Movie Review: Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice

Zack Snyder (Man of Steel) pits DC's two most iconic heroes against each other in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.

Following the events of Man of Steel, the general public has come around to view Superman (Henry Cavill, The Man From U.N.C.L.E.) as a hero.  Two men, however, see him as a problem to be dealt with.  Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network) and Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck, Argo) both view him as a threat and go about trying to take him down in their own way.  Inversely, Superman sees Batman as a dangerous vigilante who also must be stopped.  This brings everyone to a head and the fighting commences.  Oh yeah, and Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot, Furious 7) shows up too.

Judging by the early reviews, it seems like I'm in the minority by saying I really liked this movie.  It's a great set-up for the DC universe movies to come.  That can sometimes be a bad thing, if it's all set-up and doesn't stand on it's own.  I felt this one did stand on it's own though.  It was a good follow-up to Man of Steel that followed up on people's reactions to the destruction of Metropolis in that film.  Bruce Wayne and Lex Luthor are two new characters brought into the fold that have an interesting dynamic.  Although they both view Superman as a threat that must be stopped, Luthor seems to be a sociopath who just can't stand to have someone in his city with more sway over the people than him, where Wayne/Batman truly thinks he simply is a potential threat that needs to be stopped.

I get this film could have worked simply by using this triangle between Superman, Batman, and Luthor.  Instead they had to insert Wonder Woman.  This is where the set-up portion of the movie comes in and is probably where some people may have a problem.  Even though it was shoe-horned in though, I didn't feel like it was too badly.  If it had to be done to expand the DC movie universe, then this is the way to do it.  They worked her in fine, and her contribution to the big fight was pretty kick-ass.  It made me want to see her individual movie coming out without feeling like too much of a distraction to the main plot of this movie.  Gal Gadot really did well in the role.

Performance-wise, there was only one I really had any problem with, and that was Eisenberg.  I was fine with Luthor's motivations in the film and I even liked how the character manipulated the people around him, including Superman himself.  I just don't think that his dialogue and performance worked for me.  He was a straight-up sociopath, which was the part that works.  What didn't work was how twitchy and crazy he was played.  It may have worked better if he was more calm and menacing.

The other players all were good.  Amy Adams (Enchanted) is still the Lois Lane that somehow gets into places and situations that no real reporter would ever be able to even get into, but that's the go-get-em Lois Lane that I like to see.  Laurence Fishburne (The Matrix) continues to impress me reprising his role as Perry White.  I can't put my finger on why, but I just really enjoy the way he plays this character.  Finally, as stated above, Gadot really brought something to the Wonder Woman role that makes me want to see what else she brings to this character in other movies.  Then there is Henry Cavill.  Yeah, this Superman is not the big blue boyscout that many people are clamoring to get back that simply does the right thing no matter what.  That's not a problem though.  Let him have doubts and questions.  It gives the character a little depth.  Cavill does a fine job with this and I'm still interested in seeing the growth of this character.

Now we come to the new star of this franchise.  Rest assured naysayers, Ben Affleck hit a home run with this one.  This is a much darker Batman than we've previously seen (which I suppose is saying something).  This Batman has been at it for 20 years and we see him in a decline where he's getting more and more violent.  He's branding his enemies and even straight up killing with disregard as he plows through his enemies.  As a Batman fanatic I was at first a little put off by his use of guns and killing, but in the context of the movie and just because he was so kick-ass, I was able to roll with it and totally bought into it.  Not only do we see this Batman kick ass, but we see him also do more detective work than in most of his other films combined.  It's great to see a well-rounded Batman.  We also get a wonderful Alfred (Jeremy Irons, The Lion King).  He doesn't just watch out for Wayne by getting on his case about being Batman.  He also watches out for him by getting actively involved in Batman's missions remotely from the batcave.  These two characters almost stole the movie from the rest of the cast.

There is only one potential concern about Batman in this film.  He has visions.  These visions are, again, something that is placed to set-up future movies.  They are never explained, which I feel may leave a general viewer confused and wondering why Bruce Wayne is all of a sudden having visions....what is he psychic all of a sudden?  As a long-time DC comic reader, I know exactly who these visions are coming from, so it's another set-up device that works for me.

This film can be a little long (only to get longer with the rated-R DVD cut) because of the stuff inserted to set up the following movies.  This didn't bother me, but I can see it being a potential problem.  Also, Jesse Eisenberg was a little lacking.  Other than that I really enjoyed this film.  The new characters were introduced well and the fights and action sequences are amazing.  I didn't mention Doomsday either, but I think he is another character that the filmmakers did really well.  I give this film a big recommendation, and to the DC readers, I give it an even bigger recommendation.

Memorable quote:

Martha Kent: I figured.........the cape.