Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice (Movie Review)

 Summary:

It's been nearly two years since Superman's colossal battle with Zod devastated the city of Metropolis. The loss of life and collateral damage left many feeling angry and helpless; including crime-fighting billionaire Bruce Wayne. Convinced that Superman is now a threat to humanity, Batman embarks on a personal vendetta to end his reign on Earth, while the conniving Lex Luthor launches his own crusade against the Man of Steel. 

Opening Scene:

Introduction of Bruce Wayne and the murder of his parents that shaped him to be the man he is today. I hope with the new Universe that James Gunn is creating I won't have to see pearls hitting the ground anymore. I swear DC fans have developed PTSD from those damn pearls. 

It was interesting seeing Bruce's perspective about the attack on Metropolis by General Zod. You can clearly see his hatred growing for Superman with every building being destroyed and person dying due to the attack. 

I can understand the vision of trying to bring together the Justice League, however, with having the main heroes older without having the Universe setup definitely takes away from the story. The big three that make up the Justice League: Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are played by actors that are in their late thirties and in their forties. Of course, their age doesn't have to follow the comics exactly but we need some continuity. By that age, they have already established themselves as heroes and have come together as a team while also expanding to a newer generation of heroes. 

This is my issue with the casting. They simply are too old to play the characters so early on in the story. Production should have sought out younger actors to fill those roles and should have had a long term vision instead of trying to shove everything in a couple of two hour movies. 

I do appreciate the silent nod to Robin; Batman's sidekick and the audience being given the knowledge that the Joker was the reason for his death. But it was so quick in the movie that a 5-10 second look at his suit was not enough time for the audience to feel much of a connection and loss. In that instance, I would have preferred a flashback of Robin or even the intro of the movie being about their symbiotic relationship than Bruce's parents death. While their death shaped Bruce, Robin had a profound effect on both Bruce and Batman. I feel it was a missed opportunity and they should have showed Robin. If done correctly then the audience would better understand Bruce's pain and would have made sense to story and why he's much older since he's already lived a whole life and been through so much. 

I really don't like Jesse Eisenberg's portrayal of Lex Luther. His erratic and almost manic behaviour is the complete opposite of Lex Luthor. Lex is methodical, composed and doesn't behave like how it was demonstrated in the movie. It almost seemed reminiscent of Joker's behaviour. It was so clear that Lex was behind pitting these two titans against one another yet this movie's Batman missed it? Or allowed his hatred to dictate his actions? That doesn't sound like Batman. Besides, Batman is revered for his intelligence and is known as a great detective. Affleck's Batman wasn't doing much detecting. 

Am I the only one that thinks it's wildly irresponsible for Clark to leave the scout ship and Zod's body alone? He would never be so naive to leave all that technology in the hands of humans and the government. That's just asking for trouble. He didn't do that for the ship he discovered in the first movie. His Father died so Clark wouldn't expose himself too soon to humankind but alien technology containing all the knowledge that has been accumulated by Kryptonians? Yeah, sure that makes sense. 

The fight between Batman and Superman was lackluster. How come Superman didn't pin Batman's arms to his side? Boom, fight over. And the changing factor being the same Martha that is shared by their mothers is such shitty writing. Bruce knew he had parents but yet the name of Clark's mother snaps him out of his kill Superman state mind? Not buying it. These characters and overall story is just bad writing. Which leads to another major issue I have with this movie. Doomsday...I'm not even upset that Luthor 'created' Doomsday, however, in almost everything he has appeared in he has been near impossible to destroy. The best most are able to do is teleport him to another world or as done by Superman trapped via the Phantom Zone. If I'm not mistaken, when Doomsday was impaled by Kryptonite in the comics he became impervious to it. 

I can understand Superman dying in a story but for him to be offed in his second movie without even having the Justice League formed? That is poor writing and he deserved better. This 'Universe' is so severely underdeveloped to off the main attraction. 

I just wish we would get a movie true to the comics without the true core of these amazing characters completely changed. It speaks volumes when the animated movies have a better story than the cinematic movies. No wonder the DCEU has been shit on. It completely sucks. 

Rating: 

This is sadly getting 1 star on 5. This was a hard movie for me to sit down and watch it completely. I had watched about half of it and put it on pause for a week because I couldn't take it. The one scene that I actually liked was having the big three standing together before fighting Doomsday. But overall? Just terrible.