Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice Review: DC’s Start-Up Pack
(Image sourced from http://io9.gizmodo.com/zach-snyder-just-dropped-a-new-batman-v-superman-tease-1752027766)
It’s here. The nerd holy grail. The fight everyone has been
clawing to see on the big screen in magnificent live action. The expectations
are high. The early reviews are brutal. The trailers weren’t so good and
spoiled what looked to be like a lot of the films big surprises. And with all
this baggage I went into this film expecting the worst. As the opening credits
sprang up I clenched all my body, heart and soul in hopes this film would at least
be good. But against all odds; 20 minutes into the film I couldn’t help but
fall in love with it. This maybe because im a huge comic book nerd or still a gullible
kid at heart but you know what, this movie ain’t that bad, in-fact for me it’s
a bloody great time, and I am not ashamed to say that.
The story is, well it’s in the title; it’s freakin’ BATMAN VS
SUPERMAN! Do you really need much more? If the answer is yes, well, after the
events of Man of Steel the issue of whether Superman is a force for good or
ultimate, human-kind-ending, destruction, is a hot topic. With half the public
cheering on his exploits and the other hating his guts, it’s not an easy time
for old Supes, especially when the Dark Knight himself, Bruce Wayne/Batman,
also lands on the side of hating his guts and wants to put him down, for the
good of the human race and just in general for good.
(Sourced from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe1LrMqURuw)
Now outside of this main conflict and drive for the plot there
are a lot of other cogs turning because really this film is half ‘Batman Vs Superman’
and half ‘Dawn of Justice’ (a setup for movies to come, none more than the
Justice League). But while I went into the movie fearful that the film would
buckle under the pressure of so many plates to keep spinning and still make a
cohesive and good movie; I thought they actually did a good job. Each plot
point fed into another and no arc felt awkwardly put of place, sure there was a
lot to keep track of in this movie, but I thought each part complimented
another well and overall just increased my excitement for not only what was
still to come in this movie, but also movies to come.
Casting was a big point of contention with this film in its
lead up, but honestly the big hullabaloo and uncontained nerd rage was really
for nothing. The returning cast from Man of Steel did great once again,
Laurence Fishburne, while short stay in this very packed film, was a great and
refreshingly witty ray of light in the Daily Planet scenes and Henry Cavill’s
return as the Son of Krypton was also really enjoyable to see. While I’ve heard
some people say his acting is wooden I don’t really get that. To me Cavill does
a great job and playing a Kansas kid who only wants to do good for the world
with his great powers but is constantly being put down by the world around him
and feels damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t. really my only complaint with
his performance is that he wasn’t really given much to do, I never got a firm
sense of Superman’s stance on the events happening around him, many times he
felt more like a passenger in this film and I really would’ve like to see him
spread his wings abit more. But all that aside Cavill is still Superman to me
and every time he floats on screen I can’t help but get a smile on my face as
one of my favourite characters is being portrayed so well on screen.
(Image sourced from http://www.valuewalk.com/2015/08/superman-would-win-battle-with-batman-stan-lee-says/)
One of the biggest causes for argument in the events
surrounding this film was whether Ben Affleck would be any good as Batman(or
Batfleck). And once again the nerd rage was much unwarranted because Affleck
did a wonderful job in this movie. Playing the oldest Batman we have ever seen
on the big screen today, Affleck gave a very believable interpretation of a
Batman who’s been through a lot of trauma and disaster and has left with a fair
share of his own emotional scars. Which brings me to one of my favourite things
this film did with Batman and that was give us the biggest look into his psyche
that any other film has. Through many twisted and in some cases terrifying
dream sequences we get to see how this Batman ticks and the psychological
torment he constantly goes through and why he is so angry all the time.
More of a question-mark than point of anger was Gal Gadot’s casting
as Wonder Woman. I was very intrigued to see how she would play the
Ass-Kicking-Amazon and im delighted that she did a marvellous job. From the
moment she stepped on screen she automatically displayed a presence of fierce
power that comes with being a super strong Amazonian that can go toe to toe
with Superman and have a fighting chance. While she wasn’t in the movie much
she did have one of my favourite, and most badassed, moments of the film and I can’t
wait to see more of her.
Now onto Jessie Esienberg as Lex Luthor. Here was personally
my biggest point to outcry nerd rage on the lead up to the film. In the
trailers he looked nothing like the intimidating force of both business and villainy
that Lex Luthor has become to many of us in the past decades, instead he looked
more like a comedic tool than the films villain. And while I stand by that he
did not make a good Lex Luthor, he did actually make a good villain. While this
interpretation of Lex Luthor is a far cry from the marvellous portrayal done by
Michael Rosenbaum in Smallville, take away the name of Lex Luthor and the
character being created here is actually quiet an interesting and scary menace
all of his own. Jessie Eisenberg not only committed to this very eccentric and downright
insane role in every scene but there was never a moment where he felt flat or
boring, I was always interested to find out what made him so insane and through
interesting self-important dialogue and some great musical accompaniment
Eisenberg managed to salvage a character that could’ve been a high-pitched,
nervous twitching mess.
(Image sourced from http://comicbook.com/2016/02/21/batman-v-superman-running-time-confirmed/)
Speaking of the music, once again Hans Zimmer did a superb
job with this films score. We already knew that the Man of Steel soundtrack was
a freakin awesome score that not only emphasised the epicenes of whatever is
happening on screen but also gets you super pumped (no pun intended) and behind
whatever Supes is doing on screen, screaming him on to beat whatever super
powered demon he is facing, so it was great to hear the return of that musical
melody but the new additions were great too. Like I said, Lex’s theme adding
actually a lot of depth to the character and Wonder Woman’s theme is not only
awesome on its own, but in one amazing moment of the film is utilized in a
goose bump inducing perfect moment of nerd satisfaction.
And the music was never as enthralling as when it accompanied
an action sequence which were mostly all amazing. Outside of the undeniable
powerful imagery of seeing the holy trinity of DC battling it out on screen for
the first time, the scale and power-level of the fights were extraordinary. But
outside of the god level beat-em-ups in this movie, the close quarters action
of the movie was also very well done as we see a much more brutal and
unforgiving Batman show criminals exactly why they chose the wrong line of work
in really savage brilliance.
However one fight that didn’t really hit the heights I wanted
it to was the titular Batman Vs Superman showdown. The fight felt abit too slow
and clunky, especially when compared to the other standouts of the film and was
actually quite disappointing when the whole film seemed to hinge on how epic
this conflict should have been.
But to create the big spectacle a film like this needs when
pitting a man who can zoom through the sky against a man of the night, a lot of
CGI is needed to manifest this into screen reality. And I thought pretty much
every effect worked very well, many complain that the CGI looks abit too ‘videogamey’
but to me it fits in perfectly with the tone and aesthetic of the film and
never brought me out of the film. Bar one instance, the use of it for the Batmobile
and its car chase scene was abit too much and made the whole sequence feel abit
too fake, which sounds stupid when talking about flying men in red capes, but its
still a feeling I couldn’t shake for that particular action scene.
But surprisingly the action doesn’t really kick in until the
last half of the film and even more surprisingly I was completely fine with
this and in many ways just as enthralled as when an epic showdown commenced. It
was just really engrossing seeing how this film explored and treated the main
issues of the film and not only how each character responded but interacted
with each other, in many cases for the first time in cinema history; to a point
where I didn’t even realise or care there hadn’t been a big brawl in an hour because
I was so fascinated with where the plot was taking the characters.
Also there were some really surprising moments of emotion,
most notably right at the beginning and right at the end. These twi stand out
moments were the perfect blend of acting, score and epic scale that brought a
lump to my throat and really hit me where it hurts.
Another huge fear was that this film would have too many
characters but thankfully I think this film balanced its assortment of heroes
and villains pretty well, none felt too intrusive or stuck in there for no
reason and everyone was given there moment to shine or intrigue in a way that
never really hurt the flow or progression of the film in any jarring or awkward
way.
At the end of the day this film is garnering a lot, a lot of
hate but the fact that every time I think of this film the same smile that was plastered
on my face for the majority of the film once again finds its way onto my face
has to say something about how entertaining, exciting, and engrossing this film
was.
Batman Vs Superman: Dawn of Justice = 8.5/10
Why not check out my YouTube channel, BurtonReviews, where I
upload awesome gaming montages put to badass songs or scores every Sunday.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed!
Comments
Post a Comment