Batman V. Superman Review

Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice.... more like dawn of Snyder’s downfall.

  Batman V. Superman: Dawn of Justice’s incoherent premise and unfocused narrative have proved that Marvel has the better of the superhero films, which makes the excitement for Captain America: Civil War even higher. This film has an unbalanced plot, poor character development, and disappoints as DC’s introduction to the Justice League movies coming soon.

   Even though there is little justification to the plot, no clear motives are explained, stories are added here and there, with no resolution, and Batman and Superman barely even fight. Batman wants to fight Superman because he was witness to the destructive events in the climax of Man Of Steel, and seeing all the destruction caused makes Bruce Wayne believe that Superman is a viable threat to Earth, and wants to kill him. Superman wants to stop Batman from justice because he doesn’t like Batman’s style of delivering justice. When the end result is shown, the fight lacks a dramatic hook, and for the most part, Batman is winning just by using a substance of a mineral that weakens Superman. Superman barely puts up a fight, or at least not as much as Batman does. Plot becomes more complicated when main villain, Lex Luthor, shows up and further complicates the plot. Luthor’s motives for wanting to destroy Superman are not fully explained, with little vague hints thrown at the audiences, and create confusion for even comic book fans. He only manipulates them into the fight for unexplained reasons. Lex’s main position is where the film started going wrong in a lot of ways. Storylines, such as Batman investigating an arms dealer, Wonder Woman coming out of nowhere into the story to literally throw us clips of other "metahumans", and Lois Lane’s investigation into... whatever she is investigating are clear messages that the director and scriptwriters did not know what to include in this DC-easter egg filled movie.

  Acting is well done, especially with Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, and Jeremy Irons shining in their roles as Batman, Wonder Woman, and Alfred. Affleck and Gadot were highly controversial casting choices, but nonetheless prove they can shine in their roles as Batman and Wonder Woman, respectively, and have great chemistry onscreen. Henry Cavill's performance is fine, but with the material given for Superman, I felt that he wasn't able to fully convey his character development and lacks charisma that his predecessor, Christopher Reeve, had, and only good scenes are shared with Affleck and Amy Adams as his girlfriend, Lois Lane. Jesse Eisenberg's acting and jumpy dialogue had memories of Jim Carrey's performance in Batman Forever, which should best be forgotten. I also feel that Amy Adams is simply used for damsel in distress, then hero as if she is a member of the team. Writers probably couldn't even decide on what role to put her in. Some small roles, such as Perry White, Senator Finch, and Martha Kent, are solid, with special regards to Laurence Fishburne as White providing some of the best lines in the movie.

  Visual aspects are solid, albeit small flaws here and there. The IMAX scenes and end fight battle with Doomsday are decent, however too many explosions here and there, enough to have you think of Michael Bay. A particular highlight is the opening sequence that puts the ending of Man of Steel from Bruce Wayne's perspective, with excellent cinematography and art direction focusing on the destruction caused, along with effects that provide substance to perspective and can be seen as how the world views Superman during and after these events. 

  After careful consideration, my rating for this movie is a 5/10 due to unclear narrative, underwhelming third act, and not enough fights between two gladiators of DC Comics. Do NOT recommend it.