Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in the last quarter of the movie.
Superman sequel, Batman revision, Wonder Woman kickoff and Justice League commercial
I guess there are spoilers in this review unless you’ve seen any of the marketing Warner Brothers spent $150 million showing most of the scenes from the film.
I’m Batman
Wow! The movie starts off with the Bruce Wayne/Batman (Ben Affleck) origin story but at least they do it over the opening credits so it’s pretty quick. Even a couple of my non-geeky friends commented that yes, we all get it, Bruce Wayne’s parents were murdered and he is mad for life. There are also lots of dream sequences in this movie. I was actually alright with the dream sequences because I love the Frank Miller graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns and most of the story elements and visuals that were lifted I enjoyed seeing brought to the big screen. Director of Photography Larry Fong deserves an Academy Award for his beautiful composition of this movie. You can make out what’s going on in the dark fight scenes, which is difficult to capture. He used a nice pallet and there are some vibrantly colorful scenes in this movie to contrast the dark elements.
Superman is in his sequel, too
Henry Cavill returns as Clark Kent/Superman. My friend Tiffany is obsessed with Henry Cavill and he was the main draw for her to see this movie. I have a confession…I have a bit of a man crush on Jeremy Irons as Alfred. Anyway, getting back to Superman. He seems cold in this movie and above society. The only glimpses of humanity I spotted were when he was Clark Kent and interacted with Lois and his mother at times. When he is Superman he is a complete detached scary dude. Except when he walks into a Congressional hearing as Superman. The costume looked ridiculous as he was surrounded by a room of professionally dressed adults. Henry Cavill could not work the costume in that scene, which is a shame because it needed to be dramatic and all I could think of is my first question would be, “have you ever heard of Men’s Warehouse?”
The Skinny Superman image I posted is directly from The Dark Knight Returns and was brought to life sort of for Batman v Superman. Superman does fight like crazy with Batman for part of the film before they become best buds. I won’t spoil why they stop fighting each other. Mainly because it is kind of a flimsy plot device.
Again, Superman/Clark Kent are in this film but I could not understand why Superman didn’t clean up/relocate all the Kryptonian killing devices/relics. Did he forget?
You’re Lex Luthor?
I like Jesse Eisenberg but his Lex Luthor is kind of like Mark Hamill playing the Trickster on The Flash TV show. Not nearly as scary or creepy as The Joker, so why bother? I didn’t care for Eisenberg’s interpretation of Lex Luthor. The performance was odd and a distraction to the story. He never displayed any of his brilliance and that is the definition of Lex Luthor.Lex Luthor = mad genius. Anyway, he’s not bald for most of the movie. Who knows what will happen? Bald wig?Stick around for the Superman sequel or Justice League movie or something. I don’t know.
She’s a Wonder Wonder Woman
I was dreading seeing Gal Gadot playing Wonder Woman/Diana Prince because I love Lynda Carter’s portrayal of the Amazon Warrior. I’m happy to report Gal Gadot pulls off the role in her brief screen time. I was pleasantly surprised at Gadot’s Diane Prince as a smart, confident and mysterious character. Relax, Wonder Woman the movie has wrapped production so we’ll be in for a treat next year when Gal Gadot hits the big screen.
So what did I think overall?
Most movie goers will probably give this a C-. I would give it a B or B- minus because I loved the first 3/4 of the movie and all the comic book references. What didn’t really fit were all the cameos. The last quarter of the film was an unnecessary cram fest of other large comic book epics reduced to throw away scenes that didn’t work well together. I know Warner Brothers wanted to launch the Justice League but it’s not done organically or well. This is director Zack Snyder’s best effort at adapting a comic book epic since The Watchmen, which I enjoyed.
Check out the Guardians of the Geekery podcast 10-minute review
Listen to the podcast review here: BvS
Need Batman v Superman info?
For the trailer, credits, tickets and more information check out the official Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice website here: http://batmanvsuperman.dccomics.com/