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| Image courtesy of Warner Bros. |
Reviewing a film like Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice
is tough. It is tough because no matter how hard you try you
have a number of personally biases that always expose themselves. Add to it you really do not want to ruin it for the people that haven't seen the film yet. Yes we even got a trailer from Zack Snyder imploring us to keep the spoilers to ourselves.
I did not like Man of Steel.
Saying I disliked the film is not correct, probably loathed, hated, detested,
or despised is more accurate. I had a
long litany of complaints with that film.
I also did not appreciate Christopher Nolan’s Batman Trilogy in the same
way many other did, I am more of an Adam West kind of Batman fan.
I have enjoyed a good number films in the Marvel
Cinematic Universe. I am not saying they
are Oscar worthy and some are better than others. We could talk about the X-Men Universe but … And oh yeah did I mention I was really
disappointed by Green Lantern. Now that you know my biases let’s move into
the actual review.
In essence Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice [BvS] is a
great comic book or graphic novel, that doesn’t translate to the big screen or
rather wasn’t translated to the big screen very well. If you read comics you are used to the way
that overarching story arcs can cross multiple titles and have multiple points
of view. Zack Snyder and Chris Terrio
attempted to do just that, tell a movie like a cross over comic book story
arc. It makes it very difficult to
follow the various sub-plots and stories; some reviews have suggested it is
like watching 3, 4, or 5 films spliced together to tell a single film. That
is a failure of the narrative structure of the film. Peter Jackson does this particularly well
with the Two Towers and Return of the King.
The scriptwriters never truly decides who the audience is
for this film. Pixar is great at
writing stories on two levels, both adults and children can find interesting
aspects to the film that appeals to them.
Comic Book Movies are similar as there are two distinct separate audiences,
people who know more about the characters than the writers and people who know
nothing other than maybe the film title when they enter the cinema. Chris Terrio went for the ultimate
compromise, right down the middle of the two extremes. Occasionally they would explain some things
and other times they assumed you as an audience knew everything that was going
on. Neither shall the two extremes
meet. So as an audience you ask why sub-plot
X was explained and sub-plot Y not even addressed. What, hey huh… When you are done with the film you still don’t
understand.
JK Rowling is a great minimalist author. She has the understanding that if it isn’t necessary
to further the story than it doesn’t make the cut. When the development team of BvS were
writing, filming and editing they needed to better use the ideas behind the
minimalist nature of storytelling. There is so much extraneous detail in the
film it interrupts the flow of the film, knocking the viewer out of the
immersion that they worked so hard to create.
When you combine telling a comic book story and not
defining your audience you create a night mare for the editor. I feel bad for David Brenner, the Films
Editor, as he was given the awful task of assembling this film. Since David Brenner has done some outstanding
editing in the past Born of the Fourth of
July and Independence Day come to
mind, one truly must question the source material he was working with. There is a scene at the end of the film that
has outstanding editing and I wanted to scream “why wasn’t the rest of the film
so well assembled.”
Hans Zimmer and Junkie XL (Tom Holkenbourg) provide a
decent score (soundtrack) for the film.
I don’t think it was the best work of either men but it is far from the worst.
The film felt incomplete, many of the CGI effects needed
another pass, and a couple left you wondering how the heck that made it into a
$250 Million dollar film. There were
several sub-plots that never received closure, and I am not talking the steps
towards Justice League, but rather the side story plots that were set up and
simply forgotten.
I don’t understand the lack of humor in Zack Snyder’s DC
view. I don’t mean the quips from MCU
but there are moments when the film strives to set up a joke and then forgets
to add the punchline. So when Perry
White (Laurence Fishburne) attempts to land a one liner the audience doesn’t
know how to take it. You are like was
that supposed to be a joke?
I still believe that Henry Cavill was completely miscast
as Clark Kent, he lacks the gravitas to play the part. I know it is hard to follow Christopher
Reeves, but he just doesn’t click and people don’t go he is Superman.
Ben Affleck plays a decent Bruce Wayne and an acceptable
Batman. I totally understand why people
think he deserves a stand-alone film, and had he a film under his belt as the Caped
Crusader no one would have questioned his choice, but it took a while to grow
into it, and it is easy to see which parts were filmed first.
Gal Gadot is Diana Prince and people will be holding out
lots of hope for her stand-alone movie.
I don’t necessarily think she stole the show like some have claimed, it
more like the got the casting so perfect with her it makes the other castings
very questionable.
Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luther was too much like Heath
Ledger as the Joker and not enough like Gene Hackman as Lex Luther.
I really liked all of the secondary characters in the film,
Amy Adams as Lois Lane is exceptional in the part. Holly Hunter, Laurence Fishburne, Jeremy
Irons, and Diane Lane all deserve kudos.
I am going to borrow something from another
reviewer. There is a good movie here, it
is just frustrating we don’t get to see it.
Maybe there will be a director’s cut that fixes many of the problems,
maybe the CGI will look better on the 60" TV at home, maybe the things that need
explained are explained.
People who are comic book fans will have an opportunity
to like this film, people who aren’t will, I am going to use “hate it” but that
is not quite right. How about “Fail to
appreciate it” in the same way comic book fans will.
I walked into the theater expecting to hate the film and walked out wishing I could like it more. There are just too many problems holding this film back.
1 ½ stars out of five and it is too bad I cannot give it
more stars.
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