Zack Snyder’s Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice is a film of almost foolhardy ambition. First and foremost, the film represents two of the most iconic superheroes the world has ever seen being placed on screen together in a live-action, feature film for the first time in their respective histories. Not only that, but it represents one of the most argued-upon questions fans have discussed since both Batman and Superman’s humble origins—who would win in a fight?
Add to that the fact that Warner Brothers has commissioned this film to be the “dawn” of a new franchise of DC Comics films surrounding the Justice League (or Justice League of America, if you’d prefer) in order to compete with the seemingly endless and massively successful Marvel Cinematic Universe owned by Disney and you’re left with a film with an absurd amount of pressure on its shoulders, and all this is before we even saw the first trailer.
It gets even more intense—Batman V Superman marks the introduction of a completely new cinematic portrayal of Batman, after the gothic and zany Tim Burton portrayal, the garish and—quite frankly—blasphemous Joel Schumaker portrayal, and of course the gritty, bleak crime saga that is Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight Trilogy.
Filmgoers are, at this point, extremely familiar with the character of Batman, his origins and his ideologies, and as a result, in order to keep things fresh, this film needed to have a Batman that could stand his own against the great work by Michael Keaton and Christian Bale (the less said about Val Kilmer and George Clooney, the better). Choosing an aging, grumpy, and significantly more brutal Batman than we’ve ever seen on screen, as well as casting the fantastic Ben Affleck to play him was a brilliant choice in my opinion.
Needless to say, with such ridiculous ambition by the filmmakers and producers, audience expectation for Batman V Superman was insanely high, particularly considering the equally over-the-top marketing. Even the trailers for the film were bombastic, revealing far too many plot points (Wonder Woman’s inclusion as well as Doomsday as the villain). These would have definitely worked much better as surprises for the audience, rather than just resulting in people wondering when Wonder Woman would show up—although that may be a separate discussion altogether.
That many people consider the film to be largely disappointing seems all but inevitable in retrospect. There was simply too much building up, too much going on, and the stakes were too high for the film to realistically tick every one of the many boxes it presents. Still, despite largely negative reviews and mediocre word of mouth, people are asking the same question to anyone who has seen it—is it good?
All things considered, that may be too simple a question for such a bizarre film.
If you can’t already tell, it is very difficult for me to look at this film objectively but I’ll do my best. I’m not the biggest superhero fan in the world, nor am I going to sit and claim that I don’t like them. I enjoy superhero fiction as much as the next person, with a slight preference towards Batman, although that’s not exactly an unpopular alignment. I will admit I do find the Marvel Cinematic Universe to be incredibly stale at this point, despite their huge critical and audience popularity. That popularity is something I am willing to partially attribute to the mixed response towards Batman V Superman.
Blockbuster audiences have grown accustomed to the funny, action packed and largely vanilla superhero flicks of this decade. Movies like The Avengers, Iron Man 3, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier have left audiences with a taste for their largely safe nature and so when something comes along and tries to do something different, a la Fant4stic or Batman V Superman, we don’t necessarily know how to react.
I feel the need to emphasize that while it definitely takes some very big risks, many aspects of Batman V Superman fall flat.
Perhaps the biggest issue with the film comes from Warner Brothers’ decision to use the film as the beginning of its Justice League franchise. It’s understandable that they would try to create a franchise after the massive success of The Avengers, but in all honesty the weakest parts of the film all stem from how shoehorned the DC Extended Universe stuff feels.
While Gal Gadot’s portrayal of Dianna Prince/Wonder Woman—which should have been left as a surprise altogether—was excellent, it felt out of place within the film itself. The introduction of a major villain in the form of Jessie Eisenberg’s wacky portrayal of Lex Luthor worked in my opinion, as he was the catalyst for the final confrontation between Batman and Superman. However, by bringing Doomsday (a truly ugly CGI version of the villain, at that) as a way to get the two heroes to team up, the film reached its lowest point, dissolving into mindless fight scenes that severely take away from the films otherwise artistic approach to much of its content. Sure, the allure of finally seeing the DC trio fight together may be irresistible to some, but Warner Brothers should definitely have waited until a later film to approach it, because all of that plot line ruined what could have otherwise been—from my perspective—an incredibly powerful and existential film.
Snyder and writers Chris Terrio and David S. Goyer have essentially created two different films in one. The first, perhaps their true vision, is an apocalyptic, artistic, and philosophical study of humanity and how we would approach the concept of alien lifeforms reaching us and impacting us in the ways Superman does, both positive and negative. This is the true continuation of the themes presented to us in the massively misunderstood Man of Steel, which suffers from many of the same issues as its sequel.
Both films present a version of Superman which, to my (admittedly limited) knowledge, is a completely new study of the character. Rather than presenting him as the 100 per cent good guy fighting for humanity, these films focus on the existential nature of having a figure like Superman try to function on Earth, as well as Clark Kent’s own struggles with identifying as both a son of Krypton—a planet and race that no longer exists—and a member of the human race, which he knows to be untrue. It’s an interestingly philosophical portrayal of what I previously considered to be one of the most bland and uninspiring superheroes out there, and I can give Snyder and his writing team nothing but praise for exploring it even further in Batman V Superman.
The biggest criticism people had for Man of Steel was the absolute absurdity of the climactic showdown between Superman and General Zod, resulting in the complete destruction of much of Metropolis as well as the death of untold millions of residents. As a result, Batman V Superman addresses these issues head-on, functioning almost as an apology for going too far without explanation in Man of Steel.
The opening 45 minutes of Batman V Superman rank as some of the best bits of cinema in the superhero genre I personally have ever seen–images of Bruce Wayne scrambling through the collapsing Metropolis are eerily reminiscent of newsreel footage during 9/11, providing an emotional impact I never expected to experience.
There is some truly awe-inspiring imagery throughout—a scene that comes to mind specifically is a small montage in which Superman rescues a family in a fire during Dia de los Muertos in Mexico—that gives the film a sense of auteur-esque and artistic experimentation (at least for a major superhero blockbuster) at times, highlighting much of the best of what the film has to offer. It’s just a huge bummer that there is some truly, truly disappointing stuff thrown into the mix that takes away from the equally impressive stuff on display as well.
Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice is, understandably, a big mess of a film. However, the negative press it has received thus far is not entirely justified. Yes, there is a lot of mediocre, unnecessary garbage strewn throughout the film. Call me an optimist, but I refuse to let that ruin the truly amazing parts hidden underneath Warner Brothers’ attempt at building a franchise.
We live in an era where the big studios unfortunately get the final say of what gets into a film, which oftentimes ruins the artistic merit going into films of the likes of Man of Steel and Batman V Superman. Very rarely do studio and the filmmaker desires go hand in hand. Batman V Superman is the most heartbreaking example of this issue, a film that leaves me devastated thinking about what could have been.
It’s unfortunate so many people are calling for Snyder’s head after this beautiful mess of a film, because I think if him and the writers had complete control over the story, it could have been a masterpiece of big-budget superhero cinema. If you have already seen Batman V Superman and enjoyed it, I’d like to think we’re on the same team. If you hated it, I hope at the very least I’ve given you something to think about. And if you have not seen it and are wondering if it is worth your time, the answer from me is a hesitant yes—at least 60 per cent of this film is worth your time, but the other 40 per cent is an unfortunate reminder that sometimes giving the fans what they want isn’t always the right thing to do.
Let’s dispel this fiction that Zack Snyder doesn’t know what he’s doing—he knows exactly what he’s doing. Warner Brothers, on the other hand, do not.
