Be advised that this review contains SPOILERS, as well as what will no doubt prove to be unerringly accurate predictions of future plot-lines.
As I write this Rotten Tomatoes has this movie at 33%, yet conversely IMDb lists it at 8.1/10. These numbers are very telling, as they fundamentally reflect what could be seen as a dissonance between movie fans and movie critics.
The expectations for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Zack Snyder’s second foray into the ever-expanding DC Universe, were always going to be impossibly high. This combined with a $410 million budget, a god-awful title, and the much-maligned Man of Steel, all added to a pervading sense that some people were just waiting to hate on this film.
And hate on it they have, as like a red headed stepchild this movie has proven easy to kick about. But does it really deserve the scorn that’s been heaped on it?
I’m going to buck the trend of my profession and say no.
Fundamentally, this is the only movie that’s done Batman right, with Snyder embracing the comic book in a way that no other director has ever dared to.
You see, whilst I enjoyed aspects of every Batman film that has proceeded this one, at the same time I took issue with all of them, because no one seems to really get what makes Batman great.
Take Christopher Nolan’s time on the franchise. His Batman was a whiney, emo-kid, one so wracked with self-doubt that he takes an eight-year break from crime fighting to brood, grow a hipster beard and apparently take up archery.
Bat-Fleck on the other hand is more Keaton then Bale, with just a splash of the legendary Kevin Conroy.
Unlike many of his predecessors Ben Affleck manages to capture Bruce Wayne both in and out of the costume, perfectly channeling the billionaire playboy’s mask of “joie de vivre”, a cleverly conceived faced created to conceal his nocturnal activities as Gotham’s Caped Crusader.
It’s the little moments that I like best. Bruce waking up next an unseen beauty, surrounded by empty wine bottles. Jeremy Irons’ Alfred Pennyworth lamenting the future of the family bloodline, only later to be seen kicking ass as he remotely pilots the Bat-Plane. And of course there’s the grim specter of past failure, taking form in the starkly displayed costume of a fallen sidekick.
All these of these touches indicate a new approach to the Batman franchise, one that isn’t afraid to introduce audiences to parts of the comic book history other filmmakers have shied away from.
As a director Snyder has shown himself willing to evolve his narratives, learning from past mistakes, and incorporating them into his work. Take the seemingly callous loss of life in Man of Steel, which is now used as the jumping off point for this film. Here Bruce is seemingly at his most heroic whilst not even wearing the cowl, desperately trying to save people from falling skyscrapers.
These scenes fundamentally establish what makes the inevitable show down between the Dark Knight and Man of Steel so compelling. The willingness of a mere mortal to take on a god.
When this showdown eventually does happen you won’t be disappointed, as Snyder directs action sequences that prove more exciting and visceral than any that appear in competing superhero franchises.
Of course man vs. god is a reoccurring theme in this film, the darker side of this dialectic embodied by Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor.
Supposedly loosely based on screenwriter Max Landis, funnily enough one of the most vocal critics of Man of Steel, Eisenberg has crafted a character that might be his most interesting to date. With shades of his previous role as Mark Zuckerberg he plays a villain who actually has something to say, something sadly missing from many antagonists in this ever-growing genre of cinema.
Henry Cavill has taken a lot of the hits when it comes to the criticism of this film, but Superman has always proven to be a problematic character to get right. A year with a personal trainer will get any actor ready to look good in the red and blue, but actually making Clark Kent interesting is another matter.
This film does feel very weighted in favour of Batman, but that’s not say that Cavill doesn’t get to take his character into new and interesting territory. The question of how or if he should even use his powers humanizes this god-like being, Superman’s biggest weaknesses proving to be self-doubt and slow erosion of his moral code.
And whilst many could cynically say Amy Adam’s Lois Lane is just a foil, a damsel in distress archetype used to give Superman something to do, their burgeoning relationship actually adds a more personal emotional beat to a film that paints its central themes so gaudily, and on a huge canvas.
This is a movie that never makes any pretensions at being a great work of art. It’s unashamedly big and brash, and in doing so stays true to the source material. Which is why many of the attacks on this film seem somewhat unfair, with people praising the sheer scope of its ambition, then complaining the it lacks nuance and subtly.
But when was the last time someone wanted to see a nuanced and subtle superhero movie?
Continue to the next page for our spoiler-filled discussion.
WARNING! SPOILERS AHEAD! WARNING!
So now that you’ve had you’re perfunctory spoiler warning we can really start taking this bad boy apart.
Even the most rabid comic book fan probably couldn’t have prepared themselves for the lengths Snyder goes to foreshadow the future of the DC movie universe. There’s a whole lot of fan service in this movie, with references that are probably lost on many moviegoers, but that rest of us can’t help but enjoy.
The earliest trailers had shown a trench coat wearing Batman operating in what looked liked a sub-Saharan desert. This in fact proves to be a future Gotham, one with a familiar Omega sign branded across the ruins of the city, the flames of a immense pillar of fire rising flaring in the distance.
And just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, a swarm of locust-like soldiers descended from the skies. That’s right people, there are Parademons in this film!
For those of you familiar with DC’s ultimate big bad its clear from all this that Darkseid will be making an appearance in these films, and maybe sooner rather than later, with a recently shorn Lex Luthor promising that “he is coming”.
In this possible future Snyder has also included elements of DC’s ongoing Injustice web comic, a series based on the video-game of the same name. This series depicts a grieving Superman taking over Earth after Lois Lane is murdered by the Joker. His reign is opposed by a cadre of super-powered insurgents led by Batman, who find themselves up against an army of black armoured stormtroopers.
These same troops are shown to be fighting along Darkseid’s Parademons, with Superman himself making an appearance in this dream sequence/flash-forward, admonishing an imprisoned Batman for taking “her” from him. The point is driven home even further by a cameo from a (presumably) time-travelling Flash.
The possibility of a Superman/Darkseid team-up is clearly a terrifying prospect, as in the comics they’ve been repeatedly shown as two of the most powerful beings in the DC Universe.
Gal Gadot’s brief appearance as Wonder Woman also provides lots of fodder for predictions about her own stand-alone movie, as in this film she’s seen hunting for a photograph that depicts an unchanged Diana Prince standing alongside a rag-tag group of soldiers on a WWI battlefield.
During the climatic battle with Doomsday, Wonder Woman makes allusions to this not being the first being from another world she’s fought, which raises the question as to what her origins truly are. Will they keep it grounded in Greek mythology, or will they take the same path as the Thor franchise, and make the Amazonian an alien from some distant planet? Fingers crossed that it isn’t the latter.
And speaking of Doomsday, let’s talk a little bit about the films second most important antagonist. Thankfully the original shots of this behemoth from the trailer proved to be the larval stage of the monster’s continually evolving form. As the final battle progresses Doomsday takes on the more brutal, crystal encrusted state fans of the Death of Superman book will remember.
In fact, the final act of the movie echoes this storyline closely, with Superman making the ultimately sacrifice to kill this supposedly un-killable foe. At this point Snyder unfortunately segues into Michael Bay flag-waving territory, with Superman’s funeral played out like that of a dead President.
However Clark Kent’s private burial very clearly implies that the Man of Steel is not as deceased as we may have supposed, thanks to a shot of levitating grave dirt hovering just above his plywood coffin.
Aside from the Flash, the much-anticipated appearances of the rest of Justice League are played out via video files Lex Luthour has been compiling on the emerging meta-human population. The Flash is glimpsed a second time, now on CCTV, averting a liquor store robbery. A very photogenic Aquaman poses for a deep-sea recon submersible. And Cyborg is merely a torso in the laboratory of his father Dr. Silas Stone (played by Terminator: Judgement Day alum Joe Morton, ironically enough).
This last cameo proves to be the most telling, as it ends with the near-death Victor Stone being fused with what is unmistakably a Mother Box, once again bringing us back to elements from Kirby’s classic Fourth World series. With the forces of Dakseid’s Apokolips already in play we could also be poised to see the inclusion of their heroic counterparts, the New Gods of New Genesis.
The most logical theory for this progression of these films will be the emergence of a second wave of earth’s heroes seeking to fill the void left by the departed Superman. Yet whilst in the original comics this saw the introduction of characters like Steel and Superboy, they will most likely be sidelined in favour of our core Justice League members.
Ultimately we can expect the return of the Man of Steel just in time to take on Darkseid, but until then Snyder has solved the interesting conundrum of how not to have Superman turn up in every other DC movie currently in production. And given the way this film’s marketing was handled, we all have to pity the team that has to market a Justice League film sans-Superman.