From the first official trailer this movie looked troubled. We all hated how much of the film it showed, especially the Doomsday appearance. Unfortunately, if you saw that trailer then you have basically seen the whole movie, or at least the parts that matter.
‘Plot’
BvS is set 18 months after the events of Man of Steel and Bruce Wayne has spent that time the same way Lex Luthor has, gathering information about Superman and Krypton. Clark is struggling with the growing distain that Superman is receiving from the government and populace. Wonder Woman is also there, and her job is to set up Flash, Cyborg and Aquaman.
Characters.
Ben Affleck is fantastic as Batman, easily the best parts of the movie are when he’s on screen as Wayne or the Bat. This is the darkest Batman we’ve seen on screen in history, there’s no code anymore he’s killing people left right and centre. There are reasons why this has changed but they aren’t explained properly, it could’ve been done in maybe 15-20 words but I assume we’ll see that storyline in future movies. Gal Gadot also looks very promising as Wonder Woman but she should’ve had her own movie before this one so we knew what she could do and the importance of her being here and not having it spoiled in the trailers.
I enjoyed Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor to a point. I feel all of his lines are 2-3 sentences too long, Snyder might’ve let him improvise on the script and I feel, more often than not, that it didn’t work and made Luthor look less intelligent than we all know he is.
Any Other Business.
Speaking of the director Zack Snyder, once again he’s made a very very good looking movie. A trademark of his is visual prowess; 300, Watchmen and Man of Steel etc. however it’s all surface and never delves into why the characters are doing things. There are 4/5 movies in this movie. Man of Steel 2, a solo Batman movie, a solo Wonder Woman movie, a Lex Luthor movie and a Batman V Superman movie. Combining all of these is why the running time is 151 minutes which, we can all agree, is too damn long for a superhero movie.
Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL have made a pretty good score too especially when Luthor is on screen, it’s better than Marvel scores but not something I’d pay to see played live.
I’m not the first person to say that this movie is a mess but that is the best way to describe it, whether you enjoy it or not is down to you. I did, but in the screening I was in I heard a large mixture of opinions on the way out. I think this film will be divisive but enjoyable nonetheless.
A similar film to compare it to is Age of Ultron, a team up movie with a goal but more focused on starting 4-5 new chapters in the story. This isn’t a bad thing it’s just unwise, it spends roughly 50% of the time setting up the future movies in the DCU instead of making us care about this one. There is an e-mail sent to Wonder Woman by Bruce Wayne which might as well have the subject line ‘we should team up with these other meta humans in yearly installments’ it was painfully obvious.
The best thing this movie did was having Batman older. This allows for them to tell, pretty much, any Batman story they want in future movies and just set it in the past. Maybe we’ll finally see Hush, Under The Red Hood and any of the other great Batman graphic novels live action.
Years will go by and people will, I think, be forever mixed about this film but the potential going forward is good if they stay focused on making one movie at a time.
