Alright, so after taking a couple of days to let the movie kind of sit in my brain a bit, here are my thoughts on Batman v. Superman Dawn of Justice. We’ll start on the positive side.
*The Good*
As usual, Zack Snyder has crafted something here that is beautiful to look at. A number of the shots had me thinking I was looking at a moving comic book panel (something also done well by, oddly enough, Netflix’s Daredevil. And thus the snake consumes its own tail). If the man does one thing well, it’s design. Everything in this movie looks awesome, and this applies especially to anything bat-related. The Batcave, Batman’s costume, Batman’s other costume, Batman’s OTHER other costume, his weapons, the Batmobile, all of it. Everything about Batman is great, and that includes our man Ben’s performance, o ye of little faith. He’s intense, he’s brutal, and he finally does some solid detective work. Yeah, remember when he used to be billed as “the world’s greatest detective?” That element is blended darn near seamlessly with what is, I would venture to say, some of the best Batman action scenes ever put to film. Quick warning though: you can’t go into this with the silly idea that Batman has some kind of no-kill policy. If you know even a little about Batman’s history, you know that that whole notion is really a fairly recent invention and that, over the course of his illustrious bat-career, Bruce has racked up a body count higher than some third-world dictators. So be ready, because he definitely ends some dudes.
Beyond Batman (heh) and the visual spectacle of the whole thing, I also really liked Wonder Woman. She has very few lines and fairly limited screen time, but I still felt like I had learned a surprising amount about her character by the end.
*The Really-Not-So-Good*
As it pertains to characters, many of their motivations were left pretty foggy. Like, I have a general idea of why most characters are doing what they’re doing, but for the most part their motivations really aren’t explored in much significant depth at all, Superman and Wonder Woman being notable exceptions. Story-wise, this film felt a little jumbled. If you saw Watchmen, you’ll have a feel for what I’m talking about: seemingly random instances of non-linear narrative, abrupt and strange editing, dream/vision/flashback(???) sequences with pretty much no warning, and just a lot of moments that left me sitting there going, “Ok, so…but, like…what?” Don’t get me wrong, I love unreliable narrator style movies where you’re never quite sure if what you’re seeing is real, but the tone of this movie doesn’t really allow for that, and plus: it’s a movie in which Batman fights Superman. I don’t need that cerebral nonsense in this movie, Zack. But maybe that’s just me. And speaking of…
*Stuff I Liked That You May Or May Not Like*
This movie was not made for the general public. This movie was made for fans, for people who were into the comic books and cartoons growing up. This movie is for nerds, guys, and that shows in all the Justice League setup bits. It’s fitting that this movie came out when it did, because holy easter eggs, Batman; at the introduction of [REDACTED], as well as [REDACTED] and [REDACTED], I got all kinds of giddy, I’m not gonna lie. I also appreciated the nods to possible future villains. This franchise may, optimistically, have a bright future ahead of it (not literally, of course; nothing in these movies is bright in a literal sense). Lastly, I’m just gonna come right out and say it: I liked Eisenberg’s manic, obnoxious Lex. He’s still deeply sinister and clearly just barely containing a simmering psychopathic rage, and I felt that his annoying awkwardness actually worked well as an element of this villain. He’s a very new kind of Luthor, but give the guy a chance; you may actually end up enjoying yourself.
*Final Verdict*
It’s aggressively alright. I tend to view movies as existing on two different spectrums: the awesome/lame spectrum and the good/bad spectrum. For example, The English Patient is very good but pretty lame, the Transformers movies are kinda awesome but no good at all, and the Lord of the Rings trilogy is both good and awesome. That being said, here’s about where this movie falls on both those spectrums:
Lame———————|–Awesome
Bad—-|———————-Good
TL;DR: Tons of fun while simultaneously being deeply flawed on a couple of levels. Batman is awesome in every way possible and, fittingly, easter eggs abound. See above scale. Worth seeing in theaters once.
