Movie Talk - Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice

Come on, Clark! Give us farmboys a good name! Ah heck, I’d get my butt trounced too…

Well, it has now come. The movie that everyone has been clamoring/fearing/”meh-ing” for has finally come to theaters. I didn’t think that My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 would be this sought after but… Oh wait.

All right, I’ll get down to business. I went to see Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice Friday afternoon. I would have saw it the night before since I was off from work, but I didn’t need to see it on a full stomach. I actually missed a minute of the final fight in my viewing because I decided to drink a lot of water and Coke earlier that day. I’ve thought about giving it another watch but I think my first viewing’s enough for now. Besides, there a lot of other movies coming out this year that I may need to save a little cash for.

Since I did it with Man of Steel years ago, I’ll give a quick opinion here and save the somewhat spoiler-ish stuff for later. While it has some glaring flaws, I did enjoy this movie. The Trinity (Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman) make this a watch for me. They all were pretty good, well-acted, and well-cast. The action scenes themselves were quite nice. The story was fine but pretty muddled and rushed at times. I liked the supporting characters. Lex Luthor did leave me a little mixed though. Overall, it does leave me wanting to see more from this universe especially when… other folk show up here.

PROS

• The Trinity – I thought Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman were handled well here. Unsurprisingly, Ben Affleck was really good as the dourer Bruce Wayne/Batman. While I even thought he was a weird choice, I figured he’d do fine. They handled the voice pretty well too. While she’s only in the movie for a little bit, Gal Gadot kicked butt as Wonder Woman. She was interesting, well-acted, and made me wonder what her movie will ultimately be about. Henry Cavill was still good as Clark/Superman. I did feel he didn’t get too fleshed out like Batman here, but he did have a lot to do here. Plus, they did had to build this new Batman up a bit, so I’m not too bothered by it.
• Good Action scenes – The action scenes here were pretty good. While the Batman vs Superman fight itself seemed a little contrived, I did like it. I also enjoyed the Batman action scenes themselves. The fight we see between Batman and a bunch of thugs towards the end was really awesome. It’s like a real-life version from the Batman Arkham series. The final fight with the three heroes taking on Doomsday (not really a spoiler since he was in that second trailer) was pretty cool too.
• Good supporting characters – I liked the supporting characters like Lois, Perry White, Alfred, and Senator Finch. It was also cool to see some old faces from Man of Steel like Swanwick.
• Nice previews of things to come – We get a lot of things that hint towards the larger DCEU. We get serious hints of some Apoktalipian shenanigans (just guess) as well as an idea on the Justice League. While I’ll freely admit that the “Roll Call” for those members felt really out of place, I did like them. I was kind of smiling when I saw Joe Morton in Cyborg’s vignette. The guy’s been everywhere, hasn’t he? I will say that Fishman’s (sorry Aquaman fans, just having fun) vignette was a little disappointing though. That Knightmare scene was also interesting as well as a little out of place.
• Good villains (sort of) – While I am a little mixed on Lex Luthor as a whole, he was pretty manipulative and devious. He was pretty cold-blooded with some of his actions here. He’s the reason the fight between Superman and Batman happens. He’s also behind that monstrosity known as Doomsday. While Doomsday didn’t have his traditional look, I did like how he was used. Remember, he is just a mindless bruiser. I did wish we got to see him kill Bambi’s mom though…
• Fine Soundtrack – I liked the soundtrack but it’s not one of the best around. It had hints of Man of Steel with a bunch of new stuff thrown in. Wonder Woman’s theme was kind of fun with the guitar blaring. Batman’s main theme was fine but I’d have to listen to it all again.

CONS

I guess those two are wondering about Lex too...

• Feels rushed and muddled – While I liked elements of the story, it felt rushed in places. Some things happened for little to no reason or out of order. It especially felt rushed with the build-up to the “big” fight between Supes and Bats. After that moment in Washington, it went into overdrive. It felt like things were missing in that space before the fight. Since it’s been confirmed that about 30 minutes was cut out of the final film, I wonder what got cut.
• The “big fight” (sort of) – While I liked the fight between Superman and Batman, I really felt like Superman could have ended it by telling Batman about Luthor. Still, I can see anyone having a hard time telling ticked off billionaire in armor to slow his roll. The fight itself felt a little contrived as well. I thought the way it ended was a little weird but interesting. I also wished we got a fight of the verbal kind thrown in somewhere too.
• Lex Luthor (sort of) – While I thought the role Luthor played was awesome, I’m a little iffy on Jesse Eisenburg’s portrayal. I will say that we haven’t seen this side of Lex before! I wonder how many bottles of Reach Cola the dude drank to get that hyper! I don’t hate the performance since he did provide some funny moments, but I’m not a complete fan of it either.
• The________ of ________ (sort of) – Now, this is really spoilery, so I’ll cover this up. While stopping Doomsday, Superman is killed in the line of duty. It felt a little flat to me. It may have been because I heard about it before I saw the movie (screw you, Internet). I think another reason is that I don’t know if we’ve earned it yet. We haven’t seen this Superman do a lot outside of two films. I will say that the scene itself and the aftermath were good. It does have me wondering how they’ll bring him back since you know he’s coming back. I think that’s another reason right there. They ain’t gonna keep him dead!

In the end, I did enjoy this film. It’s far from perfect unfortunately and that sucks because what they were trying to tell was interesting. You know, this kind of feels like Iron Man 2, another comic book movie I enjoyed even though it had serious issues as well. While I think it’s getting wringed at the neck a little too harshly by critics, they did bring up some good points. It is a little disheartening especially when these are some of my favorite characters in fiction. Still, I thought it was fine, so that’s something.

Overall, I say check it out if you’re wanting to see it. If you liked Man of Steel, you might like it. Since the WB is pushing this “Ultimate” version pretty hard, I might come back later about this movie when that is released. I’m not sure yet. Well, I’m outta here. Peace, God Bless, and don’t offer anyone “Granny’s Peach Tea.” Trust me.