Directed by: Zack Snyder
Written by: David S. Goyer, Chris Terrio
Starring: Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams
Batman vs. Superman is bizarre. It's such an ambitious film, trying so hard to be something complex and meaningful, something more than the sort of easy, candy-coloured superhero films people have become accustomed to receiving from Marvel. However, the film fails to effectively convey any of the themes and issues it attempts to explore, mired in a poorly paced plot and an incredible amount of unnecessary moments, and so everything that could have a potential impact ends up feeling like the film is trying too hard.
There's so much to talk about with this film, as evidenced by the sheer amount of discussion that has surrounded the film since its release. I've seen people claiming the film as some Shakespearean tragedy wrapped up in French New Wave film-making, I've seen people calling it one of the worst movies they have ever seen, and I've seen people say just about everything in between. With that in mind, it's hard to write anything about this film that will actually contribute anything new, so I apologise in advance if what I'm writing seems unoriginal.
*Warning: Spoilers Ahead*
I suppose an important place to start with any Snyder film is the visuals, an aspect that perfectly exemplifies BvS' "trying too hard" atmosphere. Snyder manages to create some truly incredible shots in this film, lots of slow-motion montages attached with a swelling orchestral score and highly stylised shots, complex and overloaded with particles, plenty of light sources to get parallax in motion, and regular use of religious iconography to convey the "Man vs. God" angle the film tries to go for. Unfortunately, a lot of this ends up falling flat because so much of the film appears this way. When so many scenes in the film scream "LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT HOW COMPLEX AND PRETTY I AM", they all start to blur together, leaving very few of them with any noticeable impact, like the visual equivalent of white noise. You can look at an individual frame in the film and say, "that's pretty amazing, a lot of work clearly went in to this", but in the context of the film it's just one more overdone frame among thousands. Again, it's clear that this film had passion poured in to it, at least visually speaking, but there's almost no restraint being used here.
I think another important aspect of this film is the weak and overly convoluted plot, and the cognitive dissonance between it and the film's themes. It's clear that the film has little bits and pieces of political agenda spattered throughout; the first fifteen minutes has a warlord speak on the idea that men with power are not beholden to policy or principle, and less than five minutes later we see conflict between CIA men on the ground and those with control of drones, as the ones on the ground argue to prevent the loss of civilian life while the men in control of the drones continue on without heed. This is all before Superman is even re-introduced as a character. 'Power corrupts' is a much-explored theme in storytelling, and it seems that the film wants to give Superman the opportunity to face that theme as a challenge, to be the incorruptible power, but the film also spends so little time on developing Superman as a character that I was left wondering why they even bothered to attempt to give him an arc. The themes and issues are clearly present and attached to Superman, however the film ends up looking at every character but Superman, leaving the themes and issues shallow.
This all seems to be largely to do with how the movie was made, which is my biggest problem with the film overall, as from it stems all of the film's other problems. BvS was originally supposed to simply be a sequel to Man of Steel (2013), before Warner Bros. stepped in and asked Snyder to make it a Batman vs Superman movie, and not too long after that they asked Snyder again to make it a Batman vs. Superman movie that also set up the Justice League. Somehow from there we also got Wonder Woman's inclusion and a finale with Doomsday, not to mention the sheer amount of product placement completely breaking my suspension of disbelief more than once. So much ends up being crammed in to this movie that the good ideas and hard work are lost among moments with no cinematic value that do nothing to serve the story.
A lot of people point to the infamous 'Martha' moment as the breaking point for them in the movie, but as stupidly executed as the moment is, at least it serves to move the story forward. For me personally, the absolute worst moment in the film is a scene with Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) in her hotel room. She opens an e-mail from Batman and proceeds to look at clips of The Flash, Aquaman, and Cyborg. This scene has absolutely no bearing on the plot and could be completely removed from the movie to no ill effect; it's simply used as an advertisement for the upcoming DC superhero movies. An advertisement for several movie almost two hours in to another movie, with literally no use aside from that. It's not even used as the scene that convinces Wonder Woman to join in on the fight because they instead save that moment for a scene that lets them advertise Turkish Airlines. This is absolute worst, most cynical type of film-making, crammed alongside the passionate work of a generally lacklustre film-maker.
That said, there are several aspects of the film that are considerably better than its worst. Affleck's Batman's introduction is mixed, as there's an obviously large amount of backstory that's left out because for some reason this Batman is twenty years on the job and yet was not given a movie to himself to flesh some of it out. Affleck manages to make the character work for the most part despite this, and his action scene fighting a gang of mercenaries hired by Lex Luthor (Jesse Eisenberg) is easily the best scene in the film, with high-octane, brutal action and excellent camera work that exhibits the action clearly, instead of the usually cut-o-ramas that make up most action scenes from films in the past few years. The score also never falters, doing its best to accentuate the feelings that are supposed to be attached to what we're looking at.
I really could go on, there's so much more to talk about, both good and bad, but I don't want to end up rambling. If I started talking about the 'Martha' moment or the death of Superman, Lex Luthor's character or the truly awful third act, I could be here all day and all night.
The Verdict: Batman vs. Superman is a movie that tries to be great and ends up being mediocre. If you're interested in this film, you've probably already seen it. If you haven't, it's likely worth the watch, unless you're fatigued towards superhero movies at this point, a completely understandable attitude. Otherwise, it's interesting to watch just to consider all of the ways Snyder tries and fails leave his audience in awe while Warner Bros. rams their bloated attempt at a cinematic universe down their throats.
Rating: 4.5/10*
*Addendum: The 4.5/10 rating is for the original theatrical experience. I have since then taken the time to watch the 'Ultimate Edition', and while it doesn't remedy all of the film's weaknesses, the plot is considerably clearer (though it does raise further questions, namely "why was this cut from the theatrical release?") and Superman is actually a character in his own movie. With the changes in the Ultimate edition taken in to consideration, I would be more inclined to give the film a 5/10.
Published December 17th, 2016
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