a lot of people have shown either complete hate or love for this movie but I don't think many have objectively listed reasons for why. This critique will tackle several key scenes that had flaws too flagrant and striking to ignore. Also I'm going to analyse this as a standalone film, I won't acknowledge its references and similarities on other works (w/c many believe add to the movie), only judging its own merits.
1. We start off the film with yet another Batman origin story. I feel like amongst superhero origin stories, this is the one audiences are most familiar with already and somehow managed to get 15 mins of screen time, already adding to the immense length of this movie. For some reason, I believe Snyder handled this scene the most incompetently than his predecessors. Why would Thomas Wayne decide to attack his assailant when he was pointing his weapon at him at point blank range? What did he think would happen? He's a doctor not a soldier. Following this, Martha Wayne, not in shock at this turn of events or not at all trying to protect her child ALSO decides to attack the assailant by attempting to take his pistol! To the point where we have this overly dramatic, very Snyder-esque (ala Watchmen) slow motion scene, where Martha's pearl necklace gets caught in the pistol's slide so that it breaks her necklace when he opens fire at her. I guess they don't teach rich people self-defence?
2. At the funeral scene following this, when Bruce falls into that famous well just like in Nolan's trilogy, he not only gets hit by a wave of bats, he starts floating because a tornado of bats begins to carry him. I think this is just ridiculous. I can understand the symbolism but it doesn't take out the fact that it's unrealistic and poorly executed.
3. There were several dream sequences that I believe were just filler for ridiculously long winded expositions. The first dream sequence is where Bruce Wayne walks into a crypt and encounters an angel statue dressed as Superman because why the **** not right? He then opens a coffin to be bitten by a.. vampire bat zombie?! What?! What does that even mean? What was the purpose of this? Is this how he got his powers of levitation? This is then followed by another dream of Superman and his SS Gestapo unit. I believe this is trying to pitch the whole "can superman be trusted" idea a la ‘Kingdom Come’ or ‘Injustice’ but the problem with this is that throughout the whole movie, Superman is objectively portrayed as good (despite his recklessness in Man of Steel), you never doubt his motives. This dream is then capped off with what appeared to be the Flash yelling at Bruce that Lois is the key? Again another confusing and mishandled scene. Flash's colours barely come through amongst the films grey and beige colour scheme.
4. In this movie, let's not beat around the bush, many of those at the receiving end of Batman's gunfire and explosions won't be going to the hospital, they'll be going straight to the morgue. For the Batman fans out there who knows this man's family was murdered by a gun, why would he ever feel the need to use them? Does he use firearms in the comics? For those that praise this movie on its accuracy to the source material I put forward this question. Why does his regular cowl (not his armored one) completely deflect bullets at point blank range? His fighting style is supposed to be a blend of stealth tactics and martial arts but throughout the film he'd rather use a mix of firearms and power punches that have enough destructive power to finish his opponent in one or two hits. I feel like the choreography could have been showcased more. I didn't see any striking that you would see in a UFC fight for example, disciplines that Batman would be more than familiar with and would add a sense of realism.
5. The reveal of other Justice League members was a lengthy and forced scene whose only purpose was not for the development of this film but for the following one. We spend 10 mins getting teasers for each member to come. First we get the Flash who looks like some nomadic Hispanic-Asian teenager who saves grocery stores all over the world from milk thieves with his Speedy Gonzalez powers. Then we get a rather interesting scene of Cyborg being assembled at presumably Star Labs by his father. This is actually how it happened in the comics, which was great. But then we get Aquaman in the remains of what looked like the Titanic? Until he awkwardly pierces the cctv camera all the way to the heavens with his trident. My point being: why are they showing these scenes? Is it completely necessary for the plot/ characters of this film? The reason why people were so excited for the Avengers in 2012 was because they began their setup for the main characters in 2008 by creating 4 movies over a span of 4 years. There was none of this build up in Man of Steel but for some reason, the "visionary" director Zack Snyder, thought it was a good idea to cram in 4 years worth of universe building into a 3 hour movie! This set up is unearned, ham-fisted and forced. It's as if Warner Bros. had a board meeting lamenting on the financial success of crossover superhero films and decided they needed a slice of the profits. They not only copied a team-up formula, but the atmosphere of the Nolan trilogy is clearly felt here. He is one of the producers, yes, but it doesn't excuse the thematic unoriginality and derivativeness in this movie. It's as if they already got effective pre existing styles and recreated it here.
6. The 2 most guarded superhero identities is Batman’s and Superman’s. How was Lex Luthor (Jr.) aware of this from the beginning of the movie?! Many people want to take into account his apparently genius level intellect but this isn't properly explained in the movie. It might have been amongst his incoherent babbling but it's just not explicitly said how smart he actually is and how he figured this out. And just Jesse Eisenberg’s performance was generally awful. His overacting was just cringeworthy and wanted to emulate Heath Ledger’s Joker eccentricities (again with the unoriginality). That final scene where he was yelling "ding dong" over and over again in his jail cell made me squirm. I just wanted to hand him my handkerchief to wipe the snot from his face. How does he know Darkseid is coming? Because of that history lesson he got aboard the Kryptonian ship?
7. Lex Luthor somehow mixing his own DNA and a Kryptonian restorative vat turns Zod’s corpse into Doomsday?! Again I fail to see how the comic book die hards would agree with this origin. His character design looks like a Cave Troll straight out of the Lord of the Rings! Did he jump to Metropolis from Middle Earth?
8. They fight him using this Kryptonite spear but the question is.. When was it ever said that Doomsday was even a Kryptonian?! Whilst flying around his Bat Jet, Batman announces and somehow knows Doomsday is weak to it even though he wasn't even there when Doomsday was revealed to Superman. Lois Lane picks up the said spear after the "greatest gladiator match in all of history" but then for some reason decides to throw it into this puddle of water thinking "oh well this'll come in handy so we can have a tense scene later!" Why did she throw it in there if she was going to get it again?!
9. Speaking of Lois Lane, good Lord was her never ending quest to solve the mystery of the bullet not only time consuming but god awful. Does anyone care? Honestly. At least 4 scenes does she travel the world interviewing people and shaking this little bullet at the camera to no one’s interest. Another useless subplot that served no purpose to the narrative (one of many).
10. The fight between Batman and Superman was completely one-sided. They shouldn't have even called it Batman v Superman but Batman beats the **** out of Superman. Considering how much he was hitting Superman, no punch felt real. Not once did we see any swelling or blood from Superman’s face.
11. The resolution to this fight has to be my biggest gripe with this movie. BOTH OF THEIR MOMS ARE NAMED MARTHA. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Martha. "Why did you say that name?" yells Bruce. Why did you have to say the magic password so I can completely discard all my previous opinions about you and we can be best friends now? Ridiculous. The silliest plot device to a conflict I have ever seen. Just lazy writing.
12. The final fight with Doomsday was largely anticlimactic. They go to this somehow conveniently abandoned warehouse, which Batman explicitly points out to the audience so as to excuse themselves of the destruction porn that Snyder seems to love. People complained about the collateral damage in Man of Steel but the number of explosions in this movie puts that to shame. Almost exceeds the mayhem in Michael Bay’s Bayhem movies. Whilst the big three fight Doomsday, the camera follows these characters in the most unnatural ways, almost as if it were a videogame which could only be done in CGI. Again, the combat did not have any sense of realism or meaningful impact, just these loud, overwhelming, bombastic set pieces.
13. For some reason and I don't know why, people somehow praise Gal Gadot as if it were an Oscar worthy performance. She is a model turned actress and in this film, has a total of 12 lines, and for good reason because every scene with her is so stilted and awful. A horrible screen presence. I'm talking TV acting bad. They tried to use CGI and loud drumming to make her badass but it just doesn't work. It's still all CGI with little to no extensive choreography. How was she able to cut off Doomsday’s arm? Not too long ago they just said only Kryptonite can harm him and now this? Yes it's magical sword but the general audience doesn't know that Kryptonians are weak to this. Again poorly handled and unexplained. There is no emotional cadence in her enunciation, just a bland delivery. What accent is that? Isn't she supposed to be Greek?
14. Cut to the final scene and for some reason, after all the intensity and exhaustion the film already makes the viewer feel due to non stop set piece and exposition, they somehow thought adding another 15 minute sub plot at the end would be a good idea. They added the Death of Superman at the end! Cut to his funeral and everyone is feeling sad but guess what, his coffin moves so he's not even really dead. What did this hope to achieve? Again, there were no real stakes in this movie. This funeral completely destroyed any impact by showing that he didn't even really die. So what was the point? "I failed him in life but I won't in death" laments Batman but when did they get so close over the course of such a short time? They were trying to kill each other 20 mins ago!
In summary: saying this movie was confusing is an understatement. Every scene was so disjointed and just very messy. It goes from lengthy exposition to dream sequence to more exposition until the fight that was advertised whilst peppered with currently irrelevant references and setup for future movies. I challenge anyone upon first viewing to recall each and every scene. Each character's motivations are so forced that it's hard to believe. Upon completing the storyboards why did they think it was a good idea to arrange these scenes in this way and start celebrating what a masterpiece they've created? How could this movie have been handled so incompetently? They punish a good, coherent structure just so they can add reference after reference from this and that comic book event/character. Was this movie the second coming of Jesus Christ, like all the religious imagery of a messianic Superman that Snyder constantly kept shoving down our throats, wanted us to believe? I don't think so. It’s fine for fans to like this movie and to see the good points it presents, but I don’t think it's fair to ignore the countless flaws and plot holes this movie has due to blind bias.
