Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is the second installment in Warner Brothers Studios' DC Comics Cinematic Universe (Man of Steel) and was directed by Zack Snyder. The movie features Ben Affleck and Henry Cavill in the title roles along with Amy Adams, Jesse Eisenberg, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Jeremy Irons, Holly Hunter, Gal Gadot, Scoot McNairy, Callan Mulvey, Tao Okamoto, Michael Shannon, Ray Fisher, Ezra Miller, Jason Momoa, and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
The Story:
While Superman (Cavill) is dealing with the fallout from all the death and destruction he has been partially responsible for, Bruce Wayne aka Batman (Affleck) has grown to really not like the guy for pretty much the same reason. Over the years, the "Dark Knight of Gotham" has dealt with more than his fair share of evil doers and he is determined to put a stop to who he sees as the biggest threat of them all. Meanwhile, Lex Luthor (Eisenberg) is slowly revealing his Doomsday plan and does everything he can to show how damaged and crazy he is. A whole bunch of other stuff happens, but the best is when Wonder Woman (Gadot) decides it's time to step up and kick ass. Someone had to clean up all the mess.
The Review:
After the gigantic turd that was Man of Steel, I was not expecting to like this movie.
I did not like this movie.
I currently have no faith in Zack Snyder's ability to tell a coherent story and what he gives us is an overly indulgent pile of DC Comics scraps thrown together using his signature style of excessively over the top visuals, and then wraps it all up in a way too dramatic package that in no way can ever be taken seriously. Visually, it was like he told his creative team to take all the DC characters and put them in Sucker Punch. Way too stylized and CG heavy for my liking. It was more like a cartoon with no sense of reality or danger as opposed to the intended live action film that is supposed to be all dramatic with real consequences and stuff.
Oh, and that soundtrack. I believe Hans Zimmer was told to take what would normally be the emotional crescendo of this type of film's epic score, start there, then go bigger and bigger until all the instruments just explode. Because Snyder was already making the film way too serious and dramatic for its own good, why not blow out the music as well. Oh my goodness, let my ears rest a bit.
Okay, here are some of things I did like:
Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman was every bit as amazing as I had been hoping she would be since the day it was announced that she had been given the role. Wonder Woman shines like a beacon of hope among all the doom and gloom and she looks like she is actually having fun as opposed to everyone else walking around like a bunch of super powered grumpy cats. She has very little screen time but, what she does contribute makes me very excited to see her solo movie.
Oh, and the movie ended.
Yeah, that's about it for the things I liked.
The Cast:
Henry Cavill as Superman: He should stop acting soon.
Ben Affleck as Batman: Solid, but I only saw Ben Affleck not Bruce Wayne.
Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman: *Insert Daniel Bryan "Yes" chant*
Amy Adams as Lois Lane: Damsel in distress with nothing else to do.
Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor: Tried to be really cool, came off as really annoying.
There are a bunch of cameos that help to set things up for the future. I'm not going to name any names but the movie does have "Dawn of Justice" in the title so there's that. What I will say is that one of the scenes is kind of fishy, another goes by in a flash, and you'd have to be half robot (or a cyborg!) to not catch the third one. Unfortunately, they are all really random, confusing, and feel crammed into the story just because they need to be there.
Did I mention there's a Rocky style training montage thrown in for some strange reason? it basically shows us that Batman can lift really heavy stuff while also doing science. Because we didn't know that stuff already, we needed to see him do it just in case.
The Verdict:
I'm sure there are people out there who will like this movie. I am not one of them. As the credits were mercifully rolling in front of us, I asked my friend what she thought.
Her response was: "It was as bad as I expected."
I feel very much the same way.
I did not see Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice in 3D or IMAX and will not be doing so as I see no reason to ever watch this movie again.
For entertainment purposes only:
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