Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice – Movie Review

Zack Snyder’s sequel to Man of Steel continues the heroics of Superman, while introducing the audiences to a larger cinematic world as before. The story of Superman parallels with Jesus Christ, as the almighty and powerful hero simply wants to do good, but humanity doubts, mocks and attacks him.

 

The world has become sceptic and cynical, but Superman doesn’t stop there, because Superman never gives up.

 After the horrific events from Man of Steel, the Dark Knight (played by Ben Affleck) returns  to do the impossible: Kill the Man of Steel. (Henry Cavill)

But behind the curtains lies a darker threat, the world’s smartest man, the menacing Alexander Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg), manipulates everyone behind the scenes.

 Making the world doubt our saviour, pushing the mentally damaged Caped Crusader to a darker path, making him the judge, jury and executioner to Gotham’s worsts.

 “Black and blue. Fight night. The greatest gladiator match in the history of the world. God versus man. Day versus night! Son of Krypton versus Bat of Gotham!”- Lex Luthor

Ben Affleck’s Batman is easily the best part of the movie, it is the biggest tribute to Frank Miller’s take on the Bat.  The combat scenes are exhilarating, Batman does detective work, the Batmobile chase sequence is out of this world and Batman’s nightmares are blessed with Snyder’s artistic visuals.

Hans Zimmer’s & Junkie Xl’s score has a variety of tunes, using the Man of Steel tunes again for Superman with adjustments, while giving new scores for Batman, Lex Luthor and Wonder Woman. It pumps up the adrenaline with action sequences for sure.

So what went wrong then? ”the Dawn of Justice” segments, the movie is 2 hours and 30 minutes long & could have easily squeezed out thirty minutes, to have a better flow with the main plot.

 Scenes become padded with cross-marketing for future DC Comic movies such as Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) and the Justice League, world building is done once again to rich the DC Cinematic Universe while leaving characters hollower.

The scenes could have been better to just leave in the upcoming 3 hour Ultimate Cut. Granted, Batman v Superman might become another “Watchmen” or “Kingdom of Heaven” situation, where the Ultimate cut becomes a vastly superior, cohesively story-structured movie that fans will actually like and praise. 

Already, we are receiving marketing for the said cut, which shows important character development and what will reflect upon the sequel – Justice League.

The movie has a lot of good, but sadly the cross-marketing just drags the enjoyment down, making the experience just about average.

Man of Steel - Revisited

Zack Snyder & David S. Goyer team-up for their take on Superman (Henry Cavill), a man who has been insecure about his powers and dreads what harm he could cause, overcomes these obstacles and begins his flight as Superman.

The story starts on Krypton in its last days. Here we see a planet that has become woefully entrenched within dystopian social norms.  Jor-El (Russel Crowe)& Lara El (Ayelet Zurer) have given birth naturally, an heretical act on Kryptonian’s society, where children are genetically manufactured to fill in the nation’s roles, but the Last son of Krypton has been deprived of roles, given a free choice to continue the Kryptonian legacy on Earth, by Jor-El’s design.

General Zod (Michael Shannon) is the once proud military commander of Krypton and friend to Jor-El, now nothing more than a renegade with his fellow criminals. Lieutenant Faora-Ul (Antje Traue) is incredibly sexy, there is nothing sexier than a warrior goddess annihilating everything on her path from her faster than a speeding bullet finishing moves as she dukes jabs & uppercuts mercilessly.

And here I think is some flaw I have with this movie, Snyder & Goyer have created this world full of lore and wonder, the whole Kryptonian civil war, the Kryptonian DNA codex take a lot of screen time and therefore the emphasis is on the world state more than it is on Superman. It’s a rich world, but it feels hollow due to lack of character.

  The plot left me cold, because I feel there are no real characters and things just keep happening in that typical Summer blockbuster way, but that still doesn’t stop me from being keen to see where the sequel will take, because this movie as a whole is a big origin story for Superman, Krypton and how Earth gets a new status-quo as they know they are not alone in this universe.

I’m not a writer nor am I director, I highly appreciated showcasing Superman’s urban heroism and the scene where Superman goes against the alien world engine and utterly gives everything he has to save the planet, is the scene that truly sells Henry Cavill as the Man of Tomorrow.

Hans Zimmer’s score was at first rather forgettable, as everything sounds so majestic; but it has grown on me during the years and that majestic sound really does feel truly fitting for Superman.

Zack Snyder has however successfully told us a story, that despite how great your father might be, he still might have some incredibly horrible friends. 

Either way, I’m excited and cautiously optimistic to see Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice tomorrow!