Batman v Superman was the hotly anticipated pairing of the two biggest DC superheroes in a battle royale to see who comes out on top. Or at least that's what the title would have you believe. The actual result is something of a muddled mess of a movie.
It's been two years since the events of Man of Steel and the world is still trying to come to terms with Superman (played by Henry Cavill) and his place in the world. To some, he is a saviour and to others, such as Bruce Wayne (played by Ben Affleck) and Senator Finch (played by Holly Hunter), he is seen as a potential threat. Things escalate when Superman intervenes on a terrorist hostage crisis to rescue Lois Lane (played by Amy Adams). Several of the terrorists wind up dead, not at the hands of Superman but by a separate security team. As Superman and Lois escape, she is able to retrieve one of the bullets and sets out to use it to try and determine who the security team is run by. Meanwhile, young billionaire Lex Luthor (played by Jesse Eisenberg as a sort of demented Mark Zuckerberg), is desperately trying to get a piece of kryptonite recovered from the Indian Ocean, along with access to the crashed Kryptonian scout ship and General Zod's dead body to use for his own nefarious and secretive purposes. Bruce Wayne has his eyes on the same chunk of Kryptonite, which he intends to use to fashion weaponry to take out Superman. While all this is going on Superman, under his human guise as Daily Reporter Clark Kent, is investigating the Gotham City "Bat Vigilante" aka Batman, which we all know is Bruce Wayne. It's only a matter of time before these two heroes butt heads with Lex Luthor in the background, stirring things up, after all that's why we bought the ticket.
I gave myself a few days to really wrap my head around this film before I wrote my review. There were individual scenes I liked. Anytime Alfred (played by Jeremy Irons) was on screen the movie was golden. This Alfred, technologically savvy and sassy was a bright spot in this film for sure. Likewise, Affleck made for a great Bruce Wayne/Batman and I really enjoyed his interpretation of the character. This is a different Batman than we've seen before. The years and years of crime fighting have left him hardened and on edge. He's violent and one might even say almost cruel. There's hints throughout the film as to what caused him to reach this point, but I wish the film had explored it more, as it was one of the many woefully underdeveloped subplots in the movie. I also loved the interactions between Bruce Wayne and Diana Prince (played by Gal Gadot) (aka Batman and Wonder Woman) throughout the movie. It will be interesting to see how that develops in future films. I also liked that the movie was seriously asking what Superman's place in the world would be and trying to realistically portray what having such a person in our world would be like. Again, I wish the movie had taken the time to properly explore this plot line, rather than lightly touch on it and then throw it away for a callous and grim plot twist.
Now, for the problems with the movie and there are many. I feel like there are pieces of this movie missing that explain things that desperately need to be explained. Character motivations are either scattershot at best, completely illogical or change on a whim as the screenwriter and director dictate. I'm still not sure of Lex Luthor's motivations behind all his scheming. None of it seems to be particularly well thought out and the weird, ticcy performance by Jesse Eisenberg did nothing to clarify it. Eisenberg certainly gives a unique interpretation of Luthor, but not one that seems to sync up with the character as established in the comics or previous iterations. Half-way through I found myself wondering, "Geez, where is Kevin Spacey or Gene Hackman when you need them?" At least Batman's motivations for wanting to take out Superman were made clear (that the damage a gone rogue Superman could unleash outweighs any possible good he could do). Superman also seems to get the short shrift, being portrayed as one of the most passive, downtrodden and woeful heroes seen in recent memory. Between this and Man of Steel, I wonder if director Zack Snyder has even read a Superman comic. I even find myself wondering if he even likes the character and if so why does he seem so bound and determined to keep Superman in the darkness. As a lifelong Superman fan, I find it almost infuriating the way my favorite Superhero keeps being treated by these films. I barely even recognize this character anymore. Henry Cavill does what he can with the part, but he can only do so much with what is on the page, which is not much except I suspect variations of Superman broods or mopes.
Then there is the climax. Oh, baby, the climax. Spoiler warning for anyone who hasn't seen the film yet (although if you've seen the trailers, you've basically seen the entire movie save one last "plot twist" that isn't really a twist to anyone who knows their comics). So, we finally get to the climax and the big showdown between Batman and Superman. Except it isn't a battle because their conflicting ideologies have brought them to this point. Nope, it is thrown together by Lex Luthor, who kidnaps Martha Kent (played by Diane Lane) and forces Superman to fight Batman or else she dies. Ok, let's stop things right there. How the hell did Lex Luthor figure out Clark Kent was Superman?! I'm genuinely asking because the movie doesn't bother to tell us! That's a pretty big and critical plot point, don't you think? Shouldn't that scene be in the movie, even if it's Lex pulling a Lois in Superman II and drawing glasses and a suit on a picture of Superman with a magic marker or Jimmy Kimmel showing up at the party and just telling him? Anyway, Superman flies off to go fight Batman and the two fight for a few minutes until Superman is able to get out the reason why he's fighting Batman. Batman realizes both their moms have the same name and somehow Batman is able to figure out Superman is not a threat as the two become instant best friends. Batman rescues Martha, reassuring her he's a friend of her son in a scene I saw coming but still kind of loved even if the movie didn't quite earn it, and Superman goes after Lex. Turns out Lex has a plan B, the mutated corpse of Zod into a monstrosity known as Doomsday (In all fairness, Batman's reaction to first seeing Doomsaday, "Oh shit," was pretty priceless and damn near made the movie for me). This is enough to coax Diana Prince out of hiding and suit up as Wonder Woman. It is in this admittingly kickass scene that the true point of this movie becomes crystal clear. It was never really about the fight of Batman and Superman. It was all just a cinematic ploy to set up the next movie, Justice League.
That right there is the biggest problem with this movie. It fails to function as a cohesive and satisfying whole. There are individual scenes that are clearly designed to be crowd pleasers but it lacks a throughline of compelling and well written characters with clearly defined plot lines that work from beginning to the end. Instead, they all spin their wheels for the first two thirds of the film before finally casting everything aside for the same destruction laden climax all these movies seem to have these days (although bonus points for continuously working into the dialogue that the destruction this time was limited to abandoned areas of the cities or that the office buildings were empty since it was late at night, showing the filmmakers at least listened to some of the criticism from Man of Steel). So maybe they will listen to this criticism for the next movie. Write a real movie, with a definitive beginning, middle and end. Have the character's decisions and motivations make sense to the audience and keep any temptations to tease future films to a bare minimum. The entire movie should have a reason for being beyond setting up the next movie. It should have a point all of it's own, with it's own cohesive and satisfying plot. Zack Snyder can create a visually stunning movie. In the case of Batman v Superman, it's like a beautiful car with no engine. I didn't hate it exactly, but it had no real meaning to me either. It was just there, despite the best efforts of their cast. I genuinely hope they do better with the next one, otherwise the DC superhero film series may be over before it started.
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