Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justifiably Mixed Feelings
By Mark Ramos | Observer Contributor
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is a film movie goers and comic lovers alike have been waiting 3 years to get their eyes on. Now that we have, the film is sure to leave many with more questions than answers and also left to struggling with not liking a film they wanted to love.
Let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way first. Many fans were uneasy with the casting of Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman and it needs to be said, Affleck is the shining star of this film. Not only does he nail the role of both Bruce Wayne and Batman, something none of his predecessors have been able to do, but he is the only actor cast in the role who physically matches the sheer size of the character from the comics. Affleck also gives us the greatest fight sequence that has ever been filmed in live action for the iconic character.
The rest of the cast really delivers as well, at least for the most part. Gal Godot’s take on Wonder Woman silences critics as she easily steals the last 20 mins of the film. Jeremy Irons take on Bruce’s butler and confidante Alfred was perfect as their chemistry chews up every interaction that they have together. Amy Adams dishes out a great performance as Lois Lane, even Laurence Fishburne stands out in the handful of scenes he’s in as Editor in Chief Perry White.
Then there was Jessie Eisenberg’s Lex Luthor. Or at least something that was supposed to be some type of take on the iconic villain. Instead of a cool, calculating and charismatic genius CEO, we got a mentally deranged, mustache twirling, mad scientist version of Mark Zuckerberg whose name just happened to be Lex Luther. This is where the problems with the film start.
It’s not Eisenberg’s fault; after all, he was just working with what he was given. It just happened to be a terribly written character who is completely unlikable in every way imaginable. This is ultimately one of the stand out problems with this film: the writing.
The writing is unbalanced, lazy and riddled with so many plot holes that it’s insulting. Things happen in this movie and there is zero explanation given as for why. This is mostly going to apply to Lex but here go some examples: Lex just knows Superman and Batman’s secret identities, he just has files on all the members of what will become the Justice League, he can somehow trick an alien computer to create what would become a wasted character called Doomsday.
They also fail yet again to do Superman’s character any justice. While Henry Cavil is given some great scenes as Clark Kent, especially those shared with Lois, Superman is left to only be seen in two spectrums, either stoic or angry. Clark is seen happy and in love while Superman is lost as to who he should be in this world.
The biggest ball the writers drop was with the reasoning behind why Batman and Superman even come to blows. Did the writers decide to draw from the rich history between the two icons and use their philosophical differences to bring them to blows? No. Not even a little bit. They fight because Lex Luthor has been manipulating the two heroes for almost two years and ultimately kidnaps Superman’s mom to force him into fighting Batman. Superman tries for all of two seconds to not fight Batman before he loses his temper and starts fighting. To make matters worse before he fights Batman he says something neither character would ever say “No one stays good forever.” Talk about poor dialog choices.
Then there is the problem with the editing. This film is cut all over the place and is very incoherent at times. It jumps from scene to scene with no real natural flow and your left feeling like the studio didn’t know what kind of movie they were trying to make. It tries to shoehorn in so much to the point that it loses the focus of the film, a focus that was a winning idea.
That idea was Batman v Superman. Had that been the focus and not the Dawn of Justice we likely would have ended up with a much more enjoyable film.
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