Review: Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice
I watched BvS a week after it came out, which meant I had to avoid spoilers for one whole week. Seeing as it was one of the most hyped up films this year, this wasn’t that easy of a task. But I managed to get through the week without discovering any major plot points that would spoil it for me.
I didn’t however manage to avoid the mixed reviews, the poor critical reception, and the fans’ backlash against said poor critical reception. So I went into low expectation mode, prepping myself for a disappointing film. It’s mainly a defense mechanism for me, and usually I end up enjoying films more.
I came out of the cinema unable to decide whether it worked for this particular film. On one hand, it was better than I expected judging from the reviews. On the other, I still left profoundly dissatisfied.
If anything, this is indeed a Zack Snyder film. It’s filled with grand action set pieces, deconstructive themes, heavy-handed metaphors, brooding characters, and excellent cinematography. Visually, it’s an absolute treat.
Unfortunately, as Zack Snyder tends to do, the film takes itself way too seriously. Everyone is brooding, all the damn time. Everybody talks in grandiose clichés. And nobody ever really flashes a genuine smile that doesn’t carry some kind of sad undertones.
In a film called Batman vs Superman, one would expect the clash of characters to provide some kind of contrast between the two. But in a lot of ways they are too much of the same. You would expect Batman to be the gritty, dark, brooding character, but to have Superman (and pretty much every other character) do the same thing makes the whole thing ridiculously melodramatic.
The only non-brooding superhero here is Wonder Woman, who doesn’t have that much screentime. But who am I kidding. If she was more prominent, Snyder and Goyer will find a way to make her as miserable and dour as the other two.
There is no rollercoaster of emotions. There is not even a slightly gentle slope. It’s one long, dull plateau of dourness covered in black, dark, dark blue, and dark, dark red paint. The film is so consistently bleak it becomes desensitising.
However, the acting is for the most part excellent. Ben Affleck plays both a brilliant Bruce Wayne, and a memorable Batman. He adds a physicality and brokenness to a character driven by his hatred for Superman and quest for vengeance. He plays the jaded, disenchanted Dark Knight to perfection. It is a shame that Goyer’s writing sometimes lets the character down.
Lex Luthor here is played differently by Jesse Eisenberg to both the comic book Lex, and any other onscreen representations by the likes of Kevin Spacey, Gene Hackman, or Michael Rosenbaum. Eisenberg’s Luthor is manic, unrestrained, socially inept, and owes much to Heath Ledger’s Joker. However, by the end, he does grow into the more traditional representations of the character as a calm, ominous genius.
Henry Cavill is probably the weakest amongst the bunch, and that bunch includes Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman. Visually, he is the perfect model, doing all the right poses, and you can believe that Cavill’s Superman can physically do all the physically impossible actions he performs in the film. However, go deeper than that and he gives little range. Much of that again has to do with Goyer’s script. Simply put, one does not feel inspired by this Superman.
The pacing is frustratingly uneven. After an engaging first half hour, it becomes a slog to get through to the third act. Much of the whole middle of the film feels like either a tedious set up for the big finale, or a tedious set up for future films in the DC Cinematic Universe. Many of them felt very shoehorned and unnatural, as if someone had just edited in a bunch of teaser trailers clumsily into the film.
Saying all this, I ultimately enjoyed the film. It just required a lot of patience, and the fan service did ashamedly make me feel giddy. Its loose interpretation of Superman and Batman I will happily accept, amongst all the versions of Batman and Superman from different writers I’ve loved over the years. Not to mention all the alternate universes and Elseworlds.
It has also made me excited for the rest of the DC Cinematic Universe because with all that setup out of the way, it really should only leave room for forward development. Or at least one would hope so.
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