Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice
I didn't hate this flick. I was afraid that I might hate it given the negative early reviews, but I think my lowered expectations allowed me to enjoy the movie without hoping for too much. I'd give it a 6.5 out of 10.
Zach Snyder is NOT a good story-teller. He knows how to copy pretty images from comic books, but he misses the point of the stories. 300 was still good because that story was all style with little depth. His attempts at tackling more complicated stories have been failures.
After waiting our entire LIVES to see Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman finally meet each other on screen, we get no meaningful dialogue between Batman and Superman (just silly soundbytes like “Do you bleed? You will.”), and I don’t think Superman and Wonder Woman ever actually say a single word to each other, which is a complete letdown. There is tons of CGI violence and visual style, but no substance and no emotional weight.
I won’t get into other flaws like Batman KILLING people with guns (which is completely contrary to the character) even though he doesn’t bring his own guns to the fight, he just fires guns from other bad guys that he knocks down which makes no sense, Superman not caring about hurting innocent civilians (which should be Superman’s greatest weakness, not Kryptonite), Lex Luthor being a retard (which, while bad, is no worse than Gene Hackman’s and Kevin Spacey’s Luthors, both of whom were buffoons), Wonder Woman wanting to steal a digital photograph of herself for no particular reason, Wonder Woman having the power to shoot energy blasts at Doomsday which makes no sense, Lex Luthor being able to create Doomsday by spilling his blood onto Zod’s corpse while standing in a Kryptonian ship, Batman shooting Superman with automatic machine guns but not thinking to stick a Kryptonite bullet into the mix, Batman being 100% certain that he had to kill Superman in order to protect humanity but then changing his mind when Superman revealed that his mother’s name was also Martha, Batman thinking that he should lure Doomsday back to the city where the Kryptonite spear is laying rather than going to get the spear and bringing it back, Superman realizing that he could beat Doomsday by punching him into orbit but then not trying that again, Superman turning from corpse to perfectly healthy given 5 seconds of sunlight, etc.
The movie-makers basically took the most iconic moments from 20 epic Batman and Superman comic book stories and mashed them together. The result is that none of the moments had any meaningful impact or emotional weight. No tears were shed by anyone when Superman “died” at the end and no one was surprised to see him back to life.
Zach Snyder only has one speed, which is full throttle. In that way, he is like Michael Bay. He’s like an EDM producer that only does build-ups and drops. Or a boxer that only throws haymakers. Or a movie fight choreographer that thinks it looks amazing to see Superman get tossed through a building (which is true) so then, hey, let's have that happen 30 times in the movie. Zach Snyder tries to cram in 100 epic moments, so instead none of them are memorable.
Despite all of the above, I still didn’t hate BvS, likely because the early reviews (29% on Rotten Tomatoes) had me expecting a disaster on par with Josh Trank’s FANTASTIC FOUR, and this is not nearly that bad. There are some great scenes in BvS, as there were in MoS, and for that reason they were both worth watching.
It is disappointing that WB/DC seems intent to keep making this style of film, rather than listen to the fans. DC has decades worth of incredible stories, great characters and great character interactions. It is ridiculous to think that a movie starring Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman gets complaints for lack of storytelling and character development.
BvS will likely make money despite the negative reviews, in large part because foreign markets like China do not care about such flaws. I really wish an executive at WB/DC would pull rank and insert a proper story-teller into the creative process for the upcoming Justice League movies.
Ah well. I fully expect Civil War to knock the shit out of BvS.
