My Thoughts on Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice

As many, myself included, had predicted, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice has proven to be one of the most polarizing superhero films to date. While many are singing its praises, others are calling it terrible. As such, I felt it prudent to wait at least a week for the initial buzz to die down before I threw my opinion into the mix. Personally, I’m very “middle of the road” when it comes to my opinions of this film. There were things I liked, and there were things I could have done without. I likely would not go out of my way to see it again, but I do not feel like my money was wasted. What I hope to accomplish with this article is to highlight what went wrong with the movie and how that could be improved upon, what worked in the movies favor and why it worked, and ultimately validate the opinions of both sides of the argument. Fair warning, this article will contain some spoilers. I will try my best to keep them to a bare minimum, but if you have yet to see the film and wish to avoid spoilers, I would recommend waiting until after you’ve seen it before reading further.

What Works: The first thing I am going to highlight is Ben Affleck as Batman as I found it to be the most pleasant surprise in the film. When Affleck was first cast, the internet was flooded with outrage. Actually, the same could be said for a lot of things about this movie. Anywho, the fans were outright insulted by the idea of Ben Affleck playing the dark knight. I, on the other hand, recalled a similar cry of outrage when “the pretty boy from Brokeback Mountain” was cast as The Joker, and we all know the end of that story. Dawn of Justice gives us something we’ve never seen before in terms of a live action Batman, that being, a veteran Batman who’s been at this for years, decades even. Unlike Christian Bale’s Batman, who was just starting out, this Batman has been beaten down and hardened by his environment. He’s lived through events like the death of Robin and presumably countless others. For him, the destruction of his office building during the battle of Metropolis and witnessing countless innocents lose their lives because of Superman was the final straw for him, and Affleck captures that perfectly. As an aside, Affleck also sports my favorite live action bat suit to date. I can’t quite describe what I like about it, but I think it’s the closest to a comic book bat suit I’ve seen in a feature film.

Following in the Batman vein, Jeremy Irons, while not given all that much screen time, did a phenomenal job as Alfred. He plays it much less like a traditional Butler, but rather as a man who hates to see the boy he raised destroying himself, but after all this time, is clearly resigned to that fate. Perhaps even more surprising was Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, who, perhaps got even more hate from fans than Affleck prior to the film's release. Many complain that she wasn’t given much character development in this movie, but frankly, that didn’t bother me. Much like Black Widow in Iron Man 2, this wasn’t Wonder Woman’s movie, so she wasn’t given as much time as Batman or Superman. Her presence in the film is mainly to establish the expanded DC Universe and set up for the Justice League film as well as her upcoming solo movie. My favorite mark out moment in the film comes in the final battle when Batman and Superman are about to face off against Doomsday. As seen in the trailers, Wonder Woman arrives in the nick of time and saves the two using her shield. What the trailers don’t show is the rocking soundtrack that kicks in as soon as she shows up.

Speaking of Doomsday, that brings me to my last note on the positives of this film. When the trailers revealed that Doomsday would make an appearance in the film, many fans were concerned. I was among those fans, but my concerns had nothing to do with Doomsday’s appearance or the fact that they ruined the surprise in the trailer. No, my concern stemmed from what Doomsday represents. As many fans will know, Doomsday is famous for being the one enemy that was ever able to kill Superman. Superman, who never met a foe he couldn’t best with his strength or speed, was brought down, not with cunning and strategy as Batman would, but with pure brute strength. At the time, this was a big deal and to this day, Doomsday is regarded as one of the most powerful villains in Superman’s rogues gallery if not the entire DCU. However, this is a Hollywood franchise that has already taken liberties with it’s characters in the past, so my fear was that Doomsday would amount to little more than a monster for the heroes to triumph against at the end of the film, thus cheapening the character. However, much to my relief, they actually went through with the death of Superman, keeping Doomsday’s impact as a character intact.

What Doesn’t:

I’d certainly be remiss if I did not discuss Jesse Eisenberg’s now infamous Lex Luthor performance. When I heard that Eisenberg would be playing Superman’s mortal enemy, I was actually happy about it. This is Eisenberg in his element, playing someone with a massive superiority complex as he’s done in films like The Social Network and Now You See Me. The problem is, he’s not playing Lex Luthor, but rather playing Mark Zucherberg again with a hint of Jim Carrey’s Riddler thrown into the mix. That type of performance is fine for The Riddler or the Joker, but feels out of place when used for Lex Luthor. My friend Evan compared him to John Travolta’s character, Tearl from Battlefield Earth and I feel that that’s an apt comparison. While occasionally his performance can be entertaining, it’s mostly just annoying.

However, as bad as Luthor is in the film, that’s not the worst problem in the film. No, the two biggest problems in this movie are with its tone and its dialogue. The tone problem pretty much speaks for itself. Much like the last movie, they try to make the movie dark and grim, forgetting that superheroes, Superman in particular, are meant to be bright and colorful. While I really do not wish to turn this into a debate between Marvel movies and DC movies as I feel like copying the success of the MCU would also have been a mistake, I believe that those films are as popular as they are because they understand that superhero films, even ones that call for dark subject matter, are meant to be colorful, exciting, and must have a bit of levity here and there. While there are one or two jokes in Dawn of Justice, they are few and far between and overshadowed by the constant religious symbolism and general aura of doom and gloom.

And finally, we come to the biggest issue I have with this movie, the dialogue. With the exception of Perry White and Alfred, virtually no character in this entire film talks like a human being. Instead, they speak in this grandiose symbolic manner that seems manufactured for the trailer. To once again compare this to the Marvel films, in those movies, the dialogue flows naturally. Conversations between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers sound like conversations that people would actually have. That is sadly not the case here. The best example comes in the titular battle between Batman and Superman, which actually takes place because Luthor who had manipulated Batman by playing on his paranoia and had kidnapped Superman’s mother in order to force him to fight Batman. Either Superman kills Batman and the world sees their newfound messiah as a murderer, or Batman kills Superman, ridding Luthor of what he considers his greatest threat. One way or the other, Luthor wins. At the climax of the battle, Batman has Superman down for the count with a Kryptonite spear at his throat.

Here’s what an actual human being would have said: “Luthor has my mother and he’s blackmailing me into fighting you”

Here’s what was actually said: Have to save Martha!

Who talks like that!? I won’t even get into the stupidity of Batman trusting Superman for the sole reason that their mothers have the same name. Suffice to say, the film would have benefitted by a heavy re-write of the dialogue.

Ultimately, I feel that this movie is what it is. It’s enjoyable, but it’s not without it’s problems. While I’m more than happy to share my thoughts, my opinion is merely one amongst many and should not detract from one’s enjoyment, or lack there of, of the film. I will say that while this movie was just ok for me, I am still filled with optimism for upcoming films like the Batman and Wonder Woman solo films as well as the upcoming Justice League film.