Movie Review: Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice

The film branch of DC comics has been lagging well behind their rivals at Marvel ever since comic book movies became a steady fixture at multiplexes in the early 2000's. Outside of Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, DC has not put out a film that has come anywhere close to matching the quality or financial success of Marvel heavyweights like Iron Man, Guardians of the Galaxy or The Avengers. After years of playing second fiddle in the comic book film universe, DC has launched their first attempt to match their rival's deep world building with Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Unfortunately for DC, the film is a major mixed bag filled with an equal amount of awe-inspiring highs and embarrassing lows.

Batman v. Superman marks the first time in my writing career that I've truly been thankful for the existence of a film studio frowning upon reviewers giving out specific details about a film's story. Trying to describe the plot to this movie without going on a free-form rant that was at least 2,000 words in length would be damn near impossible. The film breezes through plot points at a rapid clip with little to no development and a lot of the resolutions make absolutely zero sense. The scattered, nonsensical nature of the story can largely be attributed to the fact that screenwriters Chris Terrio and David S. Goyer and the genius executives at Warner Brothers thought it would be a good idea to create a film that combines narrative elements from three separate Batman and Superman comics while also laying down the ground work for the inaugural Justice League film that is set for release next fall. The sheer amount of subplots that exist in this film leads to a level of narrative overstuffing that is so insane that it makes Age of Ultron look like the posterchild for cohesive storytelling. If DC continues to put out film with scripts that are this inept and muddled, their dream of creating a sprawling, engaging universe will never materialize.

What saves from Batman v. Superman from being a colossal failure is the film's superb cast and top-notch action sequences. Ironically, the film's two most controversial casting choices (Ben Affleck as Batman and Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor) ended up being the film's strongest assets. Affleck's portrayal of a cynical, beaten-down Bruce Wayne could very well be the strongest big-screen rendition of the Caped Crusader to-date while Eisenberg's fresh, over-the-top take on Luthor allows the character to reach levels of deranged lunacy that no other actor who's played the part previously displayed.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the entire film was how much Henry Cavill-who was abysmal in Man of Steel-manages to improve in his second go-round as Superman. The solo Superman narrative in this film allows Cavill to provide a surprising level of emotional depth that had previously been foreign to this traditionally even-keeled character and make you empathize with this outsider whose powers are completely misunderstood by the people of Earth. Kudos to Cavill for expanding his range and making me get invested for a character that I haven't given two shits about in the past.

As for the action sequences, this is a much-needed return to form for director Zach Snyder after he completely butchered them in Man of Steel. Snyder made the intelligent decision to return to his cleanly-edited, slo-mo driven wheelhouse for Batman v. Superman after deciding to go with the choppy, quick-cut approach on Man of Steel. The heavily-hyped Batman vs. Superman fight and the Batman warehouse brawl are without question some of the expertly-staged and shot fight scenes to ever appear in a superhero film. Honestly, the only issue with the action scenes in this film is that there isn't enough of them. Given how sloppy the storytelling is here, the film could've seriously benefited from putting Snyder and his virtuoso action-directing at the forefront of the proceedings. Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice is a far from perfect start for the revamped DC cinematic universe, but there's just enough potential on display here to give me hope for their future projects.

3/5 Stars