It's been 18 months after the devastation caused by General Zod and his two cronies who tried to destroy Earth by terra-forming it to Krypton's atmosphere as a way to resurrect their world and give their people a second chance. The destruction of Metropolis is met with mixed emotions by the general public, who both love Superman for saving their city, yet also hate him for being the cause for so much destruction and loss of life. One person who takes the actions of Superman personally is none other than billionaire Bruce Wayne, a.k.a. the Batman. One of Bruce's buildings was turned to rubble during the battle with Zod, and so Bruce goes on a one man war against the Man of Steel to try and find a weakness, and bring him to justice for his actions. To win, Bruce turns to the one place that he knows might have the key - Lex Luthor. The biggest showdown in history - as Lex calls it "god vs man, day vs night..." sets the stage for what could become another Zod massacre...or the beginning of a new alliance.
For all its bad reviews lately, I'm going to have to disagree with the worst ones saying it's one of the worst movies to come out in recent years, and also the worst comic book movie ever. That being said, I'm going to have to also disagree with crazed DC fanboys who have nothing but the highest praise for Dawn of Justice. It's not a bad movie, especially for one directed by Zach Snyder, but neither is it a masterpiece. Like other (well, ok, more like most) directors these days - with probably the worst offender being Michael Bay - Zach tends to favor style over substance. However beautiful his films tend to look, they mostly tend to suck when it comes to good storytelling. Man of Steel is probably the one I would call the best in terms of a good story and his signature visual style coming together coherently. With Dawn of Justice, the storytelling and the visual elements aren't quite as seamlessly meshed together well, but it's still a very fun ride. The things that fell flat to me are:
1. Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor - He almost seemed like the Joker or maybe even the Riddler as a character during the first part of the film; later on he becomes the Lex I remember from the comics and animated series, but he certainly didn't start out that way. His motivations for his hatred for Superman were a bit unclear in the beginning as well. I think he'll end up being great as Lex in the upcoming movies in the DCCU, but it was a bit of a rocky start.
2. Henry Cavill as Superman/Clark Kent - For someone who I enjoyed as the Man of Steel in his first outing, I expected a bit of character development/growing up to happen in the 18 months of passed time between Man of Steel and Dawn of Justice, Instead, it seemed like Superman was the untrained, unsure of himself guy we saw in Man of Steel. Given the circumstances of the story, I expected there to still be some doubts about his actions, but I expected Superman to be a bit more sure of himself with who he was as an individual. It seemed like there was almost literally no change between his character in Man of Steel and who he was in Dawn of Justice. it wasn't until the end where I saw a spark of who I remembered as Superman.
3. The final fight between Superman and Batman - This, along with the Doomsday fight, was one of the weakest points of the film. Snyder built us up for a massive showdown between two of arguably the best characters in superhero comic book history, and yet the fight was so short that the emotional payoff was pretty bad. I didn't really care about why they were fighting, or what caused them to all of a sudden become allies. It felt more like a short squabble than a fight between two very different ideologies, one born of vengeance and anger and the other of trying to do the right thing even in the face of adversity.
4. Doomsday - I hope we haven't seen the last of him, because his introduction was disappointing to say the least. I know he was being used as a lead-in to the Justice League's big baddie, but I was hoping for more of a prominent role for Doomsday. Like the "fight" between Batman and Superman, this fight felt too short to have any sort of major impact.
There's plenty of things I didn't like, but there's also things I greatly enjoyed:
1. I loved Gal Gadot as Diana Prince/Wonder Woman. I wouldn't call myself a huge fan of her acting - one of the most recent things I've seen her in was the Fast and Furious franchise, and while she was ok in it, that's not exactly a good tool in which to judge her overall acting skills. I'll admit, I was pretty skeptical, but she knocked it out of the part with her portrayal of the Amazonian princess. I'm looking forward to seeing her as a part of the Justice League.
2. Jeremy Irons as Alfred had great chemistry with Ben Affleck's Batman/Bruce Wayne. I could almost feel the cameraderie of two people who have been through more in a few years than what most go through in a lifetime.
3. Before I saw Dawn of Justice, I wasn't quite sure how they were going to introduce the other superheroes who were going to make up the rest of the Justice League. I wasn't fully expecting Marvel's formula of origin movie before the team-up, but I wasn't sure of a good way to make those introductions. I'll admit that the way it was described before the movie came out sounded a bit like the movie was going to be bloated The cameos in the film ended up being good ways to introduce them. The cameos gave us a good idea of what each of their powers are, and who they were.
4. Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman - Not counting the animated series and animated movies, I haven't seen anyone who captured the essence of both Bruce Wayne and Batman as characters. I've always found either Batman's good or Bruce Wayne is. Personally, up until now Christian Bale came the closest, but there were still some things missing. I don't really fault any of the actors, I think it comes down to how the characters are written. Ben on the other hand, I thought he did very well as both Bruce and Batman. I do agree with DC fans saying he is the best onscreen live-action Batman and Bruce Wayne to date. It'll be cool to see him in his standalone film. I did find it weird that the story had Batman already be around for 20 years, I would have thought it would have been better to him being around 5-10 years if he's going to be a part of the Justice League for a long time. On a side note, it would be cool if they did a Batman Beyond live-action film in the future.
All in all, Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice was a good comic book movie that hardcore fans will (and obviously already do) enjoy, and I think even the casual movie goers will enjoy it. I'm not sure why critics have so harshly panned it. It's no Citizen Kane, but's no Transformers snooze fest either.
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